Swiss MSDN Team Blog

Consuming an Entity Data Model using the EntityDataSource control (tutorial)

2009-11-05T15:56:00Z

With this tutorial I want to show you how you can use the EntityDataSource control in order to build an ASP.NET Web Page which is consuming an Entity Data Model (created with Entity Framework); you will see what are the typical problems you may find when working with this control.

EntityDataSource allows you to bind your data into the UI and is really powerful in case you want to do Rapid Application Development; but because it lives completely in the UI it does not allow you to have a separation of the logic between the layers. If you want to have such a separation you are probably better with the ObjectDataSource control.

The Entity Data Model we want to consume is represented by the following diagram and has been generated from the Northwind sample database.

The sample page we want to build will be like the following one: a typical master-detail solution with Edit functionality. You select a customer and you get the details about the Order. You can change the customer details, the order details (including the assigned shipper) and modify the shipper’s details.

In order to start you have to create an ASP.NET Web Application using Visual Studio, add an ADO.NET Entity Data Model (please include the following tables: customers, orders and shippers). We are now ready to consume the model.

Open the default.aspx page within the Visual Studio designer and drag & drop a GridView control. Click on the top-right corner of the GridView controller and choose <New data source…> as dataSource.

When the wizard starts, select Entity as data source. By choosing Entity an EntityDataSource control with ID EntityDataSource1 will be automatically generated for you. Press OK.

On the following mask you have to select the connection string and the object container name (just one single choice is available, take this one). Then press Next.

You now have to configure the data selection. Because in the first GridView control (GridView1) we want to display the list of customers and we also want to expose edit functionality, choose customers as EntitySetName, select Select All (Entity Value) and put the hacks by Enable automatic inserts/updates/deletes.

Note: a huge number of people don't realize that when they select some specific columns from the following dialog, they are actually creating an anonymous type and therefore it is not possible to have automatic inserts, updates and deletes.

Press Finish and then by the following dialog activate all functionalities (Enable Paging, Enable Sorting, … ) as shown below:

In order to put some color, click on Auto Format… and select classic color. Set also the PageSize property of the Gridview1 control to 5. You should now have something like this:

We now want to show the related orders. That’s why we need to add a second GridView control by placing it into the designer using drag&drop.

From the GridView Tasks menu, select New data Source (Choose Data Source) as you did before…the wizard will start. Follow the same steps you did before for the GridView1 control representing the list of customers. The only difference here, is that you have of course to choose Orders instead of Customers as EntitySetName from the Configure Data Selection mask.

Because we want to display just the order related to the selected customer within the first GridView control we have to define a “where condition”. In order to do that select the EntityDataSource2 control (the one which is related to the second GridView control- GridView2). In the properties window, select the Where property and click on the ellipse button as showed below:

Set the where expression (which is an EntitySQL expression) as shown below. Then add a parameter and name it CustomerId (must correspond to the @ parameter within the where expression). From the Parameter source dropdown list select Control and as ControlID select GridView1. Within the Parameters section the value GridView1.SelectedValue appears, which represents the ID of the selected customer within the customers grid.

One last thing has to be done. Click on the Show advanced properties and select String as DbType.

You can now start the application by pressing F5. By selecting one customer you should get the related orders.

Note: ShipperId (Shipper.ShipperID), which represents the ID of the related entity (Shipper), is shown within the GridView, even though the related entity Shipper has not been loaded (no include statement has been defined).

Now suppose we want to show the CompanyName of the Shipper Navigation Property (have a look at the Order entity within the first figure, which represents the Entity Data Model). Because CompanyName is not the key, in order to show it we have to explicitly tell to the EntityDataSource2 control (the one bind to the orders GridView control-GridView2) that when the orders are loaded, the related shipper must also be loaded. In order to do that you have to set the include property of EntityDataSource2 control to Shipper.

What you are doing here, is just a sample of Eager Loading.

The next step is to define a column to show the CompanyName: switch to source view and copy the following piece of xml highlighted in yellow.

Paste it below and replace ShipperID with CompanyName:

If you try now to start the application (F5), by selecting one customer you will get the following strange error: “A field or property with the name ‘Shipper.CompanyName’ was not found on the selected data source”.

Why that?

Because you cannot access properties of related entities with BoundFields, even if the related entity has been loaded with the Include clause. What we need in order to show properties which are not keys of related entities, is a TemplateField.

