With the release of Outlook 97, Microsoft ® introduced an entirely new way in which to deliver information to endusers within a grid. Component vendors such as DevExpress then released components which allowed developers to build Windows® and ASP.NET applications that mimicked the capabilities of Outlook 97’s grid. Over the last 10+ years, countless individuals have come to rely on the grouping/sorting/summary computation capabilities of this new grid metaphor on the Windows and ASP.NET platforms.

The Power of an Outlook® Style Grid

The real strength of the Outlook style grid lies in its ability to organize information for the end-user and report on that information in an effective manner. In a traditional 2D grid, a user would not have the luxury to analyze the information displayed on screen. Assume for a moment that a grid is used to display sales information. Old style 2D grids do not allow the user to group sales information by region and to better understand the data being presented to them. But when using an Outlook style grid, the user is free to group and summarize information by any column…giving them the productivity tools needed to get their job done instantly without generating complex sales reports.

Size Matters

The UI power available in an Outlook ® Style grid, however, comes at a cost. That cost is dataset size. Large datasets in an ASP.NET application impact the usability of the application. When it comes to this modern grid UI, users will invariably want to analyze information and they will rarely understand why a grid performs well with a 100 records and fails with 100,000 records.

Compromise is Not the Answer – the ASPxGridView™ Is

Outlook style grids are extremely powerful but this power can only be realized if the grid control can consume data effectively. If this is not true…if the grid should only be used to display limited datasets, then why bother using an Outlook style grid? Said differently, whether a grid displays 1 record or a million, the server should respond instantly and give the enduser the means with which to operate his business without unwanted roadblocks and performance hurdles.

Let the Database Server Do What it Does Best

No matter how well one designs a data processing engine, it will never do its job well if one fails to recognize that database specific operations ought to be executed on the database server. No matter how ingenious the algorithms – no matter how brilliant the technology…if the grid is forced to manage data itself, you can bet that a large dataset will eventually bring the web server to its knees and make the application totally unusable.

Enough with Crippling Limitations

The new ASPxGridView by DevExpress confronts the limitations we’ve outlined head-on and has been engineered to free you from the hassles you otherwise would be forced to workaround.

Instead of reading the entire dataset from the data server and then managing data within the grid on the client, the ASPxGridView simply displays data that has already been grouped or sorted on the data server. This is possible because of our smart query engine. If you have 100,000 records in your data source and want to display 10 records on the page, the grid will need to download only 10 records rather than the 100,000 records required with each postback or callback when using competing grid controls. This means that with the ASPxGridView, what was once simply impossible with competing grids (but entirely needed by end-users) can now be easily accomplished.

To learn more about the ASPxGridView and to download a free trial version, visit Developer Express online at: www.devexpress.com/superfast or email us at info@devexpress.com

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