Infragistics ToolKit

Infragistics creates intrinsic user interface (UI) development tools and third party components for a broad range of developer applications across diverse platforms. In addition to creating enterprise level tools and components for web, desktop and mobile, the firm also provides design tools for rapid interactive prototyping, developer testing tools, user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) training and consulting services.
One key characteristic of products from Infragistics is that they assist developers in constructing UI, which serves as a base for line of business apps that require core data visualization features and analytics. The top product categories offered by the company include desktop controls for Winforms and WPF, web controls for ASP.net, ASP.net MVC projects, JavaScript / HTML 5 and Silverlight components. Infragistics also offers mobile controls for iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Android platforms. The test automation tools offered by the company include Windows Forms for IBM RFT and Windows Forms for HP UFT.
Indigo Studio is a productivity toolkit designed by the company for rapid prototyping and is aimed at promoting simple design principles vital to the software development process. Also available from Infragistics is Shareplus, a tool which you can use to analyze data on SharePoint and create a dashboard for mobile workspaces. SharePlus comes bundled with an API which gives developers the ability to access and display SharePoint® information either in online or offline mode.

Features and Product Options
For developers building Windows based desktop apps, Infragistics provides scores of controls that give users the ability to build stylish user interfaces for their apps.
Developers working on web apps can also have access to an extensive number of controls with touch enabled features. ASP.NET controls provided by Infragistics include grids, interactions, layouts, charts, lists and menus. Also available are dozens of Silverlight controls and components.
In addition, Infragistics offers HTML 5/jQuery components such as grids for flat data display, hierarchical tree-lists and even support for multi-dimensional OLAP data. Infragistics claims that it has the fastest HTML5/JavaScript grid on the market and that the grid can be bound to a variety of data sources which include JSON , XML , Net collections and even .Net DataTables.
Popular libraries like AngularJS and KnockoutJS can be used with the HTML5 grid and you can perform standard data editing, sorting filtering, grouping , paging and load on demand with this grid. Another exciting component is the HTML5 Chart control which includes bar, line, bubble, polar, radial area, range, step, spline, scatter line, OHLC and candlestick charts, as well as technical indicators. The control also offers touch support, so you can use pinch gestures to zoom in and out of charting elements.

Ease of Use
Quite a number of developers have positive things to say about third party controls from Infragistics and this is largely due to the design, variety and functionalities that comes bundled with the components. Installing Infragistics components is relatively easy and straightforward. You have the option of using an offline or online installer which guides you through the installation process with a wizard as seen in the screenshots below. (Note: The Infragistics Ultimate installer package bundles together all the controls with the exception of iOS and Android controls.)

Fig 1.0 : Infragistics Offline Installer: Setup Page

Fig 2.0 : Infragistics Offline Installer: Setup Page for ASP.Net Components.

However, some users indicate that the controls can be a bit too heavy for lightweight windows applications and you might have to deploy too many assemblies for a small app. 

While simply using out of the box features for the controls is pretty straightforward, newbies in web based software development (especially ASP.NET/C# ) who are using these controls might have one or two speed bumps when they are trying to do something fancy.

Support and Documentation

Users have provided positive reviews about support from Infragistics.  Infragistics provides API documentation and developers’ guides, which are available for searching and browsing online. You can use these tutorials and walkthroughs for basic development tasks and also as a step-by-step guide on how to use the third party components and controls from within the Visual Studio® design-time environment. The documentation includes API reference material for classes, methods, properties, events and enumerations in the user interface controls and underlying framework.

Also Infragistics is one of those companies that publishes online its service schedule, meaning you can have access to specific information about upgrades and software release dates which is a good thing.

For developers who want something that is not readily available or advanced you might need to do a lot of online and external research. Some users who require complex functionalities have complained that the examples provided show only the obvious and that you can’t access to advanced help documentation.

Also a word of caution when you are upgrading your current version of controls/components. After upgrades, users have reported that some features might stop working or change default values of properties.

Licensing

Infragistics  provides users with a free trial for any current product or components. You would need to have an account on Infragistics’ website to obtain a free trial for any Infragistics product. Creating an account is free and after account creation, you can select the specific product you would like to download.

Developers can purchase a single license for each complete product package (Infragistics Ultimate or Infragistics Professional) or purchase individual products as required. Also, users who buy additional licenses can enjoy the following discount rates:

• 2-5 Licenses: 10% discount
• 6-10 Licenses: 15% discount
• 11+ Licenses: 15% discount

Note that the license fee includes an annual subscription to the purchased product and the subscription includes all updates, new features and new releases, service releases and support for one year. It also comes with source code for the .NET UI controls & components. Users are however required to renew subscriptions on an annual basis to continue receiving and enjoying these benefits.