Review: XtraGrid Suite v3

XtraGrid Suite 3.0.1, $299.99 without source code/$399.99 with source code
Developer Express
Las Vegas, Nevada
(702) 262-0609  
http://www.devexpress.com/Products/NET/XtraGrid/

If you buy a copy of Visual Studio .NET, you get everything you need to build Windows user interfaces. But those interfaces will stick to standard boring controls, with little or no flashiness. While there's a lot to be said for this approach, many people want more, and that's where third-party user interface suites come in. Developer Express has just released a new major version of their suite, centered on the almost-too-flexible XtraGrid, and I spent a while this afternoon playing with it. If you're looking to build up a custom interface on a Windows Forms application, you can probably do it with this beast - though you'd better be prepared to spend some time on the learning curve. The sheer number of controls and properties available in the suite is simply overwhelming.

At the heart of the suite, of course, is the grid: XtraGrid. Like the rest of these controls, it's written in 100% managed C# code, and you can buy the source along with the control. This is nice insurance against anything happening to the vendor, though realistically I don't think most shops will make use of the source. You can do darned near anything rectangular with this grid: banded reports, Outlook 2003-style grouping, columns that can be rearranged with the mouse, filtering, sorting, bound, unbound, you name it. There's a big pile of editors (date pickers, spinners, masked edit controls, and so on) that you can embed in cells in the grid. Pretty much every visual aspect is under your complete control, from alpha blending to background images to taking over any bit of rendering with owner-draw code. You get hierarchical data display, you get the ability to mix grids with individual records displayed on rectangular "cards", and you get amazing design-time support. The little movie below flips through just a few of the screens in their demo application to give you a sense of what this grid can do. Overall, it's pretty impressive.

Along with the grid and the editors, the suite contains a bunch of other useful controls. Splitters, scroll bars, a tab control, an image list box, and various other odds and ends help you persist the "Xtras" look and feel across the rest of your forms, outside of the grids. There's even an XtraForm control to impose consistent look-and-feel across an entire application. Along with the controls, you get some tutorial information, demo applications, and a very well-written help file. There are two different versions of the library: one for VS .NET 2003, and one for the Beta 2 version of VS 2005, so you're covered if you've decided to take advantage of the "Go Live" licensing.

I've been pretty happy with the various Developer Express products I've used. But as with any user interface component, you have to exercise some caution before diving into something like XtraGrid. The question is whether the increased flashiness and functionality is worth moving away from the standard familiar Windows controls in terms of user training and comfort level - and whether you're willing to invest the time to become productive with the new controls. If you're convinced that you've got a good reason for wanting to move to a non-standard grid, I think this is one of the best. There's a trial download if you'd like to experiment with it yourself.

  Click for larger screenshot

  Click for animated movie (1017 KB GIF made with DemoCharge 2005)

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