fredy.wengerSwitzerlandover a year ago
We have searched for an add-on for a windows forms application for a large customer project.
The focus was on a fast grid with enhanced functionality, special gauge controls (like traffic lights and tachometer) and controls with a good look and feel in common.
We have bought DevExpress WinForms and were not disappointed…
The properties and events are not self-explaining / logical (for us) in every case, but we have found anything we needed (and that’s the most important).
The XtraGrid is really stunning (and alone worth the price):
- Very fast
- Very complete functionality (everything that is needed is built in)
- Usable also fully dynamic (serve from code) without problems (set a datatable or a list as datasource and format it in code)
- All needed events are there
=> We use it on almost every form in the application (query forms but also administration forms)
Also the text editor with masks saves a lot of time for plausibility checks.
The all-in-all look-and-feel (picture buttons, tab-control, checklistbox, and so on) behavior of the controls is an important success factor for the user acceptance.
=> There is a big difference between the look-and-feel of a standard windows forms application and a DevExpress powered window forms application…
Further, the DevExpress support staff are really stunning.
We have been developing for over 20 years - DevExpress is the best support ever.
In almost every case we had feedback in a few hours and the support don’t give up until a problem is solved.
We only wished we had bought earlier as we could have saved a lot of time with it and reached a better user acceptance with it.
oystein 
verified customerNorwayover 2 years ago Very satisfied both with support and the product. I like the fact that stylings is so easy and that all components follow the same style concept. Adds a lot to our products! I wish for more animation effects :-) Oystein
Anonymousover 2 years ago DXperience 2012 is a modern and advanced next generation set of developer tools from DevExpress, the company which has a proven record in offering productivity tools for Visual Studio developers.
ricwha verified customerUSAover 2 years ago
I have been working with their products for years. Many of the components are good. I really like the Vertical Grid, and Grid control
Something’s I was disappointed in.
Documentation. I have come across worse but generally speaking for what you pay they simply don’t understand how to write meaningful documentation. I probably ignore 50% to 70% of what is there because of the struggle to figure things out. Seems like the examples never match what I am looking for. I don’t care for the video example I want something I can look at and go over carefully or even print out so I can make notes.
Had to give up on the Ribbon control. It was so memory intense or something that I had to go with another one from another provider.
The Report Designer: So much promise but only half way there. Doesn’t let you see tables returned by functions and lacks parameters like other report products. If you’re into a lot of coding you can get past this, but for all the hype they should have at least been on a par with other report products in terms of functionality. This could really be something with a little more effort. (I should note the documentation here is a little better.) The Sample looks real nice if only…
drippinUSAover 2 years ago The numerous controls and features make the learning curve high if you are not familiar with the product. However, the help files, tutorials, demos, and website knowledge base, blogs and forums provide a substantial foundation for learning the product. I am very glad that I chose it.
ckorthUSAover 2 years ago I have been using the win form controls for many years and could not live without them. The grid is great and I use most of the other win controls exclusively on all my projects. For the winforms controls I would give it 5 stars and have always recommended the package to other developers
On the other hand I would rank the other aspects of the DXExperience as follows
DXexperience - 10 stars. Great product!
ASPexperience - 1 star. Simply atrocious and cannot keep VS2008 running when adding their controls to any form with a master page. Only control I found stable was the menu.
CodeRush - 3 stars. Worked great until VS2008. Now causes VS2008 to become sluggish. Also cannot seem to turn it on and off on the fly. Had to uninstall
RefactorPro - 3 stars. Same problem as CodeRush
xPressApp - 0 stars. Couldn't figure out what to use it for. Lacking sufficient documentation and ideas
All of my criticisms regarding this product probably stem for one significant fact about developer express. No matter how good your product is, if you can't adequately explain how to use it in your documentation, then you may as well hang it up. They have a long tradition of having the absolute worse documentation I have ever seen in a product that basically costs over a thousand dollars and then hundreds each year for the subscription renewal.
I applaud them for their frequent updates to their controls, but they need a complete overhaul of their documentation.
Some real world concepts would be great.
So with all these complaints why do I renew each year? (have been using the grid since it was a standalone in 2002)
Because the winform capabilites are so superior to anything else out there so it justifies the cost. And each year I send them an email complaining about their documentation along with my renewal. :-)
AbdurahmanSaudi Arabiaover 2 years ago I have spent about 6 months searching and testing many components. but, I did not find what I can say is as perfect, complete or fast a solution as Devexpress. Just one thing I dislike is that they don't support right to left RTL.
kwhite6USAover 2 years ago I have tried many of the component suites and DXperience is the best I have seen. The grid component alone will save you hours of coding time with its built in sorting capabilities. All of the components play nice together. My only complaint is that you sometimes have to dig to find exactly what some property or method does. Between the built-in help, web docs and the news groups I have always found the answer I need.
Anonymousover 2 years ago
I was initially flabbergasted at the massive quantity of controls included in the package and was very excited to begin using them in my Windows Forms and ASP.NET projects. However, once I had made my purchase and installed the product, I found myself struggling to figure out exactly how all these flashy gadgets worked. The Helpfile was all but useless as it lacked all but the most rudimentary examples for only a handful of the controls. The rest was dry, auto-generated help content that is completely useless. As another poster noted, their forum support is a bit slow and many times is as useless as the help file. Unless you're an absolute expert in .Net, you'd probably be better off starting with some other control suite.
cmehtaUSAover 2 years ago I give XtraReports software 5 out of 5. I found XtraReports very easy to use in creating complex reports. Support is great and the tutorials/demo are helpful. I have also played with creating run-time report which is easy to design.
Keep up the good work
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