Xceed Ultimate ListBox for Silverlight behaves the way a listbox should! And thanks to an API designed to allow it to fit into any project using the stock Silverlight listbox, you'll be up and running in no time. But it gives you so much more than that standard control! (See it in action, online.)

Xceed's Silverlight listbox is the only one to deliver a pioneering background remote data retrieval engine, the same one that powers Xceed's Silverlight grid control. The engine makes remote data access feel fast by only getting records currently visible in the viewport (data virtualization), or those immediately preceding or following the current ones (active/passive pre-fetching) so they are ready when the end-user scrolls, which greatly reduces the amount of data transferred, making remote data access feel fast. Background (asynchronous) retrieval keeps the UI responsive, always. And all this happens automatically!

Powerful grouping that includes sticky headers makes data easier to handle. An innovative group navigation control lets end-users go quickly to the item they're looking for. A search box further helps users by giving them access to the filtering capabilities you define. And smooth scrolling and insert/delete animations can increase perceived performance by masking network lag when the listbox is waiting for slow data sources. All this helps you create an incredible, fluid UI experience.

Xceed’s Silverlight listbox also supports multiple views (a traditional vertical-scrolling list and a horizontal version, as well as "path" views). Six beautiful themes let the listbox match the style of your application, whatever it may be. And the listbox provides fully configurable drag-and-drop operations.

The product comes with full documentation that fully integrates into Visual Studio for quick access. It also provides C# and VB.NET sample applications that make getting started with it easy.

Version 1.1 of Xceed’s Silverlight datagrid has also been released. This version features sticky group headers and footers. It also adds sticky column capabilities. These additions will allow end-users to better work with their data. The datagrid also now supports export to Excel (asynchronous/synchronous) using the xmlss format, which is compatible with Excel, as well as with the Microsoft Office Web Components Spreadsheet Component, and asynchronous/synchronous comma-separated value format (CSV) export, which is compatible with a wide variety of applications. And two new themes, called Metro Light and Metro Dark, provide a bold new look and a customizable accent color that lets designers adapt the themes to their company’s colors, for example. Finally, performance has been increased with multiple data-changing operations.

Xceed DataGrid for Silverlight is like no other Silverlight datagrid, providing a lightning-fast experience, even with remote data. Typically, Silverlight datagrids have to use a “paging” mechanism (for example, a Next/Previous button) when presenting multiple pages of remote data. This means the UI becomes unresponsive while waiting for the data, sometimes for several seconds. This has a major impact on how end-users perceive and therefore judge an app. But Xceed’s Silverlight grid control delivers a fast, smooth scrollbar experience that is always snappy and responsive.

The product comes with complete documentation that fully integrates into Visual Studio for quick access. It also provides C# and VB.NET sample applications that make getting started with it easy. Full C# and XAML source code is available in the Blueprint Edition.

See it live now, online, with a no-install Silverlight app!