Software Review: NetAdvantage For .NET Suite- NetAdvantage For Windows Forms 2008 From Infragistics

Technorati Tags: NetAdvantage,Infragistics,AppSylist,Presentation Layer,Software,Development

Reviewed by T. Michael Testi

This is the first part of a three-part series that will cover what is contained in the NetAdvantage For .NET Suite. The three products are NetAdvantage for Windows Forms, NetAdvantage for ASP.NET, and NetAdvantage AppStylist. You can go online to explore more about the products in this suite. The goal of this series it to define what each product does and what it can do for you.

Infragistics over the years has positioned itself as a leader in the development of the presentation layer technologies. By creating high quality, reusable presentation layer tools for Windows Forms, ASP.NET, Windows Presentation Foundation(WPF), Tablet PC, and Java Environments, they are able to provide their customers with the ability to accelerate the development process by reducing development time.

The NetAdvantage For .NET Suite is compatible with Visual Studio 2008, and Visual Studio 2005. It works with Microsoft Windows XP and Vista. Infragistics products are subscription-based which gives you updates and upgrades for the period of the license; usually one year. So when you see the terminology "2008 Volume 1", this means it is the first release for this release of the product for that year. The license is also developer based which means that the developer can install it on more than one machine, but they are the only one who has the right to use the license.

So what is NetAdvantage For Windows Forms? It is a toolkit for creating Windows Forms. It is contains an extensive set of over 50 controls and components that have been designed to provide you with the ability to create modern user interfaces for your Windows Forms applications.

The NetAdvantage For Windows Forms toolset is built on the Presentation Layer Framework (PLF); a layer that resides between the Microsoft .NET Framework, and the NetAdvantage Windows Form Elements. Some of the advantages of providing this layer is that it gives you a more stable, more consistent, and more extensible environment such that you can derive your own classes from any public component class that is not sealed, and it contains a shared set of common assemblies. It also means that once you have learned some of the Windows Form controls, the rest will require little effort.

While it is beyond the scope of this review to go through each and every feature, I will try to provide some highlights to the product. You can check out the Infragistics site to explore a more complete list controls and components. The NetAdvantage For Windows Forms consists of the Toolset which includes the Frameworks, which, as explained above are build upon the PLF, the Code Libraries that are a repository of the .NET objects that augment a given application, the Assemblies that map the control to the DLL, and the Controls and Components that you will include within your application.

The NetAdvantage For Windows Forms gives you the ability to change the look and feel of your controls and components. When learning how to use this package you will be presented with ways to set the visual styles and behaviors by using presets, themes, and appearance objects to your applications.

You can also upgrade your existing Windows Forms projects with NetAdvantage For Windows Forms so that you can make changes where you need to, and add new functionality as time permits.

So what is new with NetAdvantage For Windows Forms?
• Full Support for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 – is new in NetAdvantage For Windows Forms. Included is support for the integrated development environment (IDE), and all .NET controls and components have been tested within this new environment.

• Vista Veneer now supports on WinTree. – This takes what was provided in version 2007 Volume 3; the Microsoft Windows Vista look and feel for the WinToolbarsManager components, and now provides them on the WinTree control. In the Windows Vista Display Styles include Scolling, Expansion indicators, colors, tool tips, and headers

• Select Nodes from any Level – is now available is to allow users to select as many tree nodes as they want in as many different levels of the tree control. This does not require any additional work on your part. You can manipulate the selected nodes collection based on the tree nodes coming from different levels.

• WinTrackBar – is a totally new track bar control that allows your users to choose values from a range; but not just a single range, rather as many as your application requires. It comes with a full array of looks and feels. If you are using the Office 2007 theme, this includes the ribbon style, and the collapsible Outlook pane. You can also style the control to implement your own Windows Vista track bar.

• New Close Button – has been added to the WinTab and WinTabbedMdiManager controls that will allow you to add tab closing functionality much like is found in Firefox and Internet Explorer tabs; this exists in the newer versions of each where you can have multiple websites open at one time and subsequently close each tab.

• WinListView – has been enhanced to allow end users to resize each column, resize by double clicking the right side of the column header, as well as controlling the resize process through the API. The AutoFitColumns turns this on, and the ColumnAutoSizeMode handles how the control reacts with the double click. By using the PerformAutoSize method, you can auto size whenever you need to.

