Gold Coast : Silverlight

Bing Maps roadshow in Reston

marcsc — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:22:15 GMT

Want to get up to speed on the latest release of Bing Maps including both the Ajax and Silverlight controls as well as the SOAP web services? Don’t miss the upcoming roadshow in Reston, Va. Details:

http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/govmaps/archive/2009/11/24/bing-maps-roadshow-coming-to-reston-virgina.aspx

“At this event, experts will provide an overview of Bing Maps as a powerful visualization tool for geographic and location-based information. With highlights of scenarios such as locators, fleet/asset tracking, data visualization portals, and location intelligence, we’ll present a deep dive into the Bing Maps Platform, including details on specific features, AJAX, Web Services, and new Silverlight APIs.

We’ll also review exciting recent enhancements, exploring ways to integrate with GIS systems and leverage SQL 2008 spatial features, as well as other related tools and technologies. When you meet the experts, you’ll learn solution implementation and best practices―and you’ll leave with the tools and resources to tap the power of location using Bing Maps.

Event Summary:
1:00 - 2:15 Introduction to Bing Maps, Solution Overview, and Demos
2:30 - 3:30 Deep Dive on Architecture and APIs
3:45 - 5:00 Best Practices, Data Integration, and Future of Bing Maps”

EventToCommand + DataStateBehavior eases MVVM pain

marcsc — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:56:56 GMT

MVVM is a pattern. There are all sorts of MVVM frameworks popping up that help make implementing the pattern easier. If you select the MVVM tag off of www.codeplex.com, you will find a number of them:

http://www.codeplex.com/site/search?TagName=MVVM&ProjectSearchText=%22MVVM%22

One I have recently grown fond of is http://mvvmlight.codeplex.com/. The reason I like this one is because they have built an Expression Blend Behavior called EventToCommand. Details for the behavior:

http://blog.galasoft.ch/archive/2009/11/05/mvvm-light-toolkit-v3-alpha-2-eventtocommand-behavior.aspx

As the post says, ‘EventToCommand is used to bind an event to an ICommand directly in XAML.”

This is WAY COOL!!! EventToCommand helps overcome commanding challenges in Silverlight.

I love Blend Behaviors. If you haven’t looked into them, YOU MUST! Every WPF and Silverlight developer should be using them (where applicable). “A Behavior is in essence a reusable piece of interactivity that can be applied directly to user interface elements...”

Here are some resources:

Good Overview - http://tinyurl.com/BehaviorsOverview

More reading - http://tinyurl.com/BehaviorsTriggersActions

Expression Blend 3 SDK - http://tinyurl.com/blend3sdk

Lots of folks creating and uploading them to Expression Gallery - http://tinyurl.com/BehaviorsGallery

Behaviors from the Blend Team - http://expressionblend.codeplex.com/

Behaviors are part of the Blend SDK. There is a lot of confusion about the Blend SDK because people think you have to buy Blend to use it. You don’t! You can download it from http://tinyurl.com/blend3sdk and use it straight from Visual Studio. Blend definitely makes wiring up Behaviors easier so you should it for that if you are already using Blend!

The samples you can download from http://expressionblend.codeplex.com/ include DataStateBehavior and DataStateSwitchBehavior. Peter Blois has a good post on these behaviors:

http://blois.us/blog/2009/04/datatrigger-bindings-on-non.html

DataStateBehavior/DataStateSwitchBehavior provide a nice clean way to change values in your ViewModel that result in initiating animations in your View.

I’ve been wanting to whip up a simple sample that shows both EventToCommand and DataStateBehavior/DataStateSwitchBehavior. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time right now to do so. Instead of sitting on this, I decided to blog about it first, then share a sample/video when I get around to it.

Silverlight touch just got easier

marcsc — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:51:39 GMT

I’ve been waiting for this to happen! The Surface team ported their Manipulation and Inertia APIs to Silverlight 3+. They’ve made them available for download at:

http://tinyurl.com/SurfaceManipSilverlight

This is a must have set of APIs if you are interested in building multi-touch solutions on Windows 7 with Silverlight 3+.

Another example of Silverlight used in the US Government

marcsc — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:13:06 GMT

Adam Kinney just published a Channel 9 interview about another use of Silverlight in the US Government:

U.S. Army using Silverlight for Resourcing Troops

“Dan Hickman from ProModel tells the story of converting their Predictive Troop Resourcing application for the U.S. Army from a Windows Forms application to a Silverlight-based application. Reusing existing .NET code, working with familiar controls from IdeaBlade, and helping to get Silverlight on the approved browser plug-ins list for the Army; ProModel was able to build the application in a very short amount of time.”

