The Best Tools for Web Forms Development (ASP.NET Controls)

Do you agree with them all? Are we missing some? Let us know what you think.

would you like your software to be considered for this list? Give us your details.

1. ComponentArt DataGrid

   Multi-mode operation, support for AJAX callbacks, and client side template feature provide the richest, highest-performing user experience delivered to date by an ASP.NET Grid control.

   

   Figure: ComponentArt DataGrid Screenshot
   
   ComponentArt DataGrid Overview

   Suggestion to other vendors.

   You should all make similar grid examples so others can compare.

   I really like this grid example http://www.componentart.com/demos/grid/features/ajax_grid/WebForm1.aspx And this one http://samples.infragistics.com/2006.2/WebTabs/CustomerViewer/WebForm1.aspx

   Telerik only have this http://www.telerik.com/demos/aspnet/controls/examples/integration/ajax/grid/defaultcs.aspx

2. ComponentArt Menu

   ComponentArt's award-winning Menu has been written from the ground up for ASP.NET, combining the best practices from our original ASP.NET Menu with our advanced new rendering technology.

   

   Figure: ComponentArt Menu Screenshot
   
   ComponentArt Menu Overview

3. Tree View

   ComponentArt TreeView

   Enhanced performance and added features are now available! Lightweight and lightning-fast, TreeView is rich on both the client and server side, easily data-bound and ready for ASP.NET 2.0.

   

   Figure: ComponentArt TreeView Screenshot
   ComponentArt TreeView Overview

   
   

   VisualASP TreeView Component

   Use this classic component to add tree structure menus to your asp applications. With eight tree styles the functionality in this component gives you all the power you need, to create an impressive looking tree to suit your web site. The TreeView Component includes examples for database, xml and client side event handling, plus many others.

   

   Figure: VisualASP™ TreeView Component Screenshot
   Visual ASP Web Site

4. Rich Text Box

   #1 r.a.d.editor (will be called RichTextBox)

   This rich text box from r.a.d is great.

   Unfortunately it is poorly named (they will rename it to RichTextBox) and does not come up on the first few pages of google ! http://www.google.com.au/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLJ,GGLJ:2006-17,GGLJ:en&q=rich+text+box+asp%2enet

   Why do I say the RichTextBox from Telerik is the best one - because when you paste from Word it cleans up the god awful HTML

   See http://www.telerik.com/r.a.d.controls/Editor/Examples/Default/DefaultCS.aspx

   

   Figure: r.a.d.editor Screenshot
   Telerik Web Site

   #2 RichTextBox

   A common question is why do I recommend RichTextBox over the free ones?

   I have heaps of good reasons:

   • It is a product - RichTextBox provides a professional, supported, commercial product, not just a piece of code
   • They will be growing with me and my app - They will be here in X yrs time, selling solid, high quality components
   • I get help - They provide really great email support, support in the forums, a large knowledge base, and have a technical support team devoted to supporting users of the product
   • They will fix bugs for me - They invest heavily in research and development, and provide free products upgrades and bug fixes
   • The big companies will be subsidising me to get the above - They have a top-notch customer base including Microsoft, Intel and Wells Fargo, which says a lot about the trust their product has gained

   There is certainly a place for small bits of code like FreeTextBox, but I don't think free, unsupported code is suitable for most corporate applications. And anyway, for a high quality web app, $150-250 isn't a large investment by any means. Certainly when compared to the effort required to build one of these editors, it's insignificant.

   Adam Cogan

   Now this is a great control and comes with even better support. RichTextBox is a server control that you add to an ASP.NET page. You can set a few properties if you like and there is nothing more to it - it works like any other control. Under the covers, when the page is requested by the browser, it generates several hundred lines of HTML and JavaScript in a configuration that depends on and properties you set for the control. To provide the editing functionality it relies on editable IFRAME functionality in Internet Explorer and provides a large amount of code to support that, and it does a great job in bringing such richness to the browser.

   

   Figure: RichTextBox Screenshots
   RichTextBox.Com

   #3 FCKeditor

   FCKeditor is a powerful tool providing a text editor for web pages. The interface is similar to the ones we know from Microsoft products and has an easily customizable toolbar. The text editor provides all the formatting possibilities which are possible in HTML through an online interface. As FCKeditor is an OpenSource project, it is absolutely free.

