iGrid Control - History

At some time every Visual Basic developer creates an interface that displays tabular data. Sometimes the data can be editable. Users often want to manipulate these data - to implement sort and search, to group rows by categories, etc. Also, the rows of data aren't always stored in a database and may contain a lot of graphical information.

If you want to use one of the standard controls in such applications, you will find that neither MSFlexGrid (MSHFlexGrid) nor ListView from MS Common Controls in the report mode can provide you with the functionality described above to the full.

Our company was also confronted with such difficulties, and so we decided to create own grid control that woul allow us to implement the tasks described in the first paragraph. We didn't want to create a control that only automates all standard tasks (sort, search, etc) like XpressQuantumGrid. We wanted it so that the developer could influence these processes and adjust them in his own way.

In other words, we wanted to create a control that differs from other well-known grids in the same way that VC++ with WinAPI differs from pure VB. If you want to solve a common task such as browsing, sorting and grouping a database table or SQL query without any additional coding - XpressQuantumGrid or TrueDBGrid is very suitable for you. But if you want to create a tabular user interface with non-standard or customizable functionality, you face difficulties because you cannot interfere in the internal processes (for intance, you can't create additional threads of your application or enumerate desktop windows using standard VB controls).

We started to find source codes that can help us to implement our needs. We found an excellent Web-site - vbAccelerator. At this site you can find a lot of free source codes. vbAccelerator code and binaries are provided for your reuse in any of your projects, whether proprietary, commercial or open-source (read vbAccelerator Usage Policy).

One of the components of this site was S-Grid, but this control can only display (but not edit) data. We wanted to implement an editable control and include within it widespread built-in editors like singleline and multiline textboxes, comboboxes with icons and checkboxes. Moreover, these editors must be integrated with the displayed data into a single whole, and the developer must get a standard set of events which work identically for all built-in editors.

As a result, we have made the iGrid ActiveX Control which is widely used in our applications and in the applications of other developers. We have been working on this component since the year 2000, and are continuing to enhance its functionality. If you think that it is a very simple task to create such a control, you may download the source code of S-Grid, rectify all its bugs and implement in it a couple of built-in editors such as checkbox or combobox with icons. Those people who have remained with us can read about the general features and improvements that have been implemented in iGrid in comparison with S-Grid at this page.

As you can see, we are not afraid to mention the names of our competitors and give you a link to the source code of the far predecessor of our grid (i.e. S-Grid). First of all, we have done a huge amount of work, and are not afraid to sell it. Secondly, this is a distinctive rule of our company - customers should know the whole story about our work. We work honestly.