Windows developer future

3D Graphics in Silverlight 5 Beta: links + cool apps !

2011-05-12T22:37:00.000+02:00

Useful links

My first Silverlight 3D app (based on Color Cube Sample from MSDN gallery):

Interesting samples (very cool!):

Babylon 3D Engine

3D Housebuilder

Solar Wind 3D Sample

A bump mapped Lizard & An animated Tank (from Silverlight 3D Model Importer)

I will blog more details about SL5 3D graphics in the upcoming months.

Reactivation!!! New features in Silverlight 5 Beta + Links + Samples - Part I

2011-05-08T12:57:00.000+02:00

I’ve reactivated this blog! I always love new technologies, especially CTPs and Betas!

What’s new in Silverlight 5? Here’s my summary of the features already announced for it. Silverlight 5 Beta features are colored red. I have made some demos. In addition, I have included some interesting samples I had found on the Web.

Intro

Data binding

Data Binding

Implicit Data Templates

RelativeSouce Ancestor Bindings

Binding In Style Setters

Binding to Dynamic Properties

Databinding Debugging

DataContextChanged Event

Building In Browser Experiences with Silverlight 5

UpdateSourceTrigger: PropertyChanged

Building In Browser Experiences with Silverlight 5

XAML

Custom Markup Extensions

CornerRadius, Thickness, Size, and Rect - attribute syntax on properties

Layout

Inter-layout transitions

Silverlight Firestarter 2010 Keynote with Scott Guthrie

Input

ClickCount

ItemsControl Search

Text

RichTextBoxOverflow

Tracking & leading

CharacterSpacing (Control, TextBlock, and TextElement)
LineHeight & LineStackingStrategy ( Block, TextBlock, TextBox and RichTextBox)

Text Clarity

Building In Browser Experiences with Silverlight 5

Full OpenType Support

Printing

Vector PostScript Printing

Building In Browser Experiences with Silverlight 5

Media

Low-latency audio (SoundEffect API)

Silverlight 5 Low-Latency Sound Effects

TrickPlay*

*video-only for the Beta

Improved power awareness

Remote-control support

Seamless switching between DRM media sources

Trusted apps

Trusted Applications

in-browser*

*Windows-only for the Beta

Enterprise Group Policy Support

Hosting HTML content (and NotificationWindow ?)

WebBrowser

Unrestricted File Access

Full keyboard access in full-screen

…

COM

P/Invoke

out of browser

Unrestricted File Access

Multiple Native Windows

Main Window Improvements

P/Invoke

Network communication

WS-Trust: message security - encrypted at the WCF level, SAML authentication token

PivotViewer

3D Graphics

I’ll write next post about 3D !

XNA graphics API (3D, 2D)

DrawingSurface control

XNA Effects

XNA Math Library

Others

Default filename in SaveFileDialog

Performance

Improved startup performance (multi‐core background JIT support)

XAML Parser performance optimizations(ResourceDictionaries, UserControls)

Improved Graphics stack - Independent Animations

Silverlight 5 Beta Rough Notes–Composition Thread?

Improved Text Layout performance

Hardware Decoding H.264

Silverlight 5 Beta Rough Notes–Hardware Decoded H.264

Network Latency optimizations

Hardware acceleration in windowless mode with Internet Explorer 9

Silverlight 5 Beta Rough Notes–Silverlight and IE9 in Windowless Mode

64-bit

Advanced Features in Silverlight 5

Tools

Automated UI Testing

Silverlight Firestarter 2010 Keynote with Scott Guthrie

Profiling Support

Tips for Improving Performance in Applications Built with Silverlight

In the nearest future I’ll write post about cool 3D graphics.

Cheers!

WCF RIA SERVICES v1.0 - Extra Cool Samples !

2010-08-05T23:42:00.000+02:00

Today I’ll write about very interesting scenarios with WCF RIA Services. Read this post!

I. NHibernate

You can quite easily use NHibernate as your DAL. Look at the latest NHibernate Sample from WCF RIA Services Code Gallery with related entities! I have made a simpler example without associations (look below).

II. MVVM

Nikhil Kothari at MIX 10’ has shown how to use WCF RIA Services with MVVM pattern (domain context as a member of view model). Deepesh Mohnani at TechEd 2010 has presented a great WCF RIA Services application with MVVM (for lazy developers: view model inherited from Entity).

III. Lookups (ComboBoxDataSource)

Kyle McClellan from WCF RIA Services team has added to code gallery a cool example with an extension to support lookups - ComboBoxDataSource. He has implemented cascading ComboBoxes scenario (lookup data sources with parameters like DomainDataSource filters). You can also see how to use lookups for Entity associations. Read about details of the solution here and here.

I have built a simpler example with one ComboBox for Entity association (look below).

IV. T4

Early versions of WCF RIA Services Contrib had contained T4 templates for generating domain services and metadata classes (replacement WCF RIA Services wizard). Now T4 templates have been made obsolete - WCF RIA Services V2 itself is supposed to start using T4 templates!

V. Fluent metadata !

The standard approach of defining WCF RIA Services entity metadata is based on attributes. But some developers don't like attributes and ask for a fluent interface instead. Nikhil Kothari has created Fluent API for .NET RIA Services Metadata for July 09’ version. LINQ expressions are mapped to WCF RIA Services. attributes. You can also define your own custom rules (mapped as standard CustomValidation attributte). Nikhil will add these extensions to RIA Services Essentials at codeplex.

Some people and I have migrated these extensions to work with WCF RIA Services V1. I have made example application with fluent metadata (look below).

VI. Offline

Nikhil Kothari at TechEd 09’ South Africa has presented an offline synchronization example (he’ll plan to public update for it).

WCF RIA Services DomainContext is good for offline scenario. WCF RIA Services Contrib contains an extension to serialize it to Isolated Storage and deserialize from.

I have tried to migrate Nikhil Kothari’s solution to work with WCF RIA services V1 and it … works! I have built simple application using this mechanism (look below).

You can download my examples (NHibernate, Lookup, Fluent metadata, Offline) here:

WCF RIA SERVICES v1.0 Samples - part II

2010-08-02T21:58:00.000+02:00

I showed part I of my WCF RIA Services v1.0 samples a few days ago. Today I’ll continue this topic.

I sign changes in my samples:

migration changes & new features
migration changes

Let’s continue …

08. RelatedEntitiesDemo

09. CompositionExample

10. InheritanceExample

The workaround for EF described here no longer needed. I have added modifying entities to my sample application.

11. PresentationModelDemo

12. WcfDemo

WpfClientApp (and SOAP communication) moved to new EndpointsDemo example.

13. EndpointsDemo

By default, only the Binary endpoint is enabled for domain services without additional configuration. You can easily enable another endpoint (ODATA, SOAP, JSON or custom) by registering an endpoint factory in the Web.config file as shown below.

