Anybody using eXontrol ActiveX controls for developments?

[PPLandry]

I've been using eXontrol controls for InfoQube, specifically the exG2antt (Grid-Gantt) for many years. It is full featured and affordable.

http://www.exontrol.com
http://www.exontrol.com/exg2antt.jsp

Are you satisfied of:
- the products
- the service

In the past, I would get first class service, and bugs were quickly fixed. The last 2 years have unfortunately been a totally different experience. Bugs are not fixed, the developer, Mihai, is implementing lots of stuff like transparencies, skins and other "visuals", but neglecting more basic stuff.

My biggest grief, is that many features advertised on their web site are simply not implemented. Worst, some are implemented in the demo but not in the released products. 

Email exchange with him indicates that it will be 6-12 months before the features advertised on the web site are implemented. In my 20+ years of consulting / software designer, I've never seen such an "interesting" way of doing business.

Needless to say, the relationship has turned a bit sour lately... I'm a very patient and perseverant person, but there are limits. Some features were advertised 12 months ago... and still not implemented (histogram is one example, but there are many more)

Comments anyone?

[vizacc]

hi,
you could do two things:

option A
buy sources codes and fix problems yourself or...


option B
do like what we did, we made our own treeview from scratch...
of course, you would need solid funding, experts and lots of help to make your own grid.


How is your InfoQube going?

We went different route and buy rights to last remaining licensees who owned libraries used by Ecco-pro, hired experts to write treeview. Deployed R&D tie-up with the local University here.

[MarkMark]

Hi

Our experience the Exontrols is quite different.
Like you we have the eXG2antt control.

and have really good email support, in fact we had a new version last week due to a  problem I was having.

Also the histogram is there, as I can view the demo!

Plus the help files are 10/10

Demos could be a bit more detailed though.

All in all
I am very happy with them.

Mark

[PPLandry]

Hi MarkMark (single poster...)

I'm glad to hear this (do you have a web site where I can see your product?).

Did you get a special version from them? The last official version includes documentation for many features that are not implemented. I know for fact that the last version does not have a functional histogram (I use the unicode activeX)...

What is puzzling about how this company works, is they seem to have many newer versions completed, but they don't release them. 1 year ago, I was sent a private version, with the mention to hold onto it, as it would be a while before the official versions would reach this private one. It sure was, 1 year later and 12 official versions later (1 per month approx), it is still behind this "private version".

I use numerous other components, and have never seen this way of doing. It seems to be way more work, than simply keeping 1 version. The only reason I can see for this, is the lucrative licence renewals... but ethically, especially considering that the web site promises features not implemented in the official version, ethically, this is not "clean"... IMHO of course.

That said, their products are technically excellent, top of their class