WebDesktop.NET 2.0

ASP.NET component libraries are in abundance for developers to choose from.

However, not all of them truly deliver something innovative and different. So,

this time when we came around this library of components from WebDesktop.NET for

enabling desktop functionality and responsiveness in ASP.NET web applications,

we checked it out according to the aspects mentioned above. You can initially

download a trial version for playing around and initial evaluation before you

buy a licensed version. Or still better read on to find out what we feel about

the components provided in WebDesktop.NET to even eliminate this hassle.

The components



The components in WebDesktop. NET are designed to provide a rich application
interface on Web that follows desktop-concept user interface. To start with, the

components very well reflect this design philosophy as you will find many

desktop like components here such as the 'WebExplorerPane' which, in fact is

like a Windows explorer for your Web application. Other such features are hybrid

menus, in-built taskbar etc. The most impressive of the lot is the

'WebDesktopManager' component, which gives a rich desktop on the fly. It has a

navigation system, shortcut icons, keyboard navigation, taskbar configurations

that are customizable, and many other similar options. So once you draw this

component to your page, all you need to do most of the time is play around with

configurable properties to get your work done.

The other one that caught our attention was 'WebNotification'. Quite easily

one of the first of this kind. WebNotification is closely integrated with

WebDesktopManager to enable you to develop a shell-level notification system

right into your Web applications. WebNotification allows specific server code to

be invoked asynchronously at specified interval and upon success condition, it

will display the assigned data and actions available in the context. With it,

you could develop extremely rich and responsive applications similar to Outlook

2003 or MSN Messenger.

Interface and responsiveness



Well, there is one feature that really gets these components going,

extensive AJAX capabilities built-in to them. As for better responsiveness you

can even put some logic down to the client side. And as we found out it is not

rocket science either. In general, the first step is to place the control in a

container of your choice, for example, the 'WebPaneManager' control. You then

configure the containing component to enable the specific client side

functionality you are looking for and then add Java-script code for implementing

this functionality on the client side. For example, to enable a splitter with

Collapse trigger on the client side, the code snippet enclosed in script tag is

as follows.

function Collapse_onclick()



{


var paneManager = ISGetObject("WebPaneManager1");


var pane = paneManager.GetPaneByName("Pane0");


var pairPane = paneManager.GetPaneByName("Pane01");


pane.Collapse(pairPane);


}

The logic for the Expand trigger looks as:

function Expand_onclick()



{


var paneManager = ISGetObject("WebPaneManager1");


var pane = paneManager.GetPaneByName("Pane0");


var pairPane = paneManager.GetPaneByName("Pane01");


pane.Expand(pairPane);


}

Overall, an impressive lot of components worth buying if you want a web-based

desktop-like interface.