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Telerik Enters Mobile Market with Q1 Release of .NET Developer Tools
This week Telerik is rolling out the Q1 2011 release of its .NET developer tools, which updates 10 products in its Ultimate Collection. The Q1 release also marks Telerik's entry into the mobile space with the debut of RadControls for Windows Phone 7.
The Telerik Ultimate Collection for .NET includes RadControls for Windows Phone, RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX, RadControls for Silverlight, RadControls for WinForms, RadControls for WPF, Telerik Reporting, Telerik OpenAccess ORM, Telerik JustCode, Telerik JustMoc and Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC. The Q1 release of the Ultimate Collection for .NET updates all of Telerik's tools outside of the WebUI Test Studio and TeamPulse suites, whose upgrades are expected later in 2011.
"This release is for us in many ways about solidifying our position as an end-to-end provider of tools and components for software developers," said Telerik Chief Evangelist Todd Anglin, "which means providing things that help developers be productive at all of the different points at which they may interact with software development."
The v1 release of RadControls for Windows Phone UI tooling adds two data visualization tools not in the February beta--SparkLine and BulletGraph--bringing the total number of controls to 16. RadLoopingList replaces RadInfiniteListBox for better performance in the v1 release, according to the company, and design-time support was added for RadGauge, another data visualization control that is used for dashboard-style applications. The final release also supports localization with RadLocalizationManager.
"We are very excited about the hardware partnership with Nokia," said Anglin. "We think it will take the Windows Phone platform into more countries as quickly as possible."
Other highlights in the Ultimate Collection include an integrated decompiling feature in the JustCode code analysis and refactoring add-in for Visual Studio.
"This allows developers to browse into the source code that they typically wouldn't have access to, from directly within Visual Studio," said Anglin. This functionality is supported in Visual Studio 2010 only.
Other JustCode enhancements include support for code cleaning, which removes unused code and style sharing for standardized formatting across dev teams. Telerik acquired the JustCode code analysis engine along with its developers when it bought German company Omicore in 2009.
The company has also revamped the visual designer in its OpenAccess ORM (Object Relational Mapper) with new wizards and dialogs to promote ease of use during the visual mapping process for developers new to data productivity as well as advanced users. The updated ORM, which supports 12 databases including SQL Server, introduces a converter for Entity Framework models. Entity Framework currently supports SQL Server only.
Other enhancements in the Q1 Ultimate Collection for .NET include new Web parts for SharePoint, new extensions and controls, design-time upgrades, expanded support for mobile devices, WinForms compatibility with Microsoft Active Accessibility, and better reporting, according to the company.
RadControls for Windows Phone 7 is available without a subscription for $99 for a limited time. The licensing cost is $149 with a subscription. Find out more about licensing for the Q1 Ultimate Collection here.
About the Author
Kathleen Richards is the editor of RedDevNews.com and executive editor of Visual Studio Magazine.