What WPF Datagrid controls are worth the money and/or effort?

Question

Looking for a good WPF Datagrid. I'm currently doing a "survey" of my available options. However, that survey is not going great.

Edit Yes, I'm aware of many of the actual possibilities for WPF datagrids - but what I'm looking for is people who have used one or more to chime in lessons learned from real-world usage.

So infragistics has a free one, MS released one with the WPFToolkit, XCeed has a WPF Datagrid.

Each seems to have it's pros and cons, but without super hard specs, it's hard to nail down what I actually need in a grid. Knowing that, what I'm looking for is

1. The WPF/XAML Way. The incredible support for MVVM and great databinding has changed how I do apps quickly. The great support with "lookless" controls and styling lets me use the design/develop workflow. I need a grid that doesn't short-circut this in the name of API design.

2. API Design - should be clear to the people maintaining this after me

3. Easy to deploy and develop. I'd prefer not to have to manually install lots of components to develop, and create an installer for our xcopy-able application.

Anyone have testimonials or horror stories? Things to look out for or hidden gotchas that find you a month later?

Answer 1

Hmm, interesting question. I've tried Xceed's datagrid. It works quite good. Unfortunately I don't know much about alternatives. It seems that Xceed's grid is the best solution currently.

Answer 2

There are several grids available from various sources, some free and some commerical. WPF is still a new technology and so these products are going to develop quite rapidly over the coming months. I would therefore evaluate what is available again in another 6 months.

Xceed

Telerik

Infragistics

DevExpress

ComponentOne

Answer 3

I have tested all the major DataGrids from the commercial control vendors. But now the WPF ToolKit (Codeplex) is the best for me as a WPF developer. This needs .NET3.5 SP1 You can get almost all the Grid features to implement an EXCEL sheet kinda interface(Which I think is the major use case for a DatGrid). Because of its opensource nature you will get lot of supports and comments from the entire WPF community.

UPDATE: .NET 4.0 added DataGrid control

Answer 4

I see you mention that Microsoft included a datagrid in the WPFTookit, but they also just released an official datagrid in .Net 3.5 SP1. If you can require .Net 3.5 SP1 for your customers then you may want to consider that as well since then you would need no extra deployment or have to worry about external support.

Answer 5

I am not sure how beneficial a WPF Datagrid is. I started with Xceed's and Infragistic's free version, but ended up using ListView instead. For me ListView was a lightweight solution with no vendor api to learn. I have toyed around with Telerik's datagrid and must say I still prefer Listview. I am sure there is a case for Datagrids but in WPF their need is greatly reduced. Perhaps the datagrids very existence in WPF is detrimental to the environment, considering it allows developers a no brain UI solution rather then fostering an environment of innovative UI. Having said that if I were to buy a datagrid I would choose Telerik, because of their license control free distributable.

Answer 6

A lot of misinformation going on here.

• First of all, .NET 3.5 SP1 does not include a DataGrid. The only Microsoft DataGrid for WPF is still being developped and is available as a CTP (preview) on Codeplex.

• Second, what separates a DataGrid from a ListView, for starters, is the ability to edit data. So if a ListView does the job for you, of course you don't need a DataGrid. If you try to shoehorn editing into a ListView, you'll be wasting your precious time developing it and trying to get it to work properly.

• Third, there are one free two free ones, one from Xceed (that also has a Professional Edition that isn't free) and the other from Infragistics (that also has a full version too).

• Fourth, Telerik is not the only one with unlimited, royalty-free distribution. All component vendors, to my knowledge, offer this. We at Xceed certainly do.

• Fifth, there are over 8000 posts about Xceed's DataGrid on our forums, so I'm not so sure Microsoft's datagrid has a more active community around it.

• As for DataGrids being beneficial or not because they bring an existing, proven concept to WPF, and aren't innovative, I beg to differ. In August's v3 release of Xceed DataGrid for WPF, we've added the first 3D view to a DataGrid, and are bringing all the DataGrid's power to other modern views and UI paradigms. The Surface team will hopefully be showcasing some of these new types of views at PDC 2008. Why have new views but lose all the power you used to have with DataGrids? Get the best of both worlds. Grouping, Master/Detail, Sorting, Data Virtualization -- all these concepts from DataGrids are often useful in new contexts as well.

• Also, for the person that said to watch out for the next 6 months as DataGrids are going to be evolving quite rapidly in the next 6 months, perhaps you are right about that for some DataGrids (those new beta or just released ones from the competition), with such fresh products, of course they will have a lot of evolving and catching up to do. Xceed's will soon be two years old on the market, has undergone 7 major releases already, and about 20 updates in total. It's the most widely adopted and most mature product on the market. That won't change in the next 6 months...

• Finally, for the poster of the original question, yes, the best 3rd party DataGrids answer all three of your needs: 1) The WPF/XAML way, 2) Good API design, 3) Xcopy deployable (easy to prove, since datagrids like Xceed are demoed as XBAPs).

As for testimonials, check out Xceed's new advertisement in the November 2008 issue of MSDN magazine. I think you'll be impressed with the testimonials presented. Or, come by our exhibit booth solely for the DataGrid at PDC 2008.

Answer 7

My experiences with WPF Grids FWIW.

I started with Infragistics since we already owned the suite. As I dug in on a new project, I had issues with how they create their own "concepts" rather than following the WPF way. They did this in the WinForm space but I was ok with that because what they were adding was value. I was spending way too much time navigating the documentation and trying to grock and map the concepts in my brain. I created several working prototypes and hit issues that could not be resolved by their technical support without ugly hacks. I was less than satisfied.

I then tried the Microsoft CodePlex grid. It was nice but I really needed grouping capabilities. It didn't support it and trying to add that basic feature was just not something anyone should have to do.

Lastly, I tried the Xceed grid. I immediately understood the concepts and had my prototype working in a day. It had all the features I needed. Now, I must say I have hit some snags with trying use a pure MVVM model. I recently was not able using binding to change the visibility of entire columns without resorting to using statics and singletons. (Yuck) Their Technical support did confirm that this was the only way to do it as columns definitions are not frameworkelements and have no binding context. So far, that the only problem I have encountered. That was my first experience with the technical support staff and my problem was addressed quickly and to my satisfaction.

I hope this helps.

Answer 8

Noticed this thread, I happen to be converting some code from Telerik to Xceed for some reasons. Here is my comparison. The only thing that I would say is that Telerik is better with minor features. See more here: Telerik vs Xceed