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Telerik Refreshes Tools and Component Products
Telerik this week announced the release of several updated tools and products, as part of its Q3 2010 refresh. Included in the update are fresh iterations of Telerik's RadControls component suites, WebUI Studio test tooling, OpenAccess ORM data tools and Telerik Reporting.
"Q3 represents something of a punctuation mark on a year that has been marked by expanding to really address all aspects of application development," said Telerik Chief Evangelist Todd Anglin. "From planning all the way to QA testing and release, Telerik now has a toolbox for that."
Notably, Telerik also released a community technology preview of RadControls for Windows Phone 7, a Metro UI-compliant toolkit of 12 controls for Microsoft's mobile platform. Telerik hopes to release a beta version of the controls by the end of November. Anglin singled out Windows Phone 7 as a "big opportunity" for Telerik, and said that the company will be aggressive in extending support to the platform.
"Looking into next year, as some of our focus moves past the toolbox approach, [the plan] is to add data visualization opportunities for the phone," Anglin said.
Among existing component products, the new version of RadControls for Silverlight was optimized for improved performance with large datasets. The Q3 2010 release also adds several new Silverlight controls.
Test and Report
Also improved with the Q3 release is Telerik WebUI Test Studio, which Telerik acquired in 2009 with its purchase of ArtofTest. The latest version of WebUI Test Studio QA Edition adds test scheduling and remote execution, and allows test results to be aggregated in a common repository for viewing from the desktop. The product also extends browser support to Chrome and Internet Explorer 9.
On the reporting side, Telerik Reporting features increased transparency and flexibility, with XML-based report definitions that can be accessed as standalone files. A new Silverlight 4-based report engine includes print functionality, said Anglin, while the Cube DataSource streamlines creation of reports and multi-dimensional data views.
Anglin singled out improvements to Telerik OpenAccess ORM, which includes a LINQ to SQL (L2S) Converter for rapid conversions of existing data models. He said that developers confronted by the complexity of Entity Framework should welcome OpenAccess ORM as a simple alternative for shops moving off LINQ to SQL.
"There are two problems. LINQ to SQL has a lot of limits in that it was always meant to be a simple technology. And second, Microsoft has, for lack of a better word, killed LINQ to SQL for Entity Framework," Anglin said.
In addition to the expected beta release of Telerik RadControls for Windows Phone 7, the company later this month plans to update its TeamPulse agile and project management tool. The new version of TeamPulse will add Team Foundation Server (TFS) sync and new idea management features, according Telerik.
About the Author
Michael Desmond is an editor and writer for 1105 Media's Enterprise Computing Group.