I’ve been on the lookout for a good AJAX DataGrid component for some time now, hoping to find one that I can add to my bag of tricks. Most data-driven web applications need to show data in a table or grid at some point or another. There are quite a few for .NET programming, but if you just want the JavaScript to plug into your app, there are not as many choices.
Writing a flexible and powerful AJAX DataGrid is a complicated task and, speaking for myself, not one that most developers will want to tackle. Using a 3rd party component makes a lot of sense. However the commercial vendors of AJAX DataGrids out there are charging ridiculous amounts for licensing. I’m sure these prices will come down to Earth as more open source options become available.
The most promising open source DataGrid I’ve found is the Rico LiveGrid at www.openrico.org. But from what I can tell, it’s a read-only display of data. I could be wrong about that, but I haven’t seen any example code to show edit capability with LiveGrid.
The most most impressive commercial DataGrid in my opinion is the nitobi Grid at www.nitobi.com but it’s not exactly cheap. If anyone knows of any other options out there and/or has a preference for one of these, please leave some feedback. I’d be interested to read some other opinions.
| Name |
Active Widgets Grid |
Zapatec Grid |
nitobi Grid V3 |
dhtmlxGrid |
| URL |
visit… |
visit… |
visit… |
visit… |
| License |
| Type |
Commercial |
Commercial |
Commercial |
GPL, Commercial |
| Per Seat Cost |
$395.00 |
NA |
$489.00 |
$149.00 |
| Per Server Cost |
NA |
$59.00 |
NA |
NA |
| Unlimited Server Cost |
$2,450.00 |
$799.00 |
NA |
NA |
| Distribute w/ My App Cost |
NA |
$1,199.00 |
NA |
NA |
| Source Included |
Yes |
Yes |
Only with $3,699 Enterprise Edition |
Yes |
| Trial Download |
Yes |
NA |
Yes |
NA |
| Free Version |
No |
Yes, “Lite” |
No |
Yes, GPL |
| Free/Trial Version Limitations |
Honor System? |
Link required, Non-removable “About” button in grid |
Reg. Required, 30 Day Limitation |
Feature Limitations |
| Technical |
| Browsers |
IE6+ FireFox (Safari TBA 2006) |
? |
IE 6+, FireFox 1+, Camino 1.3+ |
IE5+, FireFox 0.9+, Safari 1.3+ |
| How Data Loaded |
JS Array, CSV, XML |
HTML, XML, JSON |
XML, JS API |
|
| Features |
| JIT Rendering (Scroll) |
Yes |
No, but has “Slider” pagination control |
Yes |
Pro Version Only |
| Edit In Place |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Input Controls |
? |
Yes |
Yes |
Pro Version Only |
| Sortable Rows |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Resize Columns |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| Frozen Columns |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Notes |
Includes various user controls like sliders, buttons, etc. |
Charts feature for customized output display |
Copy/Paste multiple cells, to-from Excel. |
Interesting “TreeView” Grid |
Terminology:
JIT Rendering: “Just in Time” rendering is the ability to show part of your data and load more dynamically as you scroll down.
Edit in Place: The ability to click on a cell and edit the data with no page reload
Input Controls: The ability to use drop-downs, checkboxes, etc when editing in place.
Frozen Columns: The ability to allow scrolling through your records but keep a column or row “frozen” as you can in Excel.
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