Control unusable without documentation?

[ManniAT]

Hi,

I was glad to see the Gauge as a new control in SL.
But I had to find out the there is no documentation.
The (pretty hard) repsonse to a ticket was something like: "In Feb. 2009 we will...."

Anyhow - optimistic and knowing the things from a competitors control suite I placed a gauge in a SL Project.
Works "fine" - but I see nothing.

So my second approach was to use some code from your examples.
I copied the gauge from NumericIndicatorSamples Formating to my project.

The Result - I got a sevensegment display -- looking like the sample.
Since I only want to have the "number block" not the Orange thing around I played a bit with the things.

I found out - most settings are done via Resources.
Since there is no documentation I had the idea to remove some of the styles - to see what happens.
I changed

<

 

gauge:LinearGauge Style="{StaticResource LinearGaugeStyle}">

 

to

<

 

gauge:LinearGauge>

 

just to see what it does.
The result - VS crashes.
Every approach to open the file results in a VS crash.
After opening the file it with a plain text editor and bring back the style I could open the file again in designer.

So LinearGaugeStyle or NumerisScaleStyle (I guess) bring the orange block with the gray border I think.
Playing around with the things brings the risk to crash VS.
Changes are not visible directly.
Example:
I place a button on the same UC -- I set content to "Hallo".
As soon as I change it to  "Hello you" the text is displayed in the preview.
If I (for an example) change the color of on of the NumberPositions the display disappears.
Changeing scale or something else in preview brings up the display again.

Next from the scratch:

<

 

control:RadGauge Width="300" Height="200">

 

 

 

</control:RadGauge>

 

As soon as I enter 

<

 

gauge:NumericScale></gauge:NumericScale>
VS crashes.

The crashing stops with a brand new project using no style refs.

Conclusion:
I got a brand new control (needed very much), but to see anything I end up in a copy of an example where some "StaticResources" are used to define the look of the control.
So the simple approach to display nothing more than a rectangle with the numberblocks fails since I don't know which styles are available, or what to use to get what I need.

In other words -- I have something which I can use like it is used in the samples.
To make it look like I need it - I would need some kind of documentation.
Crashes by only adding a node doesn't make the things easier.

So my simple question is:
I'm here with a blank SL App. All I want is a 7segment display with (lets say) 6 digits.
How to start?????

Manfred

[Giuseppe]

Hi Manfred Pohler,

We are sorry for the not so pleasant first experience you had with the RadGauge control for Silverlight.

Indeed it seems due to a technical glitch on our end documentation was shipped only for the WPF version of the control and not for the Silverlight one. We will be updating the files with WPF / Silverlight specific content for the service pack release scheduled in the middle of December but for the time being we would suggest you to review the help articles available now here to familiarize yourself with the main concepts that are shared between both versions of the controls.

As for your numeric indicators questions -- the LinearGauge class is a container to store linear and numeric scales. It is not obligatory to use it. The gauge scales can be used without it, but LinearGauge can be used to combine all scales which uses for same purposes in single container. One of the major purposes of the LinearGauge control is the ability to create common appearance of your linear gauges but in your scenario you would most likely skip the LinearGauge control and use directly NumericScale (the orange background comes with the LinearGauge):

<UserControl x:Class="SilverlightApplication1.Page"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    Width="400" Height="300"
    xmlns:control="clr-namespace:Telerik.Windows.Controls;assembly=Telerik.Windows.Controls.Charting"
    xmlns:gauge="clr-namespace:Telerik.Windows.Controls.Gauges;assembly=Telerik.Windows.Controls.Charting"
    xmlns:telerik="clr-namespace:Telerik.Windows.Controls;assembly=Telerik.Windows.Controls">

    <UserControl.Resources>
        <ResourceDictionary>
            <telerik:ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
                <telerik:ResourceDictionary Keys="RadGaugeStyle,RadialGaugeStyle,RadialScaleStyle,DefaultTickStyle,TriangleTickStyle,MarkerStyle,RadialBarStyle,LabelPropertiesStyle,RadialRangeStyle,StateIndicatorStyle,NeedleStyle,CustomTickMarkStyle,FontFamilyNumericPosition,NumericIndicatorStyle,LinearGaugeStyle,LinearScaleStyle,CustomTickMarkStyle,TickLabelAppearance,HexagonalSevenSegsPosition,NumericScaleStyle,LinearBarStyle,LinearRangeStyle,SevenSegsPosition"
                            Source="/Telerik.Windows.Controls.Charting;component/Themes/generic.xaml" />
            </telerik:ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
        </ResourceDictionary>
    </UserControl.Resources>

    <Grid>

        <control:RadGauge x:Name="radGauge"
                          Width="300"
                          Height="300"
                          Style="{StaticResource RadGaugeStyle}">
            <Grid>
                <gauge:NumericScale x:Name="numericScale"
                                    Min="0"
                                    Max="1000"
                                    Style="{StaticResource NumericScaleStyle}">
                    <gauge:NumericScale.Indicators>
                        <gauge:NumericIndicator x:Name="numericIndicator"
                                                Format="{}{0:F2}"
                                                Left="0.15"
                                                Top="0.15"
                                                RelativeWidth="0.7"
                                                RelativeHeight="0.25"
                                                Style="{StaticResource NumericIndicatorStyle}">
                            <gauge:NumericIndicator.Background>
                                <LinearGradientBrush StartPoint="0.5,0" EndPoint="0.5,1">
                                    <GradientStop Offset="0" Color="Green" />
                                    <GradientStop Offset="0.5" Color="GreenYellow" />
                                    <GradientStop Offset="1" Color="Green" />
                                </LinearGradientBrush>
                            </gauge:NumericIndicator.Background>
                            <gauge:NumberPosition BorderThickness="1"
                                                  Foreground="GreenYellow"
                                                  Background="Black"
                                                  Style="{StaticResource SevenSegsPosition}"/>
                            <gauge:NumberPosition BorderThickness="1"
                                                  Foreground="GreenYellow"
                                                  Background="Black"
                                                  Style="{StaticResource SevenSegsPosition}"/>
                            <gauge:NumberPosition BorderThickness="1"
                                                  Foreground="GreenYellow"
                                                  Background="Black"
                                                  Style="{StaticResource SevenSegsPosition}"/>
                            <gauge:NumberPosition BorderThickness="1"
                                                  Foreground="GreenYellow"
                                                  Background="Black"
                                                  Style="{StaticResource SevenSegsPosition}"/>
                            <gauge:NumberPosition BorderThickness="1"
                                                  Foreground="GreenYellow"
                                                  Background="Black"
                                                  Style="{StaticResource SevenSegsPosition}"/>
                            <gauge:NumberPosition BorderThickness="1"
                                                  Foreground="GreenYellow"
                                                  Background="Black"
                                                  Style="{StaticResource SevenSegsPosition}"/>
                            <gauge:NumberPosition BorderThickness="1"
                                                  Foreground="GreenYellow"
                                                  Background="Black"
                                                  Style="{StaticResource SevenSegsPosition}"/>
                        </gauge:NumericIndicator>
                    </gauge:NumericScale.Indicators>
                </gauge:NumericScale>
            </Grid>
        </control:RadGauge>
    </Grid>
</UserControl>

Note with the service pack we will also address the current limitation that explicit style setters and manual merging of resources are necessary in order to display the gauge correctly.

As for the VS crash issues -- unfortunately we are unable to reproduce them in our local environment; could you please elaborate a bit more on the specific scenario when they occur so we can observe and fix them here.



All the best,
Manuel
the Telerik team

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