Announcing the Kendo UI Dojo!

Today, we're excited to announce the Kendo UI Dojo, an interactive learning resource designed to help you get up and running with Kendo UI quickly, no downloads or installations required.

The Trials of Software Evaluation

Evaluating new software can be hard work, can't it? Take Kendo UI, for instance. If you've evaluated us in the past, you know that, in order to get up and running with Kendo UI, you need to:

1. Download a Kendo UI Trial
2. Extract the source into a local directory
3. Create a new local project or application
4. Include the Kendo UI JS and CSS references in an HTML page
5. Start coding

Simply put, it takes some effort just to get your environment set up to a point where you can begin to evaluate Kendo UI. Of course, online resources like JSFiddle and JSBin make that process easier (BTW, JSBin has Kendo UI support built-in!), but you're still left with an empty window. Where do you go next? Let's face it, the hard part of evaluating any tool or software is figuring out exactly how to try it out.

Of course, for Kendo UI, you could always use JSBin along with some of our Docs and Guides to try the framework on for size. Yes, we know that, in the grand scheme of things, its not that hard to get rolling with Kendo UI. And yet, we feel strongly that we can make this process simpler. We believe (and yes, we are biased) that Kendo UI is an amazing product. We also believe that people should be able to experience Kendo for themselves, with as little friction as possible. In short, we want a customer's first fifteen minutes with Kendo to be about writing code and seeing Kendo UI come alive on the screen; not about zip extractions, manual file-copying and the addition of CSS and script references to an empty HTML document.

And we don't think we're alone, either. Sites like learn.knockoutjs.com, CodeAcademy, CodeSchool's tryRuby and others were born in the same spirit of getting the pre-requisites out of the way so that you can get hands on faster. So, earlier this Spring, we set out to build an online, interactive "Dojo" where current and potential Kendo UI customers alike could try and learn Kendo for themselves, with zero installation and setup required.

Introducing the Kendo UI Dojo

Today, I'm happy to announce that site: the Kendo UI Dojo. 

The Kendo UI Dojo is a free, interactive training resource that anyone can use to get up and running with Kendo in minutes. Not only that, but the Dojo provides eleven guided, interactive tutorials that are designed to introduce you to key ideas and concepts across Kendo UI Web, DataViz and Mobile as you code along and see the results in real-time.

As you follow the lesson instructions and work with Kendo, the Dojo saves your progress so that you can come back at any time and continue learning more about what Kendo UI has to offer. The Dojo works best in Chrome, FireFox, Safari and IE 9 or 10. If you're interested in the Kendo UI Mobile lessons, we recommend Chrome or Safari for those exercises, though IE 9+ with Chrome Frame is also supported.

What are you waiting for? Try it out for yourself now…

As I've said already, the Kendo UI Dojo is free to use, and it's ready for you to try out. So what are you waiting for? Head on over to the landing page to get started. Oh, and if you successfully complete all the lessons in the Dojo, you might even earn yourself a little reward...

We're ecstatic to launch the Kendo UI Dojo to you today, and we hope that you have as much fun using it as we did building it. If you find it useful, or if you have a question, let us know in the comments. We'd love to hear from you!