July 2008 Newsletter


Telerik Announces Landmark Q2 2008 Release






One-stop Shop for Superior .NET User Interface Solutions
The big event is already a fact! On July 24, we officially released the Q2 2008 version of our RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX, RadControls for WinForms, and Telerik Reporting, adding new controls and optimizations in performance and stability across all product lines. But that's not all! With Q2, Telerik introduced two brand new suites - RadControls for WPF and RadControls for Silverlight 2 Beta, characterized by the same Telerik quality you've come to expect from us. To top it off, we launched two new valuable training resources for accelerated learning of all Telerik products - Telerik Trainer and Telerik TV.
You can tell we've been busy during the last couple of months! And because so much has happened during this release, and we don't want you to miss important news, here is a brief summary of all the goodies you can enjoy in Q2:
New Technologies and Products:
The key advantage of the new RadControls for WPF and RadControls for Silverlight 2 Beta comes from the fact that the controls for the two platforms are derived from the same codebase and share the same API, which is completely in-line with Microsoft's approach, and ensures reusability and significantly decreased learning periods.
RadControls for WPF
RadControls for WPF are engineered for great performance through lightning fast databinding and smart use of UI and data virtualization. The controls are truly lookless and Expression Blend-stylable, and ship with ready-to-use themes which allows for easy reskinning with a single property. The WPF suite is a natural addition to our portfolio, as Telerik was the first component vendor to add unique WPF-like effects to its Windows Forms suite, back in the days when the WPF technology was in the early stage of development.
RadControls for WPF features 10 controls for building high-performing desktop applications with stunning visual interactivity, including RadGridView, RadCarousel, RadTreeView, etc. You can also check out the early preview build of RadChart, RadGauge, and RadScheduler for WPF. Stay tuned for more news!
See more information on RadControls for WPF
RadControls for Silverlight 2 Beta
Our new Silverlight suite is a comprehensive set of 17 controls bringing style and interactivity to any LOB application. The components are fully stylable through Expression Blend, thus eliminating the need for learning a new styling application. Just as in RadControls for WPF, the great performance of the components is guaranteed by the smart use of UI and data virtualization. Plus, the built-in Load-On-Demand mechanism allows for significant performance gains when working with heavy data. The controls are also fully interoperable with ASP.NET AJAX, which allows you to add Silverlight functionality to existing ASP.NET AJAX websites without requiring major project rewrites.
See more information on RadControls for Silverlight
New Training Resources:
You should know by now that when it comes to technical and educational support, Telerik is uncompromising and you can expect nothing less than first-class support from us. Now, to further facilitate and accelerate your learning of Telerik products, we've launched two new educational resources - Telerik Trainer, an interactive multimedia tool combining video training and hands-on coding to create a unique training experience, and Telerik TV, an online library of showcase videos focusing on real applications built with Telerik's development tools.
Performance and Stability Optimizations:
The Q2 release brings great new additions and optimizations across all product lines.
RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX
The Q2 version of our flagship suite introduces a brand new RadRotator component that offers great client-side control and cross browser support. Also in the release are further enhancements in RadGrid, RadScheduler, RadComboBox, RadUpload, and RadTreeView for greater performance and stability. All other controls in the ASP.NET AJAX collection feature important upgrades and optimizations, reinforcing the suite's position as the preferred and most comprehensive toolset for building rich web applications.
See more information on RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX
RadControls for WinForms
RadControls for WinForms Q2 2008 offers even more advanced rich application development tools, as well as significant optimizations in performance and stability, and extended support for large-scale applications. The Q2 version features a new Multi-Column ComboBox and ApplicationMenu, in addition to major improvements in the Carousel, Grid, Form, Menu and Label controls. In line with the official release of our WPF suite, RadControls for WinForms bridge the learning gap between the Windows Forms and WPF technologies by incorporating spectacular effects like animations, rotation, and transparency in the familiar and mature Windows Forms technology.
See more information on RadControls for WinForms
Telerik Reporting
Q2 is also an important release for Telerik's intuitive and easy-to-use tool for data presentation. Telerik Reporting Q2 2008 offers several high-level improvements that will facilitate the development of large business projects. Among the major additions to Telerik Reporting are: Barcode Item, Checkbox Item, Project Upgrade Wizard to help migrate existing projects to newer Telerik versions, updated report convertors, and support for ASP.NET AJAX.
See more information on Telerik Reporting
Enjoy the new release and look forward to even more existing news in the upcoming months!
Back to top
New Telerik Skin Exchange Program






