Wednesday, August 26, 2009

A Silverlight HighlightingTextBlock implemented in Visual Basic

A Silverlight HighlightingTextBlock implemented in Visual Basic


A Silverlight HighlightingTextBlock implemented in Visual Basic

Posted: 26 Aug 2009 01:28 PM PDT

Here's a Visual Basic implementation of HighlightingTextBlock for Silverlight 3....( read more )...(read more)

Creating a highlighting text block for Silverlight 3, revisited

Posted: 26 Aug 2009 12:17 PM PDT

Now that Silverlight 3 has shipped, I'd like to take a moment to revisit the highlighting AutoCompleteBox control that I blogged about back in November of '08, and again earlier this year, thanks to tooling improvements: Expression Blend 3 is out, and...( read more )...(read more)

LINQ to Bing, Silverlight and .NET RIA Services

Posted: 26 Aug 2009 11:20 AM PDT

In my last post, I described BLinq, or LINQ to Bing , an API that allows you use LINQ to access the Bing search results (ok, so perhaps BLinq was not the best of names, given prior art on that name ... but anyway). I also alluded to .NET RIA Services integration, which I'll cover in this installment. In fact, IQueryable and the LINQ pattern lie at the very heart of .NET RIA Services, in allowing developers to access data in a consistent manner not just on client or server but across client and server, and enabling code to compose queries naturally. If you haven't read the intro post, please take the few minutes to check out the LINQ snippets to get a general sense before continuing on. You might use Bing in your rich internet application...(read more)

LINQ to Bing, Silverlight and .NET RIA Services

Posted: 26 Aug 2009 11:20 AM PDT

In my last post, I described BLinq, or LINQ to Bing , an API that allows you use LINQ to access the Bing search results (ok, so perhaps BLinq was not the best of names, given prior art on that name ... but anyway). I also alluded to .NET RIA Services...( read more )...(read more)

Silverlight and localizing string data

Posted: 26 Aug 2009 10:09 AM PDT

While I was at the Silverlight Atlanta Firestarter event I had a chance to meet some great people. One of them was Sergey Barskiy . Sergey was doing a session on deployment and while in the speaker area we were chatting about overall feedback on Silverlight Read More......(read more)

Silverlight and localizing string data

Posted: 26 Aug 2009 10:09 AM PDT

While I was at the Silverlight Atlanta Firestarter event I had a chance to meet some great people. One of them was Sergey Barskiy . Sergey was doing a session on deployment and while in the speaker area we were chatting about overall feedback on Silverlight...( read more )...(read more)

ASP.NET MVC - Is WebForms the VisiCalc of Web Development?

Posted: 26 Aug 2009 07:41 AM PDT

If you're an "old geek" like me, you remember a number of software products that "changed the world". VisiCalc was THE spreadsheet of the day !  It might have done 2% of what Excel 2010 does, but when it was released it was an AMAZING innovation. And how about DBase II (first released for CP/M) ? It wasn't the first database in the world, nor was it the first programming language, but it was an amazing innovation for the developer of the day that has evolved into forms that the original dBase creators probably never envisioned ! And then there was Turbo Pascal !!!! When I got my first copy of Turbo Pascal it was pure genius. I think I paid $80 for it for my Televideo 802 CP/M machine. Up until then I was coding in assembly. The "C" compiler...(read more)

.NET Unified Data Tier (Devv.Core.UniDataTier)

Posted: 02 Oct 2008 11:07 AM PDT

Devv.Core.UniDataTier is a generic and easy to use data access layer compatible with SQL Server, Oracle, OleDb and ODBC. Support for other databases (MySQL was tested in the early stages) can be easily added using the provided Enum and overloaded methods.

MSDN Live - fall 2009

Posted: 25 Aug 2009 11:44 PM PDT

Microsoft Norway has a tradition for hosting 2 MSDN Live events every year, one in the spring timeframe and one in the fall. This year they're having it in Stavanger, Bergen, Trondheim and Oslo. The tour starts is kicked off in Stavanger on the 16th...( read more )...(read more)

VS 2010 and .NET 4 Series

Posted: 25 Aug 2009 10:31 PM PDT

Over the next few months I'm going to be doing a series of posts that talk about some of the cool things coming with the VS 2010 and .NET 4 release.  VS 2010 and .NET 4 are the next major releases of our developer tools and framework.  Together...( read more )...(read more)

Clean Web.Config Files (VS 2010 and .NET 4.0 Series)

