Search results matching tags 'Silverlight' and 'VB'

Nederlandse CodeCamp 2009

Maurice — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Op 21 november 2009 organiseren de SDN, Stichting dotNed en VBcentral samen het derde Nederlandse Code Camp. Dit is een dag lang met code, code sharing, freaking en gezellig samenzijn. Een evenement door ontwikkelaars, voor ontwikkelaars. De regie ligt voor een belangrijk deel bij de deelnemers! Het aantal plaatsen voor deelnemers is wel beperkt tot maximaal 150. Wacht dus niet te lang met beslissen want voor je het weet is er geen plaats meer. Vergeet bij je aanmelding niet op te geven welke onderwerpen je interesse hebben. Bovendien nodigen we iedereen graag uit om zelf een sessie in te vullen.

Op de website, www.codecamp.nl, vind je meer informatie en kan je je aanmelden.

Getting started with the .NET RIA Services

Maurice — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

A recent article I wrote for the MSDN website just went live.

Read is here.

Paging with the Silverlight RIA services DomainDataSource

Maurice — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Using the declarative DomainDataSource that is part of the upcoming Silverlight 3 RIA services makes it quite easy to work with data. All you need to do is add a DomainDataSource control to the the XAML, point it to the generated DomainContext class (in this case NorthwindContext) and tell it which method to use to load the data from the web service(in this case LoadCustomers). Next add a DataGrid to display the data and you are good to go.

     <UserControl xmlns:dataControls="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Data.DataForm"  x:Class="LOBUsingRIAServices.CustomerListPage"

                 xmlns:data="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Data"  

                 xmlns:riaControls="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Ria.Controls"

                 xmlns:web="clr-namespace:LOBUsingRIAServices.Web"

                 xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" 

                 xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">

        <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">

            <riaControls:DomainDataSource x:Name="CustomerDataSource"

                                          LoadMethodName="LoadCustomers">

                <riaControls:DomainDataSource.DomainContext>

                    <web:NorthwindContext />

                </riaControls:DomainDataSource.DomainContext>

            </riaControls:DomainDataSource>

            <data:DataGrid ItemsSource="{Binding Data, ElementName=CustomerDataSource}" />

        </Grid>

    </UserControl>

Pretty simple and that is the way I like it

Adding paging.

Sometimes the lost of data to load can get somewhat large and you might not want to load all data. In that case all you need to do is add a PageSize and the DomainDataSource will only load enough data to display on a single page. You can do this by just setting the PageSize on the DomainDataSource but as we also need a control to allow the user to page trough the data it is easier to also add the DataPager control. Now you have the option of setting the PageSize on the DomainDataSource or the DataPager. I found that setting it on either would work just was well except for the initial load where the DataPager shows page 0 when the PageSize is set on the DomainDataSource while it is set to 1, the correct value, when set on the DataPager. I assume this is just a small bug in the current preview.

Another thing you can specify is the LoadSize. This determines how many rows are loaded with each request and if not set equals the PageSize. Setting this to double the PageSize will improve the responsiveness of the the client application so might be a good idea if the data isn’t too large.

    <UserControl xmlns:dataControls="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Data.DataForm"  x:Class="LOBUsingRIAServices.CustomerListPage"

                 xmlns:data="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Data"  

                 xmlns:riaControls="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Ria.Controls"

                 xmlns:web="clr-namespace:LOBUsingRIAServices.Web"

                 xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" 

                 xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">

        <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">

            <riaControls:DomainDataSource x:Name="CustomerDataSource"

                                          LoadMethodName="LoadCustomers"

                                          LoadSize="40">

                <riaControls:DomainDataSource.DomainContext>

                    <web:NorthwindContext />

                </riaControls:DomainDataSource.DomainContext>

            </riaControls:DomainDataSource>

            <data:DataGrid ItemsSource="{Binding Data, ElementName=CustomerDataSource}" />

            <dataControls:DataPager Source="{Binding Data, ElementName=CustomerDataSource}" 

                                    PageSize="20" />

        </Grid>

    </UserControl>

The DataPager control is quite easy to use as well. Just drop it below the DataGrid and point it to the DomainDataSource to use and it just works. One problem I ran into was adding the DataPager above the DataGrid though. When I did that the DataPager didn’t show up on the UI so the user could not page through the data even though it still limited the data to the first page.

