[Solved] radcontrols with fluid layouts

[Albert Shenker]

I would say about 90% of the development work I do involves desktop-like web applications which require fluid layouts (ie panels which fit a resizable container, rather than some predetermined container size) This requires things like splitters, panelbars and grids with 100% height/width and proper scrolling. Telerik has made tremendous strides in their recent releases in getting fluid layout scenarios to function cross-browser, and this is no small feat considering the variance in browser compliance with standards, not to mention the inticacies brought about by AJAX. Going forward, I expect they will continue to refine and improve this area. One thing I would like to see, is the markup/javascript/style "hacks" become more embedded within the controls. For example, if I have a panelbar who's height/width is set to 100%, in order to get scrollbars to appear properly in Firefox when the panel item content is too large, I have to add the following style declaration:

.RadPanelBar .rpItem {
            overflow: visible !important;
        }

        .RadPanelBar .rpLevel1 {
            height: 100% !important;
            overflow: auto !important;
        }

This is no big deal, but I find that I hae to add these sorts of declarations in many different scenarios invovling a number of telerik controls in order to get them to function properly in fluid layout scenarios. If would be great if Telerik could encapsulate these bits of code within the control itself. Perhaps that would require the additon of a property like "FillAvailableSpace", or maybe telerik can simply determine that the height/width of one of their objects is set to 100%, but either way, encapsulating the necessary code bits would make development far easier, not to mention what is necessary sometimes when telerik changes its skins and/or other control features.