One easy step is needed to transform your BoundField in TemplateField. Switch to Design view and from the GridView Task menu (of the GridView2 control) select Edit Columns …

When the Fields dialog appears, select the Shipper.CompanyName and click on the Convert this field into a TemplateField and press OK.

Go to the source view and remove the generated square brackets from the template field. If you don’t do it, you will get a strange error.

If you now try to go in Edit mode within the Orders grid you will see that the cells of CompanyName column are being transformed in TextBox control. This doesn’t make really sense; in fact what you need here is a DropDownList control; what you want to do here is evtl. to assign another shipper and not to edit shipper information.

In order to get the DropDownList we have to change the Edit template. Switch again back to the design view. Select Edit Templates.

Per default Visual Studio is displaying the ItemTemplate, but Be Careful…what we want to change here is the EditItemTemplate. Switch to the EditItemTemplate.

You should now have the following situation:

Replace the TextBox control with a DropDownList control. Then from the DropDownList Tasks menu select Choose Data Source …

From the Choose Data Source dialog select <New data source…> (we need a new EntityDataSource control in order to display shipper information).

Select once again Entity and put as ID EntityDataSourceShipper1.

Press OK and follow the wizard as you did before (of course by selecting all related Shipper information and without enabling any inserting, updating and deleting functionality).

At the end select CompanyName as data field to be displayed within the combobox and ShipperID to be used as ID.

Press OK.

We now have to synchronize the value of the DropDownList (SelectedValue) with currently item being edit. To do that click on the EditDataBinding… link within the DropDownList Tasks menu.

and within the DataBindings dialog set a custom binding expression for the SelectedValue property (as shown below without square brackets).

We are now finished with the Editing Template. Click on End Template Editing.

There is another problem to be solved. There may be situation where we do not have a shipper assigned to an order yet. Because of that we have to add an empty entry in the DropDownList control, otherwise you will get an error.

Add the empty entry by adding the following line within the DropDownList control definition:

You also have to set the AppendDataBoundItems property of the DropDownList control to true.

Let’s also hide the ShipperID column by setting his attribute Visible to false (later if you want you can also hide others columns by simply doing the same thing).

What do we want to do next?

We want to be able to edit shipper information. So when I select an order I want to get all shipper information and being able to edit them. In order to display the shipper information we are going to use a DetailsView control.

First switch to design view and add a DetailView control on the bottom of the page.

When you start the Data Source Configuration wizard, set EntityDataSourceShipper2 as ID for the data source control being generated.

Press OK and follow the wizard as you did before (of course by selecting all related Shipper information and this time by only enabling inserting and updating …no deleting functionality).

Open the Where dialog of the new generated EntityDataSourceShipper2 and do the following changes:

Press OK.

And now we need of course to provide this parameter (ShipperID) or if you prefer a value for this parameter to the DetailView control (in fact we didn’t defined any parameter source information yet). Where can I find this information?

First you have to convert the ShipperID BoundField in a TemplateField. In order to do that open the field dialog of the GridView2 control by clicking Edit columns… within the GridView2 Task menu and Convert the Shipper.ShipperID BoundField into a TemplateField.

Switch to the source view, remove the generated square brackets and rename the generated label in lblShipperID.

Remove the part highlighted in yellow:

Generate the SelectedIndexChanged event handler on the second grid (orders grid) and add the following code.

By doing this every time another order is being selected the ShipperID value can be retrieved from the lblShipperID label control and used to set the where parameter of the EntityDataSourceShipper2 control (used to automatically generate a where condition, which at the end retrieves the shipper of the selected order).

We also have to generate the following event handler, which makes a refresh on the second grid, whenever a change is done to the Shipper information (DetailsView control).

protected void DetailsView1_ItemUpdated(object sender, DetailsViewUpdatedEventArgs e)
{
GridView2.DataBind();
}

There is still another small problem. When I change selection on the first grid, of course the second grid with the orders is being reloaded. The problem is that in this specific case the DetailsView control will still show the old shipper information (because the WhereParameter[“lblShipperID”] still contains the old id).

To fix this we can implement the DataBound event handler of the second grid (GridView2 control). First we have to generated the GridView2_DataBound event handler:

Now we have to refactor the content of the GridView2_SelectedIndexChanged event handler by selecting the method’s code, right-clicking on it and selecting Refactor|Extract Method …

Change the method name as follow and press OK.

