Steve Lasker's Web Log - www.SteveLasker.com/Blog

Building Dashboards with LightSwitch

2013-04-22T17:09:02Z

This morning we published a walkthrough for building Dashboard reports using Visual Studio LightSwitch and the recently released HTML Client.

For me, it's a great to get back to DevDiv building features in our Visual Studio tools.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/lightswitch/archive/2013/04/22/create-dashboard-reports-with-lightswitch-webapi-and-serverapplicationcontext.aspx

Steve

Changing the color them for Outlook 2013

2013-02-11T18:53:00Z

If you’ve upgraded to Outlook 2013 and are struggling with the new softer look, and missing the older higher contrast look in the reading view, you may be wondering about changing the themes. Outlook does have a few themes that can be changed, however they really only change the perimeter, and don’t change the email list.

I'm told to give the new themes some time, and they will grow on you, and perhaps they will, and perhaps I'll give them a try, but for now, I've got way too much email, and I feel like I'm straining to read and find relevant content. so, here’s an quick way to at least get a higher contrast, black on white email list:

Outlook 2013 Default Theme (Blue on white)	Modified View to Black on White

To Change the email:

In the Ribbon, select View
Within the View tab, select Change View
In the Manage All Views dialog, select <Current view settings>, then select [Modify…]
Select [Conditional Formatting…]
Notice the [Font…] configuration, with the nice soft blue font color
Simply select Color and change from Custom to Black
Apply the view to all folders

From the same view menu, select Change View
Select Apply Current View to Other Mail Folders…

Simply select the folders you wish to update, and check the Apply view to subfolders checkbox if you’d like as well.

While this doesn't change all the elements back to the 2010 theme, like the folder icons in the navigation, it at least provides a little more contrast to view way too much email.

Steve

Offline Microsoft Silverlight Applications

2011-05-18T12:19:00Z

At Tech Ed US in Atlanta this week I presented a session for building Offline Silvelright Applications. The session covered an end to end solution for developing applications, building on the work we’ve done with relative Sync technologies, local storage and the common feedback we’ve head over the last several years of working on these technologies.

Messaging Based Sync
The concepts presented here are just that, concepts for things we’ve been brainstorming a bit and not reflective of products we’re shipping. The idea is to bridge the gap for the “data sync” scenarios that we continually received feedback that it wasn’t very “service oriented”. It also addresses the problems for where to get data when online.
In the traditional sync scenario, we would have said always fetch your data locally, even when online and just keep synching the local cache. This is the traditional Outlook model. The problem with this approach is most LOB data isn’t “Outlook like”. Meaning, most LOB data isn’t as cleanly partitioned. In email, these are your emails. Nobody else edits your emails. In fact, you don’t really “edit” your emails either. You receive messages, view them, and create new messages..
In LOB data, you may have data that you’re viewing, but someone else edits it. In our sample, we’re assigning appointments to insurance adjusters. Someone may change that appointment, or the details of the claim.

Active/Passive Caching
The concept presented here mixes active caching and passive caching. Depending on the data, when online we look at the server/service for the data, but cache it locally. When offline, we read from the local cache for data we know changes often.
For reference data, we always read from the cache, as we don’t expect the list of states or company codes to change that often. This reduces server workload as we only periodically ask for changes, and it speeds the local processing.

Local Storage
Other topics that I didn’t have time to delve into is the local storage scenario. There are many solution for local storage, and for this presentation, I chose to use Sterling DB. http://sterling.codeplex.com/
I hope you find the deck and session helpful

Jason Shaver, a PM on our Silverlight team did most of the development for the messaging portion of the Insurance Adjuster application and I know he’s interested in getting feedback on the approach.
Insurance Adjuster Sample on CodePlex

Powerpoints

Video recording of the session

Heading to Tech Ed to talk about Silverlight Offline Applications

2011-05-15T17:27:00Z

Looking forward to a week with business like geeks, grounded in business, but finding a way to make technology meet their business needs.

I'll be around at the Silverlight booth (not quite booth babe, but I'll try), and have a talk on Wednesday.

Hope to see many people there and hear about what you've been building.

Steve

Building In Browser Experiences with Silverlight 5 Mix 11

2011-04-15T02:14:00Z

Here's my deck from one of our Silverlight 5 sessions @ Mix 11.

We'll be creating a Forum for Silverlight 5 discussions, but please use Connect for any bugs.

Thanks and hope you enjoy the productivity of Silverlight 5

Steve

Silverlight TV, LOB Focus and a very cool Silverlight 4 Demo of National Instruments LabView

2011-03-05T01:25:47Z

Last week, John Papa posted this interview we did, discussing in part our Silverlight 5 LOB focus. http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/SilverlightTV/Silverlight-TV-63-Exploring-National-Instruments-App-Using-Data-and-Business-Features

It's always fun working with John, and looking forward to Mix.

Some other Silverlight TV episodes include:

Silverlight local databases, what do you use?

2011-02-02T05:06:46Z

Completely acknowledging the lack of an integrated local database story with Silverlight, there are many solutions out there. Curious what you use, what you like, and what’s missing from your favorite solution.
Since various solutions cover various options, also curious what scenarios your using your solution for.

Silverlight is hiring - Do you love data controls & LOB?

2011-01-14T22:57:00Z

As was announced at the Firestarter, Silverlight 5 will continue its focus on data and line of business (LOB) scenarios. As the team continues to expand its breadth of features we’re looking for just the right person that has what it takes to quench the thirst of developers world wide. Do you feel challenged by all the developers out there looking to build LOB apps? While we’re always looking for great overall Microsoft hires, we are looking for just that special person that likes the challenge of DataBinding, consuming data services, enhancing, extending and developing new controls. The position is for a Senior Program Manager, but if you’re a developer, with great customer interaction skills, this could be for you as well.

For more info, see this job posting, or feel free to contact me via my blog

Thanks,
Steve

I'm baaaaackkk

2011-01-06T17:37:19Z

Well, after 2 years away from DevDiv, I just couldn't stay away. While I had a great time working on the billing system for Microsoft Online Services, such as Office 365 and Azure, met some great people across various divisions and did some innovative work building what will likely be one of the largest billing systems in the world, I just missed working with external customers and working on the future of our development platforms.

So, as of last November, I've joined the Silverlight team, which includes many of the folks I worked with when I first joined Microsoft over 7 years ago. I'll be focusing on our Line Of Business (LOB) scenarios, and our UI Framework. We've got some exciting work coming up with Silverlight 5, which I'm sure you've all seen at the FireStarter, but there's more to come.

So, here's to an exciting 2011, and I look forward to hearing from you, yes, the corrective :) feedback is just as interesting to know what you like, what you don't, what you need more of, etc.

Steve

New year, new gig, new blog. Moving to the cloud…

2009-02-27T07:55:00Z

I've moved... Here's the new blog with details on why and what...