Using progressive loading

Another nice option is delayed loading. When using progressive loading all you need to do is specify the LoadSize on the DomainDataSource. The DomainDataSource will now load the specified number of rows, wait a bit and load the next set of rows. It will keep on doing this until all data is loaded. The nice thing here is that all the data is loaded but the UI still stays responsive for the user. De the default interval between load requests is 0.75 seconds but this can be fine tuned using the LoadDelay time span on the DomainDataSource.

    <UserControl xmlns:dataControls="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Data.DataForm"  x:Class="LOBUsingRIAServices.CustomerListPage"

                 xmlns:data="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Data"  

                 xmlns:riaControls="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Ria.Controls"

                 xmlns:web="clr-namespace:LOBUsingRIAServices.Web"

                 xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" 

                 xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">

        <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">

            <riaControls:DomainDataSource x:Name="CustomerDataSource"

                                          LoadMethodName="LoadCustomers"

                                          LoadSize="10"

                                          LoadDelay="0:0:0.25">

                <riaControls:DomainDataSource.DomainContext>

                    <web:NorthwindContext />

                </riaControls:DomainDataSource.DomainContext>

            </riaControls:DomainDataSource>

            <data:DataGrid ItemsSource="{Binding Data, ElementName=CustomerDataSource}" />

        </Grid>

    </UserControl>

And all of this was done without writing any code add everything was completely declarative. Of course it is just a matter of setting properties so doing so from code is easy enough.

Enjoy!

.NET RIA Services and data communication

Maurice — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 05:00:00 GMT

I was working on an article about the .NET RIA Services and decided to fire up Fiddler to take a close look at the data actually passed around. I was sort of expecting to see a WCF REST based approach with XML messages. Turns out I was wrong, though I expect this option will be added in the future.

It turns out the .NET RIA Services use JSON as their serialization format. This is actually kind of nice as the DataContractJsonSerializer is part of the System.ServiceModel.Web assembly and therefore usable by all .NET clients.

The good part is that a .NET RIA Service is also usable from a JavaScript browser based client. So the same .NET RIA Services library gives us lots of client options. Now this was always the plan but it is nice to see that the default already enable it.

And the best thing?

Well that is that I was already using the .NET RIA Services and never even needed to know how the messages where actually send across the wire, something I shouldn't have to worry about when developing a RIA style application. Which is exactly the goal of the .NET RIA Services.

Cool stuff and highly recommended if you want to create browser based LOB apps

www.TheProblemSolver.nl
Wiki.WindowsWorkflowFoundation.eu

And now on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mauricedb.

Want to download all MIX sessions?

Maurice — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Then you should check Mike Swanson’s blog post here. He has two batch files, the first downloads all MIX session recordings with in the format you like, the second renames them so it is easier to make sense of all the media file names.

If you just want a list of all sessions with download links this page might be the thing for you.

So much better than downloading them by hand. Not as good as going to the MIX itself but if you, like me, couldn’t go it is still a nice way to see all the content.

Enjoy!

Visual Basic QuickStarts and How-to Topics for the Composite Application Guidance for WPF and Silverlight

Maurice — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:00:00 GMT

The P&P team have just release a VB version of the Prism quick starts.

You can download the goods here.

Enjoy!

Software Development Event march 30th

Maurice — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Just one week to go to the next Software Development Event. The schedule with all the sessions is looking good. But this time there is even more!

We will have a Microsoft Surface machine somewhere in the common area for people to try our. And if you have never played, oops tested, with a Surface machine before this is a truly exiting machine!

Just goes to show, the SDN will go to extraordinary efforts to please all attendees

You can see the full schedule here. And don’t forget, we are not in Ede this time but in a great new location in Driebergen.

Hope to see everyone there next week Monday.

www.TheProblemSolver.nl
Wiki.WindowsWorkflowFoundation.eu

And now on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mauricedb.