Add the following code to the GridView2_DataBound event handler:

We should now have the following code:

One last detail…. you should know that Bind (in write mode) only understands properties that are on your root entity. In fact if you try to delete an order, instead of getting a “Reference Constraint” error (because the order is related to other entities), you get something like “System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.”…a strange error message….

If you want to get what you expect, you have to change Bind with Eval; but you then also have to know that Eval can be used for read-only databinding…

In our case we can replace Bind with Eval for the CompanyName field (which is not defined on the root entity).

The final solution is available in the enclosed zip file.

Hope it helps,

Ken Casada

Entity Framework Feature CTP Preview 2 released (built on top of EF 4 Beta 2)

2009-11-05T07:44:00Z

Just a quick note to let everyone know that an updated version of the EF Feature CTP is now available for Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2. As you can read on the ADO.NET team blog this release includes some great new enhancements for Code Only and Self-Tracking Entities (support for Silverlight 3, databinding support, …).

This new version is from now available here.

Microsoft Surface – Going below the Surface

2009-10-30T15:51:09Z

After the first episode “Microsoft Surface Computer – Unboxing!”, I am now presenting a sequel I call “Going below the Surface”. I had the chance to assist a service technician in his task to replace the main computing unit of a Surface computer, a chance for me to get to know the “insides” of the Surface, not just from the diagrams.

Microsoft sent an entire new computing unit, so the mission was to swap the Surface’s built in PC.

First, we had another look at the video explaining the hardware disassembly.

The next step was to remove the two head panels, one revealing the ports, the opposite one revealing the computer.

A look at the computer’s ports shows five Ethernet ports (to the far left) used to connect to the Surface’s cameras.

A look at the unit’s bottom side shows the ventilation system.

Now we started to unplug the damaged unit. We decided that labeling the cables makes sense especially as the six audio cables all look the same.

Next we removed the two side panels. Tip: Make a note which is the left and which is the right panel as well as what side is “up” to not confuse them when re-assembling.

This gives much better access to all the ports on one side and to the power connector on the other.

You can also see the Ethernet cables plugging into the cameras.

After a good hour we had the unit reassembled and working again. The Surface computer really is a very nice machine, even “below the Surface”, constructed very solid and of high-quality.

And its insides would make a gorgeous fake bomb in any episode of “James Bond” or “24” for the heroes to disarm in the last 3 seconds of the countdown.

And the winners are…

2009-10-28T16:31:41Z

Yesterday at Shape'09 – The Web Conference, the best Swiss Silverlight applications of the year were accredited with the

recognition – An initiative of Microsoft Switzerland, in cooperation with Best of Swiss Web (BoSW). Claudio Dionisio, president of the BoSW Association, awarded the most innovative, exciting and business relevant Silverlight solutions. The projects were judged by a competent jury, chaired by Prof. Dr. Markus Stolze from the Institute für Software at the Hochschule für Technik in Rapperswil. The jury members especially focused on aspects such as technical innovation and unconventional design. Furthermore, great emphasis was placed on stability, usability and business relevance of the submitted solutions.
From the pool of the submitted projects, the jury awarded the following four solutions with Gold-, Silver- and Bronze- Awards. And the awards go to:

1th Place - sobees web

Contracting Body: sobees

Contractor: sobees

2nd Place - B2B-Connector - E-Commerce Platform Swiss Post

Contracting Body: Die Schweizerische Post, Poststellen und Verkauf

Contractor: Die Schweizerische Post, Informationstechnologie

and

2nd Place - Medical Cockpit

Contracting Body: Solothurner Spitäler AG

Contractor: afca informatik ag

3rd Place - Interaktives Sales Tool

Contracting Body: Siemens Schweiz AG

Contractor: Unic AG

On the Shape Web Site, you can find plenty of information about these solutions, the jury members and the criteria they have used to select the winners. Aim of this post is more to honor the great people who are behind these great solution. So, let’s see some pictures :-)

sobees web

Vincent RITHNER, CTO soobes.com (second from left). In his words:

"Since the beginning of sobees, our plan was clearly to deliver the best applications interacting with social networks and offering the best user experience, both on the desktop and on the web. For us, WPF for the desktop and Silverlight for the web (and SL mobile in the future) represent the best technologies to transform our vision into reality."

