Hi All:
We currently have no grids comparable to anything Infragistics offers. Our app is a .Net 3.5 based winforms app. We wrote our own custom client which is a windows dll - it's the presentation engine for our data and business logic. We do have the ability to utilize browser windows embedded in our app, so we could support grids in some way now.
But soon we will be converting our client to use WPF. I found another post in the differences between WPF and Silverlight, in general WPF seems more powerful and has better access to the machine. I get that. Our client will definitely be WPF, but I'm presuming it can "host" Silverlight functionality as well.
To be clear, we do not deploy our app with browsers, we have a true windows program for the desktop.
But if I am just considering GRIDS, which I presume I could use WPF or Silverlight in my app, what should I choose? On the Infragistics site for example, the Silverlight demo is much more compelling than the screen shots of the WPF version.
The data for either grid would be the same, some type of data object that would be downloaded to the client machine.
The only thing that pops out at me from the demo pages in terms of a major difference, is that nice data filtering is not listed on the Silverlight grid, but is for WPF. This is a must, so if the Silverlight grid won't have it, then my decision is made.
Other factors:
WOW - a competitor has "sexy grids" and we want them too.
Printing - would be nice to have good printing support built in.
Show/Hide columns, grouping, child record expand collapse - all very necessary.
Excel support - the cleaner we can transition data from the grid to Excel, the better it is.
I guess I would say I want functionality AND looks. Any help will be appreciated!
Every information regarding the future of the Silverlight product line will be displayed in the official website. Other than that, you can ask in the SL XamWebGrid forum if you are interested in something in particular.
Nice response. Yes I guess we shall just have to try both of them.
Is there a roadmap for SL version so we know what might be coming up?
Hello,
There are more differences between Silverlight and WPF than it looks. One is more powerful than the other in one aspect, but in another it is the other way around. The choice between these two platforms comes down to what your application target will be.
One of the great advantages of Silverlight against WPF is that it requires only a small easy-to-download plug-in to run on the clients machine. WPF required specific version of the .NET Framework (3.5 in your case). Hoever, this does not seem to be a problem, as you are already developing your application on .NET 3.5.
As far as I know, in Silverlight 3, offline mode (Out of Browser) is supported and a Silverlight application can be used just like a normal desktop application, but I personally think that Silverlight is designed mainly for browser/online projects and WPF for desktop applications.
Regarding our WPF and Silverligth products. I think that both our Silverilght and WPF DataGrids have the looks and functionality that you require.
- Record Filtering - both SL and WPF data grids have filtering.
- Looks - WPF XamDataGrid has a dozen of built-in themes as well as the ability to create your own.
We ship the default xaml style for both SL and WPF controls so you can restyle them completely and keep the full functionality of the controls.
- Columns - Moving,Grouping,Fixing,Hiding are all supported features.
- Excel export - supported with both SL and WPF
- Printing - For now, only the WPF XamDataGrids support printing. The SL XamWebGrid currently does not support this. We encourage you to submit a feature request for this and give us your feedback on any new features/ new controls that you want to see in future releases. You can also ask in the SL XamWebGrid forum section for this.
Before making any decision, I would recommend downloading and installing the trial versions of the SL and WPF controls and going through the samples, which demonstrate basic as well as advanced functionality, demo applications. You can find the WPF samples in the XamFeatureBrowser, which is installed with our WPF product. The SL samples you can find offline with installation as well as online in our SL page here - "Samples Browser".
Let me know if you have any more questions on this.