News

Infragistics Updates Ultimate Toolkit

• By John K. Waters
• October 28, 2014

Cross-platform UI toolmaker Infragistics Inc. has released an update of its Ultimate toolkit that includes new and expanded features aimed at developers building "Microsoft Office-inspired," touch-enabled, high-performance business apps. Infragistics Ultimate 14.2, available now, adds a WYSIWYG Page Designer, new data visualization and charting controls, and a Xamarin.Forms component.

Chief among the new features in this release is that Xamarin.Forms component, which resulted from a recently announced partnership with cross-platform specialist Xamarin that will allow developers to use Ultimate 14.2 to target iOS, Android, and Windows Phone with one shared code base written in C# and XAML.

"You can build highly immersive data visualization apps, high-performance grid apps, analytic apps, and line-of-business apps in C# and XAML, but with Xamarin.Forms you get the native iOS and Android experiences across every major platform," Jason Beres, SVP of Infragistics' Developer Tools group, told ADTmag.

Beres also pointed to the new Web-based WYSIWYG Page Designer, which the company developed for line-of-business Web apps built with its HTML5/jQuery controls. HTML and JavaScript code is generated by the company's Indigo Studio prototyping tool; that code can then be used at design time to finish the app.

This release also includes a new set of data visualization and charting controls for Windows Form enterprise app development. The company is calling its Windows Forms Data Chart "the most modern" on the market, thanks to its Motion Framework, which allows devs to animate data over time, create composite charts, and use multiple series.

The evolution of Infragistics' toolset is a response to changes in the software development process that have been bringing design into the app dev lifecycle much earlier, Beres said. "It used to be that the developers would write the app and then hand it to designers," he said. "But today, the message is, do a bunch of good design up front before we make any mistakes with the code. We really preach 'great UX up front' to deliver great experiences on your app."

And the demand for high quality user experiences is no longer just for consumer apps, Beres said. Enterprise users expect the same kinds of UX at work.

"I'd argue that the stakes are even higher in the enterprise," he said. "When the internal systems are polished and provide a great UX, you can attract talent to your company. And those employees will be more productive."

Cranbury, N.J.-based Infragistics makes desktop, Web, mobile native, and mobile hybrid UI toolsets, as well as design tools for rapid, interactive prototyping. Infragistics Ultimate 14.2 is provided on a subscription basis.