Beside Vincent, from left to right:

Claudio Dionisio, president of the BoSW Association
Prof. Dr. Markus Stolze (BoSS jury president) from the Institute für Software at the Hochschule für Technik in Rapperswil
Christof Zogg, Director Developer & Platform Group, Microsoft Schweiz

B2B-Connector - E-Commerce Platform Swiss Post

Paolo Casella, SW Architect, Informationstechnologie - Die Schweizerische Post (second from left)

Sergio Aquilini, Senior Developer, Informationstechnologie - Die Schweizerische Post (third from left)

In Paolo’s words:

"At the very start of project our customers expressed very clearly, which were the needs the solution to be developed had to fulfill: multitenant, high accessibility, higher user-experience (usability/ease-of-use), no deploy. The challenge was to combine such customer needs to the technical requirements defined by the existing applications and data-structures: complex data representation (sales-related information, customer information, processes status, use of graphics), combination of different screens at a time (parallel processing of user-tasks), asynchronous data access. Those are the reasons why we came up with the idea of Silverlight."

Medical Cockpit

Paul Affentranger, Geschäftsführer, afca informatik ag (second from left). In his words:

"Silverlight enables us to develop with less complexity modern, attractive and stable user interfaces. The technology supports smooth collaboration between developers and designers, and integrates well to Service Oriented Architecture. "

Interaktives Sales Tool

The UNIC Team with the customer representative from Siemens Schweiz AG. In their words:

"With the new interactive and intuitive Silverlight solution we gain substantial benefits and savings in our customer service."
Bernardo Egli, Marketing Communication Manager, Siemens Schweiz AG, Building Technologies Division

"The extensive basic features of Silverlight allowed us to develop efficiently our user-friendly sales tool for Siemens Switzerland AG."
André Schmid, Director Sales and Consulting Microsoft, Unic AG

Windows Azure Hands-on Lab

2009-10-26T11:54:10Z

Windows Azure will be commercially available in November. To help the future cloud developers move the first steps with the Azure Platform Services, we have developed and Hands-on Lab that touches the key aspects of this new platform.

Last week, about 60 people attended the two sessions in Wallisellen. With this post, we want to give you as well the possibility to implement your first Web Gallery in the Cloud.

In about 3 hours of work, you will learn how to develop your cloud application locally and how to deploy it onto Windows Azure. You will also get familiar with the main concepts of Windows Azure, like the Web Role and the Worker Role, or the three storage types available: queue, table, and blob.

So, if you aim to be a cloud developer for Windows Azure, do not hesitate to click on this link and follow the instructions.

(And if you have any question, just drop a line!)

Have fun!

Highlights von der SharePoint Conference 2009

2009-10-22T21:43:00Z

Diese Woche hat die grösste SharePoint Konferenz stattgefunden, die es jemals gab: 7’400+ Teilnehmer, mehrere Dutzend Teilnehmer aus der CH, 4 Tage, Total 240 Präsentationen! SharePoint Server 2010 Beta 2 wird ab November zum Download zur Verfügung stehen.

Ein paar Highlights

· SKUs

· Zur SKU SharePoint Server 2010 kommt SharePoint Server for Internet Sites hinzu (jeweils Standard und Enterprise Edition)

· FAST Search Services 2010 for SharePoint

· Die Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) heissen neu SharePoint Foundation

· Die Lösungsfelder von SharePoint 2010 umfassen

· Sites, Portal, …

· Communities, Social Computing

· Content (ECM, Workflow, …)

· Search

· Insights (Excel Services, PerformancePoint Services, Visio Services, Business Connectivity Services (Nachfolger von BDC), …)

· Composites

· Ein besonderes Schwergewicht erhalten die Themen

· SharePoint Online

· Einsatz von SharePoint Server für Internet Szenarien

· Composites & RAD

· SharePoint Online

· Im Vergleich zur heutigen Version, welche nur ca. 50 % von MOSS 2007 abbildet, wird die SharePoint Online Version im Jahre 2010 ca. 90 % der SharePoint Server 2010 Version abbilden.

· Neu wird auch custom Server Code möglich; dieser wird in einer Sandbox ausgeführt und das API steht mit leichten Einschränkungen zur Verfügung.

· BCS (Business Connectivity Services)

· Nachfolger von BDC (Business Data Cataloq)

· Kann lesen und schreiben

· Bereits in SharePoint Foundation erhalten

· Support offline Betrieb

· Office Web Applications

· Für Word, Excel, PowerPoint und OneNote (lesen und schreiben)

· Die User Experience ist extrem analog zu den Office Client Applikationen (z.B. Ribbon UI), der Funktionsumfang ist aber eingeschränkt.

