Can JQuery build DevExpress-like UI

Question

I tried to use DevExpress's Controls in one of my projects for its smart and elegant UI interface. When I use normal html or asp controls, one of my page size is around 400KB at the client side. Using devexpress makes the size of that page around 1.2MB, which is almost 4 times the previous version, and I used only 3 round panels and a Date Edit.

This project was intended to be used in my country, where people's browsing speed is usually 8-16kbps (kilo BIT per sec., of course :( ). So using devexpress in that page makes it really troublesome for the users to load that page.

I heard that using jquery it is possible to build UI that is almost as same as DevExpress's Controls, but it will generate far less client-side code.

Is it possible? If it is, then which JQuery plug-in should I use ?

Answer 1

I think you need to take a look at jQuery UI. It will enable you to create a very lightweight and sleek interface, very easily; a single page will certainly not come close to a 1.2Mb download (provided that you are sensible :).

As a starting point, I would recommend checking out the demos. You can customise your build to include only those widgets that you need (you mentioned a Date Edit, I don't know DevExpress, but my guess is that Datepicker probably does the same thing). You can create a theme online using the fantastic and world-famous ThemeRoller App to be used with those widgets. Furthermore, you can include those libraries (jQuery and jQueryUI) directly from google's CDN, which should speed things up in terms of caching and parallelism (among numerous other advantages). Hope that helps.

Answer 2

For a grid, you can check out Trirand's jqGrid for ASP.NET - based on jQuery and ThemeRoller

http://www.trirand.net/demo.aspx