Brian Doner
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Brian Doner
asked on 13 Apr 2006, 10:23 PM
Hi, we have a large application that uses most of your controls. It seems that whenever we do an upgrade, there are issues regarding compatibility with the new version. Why are your upgrades not backward compatible, or at the very least clearly documented on the necessary changes?
We just upgraded to the Q1 2006 version and find out that you have eliminated or changed the interface to the radCombobox and many changes to radTabstrip. In addition the reference to radMultiPage can not be found. This is very frustrating.
We just upgraded to the Q1 2006 version and find out that you have eliminated or changed the interface to the radCombobox and many changes to radTabstrip. In addition the reference to radMultiPage can not be found. This is very frustrating.
1 Answer, 1 is accepted
0
Hello Brian,
Please accept our sincere apologies for the wasted time and for the backwards compatibility problems you have experienced. We would like to assure you that we are very careful when introducing new functionality and we are doing our best to provide detailed documentation on changes and compatibility issues.
As all software vendors we have to make difficult decisions when it comes to updates and new features. Unfortunately, there are times when we need to break backwards compatibility to take the product to the next level. We hear your guys and it's a pain for us as well - we use telerik controls extensively on all telerik web properties, in the sample apps and in the Sitefinity product. As a result, every change requires a lot of re-work on our end, however, we believe that this lays out a much better foundation to build upon in the future.
For example, in the new version of r.a.d.tabstrip we have been able to trim down output by mode than 70% compared to v2.0. The new API is much cleaner and easier to work with, design-time is better, etc. Unfortunately, there was no way to implement the new rendering and overhaul the product without sacrificing backwards compatibility. We plan to go the same route with the menu and panelbar controls in the next 2 quarterly releases. There will be small backwards compatibility issues there as well but after the migration, all customers will have almost identical APIs across all navigational products and will be able to benefit from one of the most lightweight navigational controls on the market.
Nevertheless, details for all changes are documented in our manuals and we advise all community members to carefully review them before upgrading.
Several important topics on Backwards Compatibility from our online helps:
r.a.d.tabstrip
r.a.d.callback API Changes
Migrating AutoUpdate to ControlsToUpdate (r.a.d.callback)
Changes in v6.0 of r.a.d.editor
r.a.d.combobox
Please, let us know if there are any issues that are not covered in these articles. We will do our best to address them right away.
All the best,
Ivo
the telerik team
Please accept our sincere apologies for the wasted time and for the backwards compatibility problems you have experienced. We would like to assure you that we are very careful when introducing new functionality and we are doing our best to provide detailed documentation on changes and compatibility issues.
As all software vendors we have to make difficult decisions when it comes to updates and new features. Unfortunately, there are times when we need to break backwards compatibility to take the product to the next level. We hear your guys and it's a pain for us as well - we use telerik controls extensively on all telerik web properties, in the sample apps and in the Sitefinity product. As a result, every change requires a lot of re-work on our end, however, we believe that this lays out a much better foundation to build upon in the future.
For example, in the new version of r.a.d.tabstrip we have been able to trim down output by mode than 70% compared to v2.0. The new API is much cleaner and easier to work with, design-time is better, etc. Unfortunately, there was no way to implement the new rendering and overhaul the product without sacrificing backwards compatibility. We plan to go the same route with the menu and panelbar controls in the next 2 quarterly releases. There will be small backwards compatibility issues there as well but after the migration, all customers will have almost identical APIs across all navigational products and will be able to benefit from one of the most lightweight navigational controls on the market.
Nevertheless, details for all changes are documented in our manuals and we advise all community members to carefully review them before upgrading.
Several important topics on Backwards Compatibility from our online helps:
r.a.d.tabstrip
r.a.d.callback API Changes
Migrating AutoUpdate to ControlsToUpdate (r.a.d.callback)
Changes in v6.0 of r.a.d.editor
r.a.d.combobox
Please, let us know if there are any issues that are not covered in these articles. We will do our best to address them right away.
All the best,
Ivo
the telerik team