asp:review
RapidSpell Web .NET v3.4.2
Spell Checking Redefined
By Anand Narayanaswamy
Computers don?t have the power to automatically check thespelling of a document on a Web page. It is tedious and time consuming todevelop new software from scratch. Hence, there?s a huge demand for powerfulthird-party software that can perform quickly and accurately the job of a spellchecker. Keyoti?s RapidSpell Web .NET is a high-performance ASP.NET control thatperforms spell checking of an ASP.NET page in various ways by using a powerfulset of algorithms.
A fully functional development version of the product isavailable from http://www.keyoti.com/products/rapidspell/dotNetWeb/evaluation.html(in executable format). The vendor also provides the installation package inZIP format for the benefit of those who wish to work with the product manuallywithout using Visual Studio 2005. A deployment license is required to use theproduct in a remote Web server; for this the vendor provides a 30-day, time-limitedkey, which can obtained from http://www.keyoti.com/products/evaluation-key-generator/default.aspx?SKU=RSWEB.NET.
I installed the executable package and tested the productlocally by manually adding the controls to the Visual Studio 2005 Toolbox (asthe installer doesn?t add them if SQL Server 2005 has been installed on thedevelopment machine). The Quick Start guide that shipped with the product wasextremely helpful for me to initially develop two sample applications. Theguide examines step-by-step each process involved, accompanied by screenshots.You should make sure to place the RapidSpellWeb control in a separate ASP.NETpage (as mentioned in the RapidSpellWebPage property of the RapidSpellWebLaunchercontrol), as it will help you more easily customize its appearance and also setdictionary paths. Otherwise, you?ll have to modify these properties in everypage, which will be a time-consuming job for any big application.
A key feature of the product is that it performs bothdialog and inline document highlighted spell checking with Undo functionality.
Figure 1: Spell checking in progress.
The inline feature checks the spelling of the words at thesame time you enter them inside the TextBox. This will help users to correctthe spellings instantly. Moreover, as-you-type spell checking can be added tothe inline control when using RapidSpellWInlineTextBox, which ships with theproduct.
Figure 2: Inline spell checking in action.
The product not only checks content from the ASP.NETTextBox control, but also from a wide range of third party HTML text boxes,including the inline TextBox mentioned above. You only need to connect theproduct with the relevant source. Some of the other interesting features of theproduct are multilingual user interface, fast proprietary algorithms, duplicateword detection, and the ability to customize text, style, color, and layout.
The vendor provides the complete Application ProgrammingInterface (API) along with the product. I hope this will benefit advanced .NETprogrammers to modify the product as per their requirements. Even though Itested the product using Internet Explorer 6, the product is compatible withInternet Explorer 5, Netscape 6, FireFox, Opera, and the newly released Windowsversion of Safari browser. The vendor has given great importance to security byimplementing support for Secured Sockets Layer (SSL) and malicious scriptfiltering functionality. A complete list of all the features included with theproduct can be viewed at http://www.keyoti.com/products/rapidspell/dotNetWeb/features.html.
I found that the product ships with the ability to spellcheck nearly 151,305 words (US English) with the help of the Dict ManagerUtility. Moreover, the tool enables you to add words to and remove words fromthe dictionary with search functionality. The vendor provides flexiblelicensing options, as described at http://www.keyoti.com/products/rapidspell/dotNetWeb/licensing.html.
The product includes complete product documentation, QuickStart guides, and demos in both C# and VB. You can also access a live onlinedemo of the product, a list of important screenshots, online documentation, anda set of Frequently Asked Questions at http://www.keyoti.com/products/rapidspell/dotNetWeb/index.html.Keyoti provides excellent support through e-mail and forums. I would like tosee the vendor create a series of videos as a supplement to the Quick Startguide, as this would enable customers to learn how to use the product quicklyand in a truly interactive way.
We make spelling mistakes, but RapidSpell Web .NET doesn?t.This is what I found during testing. If you have doubt, explore it yourself.
Anand Narayanaswamy,a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP), works as an independentconsultant and runs NetAns Technologies (http://www.netans.com),which provides Web hosting services based in Trivandrum, India. Anand also worksas a technical editor lead for http://ASPAlliance.com.He runs http://www.Learnxpress.com, http://Dotnetalbum.com, and http://Csharpfaq.com. Anand is the author of Community Server Quickly (Packt Publishing). Youcan explore more information about the book at http://www.communityserverbook.com.Find out more about him at http://www.visualanand.netor e-mail him at mailto:netans@gmail.com.
Rating: ????
Web Site: http://www.keyoti.com
Price: Singledeveloper license, US$250