   One disadvantage is that FCK has problems over a SSL connection.

   

   Figure: FCKeditor Screenshot
   www.fredck.com/FCKeditor

   #4 FreeTextBox (preferred)

   A free ASP.NET control written in C# implementing MSHTML in Internet Explorer. It can be validated using standard ASP.NET validators and has many options for customization..

   FreeTextBox has a 'free' version and a paid version which offers things like XHTML compliance. Also DNN uses FreeTextBox as their default editor.

   If you have multiple rich text editors on one page then IE uses a large amount of memory - this causes problems on older machines with 256mb of memory and integrated video cards.

   

   Figure: FreeTextBox Screenshot
   Real demo in SSW Web Site - Contact Me
   freetextbox.com

5. Collapsable Panel - from EWorldUI

   The collapsable panel control from EWorldUI (www.eworldui.net) is a great, lightweight, free to use ASP.NET server control that enables you to expand and collapse blocks of content client side. You get control over the numerous sections of the title row as well as the javascript source file - embedded or linked.

   

   Figure: The content panel collapses to only show the title row which is clickable.

   

   Figure: Once clicked, the panel expands to show the content without a postback.

6. Popup Calendars

   ASP.NET comes with a built in Calendar Control that you can put on your web pages. I don't like the Calendar Control from a usability perspective - I think it is better to be able to type in the date in a text box. For the users that want a GUI calendar, they can click a button next to the date field. eg. www.qantas.com Love to know if you Agree/Disagree?

   So in my search for a good calendar that can be used as a popup, I found these ones...
   

   Dynarch DHTML/Javascript Calendar (Free) (Warning: This doesnt work on IE7 so this is no longer recommended)

   
   

   In my opinion this is the coolest cross-browser compatible DHTML date picker. It is setup in minutes, with all the features you may require in 90% of your projects. Try dragging it around the page...

   
   Figure: Dynarch Popup Calendar

   Dynarch Calendar Overview
   
   What is it?

   • Cross-browser popup or flat DHTML calendar
   • Suitable for selecting date/time
   Features
   • The look is customizable through external CSS
   • High quality color themes
   • Keyboard navigation
   • Can show days from adjacent months
   • Can show week numbers
   • Translated into many languages
   • Any day can be "the first day of week"
   • The default "first day of week" can be configured in the language file
   • One can easily jump back or forward with 24 years
   • Provides help hints (also configurable)
   • Includes an optional time selector with 1 minute resolution
   • Special days (configurable list of days that are displayed differently)
   • Allows multiple days selection
   • Fast and very easy to setup
   
   

   ComponentArt Popup Calendar (ASP.NET)

   
   

   ComponentArt Calendar supports a variety of date and date-range selection types - without requiring postbacks for month paging or date selections.

   

   Figure: ComponentArt Popup Calendar
   
   ComponentArt Calendar Demo

   Peter Blum's DateTextbox (ASP.NET) (Recommended when you have a range eg. Date Start and Date End)

   
   

   The DateTextBox Control is a complete solution to date entry in a web form. It is a greatly extended TextBox which assists the user in entering the day, month, and year of a date. It always follows the international short date pattern that you supply. Users can popup a calendar to select a date from that interface or use an assortment of commands available as single keystroke, from a context menu, or from a Help button. Two can be connected together for smart date range entry.

   

   Figure: Peter Blum's DateTextbox with popup calendar
   
   Peter Blum's DateTextbox Demo

   RJS Popup Calendar (Free) (Recommended)

   The RJS popup calendar is free ASP.NET popup calendar baseed on the Fuushikaden JavaScript calendar. It can be fully customizable with CSS, has full globalization and cross-browser support and is very easy to implement. It is available on GotDotNet and is regularly updated by the developer Ricaute Jimenez Sanchez. Documentation is available in English and Spanish.

   
   Figure: RJS Popup Calendar

   Real demo:

   RJS PopCalendar

7. DB Combo

   DbCombo is an ASP.NET server component for picking from long lists of data. It uses client scripting to 'auto-complete' a text box while you type - just like a combo box. On lower browsers, it gracefully degrades to use HTML 3.2 for optimum compatibility. Functionality is not lost as this happens though, DbCombo uses the postback architecture to achieve the same result.