The ODATA endpoint has very limited support in V1. There is no Update or LINQ query support. Deepesh Mohnani has a great post about WCF RIA Services endpoints.

Clients in my example:

BusinessApplicationDemo (Silverlight, default endpoint)
BusinessApplicationDemo.Web (AJAX, JSON)
WpfClientApp (WPF, SOAP)
ODataClientApp (Silverlight, ODATA)

Below is an example query method in the Ajax client.

14. ASPNetDynamicDataExample

I have used a new project template called ASP.NET Dynamic Data Domain Service Web Application in WCF RIA Services Toolkit.

All samples from part two you can download here

Cheers!!

WCF RIA SERVICES v1.0 Samples - part I

2010-07-28T19:32:00.000+02:00

In February and March I wrote five good posts with samples about WCF RIA Services Beta. I have refreshed all these samples to work with WCF RIA Services v1.0. I have tested almost all new WCF RIA Services RC1/RC2/v1 features, too. In the near future I’ll write three posts about WCF RIA Services v1.0 features and various extensions. Today I’ll present first part of it.

I sign changes in my samples:

migration changes & new features
migration changes

Let’s start …

1. BusinessApplicationDemo

If a large number of entities can be returned, consider paging on the client by throttling the results. Now, you can use the ResultLimit property on the QueryAttribute.

Deepesh Mohnani has written a great post how to use server throttling with DomainDataSource.

BTW, there are many changes in DomainDataSource. It no longer blocks loads when another load is pending. SubmitChanges on DomainDataSource no longer automatically reloads data. Filter/sort/group descriptors support binding. There is ICommand support for Load/SubmitChanges/RejectChanges. For more details, read breaking changes.

In the latest RIA Services bits, the total server count of the resulting query is not requested by default for paging scenarios. To explicitly request that the Count method is called, you can set the IncludeTotalCount property on the EntityQuery to true. Deepesh Mohnani has a great post about it here.

DomainDataSource will not request for count in non-paging scenarios. As soon as a page size is specified, DomainDataSource will set the IncludeTotalCount property on the EntityQuery for you. By subscribing to the LoadingData event on the DomainDataSource you can override this behavior.

To reduce the load on the middle tier and database you can use the OutputCacheAttribute attribute for output caching. Now, clients can cache the response because communication between the client and server has been changed from SOAP with binary encoding (only POST) to REST with binary encoding (GET or POST).

In the current release, validation rules are enforced by raising events through the INotifyDataErrorInfo interface.

When you create a custom validation class or attribute, you must now pass to the Silverlight application the name or names of the members that failed validation (with the ValidationResult).

BTW, you can write custom authorization rules, just like validation. There’s extensible AuthorizationContext. See CustomAuthorization (ala CustomValidation) attribute written by Nikhil Kothari.

Now, you can very easily perform async validation. The RIA Services Entity class has the ValidationErrors collection to manipulate the errors at any time. When you call Add, Remove, or Clear on the collection, it translates that into the necessary INotifyDataErrorInfo events. Simply modifying the collection will result in the UI showing the updated errors. Jeff Handley writes about it here. BTW, his async validation example contains the CustomValidation attribute which is different approach than you see below.

Some good links about validation

2. ConflictsExamples

Support for LinqToSql classes is now only available in the WCF RIA Services Toolkit.

Resolve methods for resolving conflicts in different types of DALs are not supported in this release of WCF RIA Services.

I have added second version of my example with concurrency conflicts - with Entity Framework.

In the current release, the entire original entity is not sent to the server for concurrency checks any more. Now, you can specify which members are sent to the server by marking them with the RoundtripOriginal attribute. In addition, any members that are marked with the ConcurrencyCheck attribute or the TimeStamp attribute are automatically sent to the server.

3. WindowsAuthentication

4. HttpsExample

5. CrossDomainExample

6. RIAServicesLibrariesDemo

7. MultipleDomainContextsExamples

All samples from part one you can download here

Useful links

Start, doc & samples

MIX 10

Channel 9

Silverlight TV

TechEd 10

Effective RIA: Tips and Tricks for Building Effective Rich Internet Applications [WEB307]

Silverlight 4 Hands on Labs

Blogs & Sites

Cheers and enjoy!!

Expression Blend 4: SketchFlow improvements

2010-07-06T20:11:00.000+02:00

What’s new in SketchFlow, which is now distributed as part of Expression Studio 4 Ultimate ?

In Expression Blend 4, the MockupDemonstration sample contains new mockup controls which help you create prototypes quickly and easily. Mockup controls are templates that include common web and desktop controls. They look like sketches, but are more interactive. You can enable them for any SketchFlow project.

There is a new pause toggle button in each frame of a SketchFlow Animation. When toggled on, this causes the SketchFlowAnimation to pause at that frame when playing back in the SketchFlow Player. In the SketchFlow Player, there is a play/pause button, too.

Expression Blend has new SketchFlowAnimationTrigger which responds to a frame change or the pausing or completion of a SketchFlow animation.

You can also apply TransitionEffect to a SketchFlow animation when the transition time is greater than 0.

In the SketchFlow player you can now pan and resize the screens at runtime. A subtle border surrounds each screen that a user can click and drag to resize the screen. If the original dimensions or the resized area of the screen is larger than the viewing area, scrollbars appear.

The SketchFlow map is now accessed using the Map button, next to the Navigation tab. The map is opened as an overlay above the current screen.

When using the Export to Word feature, a new option has been added. Now you can export feedback in the Word document.

You can read about other new features (publish to SharePoint, convert feedback to TFS work items, SketchStyles, naming screens) here.

Conditional behaviors and the data store are very useful for prototyping, too.

Below are links that I recommend for learning new SketchFlow features

Expression Blend 4: Improvements to Photoshop file import

2010-07-01T23:55:00.000+02:00

In Expression Blend 4 some layer effects (Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Color Overlay, Outer Glow, Inner Glow, Gradient Overlay, Bevel & Emboss, Satin) can now be merged with their layers.

If a layer effect has been applied to a layer, the Layer effect icon appears next to the layer in the Import Adobe Photoshop File dialog box. A layer effect can be imported either by selecting the Flattened bitmap import option or by merging the layer with other layers.

Adam Kinney wrote a great post about importing art from Photoshop and making into Silverlight controls. You should read it!

Expression Blend 4: Business Application Development

2010-06-28T23:49:00.000+02:00

Today I’ll write about support for MVVM and design-time resources. You can simplify your daily work. Read this post!

Expression Blend offers new sample data, behaviors, and project templates to support MVVM.

It includes the Silverlight/WPF Databound Application project template that offers a basic starting point for MVVM pattern applications. The UserControl with ViewModel item template is very helpful, too.

Methods and commands of CLR objects show up just like data in the data pane. You can now bind execution of methods and commands against UI elements with drag and drop. Blend automatically generates an InvokeCommandAction or a CallMethodAction with default trigger!