· Mehrere Benutzer können gleichzeitig ein Dokument bearbeiten

· Ist ein Zusatz zu SharePoint Foundation (steht aber für Consumers auch im Internet zur Verfügung)

· Silverlight wird nicht vorausgesetzt, mit Silverlight wird aber die User Experience noch besser (z.B. Zoom von 100 %+, Text Fidelity, besser animierte PowerPoint Präsentation).

· Neuer Office Client: SharePoint Workspace

· Ermöglicht, Daten von SharePoint lokal zu cachen

· Offline Zugriff auf SharePoint Daten

· Ist der Nachfolger von Groove, peer-to-peer sync weiterhin möglich mit Hilfe eines Groove Workspaces

· Integriert mit WDS (Windows Desktop Search)

· Markiert ungelesenen Content

· SharePoint Designer 2010

· Ist weiterhin kostenlos

· In SharePoint 2010 werden keine STPs (site templates) mehr unterstützt, nur noch WSPs à SharePoint Designer erstellt WSPs, welche vom Entwickler in Visual Studio 2010 weiterverwendet werden können!

· Unterstützung für BCS

· Ein Workflow muss neu nicht mehr an eine Liste gehängt werden sondern es gibt jetzt

§ List Workflows

§ Reusable Workflows (können in mehreren Listen oder Content Types verwendet werden)

§ Site Workflows (sind nicht mit einer Liste oder einem Content Type verbunden)

· Unterstützung von VWI (Visio Workflow Interchange): Der Business Analyst kann in Visio einen Workflow zeichnen und diesen exportieren. Der Power User kann diese Datei dann im SharePoint Designer 2010 öffnen und weiter bearbeiten und detaillieren.

· Visual Studio 2010

· Die Beta 2 Version steht seit dieser Woche zum Download zur Verfügung (siehe vorheriger Blog Post)

· Native Unterstützung für SharePoint Projekte, wie WebParts, Listen, Content Types, …

· ALM: Volle Unterstützung für den ganzen Lebensyklus: Workitem tracking, Source Control, Test Cases, Load Testing, …

· Ganz neue Projekttypen

§ Visual Web Part: Damit kann ein .ascx (ASP.NET User Control) erstellt warden, welches in SharePoint als Web Part ausgeführt werden kann. Somit kann der ASP.NET Visual Designer von Visual Studio für das Erstellen von Web Parts verwendet werden!

§ BCS Model: Ermöglicht, das Modell (XML) vollständig mit Hilfe von Visual Studio zu erstellen (Entity Designer und BDC Explorer)

· Allgemeines

· Installation von SharePoint Server 2010 auf dem Client (für Entwicklungs- und Testzwecke)

§ Windows 7 oder Windows Vista SP1

§ Dabei wird die 64 Bit Version verlangt

· LINQ to SharePoint Namespace ermöglicht das Zugreifen auf SharePoint Listen mittels LINQ (Microsoft.SharePoint.LINQ).

· Access Services: Ermöglichen, eine Access Applikationen (inkl. Tabellen, Forms, Macros, Reports (no Code) innerhalb von SharePoint auszuführen. Dazu werden Webforms inkl. Javascript und SharePoint Listen generiert.

· Word Services: Damit kann serverseitig beispielsweise ein .docx Dokument in ein .pdf umgewandelt werden. Speziell geeignet für die Massenverarbeitung.

· Performance: Bezüglich Listengrössen galt bisher die Empfehlung 100’000 Items pro SharePoint Liste, neu sind es über 1 Mio.

· Listen können mittels Beziehungen verbunden werden (Cascade oder Block), dabei werden notwendige Indizes automatisch erstellt

· REST APIs basierend auf ADO.NET Data Services

· Client Object Model für

§ .NET Framework

§ Silverlight

§ JavaScript

· In SharePoint Server 2010 steht nun auch der Office Ribbon zur Verfügung. Zudem werden an vielen Stellen Dialoge verwendet. Beide stehen auch dem Entwickler zur Verfügung und können erweitert werden.

Weiterführende Informationen

· http://sharepoint.microsoft.com

· SharePoint 2010 (Beta 2) Developer Center: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ee514561.aspx

Grüsse aus Las Vegas,

Olaf Feldkamp

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0 Beta 2 available

2009-10-21T17:11:00Z

A couple of days ago during the SharePoint conference in Las Vegas, Steve Ballmer announced the availability of the Beta 2 of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0. The new Visual Studio 2010 SKUs and the Ultimate Offer were also part of this announcement. If you want to know more have a look at the keynote.