   

   Figure: DB Combo
   
   Cambro DB Combo

   Second best is Teleriks combo box

   http://www.telerik.com/r.a.d.controls/Combobox/Examples/Functionality/WhatsNew/DefaultCS.aspx

   Richer Components is the 3rd best - functional, but a little ugly

   http://www.richercomponents.com/asp-net-components/rich-live-combo/Demos/Dictionary.html

8. Ajax Textbox

   As you type a word in the textbox, a JavaScript event fires an HTTP GET request to the ASPX page. The response from the ASPX page is simply displayed in a div tag under the textbox. The page is not refreshed/reloaded for every keystroke as everything is done by the JavaScript in the page. The main JavaScript object that allows us to do this is XMLHttpRequest. You could read about it from Apple's developer site here. This is supported by IE 5.0 +, Mozilla 1.0 + and Apple's own Safari 1.2 +.. It uses the XMLHttpRequest object to make requests and get back data.

   

   Figure: objectgraph dictionary textbox

   Real Demo - Search Suburb:

   
   
   objectgraph

9. True Combo Behaviour

   It is quite common to write HTML code that will create a combo box on your web page. Users can then make a selection from multiple items within the combo. However, you may want to produce a combo that also allows the user to enter in custom text, as an alternative.

   Although this functionality is normally implemented in Windows by default, you will need additional code to make it work on a web page.A good explanation of how to do this can be found at the URL below:

   Solutions .NET: True Combo Behaviour

10. Toggle Borders

    The accepted way to debug complex table-based HTML pages is to add a border="1" attribute to the <TABLE> element. Toggle Borders is a utility which automates this and more. It is accessed from the context menu in Internet Explorer and will colour-code tables, span tags and div tags for you to see how your website, or a third party website has been laid out. Select Toggle Borders again and the colour-coding is removed.

    More information is available on the official website:

    ThunderMain

11. Peter's Polling Package

    Polling is one of the most common ways to get the user to interact with your site. Often sites will offer polling simply to have something to draw users back to the site. A Poll is a fairly complex combination of HTML and server side code. It has two entirely different looks: its entry view and results view. It uses a database which demands web forms to allow the user to edit the polling data and extract data collected from the users. This Polling package includes all of the pieces.

    I use peterblum.com for this.

12. Spell checker

    

    Figure: Telerik has a good spell checker for ASP.NET

    

    Figure: Infragistic has a spell checker for ASP.NET - but it is not so good

13. Firebug

    Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of web development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.

    It is easy to retrieve the html source, CSS and script for anywhere you want:

    

    Figure: When you hover over the red box, it indicates where it is in the browser (see green box).

14. Internet Explorer Developers toolbar

    For lovers of Firebugs there is a Microsoft Internet Explorer Equivalent. The Internet Explorer Developers toolbar has a neat DOM explorer which is nearly as good as Firebug. (I'm sure some of you are aware of this product but I thought I would put up a tip anyway as I wsan't using this until today.)

    Latest version can be downloaded from MSIE Dev toolbar

    

15. JQuery

    Javascript has always been a nightmare to work with but JQuery makes working with javascript really easy.

    JQuery has these features:

    • CSS Selectors for finding DOM elements
    • Traditionally you had to iterate through a list of controls or use getElementById to get at an element you want
    • With JQuery you can address it the same way you do with CSS e.g. $("div.myClass") will find a div with the class "myClass"
    • Rich support for animations like the AJAX Toolkit does

    Demo:

    
    
    
    
    

    • Easily manipulate DOM objects' attributes and css styles
    • Good event handling

    var mylink = document.getElementById("mylink");
    function myfunction(){
        alert('clicked me!');
    };
    
    mylink.onclick = myfunction;

    Figure: Bad Example - Normal Javascript event handler

    On the surface, it seems that your Javascript works fine - what one naively fails to realize is that you've killed all other Javascript hooks on that object - they are no longer run.

    function myfunction(){
        alert('clicked me!');
    };
    
    $('#mylink').click(myfunction);

    Figure: Good Example with JQuery event handler

    • Support for WCF REST web services

Acknowledgements

Adam Cogan

Call Now +61 2 9953 3000

• Feedback to SSW
• About SSW
• Advertising
• Sitemap

Our website is under constant continuous deployment. Last deployment to AZIIS2022P03. Unable to retrieve changeset details.