New Blend can generate sample data for CLR classes, even for classes that have private constructors, properties without setters and so on. If your application uses the MVVM pattern, you can generate design-time sample view models and continue to design your application in the context of this data.

Modern applications are often broken into dynamically loaded modules (f.e MEF). At design time, this often leads to problems because not all required resources are available in an individual module. With Blend 4, designers can load in a temporary resource file that is only used for resource resolution at design time, enabling a great design experience even in complicated modular scenarios. When you open a project in Blend and the current document contains resources that cannot be resolved and your solution contains at least one ResourceDictionary file, the Add Design-time Resource Dictionary dialog will open.

Below you see my sample application with all features described in this post. Runtime data is different than design-time data.

Complete solution you can download here.

Useful links

Expression Blend 4: Conditional Behaviors & Data Store

2010-06-25T00:05:00.000+02:00

You can now build conditional logic without the need to write code. In addition, different parts of your application can communicate via data store without writing any code, too!

When you fill user and password fields and click Login button in my sample application, user name and authentication info are written to Data Store, main menu and Home page with logged user name are displayed.

New SetDataStoreValueAction writes the value of a property to Data Store and optionally animates the change over time.

Using Data panel you can manage the Data Store and its properties.

New DataStoreChangeTrigger fires when a specified property in the Data Store changes.

You can drag a property from the DataStore onto the art board.

Useful links

Expression Blend 4: Transition Effects

2010-06-22T23:51:00.002+02:00

Blend’s Transition Effects provide a pixel-based transition from one visual state to another.

A TransitionEffect is a PixelShader that has an animatable Progress property. There are several of these in Blend SDK and you can write your own.

Useful links

Expression Blend 4: Fluid UI - Enhanced FluidMoveBehavior & Layout States

2010-06-20T23:20:00.000+02:00

In Blend 4, Fluid Layout has many new tricks. You can now define layout animations between a master list and a detail view and animate things that move between lists. You can also animate the process of items being added to and removed from a ListBox.

An exciting enhancement has been made to the FluidMoveBehavior.

FluidMoveBehaviorMasterDetail

By using FluidMoveBehavior together with FluidMoveSetTagBehavior, you can animate a transition from a specified starting point, even if that initial location is specified only by a reference to the data that is displayed in your application and may exist in a different scope. Data tagged by FluidMoveSetTagBehavior is available for use with FluidMoveBehavior by using a hidden data store.

FluidMoveBehavior is optimized for two main scenarios: animating from a master list to a detail view and animating list items from one list to another.

FluidMoveBehaviorListToList

In Silverlight 4, a special VisualStateGroup called LayoutStates has been added specifically for animating adding items to and removing items from a ListBox (or custom ItemsControl). You may have a look at my previous post (updated sample you can get from here).

If you also apply a FluidMoveBehavior behavior to the items panel of the ListBox, existing items will smoothly make room for entering new items.

Useful links

Expression Blend 4: Path Layout

2010-06-16T23:20:00.000+02:00

Expression Blend 4 now lets you design many complex layouts without writing any code.

Useful links

MIX 10: Authoring for Windows Phone, Silverlight 4 and WPF 4 with Expression Blend
Silverlight TV 25: No More Boxes! Exploring the PathListBox
.toolbox: Discovering the PathListBox Control

Christian Schormann

Adam Kinney

PathListBoxUtils

My examples

I have created five samples with PathListBox:

PathListBoxIntro

MultiplePaths

MotionPath

TextOnPath

PathListBoxItemDemo

and I’ve tested .toolbox carousel sample with PathListBoxUtils:

My offline extension of DeploymentCatalog

2010-06-10T08:14:00.000+02:00

DeploymentCatalog works well in many scenarios. However, when you start Silverlight out of browser application in offline, cached .xap is not found. So I have extended standard DeploymentCatalog to support offline scenario.

How my offline extension works?

In online out of browser application downloads (or gets from cache) .xap file and saves it in an additional place - MyDocuments folder. I use trusted mode, so saving works without user interaction and space limit.

When you start out of browser application in offline, .xap file is loaded from MyDocuments folder.

I have created DeploymentCatalogWithOffline based on modified DeploymentCatalog sources. I have changed only implementation of HandleOpenReadCompleted method (see the screenshot below).

You can download complete solution here.

Silverlight 4 RTW Samples - part II

2010-06-08T22:18:00.000+02:00

I wrote a post with part I of my Silverlight 4 RTW practical summary a few days ago. Today I’ll continue this topic.

I sign changes in my samples:

API changes or/and new features
new sample showing new features

Let’s continue …

9. Out of browser applications - sandboxed (SandboxedOutOfBrowser, MultiTouchPuzzle)

Now you can silent install out of browser application without … browser. You can also launch application without installing.

10. Out of browser applications - trusted (TrustedOutBrowser)

Upon installation of an elevated trust application end user’s will be presented with dialogs shown below. XAP signing reassures end users of the authenticity of an application’s publisher and that the code has not been tampered with.

You should experiment with custom window chrome! Your application may look more distinctive!

Silverlight 4 adds the ability to discover when an OOB application’s window is being closed. The Closing event offers the opportunity to cancel this operation in trusted applications.

11. Implicit styles (ImplicitStylesDemo)

12. CompositeTransform (TransformDemo)

13. MEF (MEF, MEF2, HousePlanner, ExtensibleGrid, SilverlightMEFNavigation)

MEF in final Silverlight 4 has some changes from beta. For example, it contains new DeploymentCatalog.

14. Communication - multicast, authentication & WCF (MulticastChat, ClientHttpStackAuth, WcfTcpBinding, WcfDuplexTcpBinding, VideoChat)

When using a service configured with NetTcp binding, Silverlight does not honor TCP policy served by the server at port 943. This is one of some known WCF issues in Silverlight 4.

15. Communication - WCF Data Services (WcfDataServicesDemo, BinaryDataStreamingDemo)

I have added demonstration of server-driven paging and partial entity sets to WcfDataServicesDemo example.

You can work more efficiently by using Visual Studio 2010 Data Sources window !

OData protocol defines a mechanism for accessing binary data separate from an entity to which it belongs. OData service can expose large binary data as a media resource that belongs to a media link entry. The WCF Data Services client for Silverlight can consume a media resource from an OData service as a binary stream.

16. XML - XPath (XmlDemo)

Silverlight 4 RC/RTW introduces XPath support including XPathNavigator and LINQ to XML extension methods for evaluating XPath expressions on your XElement objects!

17. New C#4 & platform features (CSharp4, ModifyHTMLbyNET)

18. ViewBox (ViewBoxDemo)

19. Toolkit - ContextMenu & Theming (ThemesDemo)

Silverlight 4 Toolkit April '10 introduces some new features and changes.

ThemesDemo example shows new SystemColors theme, using themes at application and page level, custom theme, changing themes at run-time with ContextMenu control.

