In the rich .NET ecosystem, it’s easy to get caught up in minute, feature-related details when user experience matters most to today’s users. Using Infragistics controls, developers can build groundbreaking user experiences and rich data visualizations that transform how end users interact with data. Its components are available across all .NET platforms, including Windows Forms, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), ASP.NET and Silverlight. It also offers comprehensive component suites as well as exciting new components for jQuery, Reporting, and Mobile for Windows Phone 7, iPhone and Android, some of which will be available later this year.
“The market has definitely changed,” said Jason Beres, VP of Product Management at Infragistics. “Increasingly, we’re finding that developers are not just interested in features. They want controls and tools that are easy to use and visually appealing. We’re having much broader conversations about user experience.”
Infragistics offers Windows Forms, WPF, ASP.NET and Silverlight controls for line-of-business applications that can be purchased individually or collectively as the NetAdvantage for .NET suite. NetAdvantage for .NET is particularly beneficial to software teams using more than one .NET platform simultaneously who do not require data visualization controls.
NetAdvantage Ultimate adds WPF Data Visualization and Silverlight Data Visualization controls to the Windows Forms, WPF, ASP.NET and Silverlight controls found in NetAdvantage for .NET. NetAdvantage Ultimate includes lightning-fast data grids across platforms and many other high-performance controls for building high-end business intelligence solutions.
“We’ve been innovating a lot on the Silverlight and WPF sides, and now we’re moving to mobile,” said Beres. “In Q2, we’ll have XAML Windows Phone 7 controls that use the same XAML and API we’ve been using for the last 18 months in our Silverlight and WPF products to provide a consistent UI across platforms.”
Because different platforms have different APIs, developers can take advantage of the nuances to improve application performance. Infragistics helps software teams embrace native platform details while moving effortlessly between them, including mobile platforms. What’s more, developers can achieve consistent user experience across platforms with a UI that delivers a common look and feel.
Later this year, Infragistics will ship an enhanced design time experience based on Infragistics’ WPF designer that will feature richer sets of WPF and Silverlight controls, as well as a number of enhancements that will speed and simplify development. Infragistics will also introduce NetAdvantage for jQuery, which will include jQuery controls, controls for ASP.NET MVC and eventually PHP wrappers.
“Web developers want a high-performance client-side user interface that delivers a rich user experience based on HTML5, CSS and JavaScript engines,” said Beres. “NetAdvantage for jQuery will target the large-scale public websites, browser-based apps for desktop deployment and Apple iPad apps.”
Beres said Infragistics’ superior performance, high quality focus and architecture allow developers to innovate in new and exciting ways with confidence. By using the online analytical processing (OLAP) pivot grids for data visualization and taking advantage of hundreds of controls, developers are building unusually creative solutions that solve real-world business problems, some of which include Microsoft Office-like experiences.
.NET developers building line-of-business applications often find they need functionality above and beyond what is provided natively in Visual Studio and Microsoft .NET controls. Although it’s possible to build static charts with 500 data notes, some are looking for real-time data feeds with 2 million nodes. According to Beres, the fact that Microsoft continues to add and enhance controls is a good thing for companies like Infragistics because they can focus on providing deeper value to customers.
“With Windows Forms or ASP.NET, it took many years for Microsoft and companies like Infragistics to build basic controls,” he said. “Now that these controls exist across platforms, we are able to focus on more complex, high-performance controls rather than dedicating the same development resources to a button, for example. We’d rather focus on bigger controls like Pivot Grids or Schedule controls.”
Data Visualization Transforms Healthcare
Web design and development firm New Age Solution used Infragistics’ Silverlight controls to develop a rich data visualization application that allows doctors and other authorized hospital staff members to identify patients and get instant access to information about them.
Henry Lee, president and founder of New Age Solution, said his company was trying to graphically display patient data over time. They considered building a timeline application, but were unable to justify the costs. Using NetAdvantage for Silverlight Data Visualization (and particularly the xamTimeline control), New Age Solution was able to build a business intelligence application that allowed its customer healthcare analysis, management and risk assessment provider MDI to dramatically improve hospital floor productivity and effectiveness. Specifically, the application translates complex health data, claims histories and treatments into a visual representation of a patient’s body, which is particularly helpful in time-sensitive, high-risk situations.
“Effectively managing large data sets and communicating key points clearly in an application can be a non-trivial design challenge,” said Beres. “We make it easy for developers to present information in a way non-technical users can understand.”
For more information about Infragistics’ components suites and individual components, visit www.infragistics.com.
