According to Melton, Kendo UI framework’s complete end-to-end success data model is where the solution shines. “We started by using the Kendo UI Grid to model our business problem, including workflows and a registration sequence model, then made it extendible,” he said. “We used the grid for UI support, and it worked well at the controller level. There was a natural one-to- one mapping from our data store to the view model.”
Kendo UI controls are adaptable to different frameworks, which enabled Melton’s team to use open-source solutions. “The Kendo UI framework enabled us to provide users with a rich interface for managing online enrollments across Michigan within the community college association. The grid tool and its ability to export to Excel provided a great user experience.”
Additionally, Melton said combining Angular with the Sails (node.js) and MongoDB worked well with Kendo UI framework. “With modern mobile apps, you have to consider how fast the widget reacts to the user’s actions,” he said. “But behind the scenes, you need the data to hydrate the widget. If you’re on SQL, you’d have to translate data into JSON in the middle, and that would slow down performance. Using OData, you can talk directly to the database to hydrate the widgets faster, and create a better, more intuitive UX.”
Melton’s team leveraged the Kendo UI Grid to manage all workflows and business processes for the site. “The Grid control enables us to present data in a way that makes sense to users, and talk to backend systems effectively and efficiently,” he said. “The other best-kept secret was the scheduler,” he said. “We use it to create global academic calendars, room calendars, plus many others. It’s a huge time-saver, because we can hydrate multiple calendars with one view.”