All samples from part two you can download here

Silverlight 4 Tools for Visual Studio 2010 also contains some interesting features. See great video on Silverlight TV!

Silverlight 4 RTW Samples - part I

2010-05-28T07:07:00.000+02:00

I have refreshed all my Silverlight 4 Beta samples to work with Silverlight 4 RTW. I have also added demos of almost all new Silverlight 4 RC/RTW features. In addition, I have included some interesting samples I had found on the Web. In the near future I’ll write two posts with my summary of Silverlight 4 RTW features. Today I’ll present first part of it .

I sign changes in my samples:

API changes or/and new features
new sample showing new features

Let’s start ….

1. Webcam & microphone (WebcamMicSample, FaceLight)

2. Printing (PrintingSample)

3. Dragging files & right click (DropFilesRightClickSample)

4. Mouse wheel, clipboard & DataGrid (ClipboardDataGrid)

5. Layout states - ListBoxItem (ListBoxLayoutStatesExample)

6. Navigation extensibility (NavigationExtensibility)

7. Data binding (BindingValidation 1, BindingValidation 2, DesignBinding, MasterDetailsDemo)

You should read about Silverlight design-time attributes and sample data in Visual Studio 2010. Now you can specify that the design instance is created from your type or a designer-generated substitute type.

You should also read about master-details view with CollectionViewSource.

8. RichTextBox, RTL flow direction & text trimming (RichTextAreaSample, SilverlightTextEditor, TextTrimming)

Now you can traverse the content in a RichTextBox by using the TextPointer class. In my example, I select first word at run-time and change it’s foreground to red.

You can also get and set a XAML representation of the content in a RichTextBox by using the Xaml property. Unfortunately, the XAML string returned by the Xaml property will not include any UIElement objects that are present in the content. The InlineUIContainer objects will be converted to empty Run objects -:(

All samples from part one you can download here

WCF RIA Services, Part V - WCF

2010-03-02T10:49:00.000+01:00

The current implementation of RIA Services is based on WCF. Now you can customize or extend domain services using WCF infrastructure.

Useful links:

WCF RIA Services - Part IV, Presentation Models

2010-02-28T22:23:00.000+01:00

Presentation model aggregates data from multiple entities in the data access layer. It is useful when you do not want to directly expose the entities in your data access layer to the client.

You should read these links:

I’ve implemented sample described here.

WCF RIA Services - Part III, Inheritance

2010-02-24T23:51:00.000+01:00

WCF RIA Services enables you to work with entities that are part of an inheritance hierarchy. This feature is supported only with Visual Studio 2010 and Silverlight 4.

Useful links:

My simple example (with entities from here):

WCF RIA Services - Part II, Compositional Hierarchies

2010-02-22T20:37:00.000+01:00

Compositional hierarchy is very useful for people who need real parent/child hierarchies.

You can read about this new feature here:

WCF RIA Services - Part I, changes in features known from previous releases & design tools

2010-02-18T23:35:00.000+01:00

I wrote a very long post about .NET Ria Services with 20 samples four months ago. In this series of posts I’ll describe WCF RIA Services presented at PDC. In this post, I’ll present 9 updated samples and VS 2010 design tools.

Business Application Demo

Silverlight Business Applications: Design tools

Data Sources Window: Query selection

Data Sources Window: Control selection

Dragging the Product node to the designer (query with parameters)

Dragging the Product node onto the DataPager

Data Sources Window: Details mode selection

Dragging the Product node to the designer (Details mode)

Data Sources Window: Custom control selection

Dragging the User node to the designer (Details mode, custom control)

Server validation & resolving concurrency conflicts

Windows Authentication

A Https Enabled DomainService

DomainContext: cross-domain scenario

Loading Data from Related Entities

Silverlight Business Applications: Design tools

Dragging the Products node (the child node of the Category node) to the designer

Multiple DomainContexts

WCF RIA Services Class Libraries

ASP.NET Dynamic Data integration

Other useful samples I have found

Useful links

New features in Silverlight 4 Beta: Viewbox

2010-01-24T20:31:00.000+01:00

Viewbox has been around in WPF since version 1 and it’s also part of the Silverlight Toolkit. It’s also in runtime of Silverlight 4 Beta.

Useful links

New features in Silverlight 4 Beta: C# 4 & Sharing Assemblies with .NET Apps

2010-01-23T19:52:00.000+01:00

Have you tried to use new C# 4 features in Silverlight 4 Beta ? Read this post.

I’ve made Silverlight sample (CSharp4) to demonstrate new C# 4 features and new BCL types

Silverlight 4 has also changes in Collection Sets and parsing and formatting time intervals.

Covariance and contravariance don’t work in Silverlight 4 Beta (I have tested it – you can’t compile code with variance).

I’ve built second Silverlight example (ModifyHTMLbyNET) to show HTML /JavaScript integration with dynamic type.

Both samples you can download below.

Dynamic type is very useful for native integration (COM), too.

You can read about sharing Silverlight assemblies with .NET here and here.

Useful links

New features in Silverlight 4 Beta: WCF Data Services

2010-01-19T21:57:00.000+01:00

ADO.NET Data Services has changed its name to WCF Data Services. Today I’ll write about consuming these data services from Silverlight 4 Beta client.

I have created Silverlight 4 application consuming .NET 4.0 WCF Data Service in x-domain scenario (which is supported in updated data services). Silverlight 4 client library includes most of the new features previewed in the ADO.NET Data Services CTP2. Using the Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 Add Service Reference feature with the Silverlight 4.0 Beta requires a few extra steps from the normal process.

The Open Data Protocol Visualizer for Visual Studio CTP1 (see screenshot above) provides a read-only visualization of the types, properties, associations, and other objects in the Entity Data Model (EDM) returned from an Open Data Protocol’s metadata endpoint. You can download and install it using Extension Manager.

Useful links

New features in Silverlight 4 Beta: Multicast, Authentication, WCF

2010-01-16T19:20:00.000+01:00

This post will be about some new communication features in Silverlight 4. In the coming days I’ll write about frameworks built on top of WCF: WCF Data Services (formerly ADO.NET Data Services) and WCF RIA Services (formerly .NET RIA Services).

What’s new?

UDP Multicast Client Support (UdpSingleSourceMulticastClient and UdpAnySourceMulticastClient)
Client Http Stack: Authentication Support (Basic, Digest, NTLM)
Trusted Applications: Cross-Domain Networking Access
WCF: .net.tcp protocol (NetTcpBinding)
Support for Referer Header
WMS Multicast (MediaElement)

I have tested multicast, client http stack authentication and WCF NetTcpBinding (from client to server and duplex). You can download sources below.

I had some problems to get IIS configured to use Net.TCP. Mike had written an excellent post about using WCF NetTcpBinding with Silverlight 4. You should read it.

