Q2 2013 Release Webinar FAQ

Last week saw another release of Kendo UI, and another great webinar to showcase the highlights and new features of our framework. It also showed a few of the new tools that we're working on, and some of the items that we have in the Kendo UI Labs.

Just The FAQs

During the keynote, and after, we received a number of great questions and comments about everything that this release has packed in. We weren't able to answer everything right away, though, so I wanted to take a few minutes and answer some of the most common questions and some questions that I think are particularly interesting.

Please keep in mind that the answers I'm providing are for the Q2 2013 release, only. Future releases, including service packs, may change the answers to these questions.

The Scheduler Control

We released a new scheduler control, in beta, to provide an Outlook-like capability in creating schedules and calendar events. You can find more information about it in the demos and the documentation.

We received a lot of very positive feedback for this new control, and only a few common questions about it.

Are there click and drag features in the scheduler?

Yep! Sure is. You can drag and drop and click to drag and resize. The demo during the keynote didn't show it, but several click and drag features are in the release.

Does the scheduler support resource grouping?

Yes! We have demos of that available here.

Does the scheduler control have export feature?

Not at this time. This is a common request we are seeing, though.

Is the scheduler available for mobile ?

Not officially, no. The designs and requirements for a mobile version are dramatically different, given the size and other constraints of mobile platforms like phones. To a large extent, Scheduler works on a mobile device. It can also work in a Kendo UI Mobile Application, but I would not call it the best approach.

The Flat Theme / iOS 7

We have a new theme built in to Kendo UI, with this release, taking advantage of the current trend in "flat" styling. This theme gives Kendo UI a sleek, modern feel to it, that fits right at home with Windows Phone 8, Android 4, and iOS 7.

What does "going flat" mean?

There's a current trend in UI design to move from a "3d" like perspective, with gradients and drop shadows, to a 2d, no-gradient style of design. You can see this in Android, Windows Phone 8, and iOS 7, not to mention all of the trending web designs that are tossing asside gradients and 3d-like elements. "going flat" refers to this - moving toward a very 2 dimensional design, dropping the shadows and gradients for flat colors and stark contrast.

Will the new flat mobile theme be intergrated with the mobile theme builders?

Yes! We're working on that now.

When will the theme builder for Mobile be updated, and will we be able to skin the flat theme?

Soon! We're working on it. Promise!

Is this being done for speed, aesthetics, or ease of viewing? or a combination of alll of these?

A combination of all of these. The biggest gain that flat provides is better perf because of the lack of gradients, shadows and the like. But we also want it to look pretty. :)

Other Items Of Interest

What about performance in Mobile? For example, I would like to scroll 2-5k list items. Is it possible?

This release includes item "virtualization" for Kendo UI Mobile. You should be able to safely scroll 5K items without issue, as the items are rendered and removed as needed, instead of all or nothing.

Does the DataViz Canvas Rendering Mode streamline the reszing of the kendo charts?

No, canvas rendering doesn’t remove the need for layout re-calculation. Resizing the chart still requires calling redraw().

When are you going to release controls for Windows 8 store apps?

We, Kendo UI, aren't. But the royal "We" of Telerik - yeah, we've got those already. Check them out, here at the RadControls for Windows 8 page.

Check Out The Kendo UI Labs

A lot of work has gone in to the Kendo UI Labs projects, to bring Angular, Backbone, Knockout and other integration projects in to the Kendo UI toolbelt.

We've also included the new Kendo UI Bootstrapper project as a part of the labs. Check out this post about that amazing little tool, and how it can help you. We also have the the Kendo UI Lint tool, along with a vim plugin for that. And, of course, blog posts to go with those, too.

There's a lot of great things happening, and we're looking forward to improving these projects and more!

Check Out The Latest Release

We've added a lot in this release, and built a handful of new tools and integration projects in the labs. Head over to the download page, and start working with Kendo UI today!