GridButtonColumn image is not displayed

[Paul]

I am not seeing the button image in a previously working application when I use Telerik version 2012.3.1030.45 (targeting Asp.Net 4.5) or 2012.3.1030.40 (targeting Asp.Net 4.0). I tried both a GridButtonColumn and a GridClientDeleteColumn, and neither one displays the image. Looking at the source code shows the image source attribute is an empty string. The identical code works fine in version 2012.2.724.40.

<telerik:GridClientDeleteColumn UniqueName="TestDeleteColumn"
    HeaderText="Delete" HeaderStyle-Width="45" Text="Delete Invitation"
    ButtonType="ImageButton" ImageUrl="../Images/Delete.gif"
    ConfirmTitle="Delete?" ConfirmDialogType="RadWindow"
    ConfirmTextFields="PersonDisplay" ConfirmTextFormatString="Delete invited speaker {0}?"
    />

<telerik:GridButtonColumn UniqueName="DeleteColumn" ButtonType="ImageButton"
    CommandName="Delete" Text="Delete Speaker" ImageUrl="~/Images/Delete.gif"
    HeaderText="Delete" HeaderStyle-Width="45"
    ConfirmTitle="Delete?" ConfirmDialogType="RadWindow"
    ConfirmTextFields="PersonDisplay" ConfirmTextFormatString="Delete invited speaker {0}?"
    >
    <ItemStyle HorizontalAlign="Center" CssClass="CursorHand" />
</telerik:GridButtonColumn>

[Eyup]

Hello Paul,

We are aware of this issue which is observed when using ButtonColumn with ButtonType="ImageButton" with the latest internal builds. Our developers are currently working on it and they will provide a fix for the future releases. Until then you could use:

Copy Code

<telerik:GridTemplateColumn UniqueName="TemplateColumn" ItemStyle-HorizontalAlign="Center" HeaderText="Template">
    <ItemTemplate>
        <asp:ImageButton ID="ImageButton1" runat="server" ImageUrl="~/pic.png" CommandName="CommandName" CommandArgument="CommandArgument" />
    </ItemTemplate>
</telerik:GridTemplateColumn>

I hope this will prove helpful. Please excuse us for any inconvenience caused.

Kind regards,
Eyup
the Telerik team

[Paul]

I understand. I wish Telerik would devote more resources to quality control and less to new features. It is very frustrating to have to compare the list of what is fixed in new releases to what is broken. Too often the broken list has more impact. In this case, it is especially frustrating to still be dealing with a bug that has been occurring off and on for 3 years, fixed in some builds and broken in others.
The template approach does not support the confirmation dialog settings. A better workaround for me is to assign the image url in the OnItemDataBound event, which is what I have done for now.

[Eyup]

Hello Paul,

Thank you for the valuable feedback. Please note that the internal builds are not recommended for production purposes.

These annoying bugs are consequence from the new changes and modifications made to RadControls which aim their improvement. Although we run solid test for as many scenarios as possible to prevent these issues, as a developer you must know that they are inseparably following the development process of the product.

We are aware that unfortunately for customers with large applications some breaking changes and decisions mean revisiting a lot of pages to make the required modifications. However, this behavior is expected and absolutely natural.

Undoubtedly, these changes are being made to improve our tools to which many developers as yourself and their customers depend on. Furthermore, they block a great deal of problems that users hit upon afterwards.

I can assure you that we are making our highest efforts to keep RadControls as backward compatible as possible. However, some crucial changes require drastic modifications in the system API, therefore causing a breaking change to occur. As you already know, every critical and significant change in a new version is being documented in our Release Notes. You could check the changes made in every Beta, Official or Service Pack release.

Certainly, RadControls will be improved in every release, being fortified with new features, faster performance, new controls, easier configuration, more user-friendly and attractive interface, etc. Thus, I cannot guarantee you that in future you will be able to update to a newer version without making any changes to your project. After all, our duty is to deliver and provide constantly improving products, which enable the developers using them to provide a better project for their customers, enriched with wide range of functionalities and features.

Thank you again for sharing your point of view.

Regards,
Eyup
the Telerik team

[Paul]

You make it sound like this bug is somehow reflected in the Release Notes as a breaking change. It is not a breaking change- it is a bug. Can you show me something from the release notes indicating I should expect the control to stop working? If there are changes I can make to my project to restore the previous functionality, could you please tell me what those changes are? I tested with a very simple RadGrid and a GridButtonColumn was still not displaying the specified image. Are you suggesting Telerik changed their GridButtonColumn to make it NOT display an image, while leaving the imageUrl property in place? Could you show me where that is documented?

I know that Telerik suggests not using internal builds in production, but at least for the last several releases the internal builds fixed problems in the original release. I use the internal builds because I want my sites to keep working, not because I am trying to get any new features.

Yes, I am aware that building reliable software is difficult. I would hope everyone using your products is aware of that. However, I still stand by my concern that Telerik emphasizes features over reliability. I cannot deliver software to my clients that fails to work. Telerik is delivering software to me that fails to work. This particular bug seems so obvious that I find myself questioning Telerik's quality control procedures.

[Eyup]

Hi Paul,

Once again I apologize for the inconvenience caused.

I can assure you that our developers and quality assurance experts are constantly following and fixing the issues, however, as you have stated yourself, building reliable software is difficult and requires some response time.

This specific issue has been already fixed in the latest builds. Please give it a try and let us know if you happen to face any other problems.

Regards,
Eyup
the Telerik team