Need advice (KendoUI or ASP.NET AJAX) in SPA

[Matjaz]

Hi.
I am starting a new project and can not choose which product should I use (Kendo UI or ASP.NET AJAX). I started with KendoUI and PHP, but ASP.NET has some really good stuff to write server code, so I said I will give a try to ASP.NET AJAX. Then I started to think if I really need ASP.NET AJAX to use ASP.NET for server code (of course not, but what advantage do I get).
I like KendoUI because it has nice design (ASP.NET AJAX looks like desktop application not web page). But ASP.NET AJAX has many more controls.

My application will definitely be SPA. I don't plan to change content, but use Window control for showing different contents. I plan to get data (ListView, ComboBox, Grid) from server from database (PostgreSQL for PHP or MsSQL for ASP.NET).

My main question is if page main goal is SPA and showing content in windows should I go with KendoUI or ASP.NET AJAX? What advantages they had? Do I really need all that ASP.NET AJAX offer if I don't plan to use any server round trips (no server side events ...)?

[Marin Bratanov]

Hi Matjaz,

If you really want to use SPA, perhaps the Kendo tools will be a better choice: http://docs.telerik.com/kendo-ui/getting-started/framework/spa/overview.

With the client-side Kendo widgets it is easier to fetch simple HTML or data via AJAX and still use them, but the ASP.NET AJAX tools cannot be created entirely on the client because are built around the WebForms and MS AJAX paradigms and rely on the ASP.NET WebForm server lifecycle, postbacks and partial postbacks. They work heavily with server events.

A lot of the controls in the AJAX suite offer client-side data binding and all of the have rich sets of client-side events where you can plug your logic, though. In any case, you would need to prepare the needed services to fetch the data and/or use the ClientDataSource control we offer (which is, essentially, the Kendo DataSource widget with server markup).

If, however, you intend to use the controls client-side and use windows to load other pages, I cannot say which suite would be more useful and I would advise examining the demos we have for each of them to see which feature set better fits your needs. The AJAX suite may offer some more feature and controls because it is more mature, but on the other hand Kendo are a more recent creation and are optimized for HTML5 and newer browsers. If you need your app to work on older browsers, however, the AJAX tools may offer better compatibility.

I hope this helps you make the right choice based on your project's needs, requirements and limitations.

Regards,

Marin Bratanov
Telerik