What 3rd party asp.net controls or libraries can you not live without?

Question

Working on a project right now and I have a few must have controls that I include in most sites I build. Often times it strikes me that the best controls are not always that well publicized so I thought I would ask the SO community about their favorite 3rd party asp.net controls - the ones you just have to have on a project because they are so valuable.

EDIT:

Some people have asked for clarification and the controls that I include

First, I am not talking about just UI controls but libraries as well, a few people have mentioned log4net which falls into this category.

For me, there is one 3rd party control package which I find to be masterfully done and an incredible value for the money - it is Peter Blum's Data Entry Suite. As Scott Hanselman says, it is a "complete re-imagining of the ASP.NET Validation framework" and it is loaded with controls for rich interaction with data entry forms.

Outside of that, I am really digging JQuery lately but like most of the answers so far also use the ASP.NET Ajax Control Toolkit in many places.

Answer 1

None. I can quite happliy live without all third-party controls.

Answer 2

ASP.NET AJAX toolkit.

I can live without it, but it makes some things easier.

Answer 3

I dont think one really needs to have third party controls if he or she has mastered .NET pretty well. Of course, it is good to have.

Answer 4

I have a few must have controls that I include in most sites I build

You should have listed them...

For me, I've not come across any that I'd consider "must have" in every project I'd build.

Answer 5

As a rule, I try to avoid, or at the very least minimize, any dependencies on third party components as much as possible. The idea is that I want to simplify deployment of the application as much as possible (although X-Copy deployment goes a long way towards that), and also, I want to avoid the possibility that the vendors of any 3rd party components will (1) go out of business which might cause them to (2) cease support for the component, or (3) alter the component in any way that might result in a radical change to the architecture, design, or code of our system.

If I didn't write the component, it's outside of my control. That means that any defects or design flaws it contains are outside of my control. Call me a control freak. I can deal with that. But if a 3rd party component is added to my software because it has "glitz", and that "glitz" introduces defects or flaws that I then have to write software to shield the rest of the system from, I've now got to maintain "shielding code" at additional cost and time.

If I don't NEED it, I don't add it.

That is, of course, my opinion, and your mileage my vary. :)

Answer 6

ASP.NET AJAX is, at this point, a "must have." I also depend on the javascript word processor provided by Telerik, the reporting tools from ceTe (DynamicPDF), and the Scheduling, Charting, PivotGrid and Grid controls from DevExpress.

I run a company where I am the lone developer. I manage an actively growing web product with about 45K in total C# code as well as three older Delphi apps with well over 200K lines of code. I have no illusions about being able to build everything from scratch to compete with much larger companies so third-party tools are essential.

Answer 7

Generally, I prefer to avoid dependencies whenever possible. However, there are a couple of 3rd party libraries which usually end up being used on nearly all projects:

• ASP.NET AJAX Toolkit
• Log4net

On many projects, I'm also using some internal libraries (compiled separately and referenced by the project). These are for data access, configuration management, and utility functionality.

The Telerik controls are really good as well for use on ASP.NET projects, though again, only added into the project if they are actually going to be used.

Answer 8

I use the AJAX control toolkit and Telerik's ASP.NET AJAX controls on almost every project. They save me loads of time and you can get the source for both.

Answer 9

The only third-party controls I've used is ASP.Net Ajax though I wouldn't slot that as third party. I avoid using third-party controls in web based projects.

Answer 10

There are very few 3rd party controls that I would say I religiously use, as I tend to write all my own controls.

However, there are a few that are a pain to reproduce, especially those that graphically display data such as Dundas' Charting and Guage tools. I'm not strong at graphics, so these tools are invaluable when it comes to these aspects of development.

Answer 11

The only 3rd party controls I really use a lot is FCKEditor and the asp.net Ajax Control Toolkit.

I've used ReCaptcha before, but wouldn't say I can't live without it.

Eventually I think I might use a 3rd party library to access Amazon S3.

Answer 12

ASP.NET Ajax controls
asp:chart supplement to ASP.NET 3.5 (Scott Gutheries blog here)
log4net
Nunit