If you have started, or intend to start, tackling the "assignments" for the UK Developer Launch of Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office System, then here are a few pointers for you based on issues raised on Saturday (when we held live labs for about 200 people at the Microsoft Offices at Thames Valley Park) and from questions I've had from people doing them at home:

  • Both Exercises
    • Make sure you read my blog post here in full to get your machine configured correctly - especially important for the Office exercise where you need to make some Caspol changes.
    • You're free to complete the exercise in the language of your choice but note that the code in the document is in C# and we've only provided "model" solutions in C#.
    • Make sure you add a "Service Reference" and not a "Web Reference" when adding a reference to the WCF service.
    • If, when you try to sign in, you get a "System.ServiceModel.FaultException for 'Nick Name'.", make sure the length of the NickName you're using is between 6-12 characters.
    • Make sure the length of the postcode you enter is at least 6 characters. You can enter a 5 character postcode (such as G1 5BL), just make sure you include the space. This was an oversight on our part as for some reason - don't know what Mike and I were thinking of - we decided postcodes had to be at least 6 characters. I think we believed something we read on the internet - bad idea. Spending a minute thinking about it might have proved more useful. :-)
  • Vista Exercise
    • Note that XAML is case sensitive.
    • If your using (or imports) statement for VistaLab.ProxyCode wont resolve, you've probably changed the name of the project (and hence the project namespace) or the name of the service reference (proxy class).
    • When you add the WindowLoadedHandler, it needs to be a method on the Window1 class.
  • Office Exercise
    • To get intellisense support in your Ribbon xml copy the file CusomUi.xsd
      • from: \program files\microsoft visual studio 8\Xml\Schemas\1033
      • to: \program files\microsoft visual studio 8\Xml\Schemas\
    • To see Ribbon customisation error messages in Excel go to Excel Option (from the Office Button), select Advanced and scroll to the bottom. Check the option "Show add-in user interface errors".
    • If you've built your Ribbon cusomisation but your Tab doesn't show up, follow the bullet above to show Ribbon customisation error messages - it'll help you figure out what's wrong.
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