I just watched it myself. Worth watching…

Hidden gems in the gaming starter kit

marcsc — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:43:59 GMT

Yesterday I blogged about the SketchFlow starter kit and how great I thought it was. Well, last night, I went ahead and tried the Venture into Gaming with Behaviors in Expression Blend 3 starter kit from:

http://adamkinney.com/Blog/4-Expression-Studio-3-Starter-Kits-available-for-download

Much to my surprise, this felt more like a Blend 3 Fundamentals through Building a Game. To understand what I mean, here are the individual modules in the kit:

01_BLN03SP1EN720_Organizing_and Importing_Assets into_Expression_Blend

02_BLN03SP1EN720_Creating_the_Game_Interface_Using_Expression_Blend

03_BLN03SP1EN720_Understanding_Layout_Containers

04_BLN03SP1EN720_Creating_a_User_Control

05_BLN03SP1EN720_Adding_and_Applying_Behaviors

06_BLN03SP1EN720_Adding_Game_Walls_and_Creating_Animation

07_BLN03SP1EN720_Animating_Controls_with_the_Visual_State_Manager

08_BLN03SP1EN720_Working_with_Texts_and_Embeding_Fonts_with_Expression_Blend

09_BLN03SP1EN720_Adding_Audio_Resources_to_a_Silverlight_Game

10_BLN03SP1EN720_Publishing_and_Testing_Your_Silverlight_Game

If you are looking to warm up to Blend a bit more through a video walkthrough + hands-on-lab kind of approach, then I’d definitely recommend this kit. If you already understand these concepts, then you might want to skip this one. On the other hand, it is kind of fun to see how easy it is to build a simple game with the skills you already have.

The biggest nugget for me was the module on Behaviors. If you haven’t looked at Behaviors, then GO DO IT NOW. Here’s a good post on behaviors:

http://team.silverlight.net/announcements/product-feature-highlight-expression-blend-3-ndash-behaviors/

“A Behavior is in essence a reusable piece of interactivity that can be applied directly to user interface elements in Expression Blend.”

I don’t remember where, but I saw someone describe Behaviors as "ASP.NET AJAX Control Extenders for Silverlight/WPF." Not a bad way of describing them if you are familiar with the concept of ASP.NET AJAX Control Extenders.

Once you have wrapped your head around Behaviors, you’ll want to check out the following two links to download more:

http://gallery.expression.microsoft.com/en-us/site/search?f%5B0%5D.Type=Tag&f%5B0%5D.Value=Behavior

http://expressionblend.codeplex.com/

In general, http://gallery.expression.microsoft.com is a great resource. There are all sorts of useful things to download there including Art/Design assets, Web Templates, Samples, Themes, Behaviors, Code Snippets, Tools/Addins.

Get up to speed on SketchFlow FAST

marcsc — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 23:58:45 GMT

SketchFlow is a feature of Expression Blend 3. If you aren’t familiar with SketchFlow, then you should check out:

http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/SketchFlow_OverView.aspx

“SketchFlow revolutionizes how quickly and efficiently you can demonstrate your vision for an application. It provides an informal and quick way to explore, iterate and prototype user interface scenarios, allowing you to evolve your concepts from a series of rough ideas into a living and breathing prototype that can be made as real as a particular client or project demands. This rapid, iterative and cost effective approach to prototyping allows you to concentrate on what matters most, being creative and building the best solution for your client, on time and within budget.”

Digging into SketchFlow has been on my TODO list for quite some time. In many ways, I am glad I hadn’t gotten around to it. A week or so ago, Adam Kinney blogged about:

4 Expression Studio 3 Starter Kits available for download

One of the starter kits is on SketchFlow. I just finished it. If you want to get your head around SketchFlow fast, then this is the resource for you!

Prism Visual Studio Templates (including MVVM)

marcsc — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:19:18 GMT

Prism is:

“The Composite Client Application Guidance is designed to help you more easily build modular Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Silverlight client applications.”

What most people find, once they take the time to dig in to Prism, is that it is MUCH more. Prism has guidance on how to build an app that targets both Silverlight & WPF, has some plumbing that makes MVVM easier in Silverlight apps by providing a basic commanding implementation, etc. However, the learning curve to get proficient with Prism can be a turnoff for some. Even once you “get it,” you then realize that there is a fair amount of Visual Studio solution/project setup just to get to the point of being able to start building your parts of the application. The good news is that David Hill has just released some templates for Visual Studio 2008 to make the basic setup for your Prism based apps much easier:

http://blogs.msdn.com/dphill/archive/2009/05/29/prism-quick-start-kit.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/dphill/archive/2009/06/15/prism-quick-start-kit-update.aspx

I just went through the walkthrough in the first link. Here is what you get after the “Prism Shell” and “Prism Module” templates:

You get the skeleton of a basic composite application using MVVM. I think this is a big time saver. I will definitely be keeping an eye out as David evolves the templates / quick start kit.

UPDATE: I was so excited to share my discovery of David’s work that I forgot to add a few more helpful resources I have found:

Code Snippet for Prism DelegateCommand

A code snippet to quickly write Prism commands

SnagL: Visualizing Government Data using Silverlight

marcsc — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:56:49 GMT

My job at Microsoft is to focus on developers building software for the U.S. Government (directly or indirectly). When talking to folks about Silverlight, I get asked quite often whether it is being used on U.S. Government networks (including classified networks) all the time. You can imagine, due to the potential sensitivity of the customers/question, this is hard to answer other than “Yes, in many places.” That’s why I am excited to have published an interview with Berico Tailored Systems about their product called SnagL. Here is the interview description:

SnagL, from Berico Tailored Systems, is a thin client collaborative link analysis tool, which can be integrated with any existing tool or data repository. Advanced analytics, like clustering and ranking, enables users to intuitively navigate massive amounts of data through a thin client in a web browser.