For all of you out there who've made wonderful skins for our ASP.NET AJAX components, and are dying to show them off, we are happy to launch the Telerik Skin Exchange Program - a new platform for exchange of home-grown skins for Telerik ASP.NET AJAX components. Apart from getting kudos from fellow Telerik clients for your beautiful skins, you'll also have a chance to help us build up a useful new resource for the whole Telerik community.
As usual, your efforts will not go unrewarded - we are giving up to 30,000 Telerik points for each product skin published, and all skins posted prior to September 1 will automatically enter a community-vote competition for an Xbox 360 and free RadControls subscription licenses. A big thanks in advance to all participants!
Share your skins now! 
Back to top
Visual Style Builder Survey






Our Windows Forms controls users are already familiar with the Visual Style Builder (VSB) - our productivity tool allowing, among other things, easy, point-and-click customization of components skins, eliminating the need to get acquainted with the front-end structure of the components. We are starting a major rehaul of WinForms VSB, and will soon begin developing a brand new VSB application for our ASP.NET AJAX controls. Both applications should greatly improve the user experience with skinning Telerik controls, and speed up the development of skins across several components.
Of course, we invite you to share your feedback and tell us what you would like to see in the two VSB applications. We have set up a short survey and are asking for your opinion on how to make the applications better and more useful to you. Your feedback will be greatly appreciated and will help us design a user-friendly tool with the right set of features.
As usual, there will be Telerik points for all who take the survey. If you really want to have a say in the design of the Visual Style Builder, please sign up at the end of the survey for our focus group program. We will bring together a small group of customers to evaluate the design of the application even before we start programming it. This is your chance to influence the direction of the project.
Please take the survey here 
Back to top
Free Webinar on RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX for Download






On June 26, our Chief Technical Evangelist Todd Anglin hosted a webinar on Telerik's RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX, which is now available for free download. The webinar, attended by more than 600 visitors, was a huge success, and if you missed the live presentation, this is your chance to see it again. Titled, "Understanding the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX", the webcast is a great guide for gaining deeper knowledge of Telerik's powerful RadControls, and learning how they can be used to build modern, high performance web applications leveraging the features built into Microsoft's ASP.NET AJAX and .NET 3.5 frameworks. For RadControls newbies, the webinar is a perfect introduction to Telerik's tools for ASP.NET. For Telerik's loyal customers, the webcast will offer great tips and tricks that will be helpful in your daily development.
Download the webcast today! 
Back to top
Telerik Reporting Contest Winners Announced






Telerik Reporting Challenge has come to an end and we would like to thank all of you who participated with interesting and unique applications. Also, a big thank you to the 400 people who voted for the best Reporting application!
It is our utmost pleasure to announce the lucky Big Prize Winners of the community vote award - this time we have 2 first place winners, who received an equal amount of points (1020)! Congratulations to David Hyde from Snizyx Software and Joaquim Ferreira from XKudos who each won $500 Amazon gift coupons! The Big Prize which was originally announced ($1000 Amazon gift coupon) was divided between the two first place winners. Congratulations to all winners!
Read submitted case studies 
Back to top
Silverlight Controls Builder Contest






If you are building customs controls for Silverlight 2, you have a chance to win all of Telerik's components for free! All you have to do is enter the brand new Silverlight Controls Builder Contest and submit your best custom Silverlight 2 control by August 11. If you are ranked in the top 3 by the judges, you will win some great prizes including Telerik's RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX, RadControls for WinForms, Telerik Reporting, and RadControls for Silverlight.
Enter the contest and good luck! 
Back to top
See Our New Print Ad Campaign






Tell us what's on your mind! You have a chance to be the first to preview our new print ad campaign and share your comments with us. Please visit the newly-created marketing blog and see what's been cooking in our creative labs. You can comment on our print ads for RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX, WinForms, and WPF, as well as Telerik Reporting. Look forward to the live ads in your favorite magazine!
Preview and comment on print ads now 
Back to top
Tips and Tricks






RadControls for WinForms
Designing your RadCarousel with just drag-and-drop
RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX
Setting special days or time slots in RadScheduler
Telerik Reporting
Converting Reports from various versions of Crystal Reports 
Back to top