Learning resources have also been updated: near the famous Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0 Training Kit we now have a new Channel 9 Learning Center that will play developers focused training courses created by developers for developersJ. Fresh content about VS2010, .NET 4.0 and Windows 7 is already available.

During the keynote the new MSDN brands and logos have also been presented (you may have already noted the new look of the MSDN Portal J).

F# als Alternative zu C#?

2009-10-21T14:30:00Z

Mit F# schickt Microsoft eine neue .NET-Sprache ins Rennen, die ein fester Bestandteil von Visual Studio 2010 sein wird, und die sich vor allem für Szenarien empfiehlt, in denen Funktionscode parallel ausgeführt werden soll. Lesen Sie mehr: http://www.computerworld.ch/aktuell/news/49269/index.html.

The making of: Deep Zoom Zermatt, explore the super high resolution panoramas of the famous Swiss mountains

2009-10-12T13:23:37Z

It is a while that I was not blogging and one reason was that I was quite busy in building this cool solution and of course 300 other tasks.

At the end of July I came up with the idea, for the 20th Anniversary of Microsoft Switzerland, to build a Multi touch solution based on SL3 and Windows 7 as a showcase for our latest technology.

With enough luck and some skills it did come up better than what I have hoped. Of course being a passionate photographer did help too.

Now, it is finally live, publicly available on MSN and soon at www.myswitzerland.com and www.zermatt.com:

http://rubrik.ch.msn.com/reportagen/zermatt.aspx

If you click on the info button at the bottom of the Silverlight solution

you can learn the whole process involved in creating these super high res panoramas.

But as a Developer you may be interested to learn a bit more on how the Silverlight solution was created.

I started with the SL HDView solution created by Eric Stollnitz and available as source code on codeplex: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/HDViewSL/ and transformed it on a SL3 app that would fit my needs. One cool feature worth mentioning is that this player has the possibility to render 360 panoramas, something not available out of the box by Silverlight deep zoom implementation.

For this blog post I thought it would be useful to point out the new Silverlight 3 features that I took advantage of for this app:

Multi-touch on Windows 7
- In Silverlight 3 you can listen to multitouch events through Touch.FrameReported but for this solution we just needed the zoom gesture:

The cool part is that W7 and IE are recognizing this gesture as zoom and sends it to Silverlight as MouseWheel event. So I had nothing to do in particular to make it run on a Windows 7 multi touch devices.

Here running on a large 42’’ Full HD Multitouch Windows 7 compatible screen distributed in Switzerland by www.inputech.ch:

Mousewheel native support
- In SL2 you can catch MouseWheel event but only though the HTML bridge with the big disadvantage that it would not work in full-screen.
  In SL3 you can handle, in manage code, the Mousewheel event making it usable in full-screen a key scenario for kiosk applications
```
this.MSI.MouseWheel += delegate(object sender, MouseWheelEventArgs e)
```
```
{
```
```
 
```
```
     double zoomFactor;
```
```
 
```
```
     if (e.Delta > 0)
```
```
             zoomFactor = 1.2;
```
```
     else
```
```
             zoomFactor = .80;
```
```
 
```
```
     Zoom(zoomFactor, e.GetPosition(this.MSI));
```
```
}; 
```

Effects
- A small refinement I added was a shadow effect on toolbar buttons. View that the buttons are transparent it is much easier to do it with effects than to create your own shadows:

```
<Grid.Effect>
```
```
      <DropShadowEffect/>
```
```
</Grid.Effect>
```

Animation Easing
- With touch people also expect some sort of inertia and fluidity in the UI. The MultiScaleImage control already have inertia but for the Info part of the app I added an elastic ease to make it a bit cooler
```
<Storyboard x:Name="infoBoxAni">
```
```
            <DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames BeginTime="00:00:00" Storyboard.TargetName="infoBox" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(UIElement.RenderTransform).(TransformGroup.Children)[3].(TranslateTransform.Y)">
```
```
                <EasingDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="00:00:00" Value="-396.269"/>
```
```
                <EasingDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="00:00:01.5000000" Value="-6.632">
```
```
                    <EasingDoubleKeyFrame.EasingFunction>
```
```
                        <ElasticEase EasingMode="EaseOut" Oscillations="1"/>
```
```
                    </EasingDoubleKeyFrame.EasingFunction>
```
```
                </EasingDoubleKeyFrame>
```
```
            </DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
```
```
        </Storyboard>
```

GPU acceleration
- The solution contains a 720p HD 360 video that runs continuously on the start screen. Plus we layer on top elements with transparency making the solution quite heavy in CPU usage. For the kiosk version we enabled GPU acceleration and we can save up to 30-40% in CPU usage.
  
