When I first began developing web applications, it was with .net 4.0, gridviews, formviews and the Microsoft Ajaxtoolkit. Since I was learning on the job, Google was my first resource when stuck on a problem and I would consistently come across unhelpful articles for RadGrid and other Telerik tools.
Now, I have Telerik ASP.NET AJAX controls at my disposal, purchased for the current web application I’m building and I’m finding them to be such an amazing resource.
Being able to quickly build something like the RadPivotGrid from scratch is an empowering experience. In some circles I’ve seen the Telerik tools get a bad rap for being buggy or heavy unnecessary code, but as a part-time developer they are quite amazing. These two screenshots show grids of information that took less than a day to build.
Writing code for all these features based on the Ajax GridMenu would have been horrible and taken a drastically long time.
The Telerik support and forums are fantastic as well. A couple of times I’ve had an issue trying to build something and submitted a support ticket. I had a response a few hours later, and it actually was a helpful response!
Overall, if you’re a web developer and are building ASP.NET applications, check out the Telerik tools, they’re worth the investment.