Useful links

New features in Silverlight 4 Beta: Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF)

2010-01-05T22:12:00.000+01:00

The Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) is a new library in Silverlight 4. MEF enables you to build modularized applications whose components can be added in an incrementally. MEF ships as part of Silverlight 4, but we’ve also made a Silverlight 3 compatible version of MEF available on codeplex at MEF.Codeplex.com (current version: Preview 8). Read this post!

I have create my sample application (VS solution: MEF). There’ are excellent showcasts prepared by Mike Taulty. They show many MEF features. I have make VS solution (MEF2) with almost all presented cases.

MEF features in these 2 solutions:

Exports ([Export])
- Composable Part, properties, methods (as delegates)
- Export metadata ([ExportMetadata(key, value)])
- Custom Export Attributes ([Custom]: [Export])
- Inheritance ([InheritedExport])
- Life time (option: [PartCreationPolicy]: Any, Shared, Nonshared)
Imports ([Import])

Properties, constructor parameters ([ImportingConstructor]), fields, collections ([ImportMany]), methods (as delegates)
Parameter imports (Implied import - type of parameter (by default), Explicit import - contract)
Importing Metadata
Requirement ([Import] option: AllowDefault)
Recomposition (option: AllowRecomposition)
Notifications (IPartImportsSatisfactionNotification)
Rejection (Stable Composition)
Lazy imports (Lazy<T>)
Dynamic Instantiation (PartCreator<T>)

Composition & hosting

Part Initializer (PartInitializer.SatisfyImports)
Catalogs (AssemblyCatalog, .NET: DirectoryCatalog / Silverlight: PackageCatalog, TypeCatalog, AggregateCatalog)
Containers (CompositionContainer, CompositionHost.InitializeContainer)

Export Providers (CatalogExportProvider, AggregateExportProvider)

Silverlight 4 Beta Toolkit: Dynamic XAP downloading (PackageCatalog, Package.DownloadPackageAsync)

On the Internet there are many interesting samples with MEF and Silverlight 3 or 4 Beta. For example:

HauseSpacePlanner (PDC 09)

ExtensibleGrid (Sample in MEF sources, PDC 09)

Silverlight 3 Navigation with MEF (Brad Abrams)

Useful links

New features in Silverlight 4 Beta: Implicit Styles & CompositeTransform

2009-12-27T23:33:00.000+01:00

In this post I’ll show two useful features: implicit styles and new transform - CompositeTransform.

Implicit Styles

Useful links

CompositeTransform

Useful links

New features in Silverlight 4 Beta: Out Of Browser Applications (Trusted)

2009-12-27T19:04:00.000+01:00

I previously wrote a post about new features of sandboxed out of browser applications. This post focuses on trusted applications.

Trusted application features

Install requires users to “trust” the application
Group Policy support for
- Disabling installation of Trusted Applications
- Disabling activation of Trusted Applications

Native Integration / COM Automation objects on Windows
- ComAutomationFactory
- C# 4.0 “dynamic” programming model
- Standard language feature in Visual Basic
- Automation features supported in SL 4 Beta
  - Property get/set, indexed property get/set
  - Positional and optional parameters
  - Support by ref and by value
  - In proc and out of proc servers
  - Support VARIANT, BSTR, SAFEARRAY
  - Sink dispatch events with arguments
- Automation features not supported in SL 4 Beta
  - Marshalling user defined types
  - Multi-dimensional or jagged arrays
  - Named parameters
  - IEnumVariant
  - Type Information

File System Access
- Folders: MyDocuments, MyMusic, MyPictures, MyVideos
- These folders are distinct from the Windows 7 Libraries

Relax sandbox speed bumps
- Enable cross domain HTTP networking
- Eliminate site locking for WebBrowser
- Full path in Open/SaveFileDialog
- Eliminate user initiation
  - Open/SaveFileDialog
  - Clipboard access
  - Full screen mode
  - Changing window settings
- Enable full keyboard in full screen mode

Useful links

New features in Silverlight 4 Beta: Out Of Browser Applications (Sandboxed)

2009-12-21T22:13:00.000+01:00

Out of browser applications are cool, aren’t they? In the near future I’ll write two posts about it. Today I’ll present enhancements of sandboxed applications.

Sandboxed out of browser additions:

Web Browser/HTML hosting
- WebBrowser control
- HtmlBrush
Window settings
- Runtime changes to Height/Width
- Specify startup location (in manifest)
- Runtime control over WindowState (Normal, Minimized, Maximized)
- Supports “TopMost” Apps (toolbar apps)
- Enable App “Activate” (Normal window state - bringing to front, Minimized - flashing the taskbar)
Toast notifications (NotificationWindow)
DRM media playback
Add/Remove Program Integration

WebBrowser control is cool, but it doesn’t support opacity, rotation, effects and overlaid content (Silverlight content on HTML).

HtmlBrush requires manual refreshing (Refresh method).

NotificationWindow also has some limitations:

Size up to 400 x 100
Popup duration to 30 seconds
Cannot set opacity and rounded corners
Cannot launch popup windows
Location is fixing per operating system (Windows - lower right, OS X - upper right)

You can make much more. Look at cool HTML Puzzle example from PDC !

Useful links

New features in Silverlight 4 Beta: RichTextArea Control, Right to Left Flow Direction & Text Trimming

2009-12-18T07:36:00.000+01:00

Have you checked out the new cool RichTextArea control or TextBlock with trimming ? Read this post.

The RichTextArea allows hyperlinks, XAML content, and embedding of images. It supports changing the font size, foreground color, and making text bold, italicized, and underlined. Paragraph blocks allow different formatting of blocks of text. Mouse events, clipboard, undo, language localization are also supported.

Some limitations

UI elements and hyperlinks are active only in read-only mode.
You can cut, copy, or paste only plain text.
Undo is supported only if the IsReadOnly property is false.

You can now set the direction of content and layout of each control to flow from right side to the left (which is useful for some languages such as Hebrew or Arabic). All UIElement controls inherit the FlowDirection from their parent except Image, MediaElement, MultiScaleImage and Popup. When brushes and effects are applied to elements whose FlowDirection property is set RightToLeft, the result is flipped horizontally.

The TextBlock has a new TextTrimming property. When this property is set to WordEllipsis and the text in the TextBlock exceeds the visible limit, the text appears truncated with a trailing three ellipsis.

Other text improvements

Arabic and Hebrew Text Support
IME (Input Method Editors) improvements for TextBox
UIElement: TextInputStart, TextInputUpdate, TextInput events

Useful links:

New features in Silverlight 4 Beta: Navigation Page Loading Extensibility & Data Binding Changes

2009-12-16T07:05:00.000+01:00

Today I’ll show two new Silverlight 4 features: custom navigation and data binding enhancements.

Navigation Page Loading Extensibility

Now you can extend the navigation system by setting a new ContentLoader property of the Frame class to a custom INavigationContentLoader implementation. The default ContentLoader property value is an instance of the PageResourceContentLoader class.