Is there learning curve to using NetAdvantage For Windows Forms? Of course there is. As with any development product you need to spend the time to learn the it and integrated it into your workflow. This package was build under solid development principles that makes the learning curve diminish as you get deeper into learning the product. There are also a lot of helpful designers like the UltraWinGrid Designer that will help guide you through some of the many choices available.

When you first get into NetAdvantage For Windows Forms, it can be quite overwhelming, but Infragistics has put together some really good help documents to get you started. In the case for NetAdvantage for .NET Studio, you are provided with sections that pertain to the studio as a whole as well as for the NetAdvantage For Windows Forms product. They do a good job of presenting where you need to go to get started learning.

There are two licenses that you can purchase NetAdvantage For Windows Forms. First is with Priority Support for $1,290.00 USD, and Standard for $795.00 USD. For the Studio it is $1,490.00, and $995.00 respectively. Priority support includes one year of priority phone, 24-hour chat and rapid response online support. As an added bonus, with either license, along with the updates, upgrades, and product releases, you also get the C# code for all Windows Forms tools and designers. You can even download an evaluation copy. There are no features disabled during your evaluation period.

If you are tired of having to repeatedly design your application interfaces, having to painstakingly change the look and feel of controls and components, or having to spend more time then you want on the look and not enough time on what really counts; the product, then I highly recommend you take a look at Infragistics NetAdvantage For Windows Forms.

15 Ways Microsoft Can Reinvent Itself for the Post-Gates Era

 

 

Its cofounder is retiring, its latest big product has been vilified, and potential partners are spurning its advances. So what does Microsoft do to remain relevant? Here are 15 ideas.

A computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software. That, Bill Gates has often said, is the vision on which he and Paul Allen founded their software company in 1975. There's debate over when the mantra was first articulated--the earliest known instances go back only to the mid-1980s--but this much is undeniable: Microsoft made that audacious goal a reality.

Today, as Gates prepares to step down from day-to-day management of the company, another fact is clear: The modern Microsoft remains a company in search of a second act. True, it remains one of the world's most profitable enterprises, raking in more dough in its 2007 fiscal year than Apple, Google, Yahoo, Oracle, and Adobe combined. But the cracks in the Microsoft hegemony aren't just showing, they're growing.

Read it all...

Google launches new iGoogle and artist themes

 

It looks like Google just launched the new version of iGoogle that developers have had access to in the sandbox for a while now. The new version is great — and it gives developers a lot more flexibility when creating their gadgets because now it’s possible to make a full page view.

 

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Software Review: Setup Factory 7 From IndigoRose

Written by T. Michael Testi

If you read my review of MSI Factory 2 you would have found that it is a Microsoft Windows Installer; product that is aimed at creating 100% pure .MSI format installers and at that job it works great. But by using a Windows installer, you are governed by certain criteria that all Windows installers must follow. What about if you want more freedom and flexibility? What about if you want to do some things during installation that the Windows Installer doesn't allow? This is where Setup Factory 7 From IndigoRose steps in.

Setup Factory is a proprietary installation program that does not require the Microsoft Windows installer to be installed on the user's machine, and because it is able to make its own decisions, offers more freedom and flexibility in the creation of your installations. In fact, Setup Factory gives you the ability to deploy software products, data files, graphic images, or pretty much anything else that you want to distribute.

Setup Factory 7 is fully compatible with all versions of Windows from 95 through Vista. In an effort to conserve space, I have listed the requirements at the bottom of this review for both the design environment and the run-time application (the installer).

So, what's new with Setup Factory 7?

• Install any file anywhere with Setup Factory by simply dragging and dropping your files and folders into the project window. The program will maintain your folder structure, automatically query version resource information, create shortcut icons and, by using CRC-32 checking, insure data integrity.

• More compact single file setups let you deliver smaller and faster files. The approximately 450KB runtime overhead (including install) is smaller than the others. This smaller file creates a faster install and makes it easier to distribute by LAN,CD/DVD, and even floppy disk.

• Customizable Install Wizard screens give you a library of more than 20 different templates to choose from and a pre-built wizard sequence that works for a majority of installation tasks. You have the availability of check boxes, radio buttons, and edit fields to popular screens like license agreements, serial number verifications, etc. You can add and remove screens at will, and each screen has a real-time preview so that you can see the results of your changes.

