Infragistics NetAdvantage 2003 Volume 3 is a suite of visual user interface components designed for both ASP.NET Web applications and Windows Forms–based applications.

In addition to writing the components in 100% managed C#, Infragistics has also added access to the C# source code for each component into the subscription – something that many of their competitors simply do not offer, and even if they do, it will cost you a small fortune above the base subscription price.

Access to the source code is an asset for developers for two reasons: first, it enables you to gain insight into how Infragistics engineers are able to provide you with certain features within their components, helping you advance your knowledge of programming visual components with the Microsoft .NET platform and with the C# programming language in particular; second, it enables you to see the high quality of the source code provided, helping to increase your confidence in the components you will be integrating into your applications.

Windows Forms and ASP.NET Web Components
NetAdvantage 2003 Volume 3 provides components for both Windows Forms and ASP.NET Web applications, recognizing that Microsoft places an equal emphasis on these two areas in which .NET developers are actively deploying applications today.

Microsoft already ships an impressive array of controls with Visual Studio .NET 2003 for both the ASP.NET and Windows Forms developer. However, one area in which the .NET developer has been left to fend for himself is charting.

NetAdvantage 2003 Volume 3 includes a new version of Infragistics' advanced charting components for both Windows Forms and ASP.NET, which now support several new chart types, including radar charts, doughnut charts, scatter-line charts, column-line charts, stacked bar charts, stacked column charts, and spline charts. Essentially UltraWinChart and UltraWebChart now support more chart types than even the most demanding executive in your company (or your customers) can ask for!

Another excellent feature of Infragistics charting components is the newly added data drilldown functionality that enables users to select the elements within the data that they are most interested in and focus solely upon those areas.

Integrating UltraWinChart or UltraWebChart into your applications is as easy as using any of the ASP.NET or Windows Forms components that Microsoft ships with Visual Studio .NET 2003 today; simply add the components that you are interested in to the appropriate Visual Studio .NET toolbox tab and drag them onto the design area of your Windows Forms or ASP.NET application.

The one complaint, albeit relatively minor, that I have with the product is that the developer must add the components to the Visual Studio .NET toolbox manually. Hopefully with Volume 4 we will see an Infragistics tab added to the Visual Studio .NET toolbox or simply the Infragistics controls added to the appropriate tabs for ASP.NET and Windows Forms controls.

NetAdvantage 2003 Volume 3 provides the .NET developer with many other exciting Windows Forms controls, including advanced grid controls (UltraWinGrid and UltraWebGrid) with such features as the ability to export to Microsoft Excel (using the UltraGridExcel Exporter class); fixed-column support (just as in Microsoft Excel itself); advanced data layout using "Layouts" (the UltraGridLayout class), which allow much finer control over the data presentation within the grid; and support for inking on the Tablet PC platform (see below).

Tablet PC, Inking, and Object Orientation
One of the greatest advantages of the .NET architecture and of the programming languages that are CLS (common language specification) compliant is that they were designed from the outset to be completely object oriented, providing support for inheritance, encapsulation, and polymorphism.

Infragistics engineers were able to capitalize upon these object-oriented principles by inkenabling their components through the standard object-oriented principle of inheritance.

Ink-enabled components allow developers to enhance their applications to take full advantage of the new Tablet PC platform that is taking the industry by storm.

Because all of their Windows Forms components inherit their base functionality from Infragistics' exclusive Presentation Layer Framework, Infragistics engineers were able to easily integrate inking into all of their Windows Forms components simply by modifying the base Presentation Layer Framework to provide this functionality. Figure 1 shows two such controls, UltraComboEditor and UltraTextEditor, along with the associated UltraPenInputPanel pop-up buttons, which allow users to either click or tab to enter text using their Tablet PC with either the onscreen keyboard (see Figure 2) or their Tablet PC's pen support using the integrated character recognition.

Figure 1

Figure 2

The ease with which Infragistics engineers were able to ink-enable their components allows development teams to gain unprecedented confidence in their choice of NetAdvantage 2003 Volume 3, knowing that as Microsoft throws component vendors curve balls with advances to the Windows platform, Infragistics will be able to step up to the plate ready for whatever Microsoft can pitch next!

Documentation
Infragistics NetAdvantage 2003 Volume 3 provides tightly integrated documentation, available as additional books within the Visual Studio .NET 2002 or 2003 MSDN library.

Although it is arguable that there is simply too much documentation provided for all of the components that Infragistics provides in the suite to enable them to provide a printed manual, I would have liked to have seen one that at least covers the design philosophy of the components. An associated tutorial on the most commonly used components, including possibly a comparison between the comparable Infragistics and Microsoft components, would also be helpful.

DevCenter
Infragistics has recently introduced its DevCenter, which is based on the MSDN model for information and sample code delivery. DevCenter promises to be the central resource for .NET developers using components from Infragistics 2003 Volume 3. In addition to covering their own components on this site, Infragistics is also providing access to articles written by Infragistics engineers and others about all aspects of .NET development. Check out DevCenter at http://devcenter.infragistics.com.

Company Info
Infragistics
Windsor Corporate Park
50 Millstone Road
Building 200, Suite 150
East Windsor, NJ 08520
Phone: 800 231.8588
Fax: 609 448.2017
Web: www.infragistics.com

Test Environment
Pentium IV 2.4GHz with 512MB RAM, Windows XP
Professional with Service Pack 1

Pricing
NetAdvantage 2003: $495
NetAdvantage 2003 with subscription and .NET source code: $695
NetAdvantage 2003 Enterprise Edition and .NET source code: $995

Author Bio
Doug Holland, a professional .NET consultant based in Roseville, CA, has over eight years of experience in designing and developing software. Doug currently works with the .NET Framework and specializes in consulting for companies using IBM Rational XDE for .NET development. doug.holland@sys-con.com