I'm evaluating Telerik controls for our business at the moment, we've been using ComponentArt for a long time and have begun to find them just unsuitable with the newer controls.
That much said, I've really enjoyed the level of flexibility with skinning ComponentArt controls. I was wondering what all the capabilities of Telerik's controls are as far as breaking from the mold. Does anyone have some very unique examples of using non-default skins and layouts for any of the controls that can exhibit this?Things I am trying to understand
- Can I use UserControls inside of a Telerik:Editor toolbar? (like combo boxes, calendars, etc?) that are not built into it?
- Can I design layouts that are not standard (such as multiple rows of tabs in a TabStrip)
- Do I have to run with so many heavyweight GlobalResources all the time?
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0
Hi Derek,
Thank you for contacting us and for your willingness to evaluate RadControls. Let me assure you that the level of flexibility for skinning and customization in RadControls is in no way inferior to that of the controls you have been using until now.
RadControls ship with a set of 14 predefined skins which are currently being "facelifted". The out- of-the box skins provide you with a wide range of ready to use look-n-feels from standard interfaces like Vista, Office, etc to more unique ones like Black, colorful - red, green, etc. At the same time we have started working on a project that aims to make custom skinning a breeze. Ultimately, we are trying to provide a way to fully customize the look of the RadControls components through a visual interface, without the need to know the front-end structure of the components. This "Visual Style Builder" tool will be previewed in the community soon. (screenshot attached)
As to your specific scenarios, here is what RadControls can offer you (I am providing links to our Q1 Beta domes which will be officially released by mid-March):
Greetings,
Ivo
the Telerik team
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Thank you for contacting us and for your willingness to evaluate RadControls. Let me assure you that the level of flexibility for skinning and customization in RadControls is in no way inferior to that of the controls you have been using until now.
RadControls ship with a set of 14 predefined skins which are currently being "facelifted". The out- of-the box skins provide you with a wide range of ready to use look-n-feels from standard interfaces like Vista, Office, etc to more unique ones like Black, colorful - red, green, etc. At the same time we have started working on a project that aims to make custom skinning a breeze. Ultimately, we are trying to provide a way to fully customize the look of the RadControls components through a visual interface, without the need to know the front-end structure of the components. This "Visual Style Builder" tool will be previewed in the community soon. (screenshot attached)
As to your specific scenarios, here is what RadControls can offer you (I am providing links to our Q1 Beta domes which will be officially released by mid-March):
- RadEditor has a lot of customization potential - you can create Custom Tools, Custom ToolStrips, Custom Dropdowns etc. You can also add RadComboBox or RadCalendar (RadDatePicker) in the toolbars. We give you freedom and expose all the necessary APIs to customize pretty much anything in RadEditor's interface in addition to the wide range of predefined Toolbars, Dropdowns, Dialogs, Modules, etc.
- With RadTabStrip you can easily create multirow or hierarchical tabbed layouts.
- Global Resource Files are used so that RadControls can provide a flexible localization mechanism. You can easily change any of the text strings in the interface or translate it in any language (RadEditor supports English, German and French out of the box). For more info please check the online documentation or the demo. I am not sure why do you feel that the Resource Files are "so many heavyweight"? Can you please provide some details on your scenario and any performance hit you have experienced?
Greetings,
Ivo
the Telerik team
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Martin de Ruiter
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answered on 05 Mar 2009, 12:57 AM
Creating your own skins for Telerik controls is very easy, I do it a lot within my own webapplications -> just edit the css files and/or images of the standard skins and you can easily create your own look. No problem :-)
P.S. I'm not a Telerik employee, just a happy and satisfied customer ;-)
P.S. I'm not a Telerik employee, just a happy and satisfied customer ;-)
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Serrin
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answered on 05 Mar 2009, 01:58 PM
I have to second that, they make it incredibly easy to configure and modify skins (or even simple elements of skins) with a little bit of CSS knowledge. I'd highly recommend using FireFox + FireBug to examine the CSS of anything you'd like to change, you can test edits right in the browser and then turn around and drop those same changes into the aspx file. Let us know if you want any examples and we'll be happy to show you. :)
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Derek
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answered on 05 Mar 2009, 03:21 PM
What about changing the layout of the controls?
Do I have to have a large bulk of files in the Global_Resources folders and such?
Do I have to have a large bulk of files in the Global_Resources folders and such?
0
Hi Derek,
What specific layout do you want to achieve? We will be happy to provide examples for your case.
Which controls are you using and with what localization? You should be able to remove the unneeded Global Resources.
All the best,
Ivo
the Telerik team
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What specific layout do you want to achieve? We will be happy to provide examples for your case.
Which controls are you using and with what localization? You should be able to remove the unneeded Global Resources.
All the best,
Ivo
the Telerik team
Instantly find answers to your questions on the new Telerik Support Portal.
Check out the tips for optimizing your support resource searches.