Good ASP.NET excel-like Grid control?

Question

We are looking for an ASP.NET compatible data grid that allows for multi-line editing similar to Excel or a WinForms data grid. It must also support very basic keyboard input (tab, arrow keys, return). Note that we are not looking for Excel capabilities (functions, formatting, formulas) ... just a grid for fast data entry.

I've looked at Telerik, Infragistics, ComponentOne, DevExpress, and many others ... all their support teams have said that the controls either do not support multi-line, or do so in such a clunky way that it would be unusable.

Has anyone used any Excel-like grids that they can recommend? The client-side grids seemed closer to what we needed, with Sigma Widgets ( example ) being the closest I've found so far. Extjs's grid was too inflexible, and the jQuery grid was too buggy.

Answer 1

It does not exist today. There are products such as those you have mentioned which have tried, but in my experience none of them will make an experienced Excel user happy.

My company makes Excel compatible spreadsheet components for use with Windows Forms and ASP.NET. We have been getting this question for years, so we have of course considered building one because it looks like a good business. But HTML / JavaScript is just not a suitable platform for building something which "feels right" to users who want it to work like Excel - IMO.

We have settled on the idea of building a spreadsheet control for Silverlight. I believe this will give you the best of both worlds - cross platform rich interactive spreadsheet in the browser which any Excel user would be comfortable with. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen this month or next...

At my previous company, we actually built a spreadsheet component as a Netscape Plugin, as an ActiveX control and as a Java Applet. They had a little bit of success, but none of these technologies ever became ubiquitous in the enterprise for various reasons. I believe Microsoft is finally getting it right with Silverlight and that Silverlight will become the gold standard for browser based Line of Business applications in the Enterprise.

EDIT:

I should have mentioned that the product I alluded to above is Formula One / NET (Netscape Plugin released ~1995), Formula One / ActiveX and Formula One for Java - which is now sold by Actuate as e.Spreadsheet. I left in 2002, but AFAIK they still maintain the Java Applet which is probably the best example of an Excel like UI in the browser (I have no interest in the product any more - in fact we compete to some extent with e.Spreadsheet and intend to have a better answer with a Silverlight control in the future). I did not mention it by name in my original answer because it is a Java product - not a .NET product - but it is a potential answer even for an ASP.NET web site.

Lloyd Cotten correctly comments that Google Docs is an example of a spreadsheet built with HTML / JavaScript. Lloyd says Google Docs "definitely 'feels right' in its similarity to Excel". While I respect Lloyd's opinion, in my experience Google Docs does not 'feel right'. Perhaps this is because I'm a spreadsheet guy. I do know that we talk to potential customers almost every day who are trying to solve the problem of the OP, and they have all looked and cannot find one they are happy with - but of course they would not be calling us if they had so we are dealing with a biased sample and I understand that.

So I just want to clarify that there are in fact plenty of examples of HTML / JavaScript grids and spreadsheets which are usable. It's just that I don't want to have to use them because I expect certain keys to do certain things and a particular level of responsiveness which is just not there today with any of the HTML / JavaScript solutions I have tried (and I look at them regularly because my company could definitely sell such a product if it were feasible to build one that we could be proud of).

Answer 2

RealWorld Grid is probably what you are looking for. I'm using it in my projects, and it works perfectly.

Here's their CooglePlex page

I don't think it supports the arrow keys, but it makes multirow editing a breeze.

p.s. seems like you're looking for client-side grids ... this one is server-side. I'll leave the comment there, somebody might find it useful.

Answer 3

I have used the Infragistics grid with success. However, the learning curve is huge (and there's practically no support) and I don't know if there is multi-line editing.

Answer 4

I've used Syncfusion's components and they're quite good, they boast an "Excel-like" editor, though I didn't see multi-line mentioned.

Answer 5

Well.. not sure, but I am looking for something similar and I found:

Nitobi

Not sure if it does exactly what you want, although youcan definately move around with cursor keys, and edit inline....

EDIT Also Essential Objects have a good editor too... seems very like excel... http://demo.essentialobjects.com/Default.aspx?path=Grid_i1_i20

Answer 6

We ended up using Sigma Grid ... thanks for all the other replies!

Answer 7

For intranet and IE users Office Web components can be an option. While flying in the face of all things a good web application should be, they let users feel at home in office on the web.

I had great success using the pivot table control combined with MS OLAP a few years ago. User loved it and no wheels needed to be reinvented.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=982B0359-0A86-4FB2-A7EE-5F3A499515DD&displaylang=EN

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc164070.aspx

Answer 8

Some time ago when I worked on a project for my previous company I found a project in the Telerik code library section about how to have their grid always editable as an Excel sheet. I am linking it here for your reference:

http://www.telerik.com/community/code-library/aspnet-ajax/grid/excel-like-radgrid.aspx

Dick

Answer 9

How about FarPoint Spread? I'm in the middle on evaluating FarPoint Spread for ASP.NET, and so far I've been happy with the result.

Answer 10

Hi all,

http://www.aspboy.com/Categories/GridArticles/Excel_Like_GridView.aspx allows for multiline editing and navigating using the arrow keys, as well as resizing columns and rows.

http://darkroastjava.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/creating-an-excel-like-grid-for-asp-net/ is an extension of that which also supports pasting multi-cell values from the clipboard.

Unfortunately, both only work in IE so far, but that meets my needs at this point of time.