Strategy and Architecture Council : WPF

Archstone Apartments Leverages WPF and Live Maps for Kiosks

dpeuswr — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:02:58 GMT

One of the customers that I have worked with for quite some time is Archstone. They are a top notch organization that have done a lot of interesting things with technology do set themselves apart in the apartment management space. Recently they just completed a rollout of a kiosk based solution for prospective residents that is really impressive.

Read the full article on Joe Shirey’s blog at http://www.joeshirey.com/2009/06/17/ArchstoneApartmentsLeveragesWPFAndLiveMapsForKiosks.aspx

PING Uses Visualization Technologies to Help Golfers

dpeuswr — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 07:27:31 GMT

Almost everyone in the golf world is familiar with Karsten Solheim, the founder of PING Golf. Karsten and PING pioneered many of the innovations in club fitting and has long been the key player in the market for custom clubs. Recently, PING embarked on an ambitious effort to radically improve the process of club fitting and to give the consumer a more scientifically accurate and visually compelling fitting experience. Enter nFlight®.

Read the full article on Dan Willis’ blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/danlistens/archive/2009/06/10/ping-uses-visualization-technologies-to-help-golfers.aspx

John L Scott Real Estate Looks to WPF and Software + Services

dpeuswr — Sat, 09 May 2009 06:34:26 GMT

Microsoft uses the term "Software+Services" to describe a vision of computing that harmonizes client and server software with cloud services [S+S Strategy]. Rich software components that either exist on client machines or installed on-premise within a datacenter can leverage building block components that exist as cloud services. In many ways, this is not much different than, let’s say, accessing software components (such as Web services perhaps) in one’s own datacenter in order to build composite applications.

Microsoft’s broad platform offering gives customers a rich set of choices to weave together applications from growing collection of software and service offerings. In this particular post I’d like to address a combination of rich client (RIA) technology, namely Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Microsoft’s Live Services cloud offering, and on-premise assets that are brought together as one cohesive solution. To make matters more interesting, this ‘solution’ addresses a real world business scenario. The company in question that is testing and honing this model in John L. Scott Real Estate.

Read the full article on Sam Chenaur’s blog at http://blog.samchenaur.com/2009/05/06/john-l-scott-real-estate-looks-to-wpf-and-software--services-2.aspx

Free WPF Training in Los Angeles on 4/24-25 and Phoenix on 6/26-27

dpeuswr — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 02:14:03 GMT

Overview

This two day training is designed to teach developers how to create Line of Business (LOB) applications using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).

Day One is an introduction to the WPF graphics subsystem, the tools used to build WPF applications, and the core UI services: styling, data binding, templating, layout and input-
The second day begins with interop (Windows Forms and Win32) and then quickly dives into LOB topics, including building applications using the Model-View-ViewModel pattern, creating unit testable applications, implementing data validation, and error handling.
After completion, attendees will have a solid understanding of WPF, its advantages over other Microsoft UI platforms, and how to use the M-V-VM pattern to create great WPF LOB applications.

Dates, Locations, and Logistics

Los Angeles, CA | 4/24-25 | To register: www.msregistration.com/wpflobLA

Phoenix, AZ | 6/26-27 | To register: www.msregistration.com/wpflobAZ

Registration tips:
If you are not a partner or don't know if you are:
When asked "are you registered" select No. Select "Visiting partner" under Partner Level.
Get creative on the Partner Type; if in doubt, we are all "System builders"
Note that registration links with * are not active today (4/2). Sorry for inconvenience, they will all be active in next few days. We blogged all at once to avoid people flying from say St. Louis to LA when they could have driven to Chicago. We wanted you to know what was coming.

Format

Instructor-led training from 9 AM to 5:30 PM. 15 minute breaks every couple hours. 45 minutes lunch around mid-day.
Food: Breakfast, lunch and afternoon snacks are provided.

Cost

The training is FREE! You do need to register prior to the event, but there is no cost. You can register for one or two days. Registration is first-come-first serve, sign-up as early as possible to reserve your spot!

Agenda

Day One:

Lap Around WPF
WPF Tools ( Blend, Visual Studio 2008)
Graphics Subsystem
Layout
WPF Fundamentals and new concepts

Application Model
Dependency Properties
Trees (logical & visual)
Events
Threading
Resources

Controls
Styling
Templating
Q&A with instructors at end of day

Day Two:

WPF integration with Win32 and Windows Forms
Data binding
Introduction to Model-View-ViewModel
Commanding in M-V-VM
Views, Navigation and Transitions
Data Validation
Error handling, Model dialogs, Logging
Unit Testing
MVVM & LOB tips and tricks
Q&A with the instructors

About the instructors
Karl Shifflett is a software architect, former Microsoft MVP, current Code Project MVP and MCAD from Bellevue, Washington. He is currently working for Microsoft on the Cider Team as a Program Manager II. He has been designing & developing business applications since 1989 and transitioned to .NET in March of 2003. In April of 2007 he joined the list of WPF and Microsoft Expression fanatics & evangelists. He is a member of Team Mole that delivered Mole Visualizer For Visual Studio to the world. He is the author to XAML Power Toys and loves WPF LOB. Karl’s Blog: http://karlshifflett.wordpress.com/

Jaime Rodriguez is a Senior Technical Evangelist at Microsoft. He focuses on WPF and Silverlight. For the last four years, he has helped a lot of enterprises and ISVs adopt WPF in large scale, mission critical, projects.
Jaime has been doing software development for fifteen years. Prior to Microsoft, he worked at Xerox, HP, Cerner and GeoAccess. He joined Microsoft 9 years ago, he spent the first four years as an Enterprise Architect Consultant in Microsoft Services, and the last five he has been a client evangelist covering Windows Forms, WPF and Silverlight. Jaime’s blog is at http://blogs.msdn.com/jaimer.