Useful links

Data binding changes

I have made two sample applications to demonstrate new data binding features.

Data Binding Sample One

Validation with IDataErrorInfo interface (ValidatesOnDataErrors)
String formatting, Null and Fallback values (StringFormat, TargetNull, FallbackValue)
Databinding support for dependency objects
Grouping on CollectionViewSource

Data Binding Sample Two

Synchronous and asynchronous validation with INotifyDataErrorInfo interface (ValidatesOnNotifyDataErrors)
Command property on ButtonBase and Hyperlink (in the sample: Button)
Binding to string indexers
SelectedValue and SelectedValuePath on the Selector (in the sample: ComboBox)

Other data binding improvements

ObservableCollection<T> constructor that takes IEnumerable or IList
IEditableCollectionView (for example PagedCollectionView)

Useful links

New features in Silverlight 4 Beta: Fluid UI States for ItemsControl

2009-12-11T07:43:00.000+01:00

Now you can animate items into/out of ItemsControls ! Read this post.

The ListBoxItem has a new visual state group called Layout States that has BeforeLoaded, Loaded, and Unloaded visual states. These visual states help animate the transition between states when an item is loaded and unloaded from an ItemsControl. Fluid states are applied to containers generated from a DataTemplate.

Useful links

New features in Silverlight 4 Beta: MouseWheel Support, Clipboard Access & DataGrid Enhancements

2009-12-10T20:44:00.000+01:00

Today I’ll write some information about clipboard, new features of DataGrid and mouse scrolling.

Silverlight 4 adds the ability to programmatically access the clipboard to format and modify data during copy, cut, and paste operations (text only). When an attempt is made to programmatically access the clipboard for the first time, Silverlight will prompt the user to request permission.

You can copy a row of a DataGrid to the clipboard (CTRL + C) and then paste it to another program (f.e Excel). You can control what is copied for a particular column by using the DataColumn.ClipboardContentBinding property to point to different data if the cell contents aren’t what you want to have copied.

The DataGrid in Silverlight now has the ability to allow columns to share the remaining width of a DataGrid (*). It also supports MouseWheel scrolling and the FlowDirection property.

Useful links

New features in Silverlight 4 Beta: Dragging Files and Right Click

2009-12-09T07:49:00.000+01:00

Silverlight version 4 Beta introduces APIs to support dragging a file list to a Silverlight application. You can also handle right-click mouse events and change the behavior (for example show context menu). In this post I’ll show demo with these new features.

There’ re some limitations with current drag and drop implementation. Only file drag and drop is supported. For drag and drop to work on Windows, Silverlight plugin must be windowed (<param name="windowless" value="false"/>). In order to use drag-and-drop events for applications hosted by Safari on Macintosh, you must forward the relevant DOM events from your own HTML-level scripting to the specific API of the control.

Useful links

New features in Silverlight 4 Beta: WebCam & Printing

2009-12-08T09:06:00.001+01:00

I’ve been learning new Silverlight 4 for two weeks. I have seen almost all PDC sessions and learning videos. I have read many posts and official documentation. Now I want to test new features by building my own practical examples. I’ll publish them regularly on this blog. Today I’ll write about webcam support and printing.

WebCam & Microphone

Useful links

Printing

Useful links

My longest post: .NET Ria Services July Preview - summary

2009-10-18T08:51:00.000+02:00

I have tested many features of .NET Ria Services July Preview and scenarios for three weeks. I have read Microsoft .NET RIA Services Overview document, materials from .NET Ria Services Samples page and excellent Brad Adam's and Nikhil Kothari’s blogs. I have made some my samples which I’ll present them in this post.

I sign .NET Ria Services features used in my samples:

New feature of July Preview
Modified feature
Feature known from previous releases
Extensions from Microsoft samples

Business Application Demo

The automatic detection of shared code
Operations
- A new model for handling operations on the client
  - Load/Invoke/Submit operations
  - Value that will update itself when the operation completes, callbacks and completed event
- Changed signatures for query and update operations
- POST support for Query operations
DomainDatasource
- Changed parameters
Authentication
- RiaContext, FormsAuthentication
- Roles and profiles
New Silverlight Business Application VS template
- Activity and DataForm controls
- Forms and Windows authentication
Code Generated Hookpoints
- DomainContext Hookpoints
- Entity Hookpoints
Computed properties
Localized error messages
Changed validation API
ASP.NET: DomainDataSource

Server validation & resolving concurrency conflicts

Windows Authentication

A Https Enabled DomainService

DomainContext: cross-domain scenario

Loading Data from Related Entities

Returning Related Entities
Denormalizing Associated Data

Hierarchical Data

Returning Related Entities
Computed properties

Multiple DomainContexts

Cross-DomainContext references: associations with entities originating from different DomainContext

.NET RIA Services Class Libraries

.NET Ria Services Class Library VS template

Out of browser Silverlight client

ASP.NET Dynamic Data integration

Required ASP.NET Dynamic Data Preview 4 Refresh

AJAX client

ASP.NET MVC integration

DomainServiceProxy (you can download it from TechEd South Africa Ria Services samples)
You need to register the DataAnnotations Model Binder in the Global.asax

Exposing DomainService as DataService (Domain ADO.NET Data Service)

Domain ADO.NET Data Service VS template
WPF client (and other full .NET client)
Silverlight client

Silverlight client doesn’t work for me (I have built the sample described in Microsoft .NET RIA Services Overview). If you know what should be done to fix it, please write to me.

Exposing DomainService as WCF service

DomainServiceProxy (you can download it from TechEd South Africa Ria Services samples)

ADO .NET Data Services Based Data Source

WCF Based Data Source

DataSet Based Data Source

NHibernate Based Data Source

Offline synchronization

LocalSyncBehavior
ServerSyncBehavior

You need attach these behaviors to DomainContext. You can download them from TechEd South Africa Ria Services samples.

I haven’t verified if ServerSyncBehavior worked well. If you know how it works , please write to me.

Other useful samples I have found:

POCO
Authentication
- with custom database
  - Custom authentication service (IAuthentication<User>)
  - Custom ASP.NET MembershipProvider
- Offline Authentication
- Windows Live ID Authentication
Pattern: Repository & unit tests
Pattern: Data Transfer Objects (DTOs)
Pattern: ViewModel
XML Metadata Provider
Custom Linq Provider
Custom Domain Service Type
Azure
- Web application on Windows Azure + Sql Azure data
- Windows Azure Table (AzureDomainService)
Separate Solution Files

Expression Blend 3: Out-of-Browser Applications & Application Library Caching

2009-09-22T22:17:00.000+02:00

Expression Blend 3 supports out-of-browser applications and application library caching. In July I wrote about these Silverlight 3 features here and here. In this post I’ll show how easy is to use them in new Blend.

