NetAdvantage for .NET 2007 Volume 1 Released!

Today marks the latest release of our comprehensive .NET suite, NetAdvantage for .NET.  There's a ton of juicy goodness packed into this release.  Some of the new features have already been blogged about (AppStylist for ASP.NET, Excel Copy & Paste, Conditional Formatting), and those just scratch the surface.  You can get an overview of the new features in the .NET suite, and from there you can drill into the details of all the new stuff in each product in the suite (that's NetAdvantage for ASP.NET, NetAdvantage for Windows Forms, and NetAdvantage AppStylist for anyone who's counting!).  Not to take away from all the other awesome new features, but I think the new application styling and AppStylist for ASP.NET is just plain RAD (yes, there is a double meaning in that).

New Community Site!

One of the things my group, User Experience Group (UXG), has been working on is our new community site (community.infragistics.com).  This is our first release of the site, and it is only the beginning of what we've got planned to help our customers and to provide a forum for you guys to get published yourself if you like.  We have videos, articles, and scenario solutions now; we'll be adding more of those as well as podcasts, exemplars (a.k.a., reference applications), and other guidance materials going forward in order to help you be as successful as possible.

 

Community Events

Where are we?  What are we doing?  Do we care?  The answer to all three of these can be found at one of the features of the community site--our new community events calendar--though the answer to the last is ABSOLUTELY (I can tell you that without looking).  On this calendar, we'll be listing the events that we're participating in either through sponsorship or speaking, and the best part for you is that you can request sponsorship or request a speaker for your events.  We're always looking for new ways to sponsor the community.  And if you're going to be at one of the events and you'd like to connect, feel free to let us know. 

Scenario Solutions

Another cool feature of the site is our new scenario solution section.  In this section, we've identified a number of common scenarios that developers face, and we provide short little recipes for how you can solve them using Infragistics tools.  As with all of the site, we'll be building this out as time goes along, but if you have a specific issue you're facing, please feel free to suggest that we cover it.  You can use that same form to suggest any other content you'd like us to publish or to suggest something that you'd like to publish with us.

New Site Selector

You may have noticed we just added a new site selector to the top of our various sites.  This is intended to help you get around and know where you are when visiting Infragistics sites.  It's also a great way to GO HOME when you're anywhere within a particular site.

Quick Start

The UXG has also been working with our product teams to improve your experience, particularly with the installation and start menu in Windows.  With 2007 Volume 1, we have a Quick Start guide to help you get up and going, learn more, and get help with NetAdvantage.  It's launched when you finish the install, but you can launch it any time from the start menu.  It covers topics such as finding samples, registering (why & how), working with the VS toolbox, a sampling of our solution scenarios, and more.  To supplement it, we've also added some Getting Started content on our community site; if you prefer a guided tour, check that out.

So, if you haven't already, go download NetAdvantage for .NET 2007 Volume 1 to check out all the new features, including these user experience improvements we've been working on for ya.  And as always, if you have suggestions on how we could improve your experience, please let us know--we're all ears!