Senior Software Developer's Kendo UI Review
October 26, 2017
Senior Software Developer's Kendo UI Review
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Kendo UI
Kendo solved a significant problem for us. We use DotNetNuke as a CMS for our client's websites, but the focus is on data served outside of the normal data sources of DNN. Using the WebAPI engine of DNN, but the broad options of the Kendo UI controls, we have made numerous data displays and even entry portals that refresh in a smooth, timely fashion. Every site has evolved into a unique style so much that at first glance they don't even use the same controls, but they do. They work reliably across different platforms and browsers. The CSS is well structured and flexible. Support from Kendo is amazing. Few products have ever been as well documented as this. Using the Dojo environment, we tested every new implementation and can even throw a visual sample up in minutes for the sales process. A few lines of code and we can say, "Should it look like this?"
- The DataGrid is where we live and breathe. It always looks like it fits within site skinning and device experience. Formatting and templating mean that the data looks as it is desired to look.
- The DataSource binding to our WebAPI calls is a seamless pairing with the background engine. Nuget packages provided from Kendo complement that engine. Data is always clean and reliable.
- The full range of controls supplied means that we're not adding multiple frameworks to each page just to have all the tools required. A few lines of references to minified files and we have access to every tool we might need.
- The one thing that would make our tools function better for our clients is a row change event for auto update. We often cannot allow a partial row to write back inserts or updates. That's a difficult thing to ask for in the web environment, but it's something the users miss from the winforms days.
- More options for and document support.
- Page breaks on the grid for printing could be more smooth. That's an issue when exporting grid based data to pdf.
- Kendo has certainly added to our ROI on all our applications of it. Licensing is reasonable and well suited to our needs. Other tools we looked at would always result in some other provider being essentially the first paid before we returned anything on each install. Licensing is never cumbersome or at risk of shutting down a LOB app because of a technical glitch.
- Upgrading the framework when solutions are delivered on a module by module level was a nightmare before. Kendo allows us to upgrade client installs in a way profitable for us and affordable to our clients.
- Time to deliver viable solutions has been drastically shortened as we've used Kendo. We can test using their resources and deliver robust solutions with high confidence. We have been able to re-purpose code many times from deployment to deployment without a "from the box" look. This is how CSS is supposed to work.
- Google Charts and Xamarin
Kendo UI gives you a flexibility and reliability worth investing in. Many of those "free" frameworks might change and may require extensive manipulation. Some frameworks like Xamarin are limited to development in a narrow choice platforms or can only build for IOS with a Mac. Kendo fits anywhere HTML fits. It connects to standard web data sources, yet is still able to transform data as needed.