Q2’10 Pre-Release Series: WinForms Suite Brings a Highly-optimized New Version of RadGridView

The Q2 2010 release cannot do without several fresh additions and improvements in the WinForms toolbox.

You can take a look at what the new version of the most widely used control in the toolset – RadGridView, has to offer. We’ve recognized the need to meet the endless demand for a supercharged, enterprise-oriented component that is able to work with large data sets and being flexible enough to perform operations like sorting, grouping, hierarchy and more, without sacrificing performance. Having that as a premise we have reworked our data grid so the end-users would enjoy a more robust and highly-optimized product.

There are two main areas that were the target of improvement – performance and business-oriented features. Both the UI layer and data layer of the control have been reengineered, making them more robust and eliminating the need for internal synchronization.

The new data layer uses less memory and optimizes RadGridView performance in various scenarios, including excel-like grid with hundreds of columns and thousands of rows. Being independent from RadGridView, it can now be reused by other data bound controls, like the new RadListControl and RadDropDownList and extend their capabilities. The data layer provides more flexibility while grouping, sorting and filtering your data. Reworking the data layer brings improvements to the hierarchy mode as well, which previously only supported relational hierarchy. The new mechanism supports custom hierarchy, support for self-referencing hierarchy, and load on demand hierarchy. Compatibility with LINQ and Telerik OpenAccess ORM will be added soon.

The UI layer was dramatically changed too. RadGridView reveals extended features like split view, pinned columns and rows, new export formats, cells styling, grouping by multiple columns, rows reorder, drag and drop support, and more. The Q2 2010 version of the grid is able to work with large data sets and accommodate a wide array of enterprise scenarios. The new UI uses a generalized virtualization panel which virtualizes rows, cells, and enables multi-column and spreadsheet scenarios without damaging performance.

Besides the great advances in RadGridView, the WinForms suite now adopts five new components – DesktopAlert, Reminder, PageView (which supersedes TabStrip and PanelBar), ListControl (replacing ListBox) and DropDownList (as a substitute for ComboBox).

We sincerely hope that all abovementioned changes that we have worked hard on will be much useful and appreciated. Telerik’s Q2 release is just a few days away so hang on and keep visiting this blog to get some more release highlight bits.

Make sure you register for the “What's new in Q2 2010: WinForms and Reporting” webinar. Just like with previous releases, we kept the tradition and organized a 5-day “Release Webinar Week”. During the week after the release you’ll have the chance to learn all the major new features that ship with the Q2 release. Telerik Ultimate Collection licenses (worth $1999) will be raffled at each webcast.

Tue, Jul 20, 11 am EDT: What's new in Q2 2010: WinForms and Reporting
Register now