MSDN-like online help for classes such as RadGridView?

[Ed]

I've opened up Telerik online help for RadGridView and I just see tutorials and other extra information. I am, however, looking for hard documentation where properties, methodes and events of classes are described. Could you point me where I can get this kind of online help? I am using 2010 Q2 version on VS2008.

Regards,
Ed

[Stefan]

Hello Ed,

Thank you for writing. 

I assume that you are looking for our public API. If this is the case, please navigate to this help section.

Let me know if this helps.
 
All the best,
Stefan
the Telerik team

[Ed]

Yes, I am looking for the public API of Telerik classes I am using.

I am particularly interested in RadGridView. I don't see it in the list however: http://www.telerik.com/help/winforms/r_project.html

I also tried to look at the info for combobox at http://www.telerik.com/help/winforms/n_telerik_wincontrols_ui_combobox.html
and unfortunately, it was empty.

Also would the chm help files installed with the controls contain this information? And if so what is the name of the file?

Regards, 
Ed

[Stefan]

Hello Ed,

Thank you for writing back.

The links that you have found concern namespaces rather than classes. For example the link for ComboBox that you have found refers to the combo box namespace and not the class itself. Please note that our controls classes are in Telerik.WinControls.UI assembly.

For the desired classes, please consider the following links:
- RadGridView - http://www.telerik.com/help/winforms/t_telerik_wincontrols_ui_radgridview.html
- RadComboBox - http://www.telerik.com/help/winforms/t_telerik_wincontrols_ui_radcombobox.html

I will suggest to use the search engine of our online documentation in order to easily find the desired classes.

In regards to your second question, yes the CHM file also contains our public API. The file can be downloaded from this link: http://www.telerik.com/documents/RadControlsForWinForms.zip.

Lastly, another source which gets installed together with the suite is our the help2 documentation. It can be started from the start menu. See the attached image.

I hope that you find this information helpful. Should you have any other questions, do not hesitate to contact us.
 
Best wishes,
Stefan
the Telerik team

[Don]

While the list of members of the classes in the namespaces is helpful, it is much like a list of words in a dictionary without any of the definitions for those words being given. Just adding the parameter sets for the various methods and their overloads would be a big improvement over merely listing the names of the methods.

For example, your list of class members for the RadGridView (http://www.telerik.com/help/winforms/allmembers_t_telerik_wincontrols_ui_radgridview.html) looks very similar to Microsoft's list of class members for their DataGrid (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.controls.datagrid%28v=VS.95%29.aspx).

The difference comes after the list on Microsoft's page where there is some exposition on how to use the DataGrid, including code examples for creating a simple DataGrid. I realize that Telerik has chosen to put their code samples into the sample application, but it would be quite convenient to use some of that code as examples within your help system, as well. I guess that what I would like to see from Telerik is something along the lines of Microsoft's Visual Basic Language Reference (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/sh9ywfdk.aspx) and, more specifically, like the Visual Basic Runtime Members (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/c157t28f.aspx), but for the WinForms controls.

[Stefan]

Hello Don,

Thank you for the feedback.

The code examples of RadControls are not in the API section, which just lists the API of these controls. You are correct, however, that currently not all of the API members have the appropriate descriptions and information about parameters. We will be addressing this task in our next releases.

If you need to take a look at a code example, please refer to the controls' sections in our online documentation, where you can take a look at a variety of examples, regarding any particular control. Since you are talking about RadGridView, here is the article, with example for GettingStarted: http://www.telerik.com/help/winforms/gridview-getting-started.html. Additionally, you can review the section of RadGridView (or any other control) and take a look at the other examples.

I hope that you find this information useful. Let me know if you have any other questions or suggestions.
 
Greetings,
Stefan
the Telerik team