SnagL is used by U.S. Government customers to help visually analyze, determine relationships in, and make decisions based on data. Watch the interview with members of the team to learn about the product, see a demo of it in action, and how it uses Silverlight to deliver compelling data visualizations that go beyond what you might expect from a browser based application. The team also gives you a history of their early adoption of Silverlight, evolution of SnagL, and how Silverlight enabled them to “see things you wouldn’t normally see just looking at the data.” They also talk about how Silverlight gave them a level of performance and visualization in the browser unmatched by their previous approaches. Finally, the team shares their excitement to start incorporating capabilities coming in Silverlight 3.

You can watch the interview at http://tinyurl.com/Ch9SnagL.

ShawnWildermuth: Supporting ScreenReaders in Silverlight

marcsc — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:29:40 GMT

http://wildermuth.com/2009/05/10/Supporting_ScreenReaders_in_Silverlight

Nice quick post with a video…

FOLLOW UP: Developer Dinner on Silverlight 3

marcsc — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:09:41 GMT

Thanks to everyone who attended! Sorry to put you in the tough position of choosing between two MVPs (Sahil Malik and Pete Brown). We try to prevent having our dinners at the same time as other community events in the area. Thanks also to Pete for presenting a great, comprehensive overview of Silverlight 3. You can download all the resources for the presentation from Pete’s blog:

http://community.irritatedvowel.com/blogs/pete_browns_blog/archive/2009/04/30/Silverlight-3-Links-from-the-Reston-DevDinner.aspx

Developer Dinner on Silverlight 3 next week

marcsc — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:58:01 GMT

I’m excited to have Pete Brown come in to be the guest presenter for our monthly Developer Dinner for US Public Sector Partners next week. Pete is a Silverlight MVP and the author of an upcoming book on Silverlight 3 & .NET RIA Services. I’m looking forward to sitting back and watching Pete present:). Details at http://tinyurl.com/d84sy7.

MIX09: Building Accessible RIAs in Silverlight

marcsc — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:37:25 GMT

My team focuses on US Government customers and partners. To say that building accessible applications is important for our customers/partners would be a huge understatement. I just watched the following session from MIX09:

Building Accessible RIAs in Microsoft Silverlight

The session is short (roughly 20 minutes), but definitely worth the time if you are interested in how to build accessible apps with Silverlight. Check it out!

XamlFest DC (March 4 and 5)

marcsc — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:54:38 GMT

Here’s a chance at some free WPF and Silverlight training. XamlFest is an event touring around the US enabling developers to ramp up their WPF/Silverlight skills quickly. Here is the description of the event:

“Are you excited about the WPF but concerned about the learning curve? Have you seen Silverlight but don’t know where to get started? Or are you curious about how tools like Visual Studio and Expression Blend help designers and developers work together to deliver great user experiences? If so, join us at XamlFest!

XamlFest is a two day interactive event where you’ll learn about the platforms the tools and processes used to deliver differentiated user experiences. It’s a chance for you to mingle with UX minded Microsoft folks as well as industry leading design integrators. It’s also an opportunity to pick up a free copy of Visual Studio 2008 and Expression Studio 2 for you attendance.

Each XamlFest day will start with interactive sessions by Microsoft and our design partners, followed by a free lunch and a chance to network, have some fun and win prizes. Each afternoon will be geared toward assisted development with instructor-led walkthroughs, or, better yet, come with your own project in mind and we’ll help kick start your very own proof of concept”

More details and registration information is available at:

http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde/archive/2009/02/16/you-re-invited-to-xamlfest-dc-march-4-5.aspx

Also note:

“We’re asking that each company send no more than 4 people to this event so that we accommodate as many as possible. We’re allowing only 40 attendees to ensure we deliver a good experience during the assisted development sessions.”

DevDinnerOnDemand: Implementing Modern User Experiences with Expression Blend & Silverlight

marcsc — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:32:11 GMT

Building off the sample app built during the Building Business-Focused Applications Using Silverlight 2 and Beyond Developer Dinner, James Chittenden will cover all the basics that every designer and developer of WPF and Silverlight applications needs to know. Building off of preceding developer session, we’ll use Expression Blend to walk through the process of creating and manipulating objects, building timeline-based animations, and converting a typical user interface into one that harnesses the power of Silverlight.

View Recording:

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/keydet/US-Public-Sector-Developer-Dinner-for-Partners-Implementing-Modern-User-Experiences-with-Expression-/

Follow up resources (links, deck, code) from the dinner are available at:

http://tinyurl.com/sl2uxblenddevdinner

Looking for a list of Silverlight & WPF controls?

marcsc — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 08:40:20 GMT

How about a WPF app that is a live demo of all of them? Mike Taulty recently published a ClickOnce app that might tickle your fancy…

http://mtaulty.com/CommunityServer/blogs/mike_taultys_blog/archive/2009/02/03/silverlight-wpf-control-browser.aspx

I just installed it. PRETTY COOL!