Looking back at the MVP Summit

Maurice — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Last week lots of MVP, myself included, where in Redmond visiting Microsoft on our yearly MVP pilgrimage. The MVP Summit is always a great event. Not only do we get to talk to the MS team members who actually design and build all the software we love and use but we also get to meet each other. And with MVP’s being located around the world that is kind of rare as well.

Despite this being a great event I still have very mixed feelings about this last MVP summit. The problem isn’t the events itself or the people I met, that was al great . No the problem was in some of the technological decisions made in product groups. Unfortunately I can’t divulge details yet because I have signed an NDA but as soon .NET 4.0 as beta 1 is made public I will be able to blog about some of these decisions. And rest assured I will!

The reason we really need to is the way these important changes are communicated. Or should I say not communicated. Some very important changes where not communicated at all and could only be derived by bullet points missing from PowerPoint slides. Only when directly asked about the missing bullet point would someone say “Yes that is right, we decided to …. NDA … because … NDA …”. Sorry about the NDA part .

I can only say that these decisions are a big problem and I know several MVP’s who decided to skip other sessions on the same product as a result. I didn’t, as far as I am concerned ignoring a problem is not going to make it go away, but I really think this product team needs to reevaluate this decision and the general future trend.

Despite this hiccup I am very exited about lots of the things I got to see and am really looking forward to .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010. Now if we only could have a beta today . When we will have a first beta is still a big question though. If a date was announced I missed it, the best I heard was a quarter and is quite a time span.

Enjoy.

www.TheProblemSolver.nl
Wiki.WindowsWorkflowFoundation.eu

SilverUnit - Unit testing framework for Silverlight

Maurice — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Roy Osherove has just released SilverUnit, a unit testing framework for Silverlight code. I haven't tried this yet but it certainly looks really interesting as you can start running your Silverlight unit tests inside of MS Test or NUnit.

And kind cool to hear this is written in VB

You can find more information and download SilverUnit from CodePlex here.

Enjoy!

www.TheProblemSolver.nl
Wiki.WindowsWorkflowFoundation.eu

WrapPanel in ListBox revisited

Maurice — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Last week logged about using a WrapPanel in a listBox and demonstrated how to get the content to wrap around, read about it here.

Turns out the XAML can be even easier. In the previous post I used a ControlTemplate with a Grid to stop the WrapPanel from just expanding horizontally. Turns out there us an even easier way to do so by disabling the horizontal scrollbar using the ListBox ScrollViewer. The following XAML will do the trick just fine:

<UserControl xmlns:controls="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Windows.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Windows.Controls"  
             x:Class="SilverlightApplication4.Page"
             xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" 
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" 
             Width="400" Height="300">
    <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">
        <ListBox x:Name="DemoList" 
                 ScrollViewer.HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Disabled">
            <ListBox.ItemsPanel>
                <ItemsPanelTemplate>
                    <controls:WrapPanel />
                </ItemsPanelTemplate>
            </ListBox.ItemsPanel>
            <ListBox.ItemTemplate>
                <DataTemplate>
                    <TextBlock Text="{Binding}" 
                   TextAlignment="Right" 
                   Width="25" />
                </DataTemplate>
            </ListBox.ItemTemplate>
        </ListBox>
    </Grid>
</UserControl>

Used in combination with the following code:

using System.Linq;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;

namespace SilverlightApplication4
{
    public partial class Page : UserControl
    {
        public Page()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            Loaded += new RoutedEventHandler(Page_Loaded);
        }

        void Page_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            DemoList.ItemsSource = Enumerable.Range(1, 250);
        }
    }
}

it produces this Silverlight page:

We even get some keyboard support with the new XAML although I am not quite sure if I am happy about that or not. Selecting an element and pressing the down arrow key makes the selection move to the right. Makes sense in that it is the next item in the ItemsSource bit not quite what I was hoping for.

Just for a quick comparison I copied the XAML and code to a WPF application to see what would happen there. Fortunately the only change I hard to make to the ListBox was removing the controls namespace. Great

When I ran the same in WPF I do see the keyboard behavior I would like. Pressing the down arrow selects the next item below the current, the same with up and the other arrow keys and even the page up/down scroll a page but move in the same column. Now this is much better behavior!

Enjoy!