Out-of-Browser Applications

You can configure a Silverlight application to run outside the browser, by using the Silverlight Project Options –> Enable Application Outside Browser on the Project menu.

Below you see the dialog box that appears when you try to run project first time.

Application Library Caching

You can configure a Silverlight application to cache library extensions by using the Silverlight Project Options –> Use Application Library Caching on the Project menu.

Application Outside of Browser and Application Library Caching are cool but they can't be used at the same time because application library caching uses the Internet cache of the browser.

Expression Blend 3: Effects, Projections 3D & some improvements

2009-09-20T20:27:00.000+02:00

New Blend supports new Silverlight 3 features such as effects and projections. Today I’ll show it and I’ll describe some Blend improvements in animation and template support I haven’t described yet.

Effects

I have written post about effects. Below I show how to use them in Blend.

Projections 3D

I have written post about projections. Below I show how to define them in Blend.

Animation: Record Current Value

In a Silverlight project, you can record keyframes for many more properties than before. There is a new menu command, Record Current Value, on the Advanced property options menu.

Animation: Resource values

With new Blend you can animate to and from some resources, too.

Animation: Timeline improvements

Timeline improvements has been described by Expression Team. With new Blend you can draw a marquee around keyframes to select all the keyframes that fall within it.

You can use the new blue drag-handles on the animation bars to move the start and end times of the animation, and the times of the keyframes within it will be scaled up or down accordingly. You can also click and drag on the gray background of the animation bar to shift the whole animation in time.

Easier Access to Template Internals

If a control includes templates that are applied in specific scenarios, such as when a control has to display a collection of data, those templates now appear in the Edit Other Templates menu.

Expression Blend 3: Support for the Silverlight Visual State Manager

2009-09-19T21:03:00.000+02:00

In Expression Blend 3, support for the Silverlight Visual State Manager (VSM) has been improved. In this post I’ll show five new features.

Drawing into state

When you select a state and draw a new element, the new element will be visible only in the selected state at runtime.

State pinning

You can pin a preview of one state in a state group while modifying another state in a different state group.

Editing transitions

You can select the storyboard for a state transition and modify it in the Objects and Timeline panel.

Previewing transitions

You can preview transitions by clicking Turn on transition preview in the States panel. When transition preview is on, each time you change your selection from one state to another, the currently-defined transition between those two states plays out on the artboard just as it will at run time.

FluidLayout

In previous versions of Expression Blend, if you changed such properties as the Row, Column, ColumnSpan, or RowSpan of an object in different states, the change would be instantaneous, even if a transition duration was specified. By selecting Turn on FluidLayout, you can make an object move smoothly from one cell in a Grid layout panel to another.

There are also other improvements. You can see states for controls, regardless of whether those states were defined in your XAML file originally. The States panel displays a warning when a property has been changed in more than one state group.

Expression Blend 3: Creating templates from artwork

2009-09-17T21:54:00.000+02:00

With Expression Blend 3, you can use the modified Make Into Control command to select artwork on the artboard and to convert it into a control template for a control. Read this post.

Expression team has written excellent post about this feature of new Blend. You can also read about it in Blend User Guide.

Smart Make Into ContentControl (f.e Button)

When you use Make Into Control to turn artwork containing a TextBlock object into a template for a ContentControl (buttons and so on), Blend does the following for you:

Put a ContentPresenter into the template in place of the TextBlock.
Copy layout properties from the TextBlock to the ContentPresenter.
Copy Typography properties from the TextBlock (f.e Foreground) to the control Style.
Copy the Text property from the TextBlock to the control instance’s Content property.

Smart Make Into TextBox

When you use Make Into Control to turn artwork containing a TextBlock object into a template for a TextBox, Blend does the following for you:

Put a ScrollViewer representing the ContentElement part into the template in place of the TextBlock.
Copy layout properties from the TextBlock to the ContentElement part.
Copy Typography properties from the TextBlock (f.e Foreground) to the TextBox Style.
Copy the Text property from the TextBlock to the TextBox instance.

Controls with template parts (f.e Slider)

In a Silverlight project, Make Into Part command and Parts panel are very useful for creating templates for controls with template parts.

You can right-click objects in your template and click Make Into Part to assign objects in your control to specific roles.

The Parts panel makes it easy to manage and create the parts (double-click) required by a control template.

Expression Blend 3: Gradient Tool, Tile Brush & Easing Functions

2009-09-14T21:27:00.000+02:00

Blend 3 has new gradient tool with many improvements. Using Tile Brush in Silverlight 3 we can use images as background in a very easy way. Easing functions are very easy, too. In this post I’ll show these features of new Blend.

Gradient Tool

Tile Brush

Easing Functions

Some useful links

Expression Blend 3: Merged Resource Dictionaries & Element Binding

2009-09-12T14:32:00.000+02:00

I wrote some information about merged resource dictionaries and element binding in Silverlight 3 about two months ago. Today I’ll show how Blend 3 supports these features.

Merged Resource Dictionary

Element Binding

Expression Blend 3: Sample Data & Data Binding

2009-08-24T20:43:00.000+02:00

Expression Blend 3 introduces new databinding experience, generating data and many other data-related improvements. Read this post.

Useful links

New Silverlight 3 / Blend 3 Video Tutorial – Working with Data

Unni

Kirupa Chinnathambi

SilverZine

Corey Schuman

Overview of Sample Data in Blend 3

ISV Developer Community

Evgeny

Others

Samples

I have created four samples with data binding and sample data:

SimpleBinding

MasterDetails

HierarchicalCollection

DataGrid

and I’ve tested Unni’s sample with design data:

Expression Blend 3: Adobe PhotoShop and Adobe Illustrator Support

2009-08-22T22:11:00.000+02:00

With the introduction of Expression Blend 3 comes the ability to import both Adobe Photoshop (.psd) files and Adobe Illustrator (.ai) files directly into your projects (layers, shapes, text elements and more)

Some useful links about these features:

Starter Kit: Venture into Gaming with Behaviors in Expression Blend 3 (first module)

Janete Perez

SilverZine

Import Photoshop files to Blend 3

I have imported Photoshop file with some image layers, vector shapes and layer mask. Dialog with file settings and DJ imported into Blend’s artboard below.

Expression Blend 3: Behaviors

2009-08-21T20:18:00.000+02:00

Blend 3 introduces a new concept called behaviors for both Silverlight and WPF. Behaviors are self-contained, re-usable snippets of interactivity that can be assigned interactively to art board content. For more information read this post.

Useful Links

Starter Kit: Venture into Gaming with Behaviors in Expression Blend 3

Expression Blend and Design Team

Christian Schormann

Kirupa Chinnathambi

Peter Blois

DataTrigger, Bindings on non-FrameworkElements, TypeConverters, DataStateBehavior & DataStateSwitchBehavior

Shawn Wildermuth

Additional behaviors

My examples

I’ve built five examples with behaviors:

FirstUsage

TargetSource

Custom

Game

BlendSamplesDemo

Expression Blend 3: SketchFlow

2009-08-19T17:40:00.000+02:00

SketchFlow is a flexible, informal, quick and powerful way to sketch and prototype rich, dynamic interactivity with Expression Blend.

