Head spinning with Telerik ASP.NET AJAX Requirements - Help!

[Ryan Mariotti]

I am staring at a browser with 15 tabs open, each of them with details on Telerik forms, Microsoft AJAX, .NET versions, Visual Studio compatibility...and I'm fully confused on if I can use your product.  This seems to be a very informative forum with informed participants, so I'm really hoping you can clear a few simple questions up for me:


My environment: Visual Studio 2005 compiling a website targeting .NET v2.0.50727 (is this 3.5!?).  Running on a Windows XP dev machine, Windows 2003 Server production server.  I have an existing website that I want to use your RadMenu in.

1. I see that the 2010 Q1 version of "RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX .NET 3.5 binaries require .NET 3.5 SP1" - It sounds like I need to install .NET framework 3.5 SP1.  Will this 3.5SP1 framework be compatible with Visual Studio 2005?  Based on the v2.0.50727 version I see in IIS...maybe I already have .NET Framework 3.5...?
   
2. Do I really need to upgrade my web application to .NET 3.5 to use the latest RadMenu?
3. AJAX: I see the Telerik tutorial and some forum posts that provide a link with directions on how to install AJAX.  However, none of these how-to links are active - they just redirect to the http://www.asp.net/ajax website, which has next to no information.  I downloaded the latest AJAX toolkit but there is no .exe installer, just .DLLs.  Please point me in the right direction to install AJAX into an EXISTING ASP.NET application.

Many thanks for your help.  If I can be assured that your RadMenu product will work in my website, I'm willing to fork over the $1000...but I'm running into many roadblocks early on.  Many thanks in advance for your prompt reply!

Ryan M.

[Erjan Gavalji]

Hi Ryan,

Let me try to clarify:

A RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX distribution contains three sets of assemblies, compiled against (and benefiting the specifics of) the different .NET Framework releases.
These are located in the respective Bin20, Bin35 and Bin40 folders of an installation.

The RadControls installer detects the Visual Studio installations and RadControls prerequisites on the machine and suggests these to be installed.

The Complete setup installs all the RadControls assemblies, hence the warning about .NET 3.5 you got. As per the ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 extensions (these are a prerequisite for the RadControls assembly built against .NET Framework 2.0), it is embedded in the installer and would be installed automatically by the installer. Just in case, here is the exact URL where it can be obtained from:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=ca9d90fa-e8c9-42e3-aa19-08e2c027f5d6&displaylang=en.

As per your environment, I would suggest that you run the installer in Custom mode (clicking the Custom button in the SetupType screen) and deselect the .NET 3.5 Components and .NET 4.0 Components features. The installer would automatically install ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 and would register the VSExtensions and the ToolBox entries to VS2005. FYI, the VSExtensions are a composition of project templates and base scenarios that can be accomplished with RadControls. These get triggered through the Add New Project dialog or through the Telerik menu in Visual Studio.

Once installed, there are two ways that you use RadMenu (and any other RadControls in your project):

• Use the Telerik Menu -> RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX -> Convert to Telerik project (a wizard will guide you through the "Telerik-enabling" of the project (adding project references, additional resources like RadSpell dictionaries, localization files, etc. and respective modification of the web.config file)
• Drag-and-drop RadMenu to a page in your project from the ToolBox - a reference will be added automatically. You could then use the designer of the controls to set up the web.config file. Please note, following this approach you would need to manually copy the additional resources you would need in the further development of the project.

Please don't hesitate to contact us again with any additional questions you might have.

Kind regards,
Erjan Gavalji
the Telerik team

[Ryan Mariotti]

Erjan,

Thank you for your detailed and relevant reply.  I've made some good progress after my post, partly due to your help.  I still am frustrated that the Microsoft AJAX website is essentially empty and all the Telerik tutorials just redirect to the MS AJAX homepage. 

Regardless, I DID eventually find my way to the Client Login so I could have the Telerik .msi do the heavy lifting of the install instead of installing AJAX manually.  I have the RadMenu rendering in my app now, which is a good first start.  Some follow-up questions:

1. My system has two sets of System.Web.Extensions: 1.0.61025.0 and 3.5.0.0.  Additionally, I can use two versions of the Telerik.Web.UI.dll (one from the Bin20 and one from Bin35).  I am using the 1.0.61025.0 and the Bin20 .dll versions; is this best practices or should I try to get the updated 3.5 ones to work with my Visual Studio 2005 project?
2. I performed a complete install from the Telerik .msi, but the VS2005 toolbox wasn't populated.  I needed to add these "Choose Items..." myself. 
3. Start->Telerik-> RadControls ... -> I don't see a "Convert to Telerik project" link/program.  Is it in my ProgramFiles/Telerik anywhere?
4. Drag-and-dropping RadMenu onto an .ascx only adds the assembly reference to that .ascx page and not the web.config.  Should I move it to web.config instead?

Thanks again for your help,
Ryan M.

[Erjan Gavalji]

Hi Ryan,

Thanks for the update! We will perform a documentation review to check the fix the links. I would be happy if you help us verify we won't miss any article. Do you have a list of the articles you visited and encountered broken links? Thanks in advance for providing them.

Now, up to the outlined points:

1. Please, use the Bin20 ones for a project with Visual Studio 2005. Though it could be possible, we haven't tried editing a .NET 3.5 project with VS2005 (as the assemblies in the bin35 folder are built on top of .NET 3.5, they would require the project to target Framework 3.5 as well);
2. Can you try a right-click and "Reset" on the toolbox? This is a common Visual Studio issue, which unfortunately we were not able to dig down and fix. The Reset usually helps.
3. I'm sorry for the confusion, I meant the Telerik menu in your Visual Studio. The complete installation of RadControls contains the Visual Studio Extensions feature. Once installed, the VSExtensions create Telerik menu with a RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX and About options.
4. I believe you mean the <%@ Register TagPrefix %> directive, added to the page. This is the default behavior of a toolbox item, dragged in Visual Studio. I suggest that you remove it and add the tagprefix registration to the web.config, e.g.
   <add tagPrefix="telerik" namespace="Telerik.Web.UI" assembly="Telerik.Web.UI" />

Looking forward to your reply,
Erjan Gavalji
the Telerik team