I really love RadGrid, but we have a scenario where we have 4 grids on a page and need to use WCF to populate them or risk severe performance problems (which in fact my client rejected an approach using AjaxPanels for performance reasons).
I am having several problems with even the simplest of grids in this scenario.
I start by binding the grid with an Empty List(Of Items) on Page_Load. Then the WCF binding happens asynchronously from Client-side events.
A) nothing gets formatted properly when binding unless you have bound Server-side with a populated datasource first. (for example, numbers are 0 for GridNumericColumn.)
B) it is impossible without writing a ton of script to conditionally format using OnRowDataBound beacue it doesn't have an EditMode to find.
C) .editAllItems() causes a postback and destroys the grid (unless it's rebound on pageload which completely defeats the purpose of WCF binding).
D) .editItem() does not work (probably because the edit controls don't exist).
E) I tried even extreme samples like: RadGridClientSideEditWithTemplates and the code makes no sense, and actually does not work unless you bind from the server first, just llok at the code for toggleEdit(), this is rediculous to have to do.
F) no editing is allowed at all without first binding on the server, then refreshing with WCF. Inspecting the MasterTableView shows there are no edit controls present to show or hide, did I completely miss something to enable this?
G) there is no reasonable way to access the footers from the client (for totals).
When it does populate, it is superfast, which is good andf why we need this approach instead of AjaxPanels and throwing away 80% of the page.
I can't produce a sample at this time, but just look at the WCF and Webservice samples in the blogs and try to change one to do any of these scenarios and they fail.
So I now have an application that has been in production for several years with Telerik controls that I now am going to remove the grid and start over because of these significant limitations. I have been fighting with this for 2 weeks to get it working and everytime I try anything other than displaying raw data, it falls flat.
Seriously guys, all your blog demos of MVC and WCF are cool, but try doing something other than rudimentary binding (and not rebind AFTER you bind on the server first...) and you will see how incredibly difficult it is to use RadGrid.
As we move further into using WCF and MVC, we really need to have most of the features on the server-side that makes RadGrid so great.
Prove me wrong and show me that this is possible, even in a new release!
Hopefully this will provide some direction for the next set of releases.
Steele Price
I am having several problems with even the simplest of grids in this scenario.
I start by binding the grid with an Empty List(Of Items) on Page_Load. Then the WCF binding happens asynchronously from Client-side events.
A) nothing gets formatted properly when binding unless you have bound Server-side with a populated datasource first. (for example, numbers are 0 for GridNumericColumn.)
B) it is impossible without writing a ton of script to conditionally format using OnRowDataBound beacue it doesn't have an EditMode to find.
C) .editAllItems() causes a postback and destroys the grid (unless it's rebound on pageload which completely defeats the purpose of WCF binding).
D) .editItem() does not work (probably because the edit controls don't exist).
E) I tried even extreme samples like: RadGridClientSideEditWithTemplates and the code makes no sense, and actually does not work unless you bind from the server first, just llok at the code for toggleEdit(), this is rediculous to have to do.
F) no editing is allowed at all without first binding on the server, then refreshing with WCF. Inspecting the MasterTableView shows there are no edit controls present to show or hide, did I completely miss something to enable this?
G) there is no reasonable way to access the footers from the client (for totals).
When it does populate, it is superfast, which is good andf why we need this approach instead of AjaxPanels and throwing away 80% of the page.
I can't produce a sample at this time, but just look at the WCF and Webservice samples in the blogs and try to change one to do any of these scenarios and they fail.
So I now have an application that has been in production for several years with Telerik controls that I now am going to remove the grid and start over because of these significant limitations. I have been fighting with this for 2 weeks to get it working and everytime I try anything other than displaying raw data, it falls flat.
Seriously guys, all your blog demos of MVC and WCF are cool, but try doing something other than rudimentary binding (and not rebind AFTER you bind on the server first...) and you will see how incredibly difficult it is to use RadGrid.
As we move further into using WCF and MVC, we really need to have most of the features on the server-side that makes RadGrid so great.
Prove me wrong and show me that this is possible, even in a new release!
Hopefully this will provide some direction for the next set of releases.
Steele Price