For example, you could build a simple employee scheduling tool to display a weekly calendar which lets you schedule work time as an appointment. The following code displays the appointment dialog and allow you to enter the appropriate information:

Dim appointment As Infragistics.Win.UltraWinSchedule.Appointment

appointment = _
      Me.UltraCalendarInfo1.Appointments.Add _
      (System.DateTime.Today, "Appointment Subject")
Me.UltraCalendarInfo1.DisplayAppointmentDialog(appointment)
Me.UltraCalendarInfo1.Appointments.Add(appointment)

The only other thing to do is to bind the UltraCalendarInfo to the UltraWeekView element—and you're done!

UltraWinEditor elements provide a whole host of custom data entry and property editor tools. Each element can be used stand-alone or as an integral part of another element, such as the UltraWinGrid or the UltraWinTree. The help files for these elements demonstrate another useful concept, called Task-Based Help. Over twenty different task related help topics describe in detail how to accomplish a specific task using each element. I especially like this type of help, as it addresses more of the “how to” aspect of using the components.

Creating a familiar look and feel often depends on the target environment. Users familiar with the latest version of Microsoft Office are comfortable with toolbars, tabs, and menus that look and function in a similar fashion. Previous versions of Microsoft Office behaved in slightly different ways. NetAdvantage supports all these styles.

NetAdvantage also includes support for Tablet PCs by ink-enabling a number of different elements. Specific ink-aware elements include the UltraPenInputPanel popup, any UltraWinEditor element that accepts text input along with the UltraWinGrid. I am looking forward to playing with the Tablet specific elements on my newly acquired Acer Travelmate C300.

Extending ASP.NET

Many of the elements available to Windows Forms developers are also available for ASP.NET. Similar components include the grid and grid editors, toolbars, menus, tree, explorer bar, tabs, and the charting function. While the full schedule functionality is not supported on the ASP.NET side, there is a calendar element for month-at-a-glance display and a date chooser tool.

The WebNavBar gives you the option of navigating rows of information either on the client or server side. When attached to a WebGrid for data display, you can position the WebNavBar outside the grid or docked inside the grid, simply by setting the Position property of the element.

Again, there's plenty of samples to learn from. The sample Expense Report reference application demonstrates most of the ASP.NET elements within a single program. If you use the company's Web site, links take you directly to the documentation and source code for each piece of the application.

All of the NetAdvantage components for ASP.NET development require that a local copy of the component exist in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC). This is accomplished at run-time by setting the Copy Local property to true.

Out Of The Box

The download file for NetAdvantage is a hefty 223 MB. Installing the product is a snap and didn't take more than ten minutes. The bulk of that time was taken up merging the help files with the standard Visual Studio help. Making the tools accessible from the Visual Studio .NET toolbox requires a few additional steps. For each set of tools you want to appear on the toolbox menu you simply add a new tab and then add the items you want to associate with that tab.

Documentation for the NetAdvantage tools comes primarily in the form of a standard Windows help file. If you choose to integrate the NetAdvantage help file with Visual Studio .NET, you'll get context-sensitive help from the forms designer and code view panes. The only drawback I found was the absence of integration into the Microsoft Dynamic Help pane. It would be nice if the samples and help showed up in that pane as well.

The Details

Infragistics' licensing policies are very developer friendly. When you purchase a copy of NetAdvantage, you are allowed to load the development tools on any machine for your personal use. Group licensing is also available for large development groups. When you get ready to distribute your new program, you simply include the Infragistics redistributable files; there's no fee. The only hitch is you must take care to only include the files that Infragistics' deems redistributable, and nothing else.

Product pricing takes three different approaches. For $495, you get the basic product in binary form. The next level adds all source code (in C#) for the .NET tools designers and one year of product updates, for $695. If you need priority phone support (meaning same day support for calls and questions before 1:00pm EST), it will cost you $995.

Some might look at the cost of the full product and think it's too expensive. When you evaluate the true value of such a product you must take into consideration the amount of time it would take to develop the same program without these tools and the associated costs. More often than not the true cost benefit of having the right tools will far exceed the initial expense incurred.

Paul Ferrill, based in Lancaster, Calif., has been writing about computers and software for almost 20 years. He's also a big fan of Visual Basic and has been using it since Version 1.

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