Hey, guys. Anyone have experience with DevExpress's WinForms suite? I'm considering purchasing the subscription. I've liked what I've seen so far in terms of API, especially versus Infragistics. I'm just curious how far it goes, and whether the functionality is there.

Thanks.

Jeff...

For what I use, it works as expected. I'm not that big of a fan of their colorful designers, but that's more a personal taste I think

After working for a while with Syncfusion I switched to Devex and have had good success with their stuff. My partner used Infragistics for a long time and I turned him on to Devex and he has now sworn off Infragistics.

Thanks, guys.

They renamed the suite to DXperience.... but it's a pretty cool suite to work with. In my experience though, al lot of things change quite frequenltly (monthly updates) and those updates are not always an improvement.

We work a lot with the XtraReports module and it seems like we're always doing 2 steps forward and one step back in bugs and functionality, and that sucks a bit....but on the other hand, their support is pretty ok and quick.

grtz, Danny

DvK wrote:

They renamed the suite to DXperience.... but it's a pretty cool suite to work with. In my experience though, al lot of things change quite frequenltly (monthly updates) and those updates are not always an improvement.

We work a lot with the XtraReports module and it seems like we're always doing 2 steps forward and one step back in bugs and functionality, and that sucks a bit....but on the other hand, their support is pretty ok and quick.

grtz, Danny

Hey, that's exactly my experience

I also most use XtraReports. XtraLayout is a really powerfull component, that I'm starting to use more and more.

I also agree with Frans, that their components are a bit 'to' colorful.

I don't use their other controls, because I'm working with Infragistics (I know that's not the best one, but I'm using it only for winforms and there they're good enough, for me)

Monthly updates, huh? Sounds like they're not very well tested. You say they make breaking changes with each release?

Just a quick question: does the reports module have a royalty free end-user report designer like ActiveReports?

Jeff...

does the reports module have a royalty free end-user report designer like ActiveReports?

Yes, also there was another thread talking specifically about these two products (I'm too lazy to find it, though).

Those monthly updates are not "only" bugfixes...they add new features all the time...and at least, they fix things quickly. And yes their reports module has a royalty free designer where your "experienced" end-users can build their own reports, and that's pretty cool.

I think DevExpress is on the right path with their productline for future developing. They even have a OR-mapper....but that's way to simple compared to LLBLGen.

grtz, Danny

BertS wrote:

DvK wrote:

They renamed the suite to DXperience.... but it's a pretty cool suite to work with. In my experience though, al lot of things change quite frequenltly (monthly updates) and those updates are not always an improvement.

We work a lot with the XtraReports module and it seems like we're always doing 2 steps forward and one step back in bugs and functionality, and that sucks a bit....but on the other hand, their support is pretty ok and quick.

grtz, Danny

Hey, that's exactly my experience

I also most use XtraReports. XtraLayout is a really powerfull component, that I'm starting to use more and more.

I also agree with Frans, that their components are a bit 'to' colorful.

I don't use their other controls, because I'm working with Infragistics (I know that's not the best one, but I'm using it only for winforms and there they're good enough, for me)

Hey, that's "nice" to hear that you share the same experience. How do like the improved DXperience suite ?

DvK wrote:

Hey, that's "nice" to hear that you share the same experience. How do like the improved DXperience suite ?

I like DXperience because it's easier to maintain installations. That is: for me, because I only bought Reports and LayoutControl, so, now I've a single installer which does its thing very well. Furthermore i don't see any improvements.

OK, are you also using PivotGrids in reports ? And HTML-reports on the web ? That's exactly the combination that sucks a bit....

DvK wrote:

OK, are you also using PivotGrids in reports ? And HTML-reports on the web ? That's exactly the combination that sucks a bit....

I don't use PivotGrids. For a small project I used HTML-reports, which were pretty straight-forward. I didn't have any problems with that, but you must be sure that controls don't overlap each other. But therefore they have that nice property (don't know the name right now, but it is on report level and says something about html I mean) that warns you for that.

I've tested Infragistics and Component One and I believe that DexEx has them beat "hands-down". The DexEx Grid Component design is much better implemented than either of the other two.

My 2 cents.

Jeff

I have subs to both Infragistics and DevEx. I only use Infragistics now for their charting, but will probably drop them completely once DevEx releases their next version of Charting Components.

There are two primary reasons I like DevEx. Firstly, their support is great: If you can reproduce a bug, they'll do their best to fix it right away and supply the fix in an interim release! That sort of service is SO rare in this business. With Infragistics...if you've got a major issue..."to bad"...you'll have to wait until they're good-and-ready to release something (which is often several months!)

Secondly, they DO make a lot of changes as mentioned above...and releases come fast. But they are usually in response to feature requests directly from developers. I'd much rather have the option to upgrade and get the (maybe less stable) new features, than to have no options at all. Remember...if the release you're using is stable and fits your needs, you don't have to update.

One last thing...if you're active on the DevEx message board, you can have a noticable impact on the development of new features...I was recently involved in the LayoutControl beta and it was easy to get features into the first release that I really needed. They are a great company like that.

FWIW, Rob

rblinton wrote:

I have subs to both Infragistics and DevEx. I only use Infragistics now for their charting, but will probably drop them completely once DevEx releases their next version of Charting Components.

There are two primary reasons I like DevEx. Firstly, their support is great: If you can reproduce a bug, they'll do their best to fix it right away and supply the fix in an interim release! That sort of service is SO rare in this business. With Infragistics...if you've got a major issue..."to bad"...you'll have to wait until they're good-and-ready to release something (which is often several months!)

Secondly, they DO make a lot of changes as mentioned above...and releases come fast. But they are usually in response to feature requests directly from developers. I'd much rather have the option to upgrade and get the (maybe less stable) new features, than to have no options at all. Remember...if the release you're using is stable and fits your needs, you don't have to update.

One last thing...if you're active on the DevEx message board, you can have a noticable impact on the development of new features...I was recently involved in the LayoutControl beta and it was easy to get features into the first release that I really needed. They are a great company like that.

FWIW, Rob

Good input, thanks.