Your Sitefinity toolset

It’s this time of the year when we should take a moment and reflect on the past and plan for the future. Content in a list form seems to be very popular on the Internet now (think of your wish list to Santa), so I decided to prepare a list of useful Sitefinity tools available in the Telerik portfolio that can form your ultimate Sitefinity toolset and wish list for 2012.

Just like a good carpenter needs a good toolset, a good developer also needs tools that make him more productive. Here are 16 tools that can boost your productivity with Sitefinity:

Sitefinity SDK (Free)

The software development kit is the main Sitefinity developer’s productivity tool and resource that you should refer to when starting a new Sitefinity project. The SDK comes with sample websites, code samples and valuable tools such as:

• ASP.NET RadControls for AJAX - 70+ UI controls to help you boost your developer productivity to build a flexible and highly functional Sitefinity website. Those controls are used throughout Sitefinity.

• ASP.NET RadControls for Silverlight - 60 Silverlight controls that can enrich your Sitefinity website with an engaging and interactive user experience. The Sitefinity Analytics module is build will the Silverlight RadControls.

• OpenAccess ORM - Simply create the data model of your custom Sitefinity app and the tool will do the rest for you.

All of the above tools are available for to you use within the scope of the Sitefinity project.

Sitefinity Template Builder (Free)

Quickly create Sitefinity website templates by dragging and dropping widgets. You can use the Importer Module available in the SDK to import those templates to a Sitefinity website. Then you can start building on top of a template to make it even more beautiful than the current websites in our Showcase Gallery.

Telerik Visual Style Builder (Free)

Create a skin for your Sitefinity navigation widget and other RadControls used in your solution.

Test Studio

Automate your functional and performance tests to ensure the integrity of your Sitefinity solution and save countless hours of manual labor. Sitefinity team uses Test Studio to automate its testing on the rich Sitefinity CMS feature set to ensure every Sitefinity release is of high quality.

TeamPulse

Collaborate and manage your Sitefinity development using agile software development best practices. Sitefinity team relies on TeamPulse to plan, manage, and coordinate the development of Sitefinity CMS.

Kendo UI (Free under GPLv3 license)

Unleash your HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS3 skills to extend your Sitefinity website with a modern HTML UI.

JustCode

Provides blazing fast solution-wide, on-the-fly code analysis and error checking, smart code navigation, and refactoring features as well as a Unit Test Runner for your Sitefinity solution.

JustMock

Create mock objects and better unit tests without changing your code. Perform fast and controlled tests that are independent of external dependencies like databases, web services, or proprietary code by faking non-virtual methods, sealed classes, and static methods and classes for your custom Sitefinity solution.

JustTrace

Profile your custom Sitefinity code to quickly identify and display any bottlenecks.

JustDecompile (Free)

Effortlessly explore and analyze compiled .NET assemblies and decompiling their code with a simple click of a button.

Code Converter  (Free)

Convert Visual Basic code into C# or vice versa.

Windows Phone Controls

Develop native mobile apps for your Sitefinity website using the Sitefinity RESTful Web Services API and the Windows Phone controls. Check out SiteBoard for iPhone and SiteBoard for Windows Phone available on the Marketplace.

Sitefinity Thunder  (Free)

Plug-in for Visual Studio which allows developers to create and maintain themes, widgets, designers, dynamic modules, and much more through a familiar Visual Studio environment. Sitefinity Thunder will also connect to any of your websites and modify them on the go. Will be available in early 2012.

In 2012 we will provide examples and details on how to use each of the above tools with Sitefinity. In the meantime you can refer to the thorough documentation available for each tool.

What’s your take on this toolset? What is your favorite tool to use with Sitefinity? We would like to hear your story in the comments below.