Plan one NET project is a difficult and complex task, which needs to consider many aspects. At At the beginning of the development of. NET, some difficulties or restrictions encountered in the development process gradually evolved into the functional features of standard controls provided by Microsoft Visual Studio, and indeed helped many developers. With NET and commercial software development, standard controls can no longer meet the development needs, then you need third-party controls. This article discusses how to select appropriate cost-effective third-party controls for your applications and projects, and also gives our reference opinions and selection steps.
What is a control?
A component is a software module that supports reuse and can interact with other objects.
A control is a type of component. It provides a user interface, or a component with a user interface is a control. Common controls include table controls, chart controls, combo boxes, buttons, ribbon menus, tree controls, and so on.
A component is a control without a user interface.
What is a control package?
Control package is a commercial product developed by a third-party provider. It contains many controls, which are usually classified according to the technical platform, so that users can select and use them conveniently. For example, WinForms, ASP.NET, WPF or Windows Store.
To select the appropriate control
The six steps described below can help you or your company decide how to select the appropriate controls for your application.
1. Understand your interface requirements
Create a list for your user interface. It mainly includes items that cannot be easily realized through standard controls (such as schedules, auto docking labels, maps, etc.), or special requirements (such as displaying status icons in table controls). In addition, you must be very clear about what kind of appearance and skin you want (such as theme, custom style, or none).
In addition to the user interface, your requirements should also include functions (such as Excel export or print). In short, before you select a control, you'd better fully understand your needs, which will help you make a basic choice and determine a control package.
2. Evaluate whether the control's ability covers your needs through trial
After the initial selection is completed, the ability and function of the control will be evaluated. You can help you evaluate which provider's products and features are more suitable for your application by searching the network or consulting industry experts. Check and verify whether the selected control package can provide every function you need. A simple and effective way is to check the website of the control provider, which has a list of functions, and browse its deployed online demo and demo. In general, website content and online presentation are matched, and reference will have better effect.
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Component Suite One |
Component Suite Two |
Component Suite Three |
Drag Group |
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Multi month calendar |
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PDF Import Export |
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support XML data source |
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3. Evaluation cost
At this stage, you should have seen that purchasing controls is more cost-effective than developing them yourself. When you waste time to further evaluate or develop prototypes, you can eliminate another option through licensing strategy and price. This is a relatively simple task. Most third-party control providers provide competitive pricing and licensing models as well as free deployment licenses, so they all look similar. But in fact, when you go into specific details, it will be different. For example:
a) Is there any discount for purchasing multiple authorizations or team authorizations?
b) Do I need to purchase additional licenses for the server?
c) If my developer owns 2 computers, do I need to purchase 2 licenses for him?
d) What is the annual renewal price?
Most providers will offer discounts for multiple authorizations or team authorizations, which may not be easy to find on the website, so it is best to establish a good relationship with sales representatives. Usually, you can ask for multiple sets of discount information through online chat or telephone. For products with similar functions, price comparison is also important. Of course, sometimes you need to tell your boss that you have made a decision to save money. Of course, if the product features can meet your project better than other competitors, then the price does not matter.
4. Make a preliminary decision and narrow the selection range
At this point, you may have excluded some of the post selected products and have some preference for a certain product. If you still have time or resources, you can lock the range to two or three suppliers, or to one. Based on the previous evaluation on price and function, you may have found the best choice. If there are still some unresolved or uncertain problems in the previous evaluation process, you can also appropriately "deduct points" for the products you choose. In the next few things, you can be more sure of your choice and eliminate uncertainty. Of course, you can also go back to the beginning and choose products again.
5. Test and build prototype
If the previous steps go smoothly, now is the time to start. Most third-party control providers offer a 30 day free trial period. Use this time not only to evaluate products, but also to establish prototypes. It is better to use the real data of your company. If there are difficulties, at least establish data of the same structure and scale to simulate how to load the data on the interface.
At the same time, take advantage of this time to see how to use third-party controls to meet your needs. Most controls can complete the requirements and simplify your work by setting some properties, but in some cases, more coding may be required to fully match the business logic. Demo programs often highlight the functions of the product while ignoring some important details in the actual use cases. Therefore, prototyping is particularly important, which is the key before you confirm payment.
If the prototyping and testing work of the selected product cannot meet the requirements, you need to go back to step 2 and try other control products. Of course, if there is no problem in the test, you can basically draw a conclusion.
6. Make a final decision
There are also some matters that need to be considered before you finally decide to pay, including: documentation and technical support, scalability and reliability. Most of the control providers are overseas, and there are only dealers or agents in China. This will be insufficient in terms of Chinese documents, especially localization technical support. If the provider has a branch structure or professional support or even a research and development team in China, it will be more reassuring in terms of documentation and technical support.
Scalability indicates the compatibility of your products with future technologies. In other words, this is the potential of controls. If the scalability is good, it means that the products you buy can appreciate in the future. When considering this, we can refer to the following aspects:
Do the controls you need in the control package have corresponding products on different platforms?
Are controls based on or follow industry standards, such as HTML5, CSS3, jQuery, etc?
Does the control package support trend technologies, such as AngularJS, Knockout, MVVM mode, WinRT, etc?
Buying controls is actually an investment. What you need to consider is whether the products you buy are from excellent enterprises, whether there is a reliable team with long-term stability and development around the cycle. Emerging or small enterprises have relatively greater purchase risks. The simplest way to measure this is to see whether the product provider and team focus on the control field, and how long the history of providing products and services to control users is.
This article is from“ Grapevine Control Blog ”Blog, please keep this source http://powertoolsteam.blog.51cto.com/2369428/1344361