• Themes and skins give you pre-made themes to customize your screens and you can even create your own. You can configure everything from fonts, banner images, body and background graphics, control colors, and more.

• Background window options let you choose between the traditional setup style or the "Run-in-the-background" style. You can customize the background window with gradients, images, color washes, headlines and footer text with 3D effects as well.

• Action Library now gives you over 250 easy to use actions so you can program your install to do what ever you need without being a programmer. These actions handle everything from text file editing to system registry changes. You can execute programs, call DLL functions, query drive information, and more.

• Action Wizard gives you the ability to select the action you want from a list, fill in the requested information and the wizard will do the rest.

• Scripting engine, based on the LUA language, gives you everything you need to do just about anything in an install. This language contains loops, conditions, functions, variables, and more that you can combine with actions to create very powerful installers that can accomplish any task.

• Color Syntax Highlighting Action Editor will allow you to work with the scripting language like a professional. This includes code completion, syntax highlighting, as you type action prototypes, and even context sensitive help.

• Expandable with Action Plugins will extend the product in very powerful ways. You can add support for databases, XML, data encryption, and FTP file transfers. These plugins are available through IndigoRose as well as third parties. You can even create your own with the plugin development kit.

• Dependency Modules & Runtime Support lets you add support for third-party technologies such as VB5, VB6, DCOM, JET, MDAC, Visual C++, and more. Since you have control over the detection and installation of each module, you can adjust the behavior to suite your requirements.

• Flexible Uninstaller has been improved so Setup Factory can automatically uninstall anything that it has installed, or you can customize it to take full control of what happens during the uninstall.

• System requirements checking can be enforced by checking a few boxes. These checks include operating system, memory, screen resolution, color depth, administration privileges, and more.

• Serial numbers, security, and access features are provided by a number of features that will help you manage access to your software including serial number lists and date-based expiration. Your installer data is compressed using proprietary algorithms and only accessible to those who supply a valid serial number, or as always, you can roll your own system.

• Packages, categories, and install types will let you create much more complex and multi-part products. You can group products and features into a single installer. You can even use categories into logical components.

• International language support is provided right out of the box. Installers created with Setup Factory can automatically determine the language of the client operating system and adjust the display of the screens and message accordingly. As long as it is one of the supported languages, you supply the text and Setup Factory takes care of the rest.

• Built-in spell checker that will take the embarrassment out of typos that can creep into your project. What's more is that there are dictionaries available for over a dozen languages.

• Even more, such as silent installs, log files to track of details, unattended builds, comprehensive users guide, and video training CDs.

I found Setup Factory 7 very easy to use and it flowed in a very natural manner. I really like the way that you can just drag and drop your files into the project window and click build and you can be done. You can even have a project wizard that will walk you through the process.

There are a lot of options that I did not get an opportunity to try out, but that just goes to show how feature rich this product is. Setup Factory 7 can give you both aspects, a simple quick installer, as well as a full featured product with a scripting language that hands you the ultimate in power.
Setup Factory 7 is available from IndigoRose for $495 USD or you can download a 30-day trial version as well. No matter the level of developer you are, Setup Factory 7 can deliver your product. I highly recommend Setup Factory.

System Requirements and Design Environment

The minimum and recommended system requirements for the Setup Factory design environment are:

Minimum

Windows 95 (OSR2), 98, Me, NT 4.0 (SP3), 2000, XP, Vista
Pentium 120 MHz
128 MB RAM
800x600 SVGA display with small fonts setting enabled
20+ MB free hard drive space
Video card set to 16 bit color or greater
Mouse

Recommended

Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista
Pentium 4 or equivalent
256 MB RAM or greater
19" monitor @ 1152x864 or 21" monitor @ 1280x1024 (1280x960 if supported by your video card)
High-performance video card
DirectX 8.1 or higher
Sound card
Mouse

Run-time Application (Built Installer)

The minimum system requirements for the Setup Factory installer are:
Minimum

Windows 95 and up
486 processor
32 MB RAM
640x480 SVGA display
Video card set to 8 bit 256 color or greater (recommended)
10+ MB free hard drive space

Note: The following HTTP actions require Internet Explorer 4.0 or greater: HTTP.GetConnectionState, HTTP.DownloadSecure and HTTP.SubmitSecure.

