My daily RadControls experience consists of:
I do prefer to post to the forum, so that everyone can benefit from information found there. The problem with the forum is that responses aren't guaranteed, they're not guaranteed to be accurate, and they are not as timely as Support.
Notice consulting documentation is on the bottom. I'm sorry but the website docs don't provide insight. The info there is basic documentation. I'm often left understanding a single function, but in the overall plan, unless I know I need that specific function it's frequently a long journey to get there. Like most docs, that material is for reference, not tutorial.
For tutorials and training, I know there is Telerik TV, all the vids, Trainer, and Falafel and other services. There is also one decent (but old) book that's easily available, and a newer one published within the last year or two.
But every day, with all of this material available, I'm still finding myself in the forum doing searches - as much time there as I might spend in Google.
So the question is : How do we get to Ninja status? Is there a book or "insiders' newsletter" that really goes deep on these controls to fully explore various nuances?
- I want to see a diagram of how the grid is laid out, where CSS is applied, and what options are available at every tier. I don't want to have to hunt to figure out which object in the grid exposes some property.
- I want to get total immersion into the why's and how's of client side development so that I can ween myself away from server-centric development and some of the headaches of postbacks.
- I want to be completely in tune with the exact state of controls at each stage of the ASP.NET life cycle, so that I'm not surprised when I see control events firing, and so that I can pro-actively prevent rogue event firing rather than using e.Cancel.
This product is so deep. A class would take a couple weeks, travel, and a huge expense. Given a large budget and a lot of "free" time (laughing too hard here) I'd prefer a book like "RadControls Unleashed" or "Telerik Inside and Out". I wish we could pick a topic, start a discussion with a Telerik developer, and carry on the discussion over a period of weeks to completely absorb what that person has in his or her head. Then move on to the next topic. Then when people have a question in the forum send them to this brain dump before posting a hundred random responses, with dead-end discussions, or isolated details about the product.
OK, I'm done now. You get the idea. :)
Thanks for any responses!
- do the best I can
- when I have a question, come to the forum
- check demos
- once in a while check videos and code samples
- contact Support
- in desperation, consult documentation pages
- repeat as required
I do prefer to post to the forum, so that everyone can benefit from information found there. The problem with the forum is that responses aren't guaranteed, they're not guaranteed to be accurate, and they are not as timely as Support.
Notice consulting documentation is on the bottom. I'm sorry but the website docs don't provide insight. The info there is basic documentation. I'm often left understanding a single function, but in the overall plan, unless I know I need that specific function it's frequently a long journey to get there. Like most docs, that material is for reference, not tutorial.
For tutorials and training, I know there is Telerik TV, all the vids, Trainer, and Falafel and other services. There is also one decent (but old) book that's easily available, and a newer one published within the last year or two.
But every day, with all of this material available, I'm still finding myself in the forum doing searches - as much time there as I might spend in Google.
So the question is : How do we get to Ninja status? Is there a book or "insiders' newsletter" that really goes deep on these controls to fully explore various nuances?
- I want to see a diagram of how the grid is laid out, where CSS is applied, and what options are available at every tier. I don't want to have to hunt to figure out which object in the grid exposes some property.
- I want to get total immersion into the why's and how's of client side development so that I can ween myself away from server-centric development and some of the headaches of postbacks.
- I want to be completely in tune with the exact state of controls at each stage of the ASP.NET life cycle, so that I'm not surprised when I see control events firing, and so that I can pro-actively prevent rogue event firing rather than using e.Cancel.
This product is so deep. A class would take a couple weeks, travel, and a huge expense. Given a large budget and a lot of "free" time (laughing too hard here) I'd prefer a book like "RadControls Unleashed" or "Telerik Inside and Out". I wish we could pick a topic, start a discussion with a Telerik developer, and carry on the discussion over a period of weeks to completely absorb what that person has in his or her head. Then move on to the next topic. Then when people have a question in the forum send them to this brain dump before posting a hundred random responses, with dead-end discussions, or isolated details about the product.
OK, I'm done now. You get the idea. :)
Thanks for any responses!
1 Answer, 1 is accepted
0
Hi,
Thank you for your nice words, feedback and for sharing your experience with us.
Our documentation is mostly beginner to intermediate oriented so that the users get started with the controls and get familiar with their features, common problems and some common scenarios. It does not contain many tutorial-like pages because there simply isn't a way to foresee all the possible scenarios and add many of them without flooding the documentation with highly specific topics that will be used rarely.
We absolutely agree that the documentation could be improved and we will consider your suggestions. This endeavor, however, is a very time consuming task and cannot provide a firm estimate if the requested improvements will become available.
For the time being, we suggest exploring and debugging the source code of the controls and if you run into an issue that you can't resolve yourself, remember that we are always here to help. If you need a faster answer, just open a support ticket. Once you find a solution to an interesting problem, you can always share it with the community in the forums.
/*Update: You can find useful the following help article: RadGrid Event sequence. */
Greetings,
Rumen
the Telerik team
Thank you for your nice words, feedback and for sharing your experience with us.
Our documentation is mostly beginner to intermediate oriented so that the users get started with the controls and get familiar with their features, common problems and some common scenarios. It does not contain many tutorial-like pages because there simply isn't a way to foresee all the possible scenarios and add many of them without flooding the documentation with highly specific topics that will be used rarely.
We absolutely agree that the documentation could be improved and we will consider your suggestions. This endeavor, however, is a very time consuming task and cannot provide a firm estimate if the requested improvements will become available.
For the time being, we suggest exploring and debugging the source code of the controls and if you run into an issue that you can't resolve yourself, remember that we are always here to help. If you need a faster answer, just open a support ticket. Once you find a solution to an interesting problem, you can always share it with the community in the forums.
/*Update: You can find useful the following help article: RadGrid Event sequence. */
Greetings,
Rumen
the Telerik team
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