In-Depth
ComponentOne Releases Studio Enterprise 2007 v2
Visual Studio-focused tools vendor ComponentOne LLC released the latest version of its flagship product, Studio Enterprise 2007 v2, on July 26. The major new feature in this release of the drag-and-drop tools suite for Windows, Web, mobile and ASP.NET AJAX applications is a dialog control for use in the development of interactive ASP.NET Web apps. The control, WebDialog for ASP.NET, is designed to help developers create flexible and interactive models, as well as modeless dialog windows for Web applications. A developer can use WebDialog to create a control on the client or server side to display information or Web content, and to receive input from the end user via input controls (such as ComponentOne's own WebInput for ASP.NET).
Along with the WebDialog control, the v2 release adds support for Office 2007 styling in a number of components, among them Ribbon for .NET and FlexGrid for .NET, according to the company.
Studio Enterprise is a 200-plus set of visual components aimed at extending Visual Studio 2005 and targeting all layers of development, including data, presentation, reporting and transformation. ComponentOne was among the first toolmakers to support ASP.NET AJAX with a server-side component, which the company released late last year.
The company is targeting Microsoft's next-gen technologies as well. A component set for Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), "Schedule for WPF," is now in beta. Grid and charting toolsets for WPF are in the works. ComponentOne, along with competitors such as Telerik Inc. and Infragistics Inc., has also announced plans to develop tools for Silverlight, Microsoft's new cross-platform browser plug-in for rich Internet applications.
The firm also recently announced a partnership with Planet Small Business, a Columbus, Ohio-based provider of Web-hosting services and Web site-building solutions based on Microsoft's ASP.NET 2.0 and SQL Server 2005. Planet customers will now have free access to components from ComponentOne's Studio Enterprise. These controls consist of dynamic reporting tools, including the WebReports designer and associated runtime controls.
Planet Small Business focuses on technologies from Microsoft, including ASP, ASP.NET and SQL Server 2005, but also supports open source technologies, such as PHP, PERL and MySQL.
Though not as well known as ComponentOne, the company has set up a diverse range of software packages within its environment, including Wordpress, DotNetNuke, ASP.NET 2.0 PayPal Starter Kit, ASP.NET 2.0 Personal Starter Kit, ASP.NET 2.0 Classified Starter Kit, OS Commerce and MOD X, among others.
About the Author
John K. Waters is the editor in chief of a number of Converge360.com sites, with a focus on high-end development, AI and future tech. He's been writing about cutting-edge technologies and culture of Silicon Valley for more than two decades, and he's written more than a dozen books. He also co-scripted the documentary film Silicon Valley: A 100 Year Renaissance, which aired on PBS. He can be reached at [email protected].