Posted: 25 Aug 2009 10:50 PM PDT

This is the first in a series of blog posts I'm doing on the upcoming VS 2010 and .NET 4 release. Today's post is about an admittedly small, but I still think kind of nice, change coming with ASP.NET 4.0: clean, simple, web.config files.  You'll encounter this improvement the first time you do a File->New Project within Visual Studio 2010 and create an empty ASP.NET 4.0 Web application (which is why I thought it might be appropriate to-do as the first post). Web.config files in .NET 3.0 and 3.5 Over the last few releases, the web.config files within new ASP.NET projects have steadily increased in size. For example: the default web.config file that is added to a new web project in Visual Studio 2008 SP1 is now some 126 lines long, and...(read more)

VS 2010 and .NET 4 Series

Posted: 25 Aug 2009 10:31 PM PDT

Over the next few months I'm going to be doing a series of posts that talk about some of the cool things coming with the VS 2010 and .NET 4 release.  VS 2010 and .NET 4 are the next major releases of our developer tools and framework.  Together they contain a ton of new functionality and improvements that I think you'll really like, and which make building applications of all types easier, faster and better.  The improvements range from nice small tweaks to major, major enhancements - and can be found across the .NET Framework, the languages, and the IDE. We are still a little ways off from the "Betat2" release of VS10 and .NET 4 - which is the version I'm going to be basing my posts on.  I wanted to start ahead of the actual...(read more)

Silverlight Cream for August 25, 2009 -- #674

Posted: 25 Aug 2009 08:31 PM PDT

In this Issue: Peter Bromberg , Brad Abrams , Shawn Wildermuth , Page Brooks , Terence Tsang , Vikram Pendse , David Anson , Dan Wahlin , Joel Cochran , and Matthias Shapiro . From SilverlightCream.com : Silverlight IsolatedStorage Compressed Object Cache...( read more )...(read more)

All for that small Drop Down Box – Part 2

Posted: 25 Aug 2009 07:53 PM PDT

Web MultiTargeting (Web MT) for VS 2010 has been a great journey of fine technology and a tons of learning for me in person, I am sure everyone in the team feels very similar (although some may add " + lot of pain " into the mix :-))…  Yesterday, I published some of the details around what Web MT offers web developers in VS 2010… You can read it at: All for that small Drop Down Box – Part 1 I covered approx 10 different features of MultiTargeting in the previous post, today I am going to time box myself to a couple of hours to write as much as I can and then see if we need Part –3 of this series in few more days or not… :-) Anyways, let us get started!! Filtering Markup Intellisense One of the essential benefits of working within IDE like...(read more)

A Plethora of Silverlight Behaviors/Triggers

Posted: 25 Aug 2009 02:06 PM PDT

URL : http://expressionblend.codeplex.com/ It looks like the Expression team is skulking around and releasing code. They've just released a bunch of behaviors on the new Expression Blend Samples CodePlex project. The number of sample behaviors and triggers...( read more )...(read more)

Silverlight and Web Analytics – the Next Generation

Posted: 25 Aug 2009 09:59 AM PDT

  Ever since I wrote about Silverlight and Web Analytics (and PDF here ) with Silverlight 1, I have been meaning to update the document and guidance for Silverlight 2 and now Silverlight 3.  There are some new features in Silverlight 3 and Expression...( read more )...(read more)

Monday, August 24, 2009

Navigation Overview

Navigation Overview


Navigation Overview

Posted: 24 Aug 2009 02:15 PM PDT

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) supports browser-style navigation that can be used in two types of applications: standalone applications and XAML browser applications (XBAPs). This overview explores these features in detail and covers advanced navigation support that includes navigation to loose Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) files, HTML files, and objects.

Tip #93: Did you know … PHP and Custom Error Pages configuration?

Posted: 24 Aug 2009 08:11 AM PDT

When deploying PHP web applications that handle their errors with their own error pages, the existingResponse for Custom Error Pages feature of IIS should be set to " PassThrough " for that particular site. This greatly improves the customer experience...(read more)

Extension Methods

Posted: 24 Aug 2009 11:54 AM PDT

Learn how to enhance your existing types with more functionality without having to recompile, extend, or do other crazy things....( read more )...(read more)

Getting Started with Silverlight 3

Posted: 24 Aug 2009 11:54 AM PDT

Get an intro to Silverlight and learn what to install on your computer to get started with Silverlight design and development....( read more )...(read more)

