As Nick mentioned that the future plan for RADNavigation is to use MS Navigation as base and add new features to it. I think it's a great judgment call to stay with MS Path.
This also raises a question regarding the future of the "Theme" subject, where currently Telerik has it's own Themes and MS is and will be doing more Themes in their Toolkit which eventually become part of SDK.
I'd like to suggested to consider the same approach you took for Navigation, to take for Themes as well. Taking MS Themes base and adding more to it. This way all the MS controls will naturally use the base Theme and Telerik RAD Controls uses the extended part.
Hope this suggestion fit into your plan!
..Ben
This also raises a question regarding the future of the "Theme" subject, where currently Telerik has it's own Themes and MS is and will be doing more Themes in their Toolkit which eventually become part of SDK.
I'd like to suggested to consider the same approach you took for Navigation, to take for Themes as well. Taking MS Themes base and adding more to it. This way all the MS controls will naturally use the base Theme and Telerik RAD Controls uses the extended part.
Hope this suggestion fit into your plan!
..Ben
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Hi Ben,
This is definitely a pretty good idea and it deserves a discussion on our side that will be held quite soon. Generally, we are trying to unify the themes across all our product lines so that an eventual migration process would be easier. Hence, providing MS SL specific themes only for RadControls for Silverlight would break this rule. However, we will definitely think of preparing dedicated SL themes only for our Silverlight controls bundle. We might even extend the other available themes for other product lines with similar themes. We will be also quite interested in what the rest of the people think about that.
Kind regards,
Nick
the Telerik team
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This is definitely a pretty good idea and it deserves a discussion on our side that will be held quite soon. Generally, we are trying to unify the themes across all our product lines so that an eventual migration process would be easier. Hence, providing MS SL specific themes only for RadControls for Silverlight would break this rule. However, we will definitely think of preparing dedicated SL themes only for our Silverlight controls bundle. We might even extend the other available themes for other product lines with similar themes. We will be also quite interested in what the rest of the people think about that.
Kind regards,
Nick
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Ben Hayat
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answered on 03 Apr 2009, 04:01 PM
Hi Nick;
I know it's a painful decision breaking your structure. Somehow I see SL is going it's own route even influencing WPF (it's big brother). I'm making this suggestion from the point of view of an outsider who facing the option of going MS way or Telerik way, and I think having MS based theme will make that decision much easier for many.
..Ben
I know it's a painful decision breaking your structure. Somehow I see SL is going it's own route even influencing WPF (it's big brother). I'm making this suggestion from the point of view of an outsider who facing the option of going MS way or Telerik way, and I think having MS based theme will make that decision much easier for many.
..Ben
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Ben Hayat
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answered on 05 Apr 2009, 02:31 AM
Nick, I was just watching a video about Open-source Video Player (OVP) and they mentioned they are following SL toolkit Theme for skinning their player. This is what I was trying to convey that products will being to follow the Toolkit theme. Perhaps you can discuss it in your meeting!
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Hi Ben,
Thanks for the input on the topic. We are currently evaluating what kind of theme to introduce for the Q2. Apart from the MS like theme that we will dicuss, we are thinking of providing a more simplistic theme. A variation of a simple theme is attached (actually this is a screenshot of Adobe Media Player).
What do you guys think about that? Should we go and provide a richer theme or should we stick to a more simple theme, having in mind the current theme that we have.
Best wishes,
Valentin.Stoychev
the Telerik team
Check out Telerik Trainer , the state of the art learning tool for Telerik products.
Thanks for the input on the topic. We are currently evaluating what kind of theme to introduce for the Q2. Apart from the MS like theme that we will dicuss, we are thinking of providing a more simplistic theme. A variation of a simple theme is attached (actually this is a screenshot of Adobe Media Player).
What do you guys think about that? Should we go and provide a richer theme or should we stick to a more simple theme, having in mind the current theme that we have.
Best wishes,
Valentin.Stoychev
the Telerik team
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Ben Hayat
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answered on 06 Apr 2009, 01:30 PM
Valio, I'd like offer some suggestion here, but I really want to fully understand your definition of "Simplistic" and "Rich" themes. What "Addition" makes a theme rich or what makes a theme "Simple". Then I would offer more.
I really like the color combination of the attached pic.
I'm confused by how different companies define themes. For example, when you started the themes, the only difference between t he controls, were their color, but when Office Black showed up, not only the colors were changed, but some "parts" of the control were changed as well. So, what is that you guys are more after, color change or shape change?
Thanks!
I really like the color combination of the attached pic.
I'm confused by how different companies define themes. For example, when you started the themes, the only difference between t he controls, were their color, but when Office Black showed up, not only the colors were changed, but some "parts" of the control were changed as well. So, what is that you guys are more after, color change or shape change?
Thanks!
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Hi Ben,
This is a nice question. We have two separate approaches:
Valentin.Stoychev
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This is a nice question. We have two separate approaches:
- First we have the so called "skin" approach. This is when we have a theme - for example the Office theme and then we create different skins for the theme - black, blue, red, etc... We've put a lot of efforts in this approach and now creating a new skin for a theme is to only change the used brushes, the templates of the controls are not changed.
- The second approach is when we want a new Theme - this is where we change the control templates of the controls and we change how to look and from what elements the controls are composed.
The Simplistic theme new Theme that will not be so glassy, will not have too many gradients and basically will look more clean and plain, flat - just like the screenshots.
Greetings,Valentin.Stoychev
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Ben Hayat
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answered on 06 Apr 2009, 02:06 PM
Thanks for the educational answer.
My 100 points vote on the "Simplistic" theme. I and the market, really like these new flat and simple themes. The use of too much gradient has become somewhat "Windows" look & feel and the flat gives a more Apple look & feel. And for Ria apps, I see more people become attracted to the "Simplistic" look.
[Update] Valio, not to sound demanding, do you think the above image theme can be in SP1?
..Ben
My 100 points vote on the "Simplistic" theme. I and the market, really like these new flat and simple themes. The use of too much gradient has become somewhat "Windows" look & feel and the flat gives a more Apple look & feel. And for Ria apps, I see more people become attracted to the "Simplistic" look.
[Update] Valio, not to sound demanding, do you think the above image theme can be in SP1?
..Ben
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Hi ..Ben,
>>> [Update] Valio, not to sound demanding, do you think the above image theme can be in SP1?
No - it will be started after the SP1 and as soon as we have something to show we will upload on the latest internal buids section in our accounts.
All the best,
Valentin.Stoychev
the Telerik team
Check out Telerik Trainer , the state of the art learning tool for Telerik products.
>>> [Update] Valio, not to sound demanding, do you think the above image theme can be in SP1?
No - it will be started after the SP1 and as soon as we have something to show we will upload on the latest internal buids section in our accounts.
All the best,
Valentin.Stoychev
the Telerik team
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Ben Hayat
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answered on 07 Apr 2009, 01:45 PM
Fair enough. Thanks!