Third-party Controls
After examining the available RAD tools, we settled on a set of AJAX-based controls from Telerik (www.telerik.com). While many existing web-enabled applications suffer from the limitations on HTTP protocol, Telerik's suite enabled xWorkForce.com to overcome that major hurdle, too.
XWorkForce.com 2.0 reconstruction began with the implementation of a number of Telerik's controls, which provided codeless AJAX enabling for the application, including:
- r.a.d.grid, which is designed to provide a desktop-like user experience with minimum footprint. This let us implement virtual scrolling capabilities and support for self-referencing hierarchies.
- r.a.d.menu, which let us build lightweight, search-engine friendly menu systems.
- r.a.d.panel with r.a.d.tree, which we used in xWorkForce.com's collapsible side-menu systems and Outlook-type panels. The tree control enabled full drag-and-drop capabilities between nodes.
- r.a.d.upload, a file-upload component that lets xWorkForce.com users upload single and multiple files to the application with minimal drag on server memory and application performance.
- r.a.d.toolbar, which mimics desktop toolbars, letting us implement the tool and button strips needed by most web applications.
- r.a.d.ajax, a click-and-go technology that eliminated the need to make any modifications to the application. r.a.d.ajax can make selected controls on the page perform AJAX callbacks instead of traditional postbacks.
Telerik's controls helped us to achieve the elusive, rich web-application look and feel that we missed in version 1.0. The controls also provided a built-in framework for AJAX-enabled objects, reducing the amount of time we needed to spend on exposing our business logic to AJAX. Telerik's r.a.d.grid (see Figure 1) picks up where most grids leave off, and its support for asynchronous processing is easy to use. All in all, the controls integrated seamlessly with one another and provided xWorkForce.com with the Outlook-style, data-driven navigation that we envisioned for xWorkForce.com from its inception.
Platform and browser independence was also critical, given xWorkForce.com's target audience of lawyers, accountants, IT consultants, marketing contractors, and other hourly professionals. Creating versions for platforms ranging from Linux to Macintosh was not an option. Fortunately, Telerik's controls support multiple browsers and platforms—and with some minor tweaking within xWorkForce.com—means the hosted application can be used from any computer with Internet access.
Still, the biggest benefit we realized was a shortened development cycle. Component-based development let us focus our main efforts on business processes and implementation, rather than having to build the features we required into each product. As Telerik's controls are updated, so are the components within xWorkForce.com. The result is an application that is always up-to-date, delivering the latest tools and features without downtime or impeding the customer experience.
As a result of fully embracing AJAX and Telerik's a.ja.x.controls, xWorkForce.com 2.0 looks and feels like a fat-client application. The UI and overall navigation functionality has been embraced by xWorkForce.com customers. Entering time and expenses is efficient, and managing customers, projects, and resources straightforward. We were also able to streamline performance by chunking requested data into the browser as opposed to refreshing the entire page.