Introduction to Behaviors

Posted: 24 Aug 2009 11:54 AM PDT

Get an introduction to behaviors and how they can be used to easily add interactivity to your applications....( read more )...(read more)

Element to Element Data Binding

Posted: 24 Aug 2009 11:54 AM PDT

Using Expression Blend, learn to easily create bindings between element properties in Silverlight and WPF....( read more )...(read more)

Easing Functions in Blend

Posted: 24 Aug 2009 11:54 AM PDT

Learn more about easing as well as how to apply Silverlight easing functions to animations....( read more )...(read more)

Using Effects in Blend and C#

Posted: 24 Aug 2009 11:54 AM PDT

Learn how to use Effects both visually in Expression Blend as well as programmatically using C#....( read more )...(read more)

Accessing the Parent

Posted: 24 Aug 2009 11:54 AM PDT

Learn how to access the root as well as any parent element in-between in WPF and Silverlight....( read more )...(read more)

One Week Left Before Seattle's Silverlight Tour Stop

Posted: 24 Aug 2009 05:48 AM PDT

URL : https://agilitrain.com/Workshop/Info/Silverligh... Are you ready...for Silverlight 3? If not, now's your time to ramp up in three days. The Silverlight Tour is coming back to Seattle next week. It arrives on September 2nd in Bellevue and there are...( read more )...(read more)

Flash vs Silverlight: Blur Animation Effect

Posted: 24 Aug 2009 11:04 AM PDT

The effect is simple, the star icon in the application will follow your mouse position. While star icon is moving, the residue image will fade out steadily. Traditionally, this kind of effect is done by creating a lot of instances with different opacity...( read more )...(read more)

The Application Class and Application Services in Silverlight 3

Posted: 24 Aug 2009 05:00 AM PDT

URL : http://wildermuth.com/downloads/FunWithAppServi... While digging into Silverlight 3, I noticed an oft overlooked new feature: Application Services. The problem revolves around the Application class so let's talk about that class first, then i'll...( read more )...(read more)

Augusta in August!

Posted: 24 Aug 2009 03:28 AM PDT

URL : http://augustadevelopers.org/Events/August2009/... If you are in or around the Augusta area this Thursday, I will be doing my "Introduction to Silverlight" talk. Certain to start a conversation, this talk presents the basics of the platform and...( read more )...(read more)

Linking more than one Silverlight project to an existing ASP .net project

Posted: 24 Aug 2009 06:13 AM PDT

When you create a new Silverlight project, VStudio asks you to add web site project to host that Silverlight application, that's great and a time saver: Visual Studio creates for you a new web project that contains the SL XAP application inside a folder...( read more )...(read more)

Accessing the full range of colors in procedural code

Posted: 20 Aug 2009 06:00 PM PDT

1. The problem Download source code. Have you ever wondered why the XAML parser recognizes the full palette of 141 colors (by name), but the Silverlight Colors class does not support the same full range of color names, for example, as WPF? I haven't even...( read more )...(read more)

Silverlight Cream for August 23, 2009 -- #672

Posted: 23 Aug 2009 08:57 PM PDT

In this Issue: Paulio , Jesse Liberty , René Schulte , Pete Blois , Benjamin Roux , UXPassion , Pencho Popadiyn , Kris Meeusen , Scott Marlowe , and Matthias Shapiro Shoutouts: The UXConnection has this interesting Expression Design post up: [Mini-Tutorial...( read more )...(read more)

How can I add labels to a WPF pie chart?

Posted: 23 Aug 2009 01:34 PM PDT

The WPF Toolkit and Silverlight Toolkit both include a very versatile chart control. Although support for labels (or annotations) is a frequently requested feature, it is not yet present in the current toolkits. David Anson blogged about a great solution...( read more )...(read more)

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Adding Behaviors Programmatically

Adding Behaviors Programmatically


Adding Behaviors Programmatically

Posted: 23 Aug 2009 05:31 AM PDT

Expression Blend 3 has great design-time support for Behaviors – you can simply drag Behaviors from the Asset Library onto the Artboard (or Objects + Timeline Window), and the Behaviors are applied to an element. But what if you want to add Behaviors...( read more )...(read more)

Silverlight Cream for August 22, 2009 -- #671

Posted: 22 Aug 2009 04:45 PM PDT

In this catching-up Issue: Brad Abrams , Matthias Shapiro , Jesse Liberty , Walt Ritscher , Erik Mork , Gavin Wignall , Tim Heuer , Rob Zelt , Jeff Prosise , and Dan Wahlin . Shoutouts: The Expression Blend and Design blog reports All Expression Blend...( read more )...(read more)

