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Windows Phone 7 Controls?

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Troy Roberson
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Troy Roberson asked on 19 Sep 2010, 04:23 PM
Are there any plans to release a suite of controls for the WP7?  There are a number of controls 'missing' from the RTM of the WP7 dev tools and I'd love to see some third party items, like a Treeview. 

Thanks!

Troy

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Hristo
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answered on 21 Sep 2010, 09:43 AM
Hello Troy Roberson,

Thank you for your interest in our controls and for your feedback! We'll definitely include it in our next discussions for future development. 

Best wishes,
Hristo
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Carl
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answered on 27 Sep 2010, 05:07 PM
Perhaps I'm mistaken but I believe there was some kind of announcement about phase out of Telerik support for Silverlight 3 with a move to future support only for Silverlight 4.

If correct, then I believe that this would really argue for a set of controls targeted at Windows Phone 7 because, again as I understand it, Windows Phone 7 currently only supports Silverlight 3 but not Silverlight 4.

In any event, the point is that it would be really helpful to have some nice Telerik controls that do in fact work for Windows Phone 7 regardless of what Microsoft requires (whether it's Silverlight 3, 4, or whichever version of Silverlight).
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Troy Roberson
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answered on 27 Sep 2010, 05:13 PM
WP7 RTM is based on the SL4 assemblies.  It does support SL3 controls -- at least some of them.  But having controls specifically targeting the WP7 would be my preference.

There are several I'd like to see -- in the meantime I've had to roll my own.

A treeview -- this would be awesome.  I wrote my own for it, but it's probably not nearly as efficient as a real one.
A textblock that supports inline hyperlink buttons, for instance, if I have the text:

"This is a link to Telerik's site: http://www.telerik.com", the control should parse out the link and make it hot, while still allowing TextWrapping, etc.  I've written this one as well, but like I said, I'm no expert on writing controls.

That's just two examples, I'm sure as time goes along I could come up with more.

Troy
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Carl
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answered on 27 Sep 2010, 05:42 PM
For anybody interested, here's the calendar of Windows Phone 7 developer events:

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/2010/09/24/windows-phone-7-developer-events.aspx

I'll be attending the next one later this week here in southern California so I should be better educated soon enough.

Nevertheless, from my point of view, here's the argument that I think is most compelling for a Telerik suite of controls for Windows Phone 7:

I am more likely to develop a Silverlight application using Telerik Silverlight navigation paging menu etc controls if I am also able to easily apply the same approach (and programming development time) for use when I adapt the Silverlight application from the desktop browser environment to the Windows Phone 7 environment.

And vice versa, if I must develop a Silverlight application for Windows Phone 7 using Microsoft navigation paging menu controls (because Telerik controls for WP7 do not exist) then I am more likely to apply the same approach (and programming development time) for use when I adapt the Silverlight application from the Windows Phone 7 environment to the desktop browser environment.

Now the point here is simple: if Telerik wants developers such as myself to use Telerik controls as much as possible (instead of Microsoft controls), then please make it as simple and easy as possible to go back and forth between both environments, ie, back and forth between Silverlight for desktop browser and Silverlight for Windows Phone 7. And it would be really important to make this possible for all the basic "plumbing" and "infrastructure" controls such as navigation paging menu etc.

Of course, I do agree also with Troy that some additional fancy controls would be nice too. 
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Troy Roberson
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answered on 27 Sep 2010, 07:26 PM
I agree with Carl on several points.  The 'drop and replace' functionality that I love about Telerik would be really, really nice on WP7.  Another item that would be awesome in the toolkit is a transitions library.  Once again, I had to write my own, which was a pain.

I think a *huge* point that I'd like to make about the Window Phone 7 is that a large, large number of the early developers are moonlighters or small, independent teams.  I would love if Telerik comes out with a superior control set, but I'd have to pass if it weighed in at $799 -- that's a large chunk of money to part with on pure speculation.  An attractive price point could help Telerik become the defacto standard for enhanced controls.  Don't get me wrong, the open-source community does a good job with the Silverlight Toolkit for WP7, but they'd be hard-pressed to match the quality that I expect from Silverlight.

The WP7 platform has huge potential for third-party controls -- and also a the potential for a huge disappointment if that platform sinks.  I suppose it's a leap of faith for large companies to invest a great deal of time and effort on an unproven platform, but my guess is whatever third party jumps into the fray first and best will reap the biggest rewards if things go as expected.

Just my two cents.

Troy
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Chris
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answered on 28 Sep 2010, 07:36 AM
I have only just started looking at Developing for the WP7, and my client is wanting a portable link back to their office silverlight application that they can use out on location, update their reports and save the content on the go. Giving them the same Telerik looking application in a cut down WP7 would be another ally that we can tell our client about instead of needed to get access to a computer with an internet connection.

One thing that I think would be really good (and I'm not sure if it's possible or if it already exists) but if all the controls can take the phone's selected colour to use as it's base for the phone then the individual user could make the application look their own.
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Carl
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answered on 02 Oct 2010, 08:29 PM
Troy,

What is the source of your information about WP7 RTM supporting Silverlight 4? It would be helpful to get this clarified and confirmed if true with a link to some Microsoft documentation or something.

Otherwise, my understanding continues to be that WP7 RTM supports Silverlight 3. In fact, the statement that was made repeatedly by Microsoft employees at the recent Windows Phone 7 Developer Launch event (that I attended this past week in southern California) was as follows:

WP7 RTM supports a subset of Silverlight 3 that corresponds to Silverlight 3 for out-of-browser scenarios. So in fact according to them, WP7 RTM does not support Silverlight 4 but rather only the out-of-browser subset of Silverlight 3.

Carl
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