Ricky Tan

Silverlight 3 Released and Introduction to DataForm

2009-07-13T21:22:00Z

Silverlight 3 has been officially released last Friday. ScottGu's blog and Silverlight.net have the details on the exciting new features and capabilities delivered in Silverlight 3. Visit the Get Started page on Silverlight.net to get all you need for developing in Silverlight 3.

One of the new features that I worked on in Silverlight 3 is the DataForm control. Forms are widely used in many applications, and the Silverlight DataForm provides a powerful form out of the box that is easily customizable. It 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 such as [Required]; and it allows navigation, should the form's binding be to a collection of data.

Here are some examples of using the DataForm:

Example 1: This is a basic DataForm with the default features out of the box. It has its ItemsSource set to a List of entities which has validation.

XAML:
<dataformToolkit:DataForm ItemsSource="{StaticResource EmployeeList}" />

Example 2: This shows 2 DataForms. The DataForm on the left is the same one from Example 1. The DataForm on the right is bound to the first DataForm by setting its CurrentItem using element name binding, and auto-generates its public properties so it works like a property grid.

XAML:
<dataformToolkit:DataForm ItemsSource="{StaticResource EmployeeList}" x:Name="dataForm1" />
<dataformToolkit:DataForm CurrentItem="{Binding ElementName=dataForm1}" Grid.Column="1" />

Example 3: This shows the many possibilities of using the DataForm control, such as Master-Details scenarios with the DataGrid, and usage with various other data sources and controls.

For more working examples, visit the Silverlight Toolkit Samples.

Hope this helps!

Ricky

MIX09 and Silverlight 3 Beta

2009-03-19T21:39:00Z

Yesterday was the first day of MIX09, where Silverlight 3 Beta was unveiled. The keynote and other videos are available for viewing on-demand at the website. To get started and see the full list of amazing new features, check out the Silverlight 3 Beta page at the official Silverlight site. I'm especially looking forward to hearing feedback about the DataForm.

Silverlight Futures Sneak Peek: Building Business Focused Applications

2008-10-31T22:16:00Z

With the launch of Silverlight 2, which offers .NET support, C#, VB, LINQ, multithreading, WCF integration, Data Services Integration, new controls and more, more people are looking into using Silverlight for developing rich business applications. In the recent PDC 2008, Jamie Cool presented a sneak peek of some of the work being done here to provide more support for building business applications for RIA (Rich Internet Applications): http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC11/.

Hopefully this addresses some of the pain points in building line-of-business Silverlight applications. What are pain points you've experienced and would like to see addressed?

Silverlight 2 Beta1

2008-02-22T20:42:00Z

This morning, Scott Guthrie has posted a First Look at Silverlight 2, so I can break the silence on what's going on. In Scott's blog, he gave the first official peek at our new controls, which are part of a rich story for enabling Rich Internet Application (RIA) development on the .NET platform. Check it out! :-)

Silverlight and Software-plus-Services

2007-09-08T03:17:00Z

There are a lot of changes going on with Acropolis, with all the feedback received publicly and collaboration with other product teams internally, to provide a better developer story. If you haven't tried Acropolis August CTP yet, check it out at http://windowsclient.net/Acropolis/. It works with VS 2008 Beta 2. One of the cool samples to run is the line-of-business Expense sample.

After much anticipation, Silverlight was released this week! I highly recommend checking it out: http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight.

Yesterday was the annual Company Meeting, and I'm really excited about the emerging software-plus-services model and the new technologies being demo'ed that look like right out of a science fiction movie. I can't wait to see the impact over the next few years - it's really an amazing time and place to be in.

Extending the Acropolis Notepad sample with a Web Browser View

2007-06-12T20:53:00Z

I've just posted on the Acropolis Team Blog about how easy it is to create additional views with Acropolis to extend the functionality of an application. The application here is the Acropolis CTP1 Notepad sample. With just five lines of code, one attribute and some XAML declarations, and without modifying any existing code, we'll add the web browser view shown below. This web browser view uses the WebBrowser control from Windows Forms, hosted using the WindowsFormsHost feature from Crossbow.