Saturday, August 22, 2009

BLinq - Linq to Bing Search APIs

BLinq - Linq to Bing Search APIs


BLinq - Linq to Bing Search APIs

Posted: 22 Aug 2009 10:35 AM PDT

As part of validating and playing with some of the extensibility features in .NET RIA Services, I needed to write a LINQ provider. This was also a good opportunity to delve into some of the deeper technical aspects of the IQueryable construct, expression trees and related concepts, which I had not gotten into first-hand until now. For my prototyping, I decided to write a LINQ provider for querying Bing to search for pages and images. This post will focus on using the LINQ provider itself, and seeing it in action, and in my next post I'll tie it all back to .NET RIA Services. I am calling this BLinq. :-) Bing has a new search API that provides you the option of using REST interface (XML or JSON) or a SOAP interface. My LINQ provider provides...(read more)

Silverlight 3 : RIA Services for your LOB Applications – Part 3

Posted: 21 Aug 2009 10:42 PM PDT

I hope the first two part of this series are useful for your development on RIA Services. There is lot more can be done in that. I will recommend you to go once through RIA Services documentation for more information. In first two parts we understood...( read more )...(read more)

Business Apps Example for Silverlight 3 RTM and .NET RIA Services July Update: Part 23: Azure

Posted: 21 Aug 2009 01:10 PM PDT

Still updating my Mix 09 Silverlight 3 + RIA Services talk with more fun stuff.    Azure represents a general trend in the industry towards a cloud computing model. As much as I love the development phase of projects, the operations side...( read more )...(read more)

How to: Write a Move Constructor (Visual C++ 2010)

Posted: 21 Aug 2009 07:25 PM PDT

This topic describes how to write a move constructor and a move assignment operator for a C++ class. A move constructor enables you to implement move semantics, which can significantly improve the performance of your applications.

Silverlight Cream for August 21, 2009 -- #670

Posted: 21 Aug 2009 05:07 PM PDT

In this Issue: Michael Washington , Fons Sonnemans , Matthias Shapiro , Brad Abrams , Rick Barraza , Terence Tsang , Carlos Figueira , Joel Neubeck , Gerard Leblanc , John Papa , and Jesse Liberty . Shoutout: Adam Kinney reports that there are 4 Expression...( read more )...(read more)

Business Apps Example for Silverlight 3 RTM and .NET RIA Services July Update: Part 23: Azure

Posted: 21 Aug 2009 01:10 PM PDT

Still updating my Mix 09 Silverlight 3 + RIA Services talk with more fun stuff.    Azure represents a general trend in the industry towards a cloud computing model. As much as I love the development phase of projects, the operations side is often the most cost intensify part.  With economies of scale, cloud computing has the potential to greatly reduce those costs.  I think example I took advantage of Windows Azure to host the web-tier of the application and Sql Azure to host the data.  Those are actually independent decisions.  You could decide to host one and not the other.  You can see the full series here . The demo requires (all 100% free and always free): VS2008 SP1 Silverlight 3 RTM .NET RIA Services...(read more)

Tip #92: Did you know … How to select a master page using 'Select a Master Page' dialog?

Posted: 21 Aug 2009 01:02 PM PDT

Master page for a Web form can always be set manually in the source code, but here is an option to select the master page while create the webform using the 'Select a Master Page' dialog. The path to select a Master page using the 'Select...(read more)

Friday, August 21, 2009

PHP toolkit for ADO.NET Data Services...And My XBox Demo

PHP toolkit for ADO.NET Data Services...And My XBox Demo


PHP toolkit for ADO.NET Data Services...And My XBox Demo

Posted: 21 Aug 2009 08:01 AM PDT

URL : http://blogs.msdn.com/pablo/archive/2009/08/21/... I am happy to see that the Data Programming group at Microsoft have been hard at work as usual. They've just released their PHP toolkit for ADO.NET Data Services . While I had no part in this effort...( read more )...(read more)

Silverlight misconceptions, bad reviews, bad comparisons

Posted: 21 Aug 2009 08:05 AM PDT

Anyone who has spent more than 5 minutes talking with me, reading this blog, or listening to me on podcasts ( Herding Code , Thirsty Developer , Misfit Geek ) will know that I LOVE Microsoft. I'm not ashamed to admit it and I'm not ashamed about my passion Read More......(read more)

