Review: DXperience Enterprise

DXperience Enterprise, $1,299.99 first year, $499.99 renewal
Developer Express
Las Vegas, Nevada
(702) 262-0609
http://www.devexpress.com/Products/NET/Subscription/

DXperience Enterprise is Developer Express's top of the line package - a 12-month subscription to everything they make in the .NET universe. This gives you a rather mind-boggling set of components:

• WinForms
  • XtraGrid grid control (My review)
  • XtraEditors field editors
  • XtraBars menu/toolbar/sidebar components
  • XtraPivotGrid multi-dimensional analysis component (My review)
  • XtraScheduler calendering UI (My review)
  • XtraTreeList combined treeview and list
  • XtraVerticalGrid inverted grid control
  • XtraCharts charting and graphing system
  • XtraLayoutControl for runtime UI customization
  • XtraNavBar navigation bar control
  • XtraReports reporting suite
  • XPO Object/Relational Mapper
• ASP.NET
  • XtraCharts charting and graphing system
  • XtraReports reporting suite
  • AspxGrid and Editors library
  • AspxNavigation menu and navigation bar component
  • XPO Object/Relational Mapper
• ActiveX
  • Quantum Grid
  • Quantum TreeList
  • Xpress Editors Library
  • Xpress Inspector vertical grid
  • Xpress Sidebar Outlook-style bar
  • Xpress Printing System for rendering the other controls
• IDE tools
  • CodeRush VS developer productivity add-in
  • Refactor! refactoring tool (My review)

I've looked at several of the individual packages here in the past, and I use CodeRush and Refactor on a daily basis; I rate the quality of Developer Express products very highly in general. For DXperience, they've put together a new installer that does a very slick job of managing things. You download a single (85MB) executable, then put in your account information. It calls back to their Web service (there's an alternative way to authenticate if you're disconnected) and then installs everything you've paid for in one unified run. This is vastly easier than dealing with a hodgepodge of setup applications (though CodeRush, Refactor, and the ActiveX pieces remain in separate installs at the moment). Developer Express also issues frequent updates, which are available online to subscribers, and they're good about making beta versions available early. Subscriptions even include full C# source code for all the controls, which is a nice insurance policy against anything happening to the company in the future.

Everything comes with good help files, sample projects, and demos. Subscriptions also include priority technical support. If you don't need the ActiveX or IDE products, or source code, you can go for the lower-priced DXperience Professional subscription at $799.99 for the first year and $299.99 renewal.

Of course, a purchase of this magnitude isn't to be entered on lightly. But if you're been thinking about CodeRush and Refactor based on the buzz they've gotten, and a couple of the controls look good to you, then you need to give serious consideration to the package deal. For a one-time investment, and a reasonable annual renewal, you're going to get the pieces to do some very spiffy user interfaces indeed.

Mike Gunderloy is the lead developer for Larkware and author of numerous books and articles on programming topics.

Published March 22, 2006