What’s new in Telerik Windows 8 UI Controls Release Candidate

We are happy (well, and proud :)) to announce the public availability of our Windows 8 UI Controls Release Candidate, which allows you to build Windows Store-Ready Apps at no cost. This is an important milestone for us as we are getting closer to the official release and I just can’t wait to share what we have baked for you in this new release. Strictly following our commitment to deliver the same functionality to XAML and HTML developers all the new goodies are available for both environments.

HubTile

A screen of the First Look example in our Demo Center application

Enrich your Windows Store apps with our set of 5 different hub tiles (or live tiles) controls coming with the suite. Each tile supports Front and Back content and switches between the two contents with a swivel animation at a user-defined update interval. Following is a list of all the five different tile-types available in the suite:

RadHubTile

This tile displays predefined parts - Icon, Message, Title and Notification.

RadCustomHubTile

This tile allows any user-defined custom content rather than predefined parts to be specified as a front content. 

RadSlideTile

This tile displays two arbitrary contents on its front side – TopContent and BottomContent. These two contents go through the following visual states, using vertical slide animation:

1. Normal - TopContent is hidden, bottom content is fully visible.
2. SemiExpanded – both contents are half visible.
3. Expanded – TopContent is fully visible, BottomContent is hidden.

RadMosaicHubTile

This tile displays a sequence of images arranged in a 3x3 grid. 

RadPictureRotatorHubTile

This tile rotates a sequence of images by sliding them vertically.

Pagination

RadPaginationControl is a tool that provides visual information for the currently selected item within an existing Selector control – like ListView, GridView, FlipView, etc. The pagination control is particularly useful when attached to a FlipView control which visualizes only one item at a time. The control consists of four different parts, which may be easily displayed or hidden:

• Previous Arrow – this is a button element that will move the current selection within the attached Selector control one item back in the Items sequence.
• Next Arrow - this is a button element that will move the current selection within the attached Selector control one item forward in the Items sequence.
• Thumbnails list – this is a list that gives visual means for all the items in the attached Selector control. It may display any data template if specified or the default visuals – small rectangles on the top.
• Index Label – this part displays two important things – the number of all the items as well as the currently selected index.

XAML Specific

There are two XAML-specific new improvements/additions to the suite (the HTML part already has these):

Visual Studio and Blend Toolbox Integration

We believe that this improvement will make it much easier for our user to explore the suite and to find the needed control.

Legend Control

We have implemented a separate control that we call RadLegendControl and it can be attached to a Legend Provider – such as RadChart. This approach gives our users the flexibility to have complete control over the legend position and appearance as well as this same control implementation may be used with other future legend-provider components – such as RadGauge for example or any ILegendInfoProvider interface implementation.

Well, that’s what I wanted to highlight out of this fresh new release. Download the free Telerik Windows 8 UI controls Release Candidate version and start building your first Windows 8 app now! And do not hesitate to let us know what your feedback for Windows 8 HTML and Windows 8 XAML is so that we can continue making even better components.