Below are materials that I recommend for learning SketchFlow:

Christian Schormann's blog
Prototyping with SketchFlow (starter kit with text, videos and sources)
http://www.dynamic-prototyping.com/ (preview book chapter + sources)
Microsoft Expression Blend User Guide: Prototyping with SketchFlow
The 3 minutes on Blend 3 series (videos)

I have created my SketchFlow Application (a band website). I’ve used almost all SketchFlow features which are described in documentation and tutorials.

Screens & Connections (navigation & composition)

SketchStyle Controls

Navigation (buttons) [behaviors]

States (screen)

Activating State (button) [behavior]

SketchFlow Animation

Playing an Animation (button click and other events) [behaviors]

Sample Data

Feedback (SketchFlow Player: adding & exporting)

Feedback (Expression Blend: importing)

Exporting to Word

I have used annotations, too.

You can also:

import a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation and use the slides as the beginning of a SketchFlow project
package your SketchFlow project (you get a separate version of your prototype that can then be sent to a client or team member)
convert a SketchFlow prototype into a production-ready project (by removing SketchFlow references)

Behaviors and Sample Data are Blend 3 features that help with prototyping. I’ll describe them in next posts.

Deep Zoom Composer: Collection support & Extensible templates

2009-08-12T22:11:00.000+02:00

Kirupa Chinnathambi, a program manager in the Expression Blend team, has written excellent posts about collection support and extensible templates in Deep Zoom Composer. I have tested all these new features.

Collection Support

You no longer have to compose your images. You can just import your images and go straight to exporting using options: Silverlight Deep Zoom –> Export as a collection –> Tag Browser. To filter what images you see based on the tag, you should add tags in Compose view:

Extensible templates

Now you can export Silverlight Deep Zoom collection using predefined templates:

Blend 3 Behaviors + Source
Deep Zoom Classic + Source
Deep Zoom Navigation (Default)
Empty Project + Source
Tag Browser

The process of selecting a template from within DZC is extensible. You can easily add your own templates with or without Source Files/Project. You should copy your files to Export Templates folder (in DZC installation directory) and restart DZC.

I have set blue background in my test templates.

The latest release of Deep Zoom Composer has other interesting new features. Analytics tracking allows you to specify tracking URLs that will silently get called when you zoom in on an image or region. You can know which images of advertisement get the most attention. Another feature is support for Smooth Streaming. Now you can export your images into a form that is optimized for servers with the technology enabled.

Deep Zoom Composer: Slideshow, Menu & Links

2009-08-10T21:19:00.000+02:00

The Deep Zoom technology in Silverlight can be used to do a lot more than just allowing you to zoom in on high resolution images. Using Deep Zoom Composer you can now create slideshows, link images to other images or external links, and create a menu for navigating to images. For more details please read this post.

Janete Perez, a program manager in the Expression Blend product team, has written excellent posts about these cool features:

I’ve tested all these features, too. Look at my image compositions below.

Slideshow

Menu

Links

Silverlight Toolkit July 2009: Rx Framework !

2009-08-08T18:31:00.000+02:00

The .NET Reactive Framework (Rx) uses Linq to build asynchronous code declaratively. It will be part of .NET 4.0. As of today the only place you can get it is in the Silverlight Toolkit sources (System.Reactive.dll in the bin folder of the Silverlight Toolkit Unit Tests). The Silverlight Toolkit team is using Rx to write reliable, event-based asynchronous tests.

Jafar Husain, a developer on the Presentation Platform Controls team at Microsoft, has written very interesting posts about Rx Framework with many practical examples:

Erik Meijer has discovered that IEnumerable has a dual characteristic: as one can pull a piece of data from a collection, he can also push one into the same collection. So the Observable pattern and the Iterator pattern are the same pattern !!! But IEnumerable can’t be used in asynchronous operations because it blocks and the team has introduced a new pair of interfaces: IObservable and IObserver.

Rx allows you to write complex, asynchronous code declaratively. With Linq to IObservable you can transform and combine events and async callbacks to create the precise event you’re interested in. Then you register a handler and do something with the data. Rx enables you build complex events from a sequence of primitive events (f.e click, drag & drop) !

The framework includes lots of methods for constructing observables and observers. Converting events to IObservables is very easy. Rx provides a static Observable.FromEvent method. It's good practice to create extension methods for each event you would like to query (extension events).

Silverlight Toolkit July 2009: New controls

2009-08-07T22:05:00.000+02:00

The newest Silverlight Toolkit includes some new controls and extensions. Please read this post for more information.

There are three new controls: GlobalCalendar, Rating and TreeMap.

GlobalCalendar

A GlobalCalendar control provides an easy way to style individual days and define custom Gregorian calendars. It can be used on its own, or as a drop-down part of a DatePicker control.

Rating

It can be used to display or allow users to interactively select a rating value. Ratings can be whole or partial stars. By default the control displays stars but can be easily styled.

TreeMap

It can display hierarchical data as a set of nested rectangles. Each item in the hierarchy is laid out in a rectangular area of a size proportional to the value associated with the item.

The data for my samples is Silverlight course topic list. The metrics are quantity and importance.

ItemDefinition (topics by quantity)

ItemDefinitionSelector [levels] (topics by quantity)

ItemDefinition & Interpolators (topics by quantity and importance)

ItemDefinitionSelector [regions] & Interpolators (topics by quantity and importance)

July release provides useful extensions: ItemsControlExtensions, ScrollViewerExtensions and TreeViewExtensions. For more information look here.

Silverlight Toolkit July 2009: DataForm & controls introduced in previous release

2009-08-04T20:59:00.000+02:00

There are many changes in Silverlight Toolkit July 2009 release. Some controls and types have been removed from the Silverlight SDK and they are now in the toolkit (f.e DataForm). Controls introduced in March release have been refreshed. There are also new controls and extensions. Today I’ll write about new DataForm and some refreshed controls.

DataForm

DataForm provides a flexible way to display a single object of or collection of data in a form and to interact with the object(s). It allows IEditableObject support, for the committing or cancelling of changes; it allows field- and entity-level validation through the consumption of attributes. For more information see the links below.

I’ve build four simple examples (screenshots below) to test some features: single object and collection displaying, validation, autogenerated UI, EditTemplate with grouped DataFields, EditTemplate without DataFields, ReadOnlyTemplate. Grouping fields with standard containers is cool!

Accordion, DomainUpDown, TimePicker, LayoutTransform, TransitioningContentControl

There are not big changes in these controls. However, I have noticed some differences when I updated samples with Accordion, DomainUpDown and TimePicker. For example Accordion bug with HeaderTemplate binding has been fixed.