I understand not wanting to duplicate MSDNs documentation, however its not clear to me which control inherit the model binding functionality.
What I would recommend is two-fold:
- in the documentation between 'Deployment' and 'Controls' add an article about DataBinding that covers the basics of each type of data binding. The sub-article on model binding could describe the concept and then link to the MSDN articles. Each sub-article should have a demo or sufficient code displayed in the article itself.
- in the documentation of each control you already have a 'DataBinding' subarticle. In addition to the specialized articles that address unique issues of the given control, add a 'Available Methods' article that lists what databinding methods the control accepts, with links to the above primary article for details.
The key information in such a resource must answer the following questions:
1) Can I use DataBinding X method with this control?
2) What does the code look like to properly bind to the datasource {examples of code-behind and mark-up, not just design view smart-tags }
I don't mind clicking through to MSDN articles, forum threads, and blogs. I do mind that after digging through the documentation I have to use Google to figure out how to use a Telerik control in its simplest implementation.
The articles would be best if they also dug into the more complicated implementations. For example with Models, how do you properly retrieve a virtual data element from the model.. something MVC does automatically.
Bottom line. The reason my organization uses Telerik controls is because of the ease of rapid development. Slapping a Rad Control on the page with model binding is about the fastest CRUD-capable implementation I have ever seen, but it seems to have undocumented limitations.
For instance, Org Charts and TreeViews requiring the root records 'parent id' to equal zero or null, so model-bound views of a partial tree are not an option. You have to pull a datatable, filter to your partial view, modify the partial tree's root entry, and then display it.