Silverlight misconceptions, bad reviews, bad comparisons

Posted: 21 Aug 2009 08:05 AM PDT

Anyone who has spent more than 5 minutes talking with me, reading this blog, or listening to me on podcasts ( Herding Code , Thirsty Developer , Misfit Geek ) will know that I LOVE Microsoft. I'm not ashamed to admit it and I'm not ashamed about my passion...( read more )...(read more)

[Silverlight] How to manage the contextual menu

Posted: 20 Aug 2009 09:12 AM PDT

Hello again, There is a question that I often see on Silverlight's forum. It's about the contextual menu (right click). The current answer is that it's not possible to surcharge them like we can do in Flash. Maybe in the next version of Silverlight… However...( read more )...(read more)

SSIS Multiple Hash

Posted: 21 Aug 2009 04:38 AM PDT

SSIS Multiple Hash makes it possible to generate many Hash values from each input row. Hash's supported include MD5 and SHA1.

Silverlight 3 Windows 7 GA Countdown for all Windows lovers around the world.

Posted: 21 Aug 2009 03:52 AM PDT

While writing this post..I recollect famous quote "People everywhere love Windows" My friend and MVP from Pune,India, Anand Khanse who own one of the Best and Big Windows forums in Windows World as " The Windows Club " (Former WinVista Club) was actually...( read more )...(read more)

Mini SQL Query

Posted: 23 May 2008 04:50 AM PDT

Mini SQL Query is a minimalist SQL query tool for multiple providers (MSSQL, SQLite, Oracle, OLEDB, MS Access files etc). The goal of the Mini SQL Query tool is to allow a developer or trouble-shooter to quickly diagnose issues or make changes to a database using a tool with a sm

Windows 7 Training Kit for Developers Now Available

Posted: 20 Aug 2009 12:00 PM PDT

Download the new Windows 7 Training Kit for Developers. The kit includes code, videos, and labs for both native Win32 C++ developers and .NET developers covering the new features available in Windows 7.

Get Your Community's School Up to Date With Technology

Posted: 20 Aug 2009 12:00 PM PDT

Get Live@edu which provides schools with all the Microsoft technology needed to stay on the technology edge with a low fee.

How Do I: Leverage Concurrency in Windows Azure Table Storage?

Posted: 20 Aug 2009 12:00 PM PDT

Windows Azure table storage is designed to support many users at the same time. In this session, you'll learn how Windows Azure table storage supports concurrency, and you'll learn a few strategies to help you deal with any concurrency violations.

Ray Ozzie and Bob Muglia to Keynote at PDC09

Posted: 17 Aug 2009 12:00 PM PDT

Microsoft Chief Software Architect, Ray Ozzie, and President of Server and Tools, Bob Muglia, will set the stage for the next-generation software services platform at PDC09. Register before September 15th and save US$500 on your conference pass.

How Do I: Change Default Work Items in the SDL Process Template?

Posted: 17 Aug 2009 12:00 PM PDT

Watch this 4-minute screencast video to see how to modify the default work items that are included in the SDL Process Template.

Reminder: Microsoft Unified Communications Virtual User Group Meeting

Posted: 17 Aug 2009 12:00 PM PDT

Register for the August 20th UCVUG quarterly meeting webcast event for virtual communications.

Coming Soon: Fluid Container Behavior!

Posted: 20 Aug 2009 12:22 PM PDT

Have you figured out that Behaviors are the greatest thing since sliced bread? You WILL... only a matter of time :) I'm still having fun in my spare time adding to the Physics Helper Behaviors, and coming soon to the library is a Fluid Container Behavior...( read more )...(read more)

Silveright Resource Directory Update (21 Aug)

Posted: 20 Aug 2009 01:23 PM PDT

Silveright Resources Directory Update (21 Aug)...( read more )...(read more)

A total n00b’s guide to migrating from a custom data layer to Nhibernate: so many choices

Posted: 20 Aug 2009 02:05 PM PDT

One of the great things about NHibernate is its vibrant community and ecosystem. So many people are using it or building other libraries on top of it that you can be pretty sure that there is always a reasonable solution to any problem you might face. Or several. This means of course that there are lots of choices you can make about how you use NHibernate. While this is essentially a good thing, too many choices can be intimidating when starting to use a technology. In this post, I'll present some of the first choices you are going to have to make for your NHibernate code. I'll explain the choices that our team made for our own migration and an attempt at explaining why you would make different choices depending on the particular context of...(read more)