Acropolis Buzz

2007-06-05T20:47:00Z

Thanks to everyone that took a look! I'm very excited about the buzz that's going on.

Acropolis CTP1 released!

2007-06-05T00:34:00Z

I'm extremely happy to say that the first Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Microsoft .NET Client Futures Code Name "Acropolis" has been released! You can check it out, watch the introduction video, download the installer and documentation, and participate in the forums at http://windowsclient.net/Acropolis.

Acropolis at TechEd 2007

2007-05-24T02:28:00Z

I've been keeping track of some discussions about Acropolis, and I'm happy to say that there will be 3 sessions on Acropolis at TechEd 2007 which is on June 4-8. From the website https://www.msteched.com/public/sessions.aspx, filter by keyword "Acropolis".

One of the sessions is "Introducing the “Acropolis” Client Application Framework", with the description below:

The "Acropolis" Client Framework makes it easy to build flexible and powerful Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) applications. Come learn how to tap into the power of "Acropolis" and how it can help you deliver the next generation of client applications. In this session, we first describe the basic "Acropolis" features and how you can use them to build rich WPF applications. We then move onto some of the more advanced features and show you how to leverage the flexibility of "Acropolis" to add rich navigation, theming, commanding, and supporting services to your applications.

Team Foundation Server

2007-01-26T03:26:00Z

I just can't wait for the Acropolis CTP so I can blog about the exciting new Acropolis rich client framework. On a side note, my team is considering migrating to Team Foundation Server, which is more tightly integrated with Visual Studio Team System that we're already using, and last week I gave a short presentation on the results of the initial investigation. I'm all into TFS and I'm looking forward for it to be set up and ready. If you're also looking into TFS, here are some great resources:

VSTS Multimedia Content: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/teamsystem/aa718837.aspx

Product Information: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/teamsystem/aa718803.aspx

Official Product Launch of Windows Vista and Office 2007

2006-11-30T22:36:00Z

Recently I haven't had much to blog about because of non-disclosure regarding the new Acropolis project. But today is the official product launch of Windows Vista and Office 2007 to volume licensing customers. Unheralded with this launch is the official product launch of Crossbow (which is included in Vista) to customers. Check out the official press release from this morning's press conference at NASDAQ MarketSite in Times Square. The webcast is available at http://www.microsoft.com/events/executives/webcasts.mspx (the live webcast is over, but the on-demand will be available). There are also other webcasts on that page of recent speeches by Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates.

Mini-Lab

2006-11-14T00:36:00Z

These past two weeks I've been working on setting up the Mini-Lab for the Smart Client project I'm working on. The Mini-Lab is a simple, lightweight service for running rolling (continuous integration) builds, nightly suites and to build nightly drops and up-to-date installer. It requires only one machine (that sits in my office), and now that it's set up, it is easily maintained.

One of the features I like most about the Mini-Lab is the rolling build feature, which checks for check-ins every fifteen minutes. If it finds a new changelist, it runs a task that builds the project and runs test suites. If the build or tests fail, it sends out an email to the team. This helps prevent build breaks and regressions as soon as the code is checked in.

WPF Video

2006-10-23T21:45:00Z

I'm not able to post my sample here in this blog. But here is an awesome video that shows what WPF can do: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5452295

WPF Crossbow Sample

2006-10-20T00:56:00Z

I’ve just finished creating a WPF sample application that uses Crossbow to host a DataGridView, connected to a Northwind database. It's a simple demo with flashy effects, courtesy of Sparkle, and I hope it shows what Crossbow offers for interoperability between WPF and WinForms. I'll need to check on how to upload it here.

eLearning clinics for .NET FX 3.0 (WPF, WF and WCF) are live and FREE for a limited time!

2006-10-11T21:21:00Z

A good buddy from college days knows how excited I am about WPF, and he (being a .NET developer) asked me where he could get more info. At that time, all I could do was point him to the MSDN docs, as WPF is not released yet. Now I'm happy to say that there are eLearning clinics for the .NET Framework 3.0 (WPF, WWF and WCF) live and free for a limited time. These clinics are for Developers and Software Architects who are looking to adopt Microsoft's next generation technology within their solutions.

Link: https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/offerDetail.aspx?offerPriceId=109340