I'm trying to find the API documentation for UltraCombos. Like everyone else, I immediately turn to Google...
Infragistics Ultracombo api
Nope, nothing. Ok, lets try...
Infragistics Ultrawincombo
Nope, just forum hits. Ok, lets do this the old fashioned way, go to the page, click on API reference. The list of items does not contain UltraWinCombo. Ok, I know it's part of the Grid space, or something like that, so I click there. Nothing there either.
I give up, where's it hidden? And why doesn't Google find it. You need to fix that if you're going to do all your documentation online!
Hi Maury,
Thanks for the feedback. In the meantime, let me show you how you can find what you are looking for quickly:
1. I will use the 9.2 NetAdvantage Windows Forms help for this example:
http://help.infragistics.com/NetAdvantage/WinForms/2009.2/CLR2.0/
2. In the Table of Contents (TOC), locate and expand the following nodes:
Developer's Guide / Controls
In the Controls section, you can find the Combo controls (WinCombo, WinComboEditor, WinDropDown)
3. Each control's TOC entry will have an API Overview topic. The purpose of the topic is to provide you with a link to the namespace(s) that contains the key classes related to that control. Click on the API Overview topic for WinCombo:
http://help.infragistics.com/Help/NetAdvantage/WinForms/2009.2/CLR2.0/html/WinCombo_API_Overview.html
4. From this point on, you can navigate the namespace or jump directly to the UltraCombo class and drill down into the object model.
Once you start getting familiar with the object model of the various controls and components, you can always jump directly to the API Reference Guide which exists at the root of the TOC and locate the classes from there.
Hello,
Not to pile on here, but I am a new Infragistics user as well and I have to say that navigating the help is very diffiecult and non intuitive. I was expecting MDSN type documentation where I type in UltraWinGrid class and there is all of the help laid out nice and neat. Instead you have to learn to navigate down a help hierarchy (which I didn't know at first). In the example above, it took 3 steps for a knowledgeable user to get to the jumping off point to answer the original question. That's 3 steps too many.
The other thing is that the data types don't match the help. After a while, you figure out that an UltraCombo is really a WinCombo in the documentation. At the least, you should have that as a big note at the top of the controls links page. Again, very unintuitive.
I always turn to Google first, but all I can ever find is posts into the forums. That's useful some times, but I would prefer if the API documentation came up as the first hit. I'm guessing that Google can't crawl the site properly?
I did eventually find the MSDN style documentation for which I was looking. I keyed UltraGridColumn class into the Search and the class was near the top of the returned list. Selecting that took me right too it. However, to find it in the contents, I had to navigate through API Reference Guide, Infragistics.Win.UltraWinGrid, Infragistics.Win.UltraWinGrid Namespace, Classes, and finally UltraGridColumn. In other words, if I hadn't searched for and found it, finding it otherwise would have been looking like for a needle in a haystack. Would it be possible to add an Index search along with the Contents and Search options. That would have taken me directly to it.