Software Review: MSI Factory 2 from IndigoRose

Reviewed by T. Michael Testi

Just because creating software can be hard, that doesn't mean that delivering that software has to be harder. But that is just what it is when you don't have the right tools to do the job. MSI Factory 2 is the latest version of IndigoRose's Microsoft Windows Installer product that is aimed at creating 100% pure .MSI format installers.

MSI Factory 2 works hard at making the creation of professional installers faster and much more hassle free. It is meant to be easy to use without the complexities of the MSI database tables, sequences, and components. By using its drag and drop abilities, the customization of some dialog boxes via the visual editor and one-click build, it creates a single installer that works on any version of Windows from 95 to Vista.

MSI Factory is not to be confused with IndigoRose's Setup Factory which I will look at in a separate review. Whereas MSI Factory uses Microsoft's Windows installer service which must be installed on the end user's system, installers of this type must abide by the rules of the Windows Installer technology. Setup Factory, on the other hand, creates its own custom installations and has independent flexibilities.

So how does MSI Factory work? You start off with making either an installer project that creates a full installation package, or a Merge Module Project that is used to create a merge module database. A merge module is a Windows installer database file that is used to describe installation logic that will be merged with a larger Windows installation package. Merge modules are used to deliver shared code, files, resources, registry entries, and setup logic to applications as a single compound file.

Once you select the install, you browse to the files that you want to include and add them. From there you can select options in the following categories: "Files" where you can add, remove and set properties of the files, "Projects" where you can adjust the settings, components, features, folders, and media settings with regard to the project, the "Requirements" of the install such as launch conditions, searches, and merge modules, the "User Interface" that includes the dialog boxes, languages, and styles of the dialogs presented to the user, and the "System Editors" which handle the registry changes, INI files, shortcuts, file operations, environment variables, services, ODBC, XML, and custom actions. Finally you also have control over extensions such as IIS. Once you have everything set up correctly, it is just a matter of building the project.

So, what's new with MSI Factory 2?

• Next Generation Installer – now fully leverages WiX complier technology giving you easy access to the same technology that Microsoft uses for creating installers for Microsoft Office and SQL Server. In fact MSI Factory is the first visual setup builder to fully use Microsoft's WiX compiler technology.

• Intelligent Development – now takes the MSI Factory IDE's focus to the files that you want to distribute as opposed to abstract concepts like components, features, sequences, and GUIDs. This makes it possible in the case of simple installs to just drop files, press build, and deliver.

• Bootstrap Wrapper – is a unique, fully scriptable .EXE bootstrap wrapper with LZMA compression and over 300 actions including HTTP downloads for real flexibility in an MSI based installer.

• WiX – compatible source projects with integrated support for WiX fragments and extensions.

• Dialog Editor – provides visual editing for quickly customizing the interface. It includes 22 different control types such as check boxes, radio buttons, and bit maps that will allow you to create fully customized dialogs.

• System Editors – give you an extensive list of actions including registry editing, shortcut icons, INI files, the ability to set file permissions, and more.

• Enterprise Ready – by giving you the features for team and enterprise development. These include automated builds, processor directives, pre/post build steps, and integrated support for WiX fragments and extensions.

Personally I found MSI Factory 2 very easy to use and much more intuitive than the native .NET installer. You have an incredible amount of control over virtually all aspects of your MSI install.

As of the time of this review, they have not updated the videos for version two, but the videos for version one are still on their site. I did have some sound quality problems with the videos when using my Firefox browser, but under Internet Explorer they worked just fine. The help is primarily a compiled Microsoft help file that also links you back to the videos and to a FAQ page on the IndigoRose website. They also have a pretty dynamic forum where you can get answers to questions.

MIS Factory 2 is available from IndigoRose for $495 USD or you can download a 30 day trial version. If you are looking for the ability to create Microsoft Window Installer files quickly and easily and especially if you want to use the new WiX technology, then you need MIS Factory 2.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Design Environment:

• Windows 2000, XP, Vista
• Resolution: 1040x768
• 500 MB RAM
• 40+ MB free hard drive space
• .NET Framework 1.1
• Windows Installer 2.0

Runtime (Built Installer):

• Windows 95 and up
• Project based Windows Installer version installed