Good ASP.NET with excellent mesh management?

Question

We are looking for a ASP.NET compatible data grid that allows multi-line editing like Excel or WinForms data grid. It should also support very simple keyboard input (tab, arrow keys, return). Please note that we are not looking for Excel features (functions, formatting, formulas) ... just a grid for quick data entry.

I looked at Telerik, Infragistics, ComponentOne, DevExpress and many others ... all of their support teams stated that the controls either do not support multi-line, or do it in such a clumsy way, to be unusable.

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

Answer 1

In the end, we used Sigma Grid ... thanks for all the other answers!

Answer 2

Today this does not exist. There are products like the ones you mentioned that you tried, but in my experience none of them will make an experienced Excel user happy.

My company is creating Excel compatible spreadsheet components for use with Windows Forms and ASP.NET. We asked this question for many years, so we, of course, considered it one, because it looks like a good business. But HTML / JavaScript is simply not the right platform for creating something that "feels right" for users who want it to work like Excel - IMO.

We focused on the idea of ​​building a spreadsheet management for Silverlight. I believe that this will give you the best of both worlds - an interactive spreadsheet with a cross-platform browser, which will be convenient for any Excel user. Unfortunately, this will not happen this month or next ...

In my previous company, we actually created the spreadsheet component as a Netscape plugin, as an ActiveX control, and as a Java applet. They had little success, but none of these technologies has ever become ubiquitous in the enterprise for various reasons. I believe that Microsoft will finally get through Silverlight and that Silverlight will become the gold standard for browser-based business applications.

EDIT:

I should have mentioned that the product mentioned above is Formula One / NET (Netscape Plugin released ~ 1995), Formula One / ActiveX and Formula One for Java, which Actuate now sells as e.Spreadsheet. I quit in 2002, but AFAIK they still support the Java applet, which is probably the best example of such an Excel as the user interface in the browser (I am no longer interested in this product - in fact, we are to some extent competing with e.Spreadsheet and intend to get a better answer with the Silverlight control in the future). I did not mention this by name in my original answer because it is a Java product and not a .NET product, but it is a potential answer even for an ASP.NET website.

Lloyd Cotten correctly comments that Google Docs is an example of a spreadsheet built using HTML / JavaScript. Lloyd says Google Docs "definitely" feels good "in its resemblance to Excel." Although I respect Lloyd’s opinion, in my experience, Google Docs doesn’t "feel good." Perhaps this is because I'm the guy from the spreadsheet. I know that we talk with potential customers almost every day, who try to solve the OP problem, and they all look and cannot find the one they are satisfied with - but, of course, they will not call us if they have this dealing with a biased model, and I understand that.

So I just want to make it clear that there are actually many examples of grids and HTML / JavaScript tables that can be used. It’s just that I don’t want to use them, because I expect some keys to do certain things and a certain level of responsiveness that I don’t have today, with any of the HTML / JavaScript solutions I tried (and I look at them regularly , because my company could definitely sell such a product, if it were possible to build one that we could be proud of).

Answer 3

How about Distributing FarPoint ? I am in the middle of evaluating FarPoint Spread for ASP.NET, and so far I have been pleased with the result.

Answer 4

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

Nitobi

Not sure if it does exactly what you want, although you definitely move with the arrow keys and edit inline ....

EDIT Also, Essential Objects has a good editor too ... seems to really like it ... http://demo.essentialobjects.com/Default.aspx?path=Grid_i1_i20

Answer 5

RealWorld Grid is probably what you are looking for. I use it in my projects and it works great.

Here is their CooglePlex Page

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

ps it looks like you're looking for meshes on the client side ... this is the server side. I will leave a comment there, someone may find this helpful.

Answer 6

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

Answer 7

I used Syncfusion components , and they are not bad, they can boast of an Excel-like editor, although I don’t see the description of the multi-line line.

Answer 8

Office Web Components may be available for intranet and IE users. In flight, in front of all things, there should be a good web application, they allow users to feel at home in the office on the Internet.

I had great success using pivot table management in conjunction with MS OLAP several years ago. The user liked it, and no wheels needed to be invented.

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 9

Excel Like GridView allows multi-line editing and navigation 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 that also supports pasting the values ​​of several cells from the clipboard.

Unfortunately, both currently only work in IE, but that meets my personal needs at the moment.

Answer 10

I think http://codethat.com/grid/ not bad!

Answer 11

dhtmlxGrid (client side, JavaScript grid) supports multi-line function ( demo ), keyboard navigation and comes with a server connector for ASP.NET. In case someone is still looking for such a grid. Disclosure: I am part of the DHTMLX team.