  Remember that you need to opt in for hardware acceleration:
  <param name="EnableGPUAcceleration" value="true" />
  
  And with this code you can enable for the elements that you want the GPU to take care:
  
  <MediaElement CacheMode="BitmapCache" Margin="0" ……………
  
  Last you can check which part is hardware accelerated with this parameter:
  
  <param name="enableCacheVisualization" value="true"/>
  
  Attention the parts not colored in red or green are the one HW accelerated, in this case the video:
Style BasedOn and runtime changeable
- We have a Style that inherits from another Style with the sole goal to make the button bigger on the Kiosk solution, making it more touch friendly (especially if you have big fingers:-)). Basically with a startup parameter you can control if you want the button big or not at runtime.
- Style inheritance:
```
        <Style x:Key="largeButtonTemplate" TargetType="Button" BasedOn="{StaticResource smallButtonTemplate}">
```
```
            <Setter Property="Height" Value="150"/>
```
```
            <Setter Property="Width" Value="150"/>      
```
```
        </Style>
```
- ```
Change it at runtime:
```
```
if (App.IsKiosk)
```
```
{
```
```
                foreach (FrameworkElement fe in ToolbarPanel.Children)
```
```
                {
```
```
                    fe.Style = (Style)App.Current.Resources["largeButtonTemplate"];
```
```
                }
```
```
}
```

Out of Browser experience
- For the fan of this solution we offer the possibility to install it locally and run it out of browser. A snap to do it with SL3

If you want to see live how it was developed I will show some pieces in my Silverlight 3 Overview session at Shape: http://www.microsoft.com/switzerland/shape/Default.aspx

Have fun exploring the Matterhorn!

Ciao

Ronnie Saurenmann

MSDN TechTalk “Windows 7 für Entwickler”

2009-10-12T12:27:44Z

Am vergangenen Mittwoch haben beinahe 100 Softwareentwickler diese halbtägige Veranstaltung in Wallisellen besucht. Im ersten Teil standen neue Themen wie die Multitouch-Entwicklung, das Erweitern der Windows Taskbar sowie Themen rund um die neuen Libraries inkl. Federated Search Integration im neuen Windows Explorer im Vordergrund.

Die folgenden Screenshots verdeutlichen diese Themen:

1) WPF Applikation mit einer angepassten Thumbnail Toolbar und Preview:

2) Der neue Windows Explorer. Ersichtlich ist der hinzugefügte Flickr Search Connector (.osdx File), welcher dank Federated Search die Flickr Website direkt aus dem Windows Explorer durchsuchen kann:

3) Eine multitouch aktivierte WPF 4.0 (Beta 1) Demo-Applikation. Das neue Property ManipulationMode erlaubt das Festlegen der Fingergesten, welche auf diesem Objekt getracked werden sollen. Im zugehörigen Eventhandler ManipulationDelta(), kann dann auf die Veränderungen reagiert werden:

Die Applikation präsentiert sich nach dem Starten wie folgt:

Die einzelnen UI-Objekte können dann abhängig vom Wert im Property ManipulationMode mit Hilfe von Fingergesten verschoben, vergrössert und skaliert werden:

Im zweiten Teil sind wir auf das Thema Windows 7 und Applikationskompatibilität eingegangen. Windows 7 ist ab 22. Oktober für jedermann erhältlich. Als Entwickler halten wir Sie dazu an, Ihre Applikationen auf dem neuen OS jetzt zu testen. Die Wahrscheinlichkeit ist sehr hoch, dass diese zu 100 % kompatibel sind, ohne dass Sie irgendwelche Änderungen vornehmen müssen.

Mögliche Stolperstellen finden sich in den Bereichen:

User Account Control/Standard User: Auf Windows 7 (und Windows Vista) werden Legacy Applikationen, welche im 32 Bit Modus ausgeführt werden und kein zugehöriges Application Manifest File aufweisen, virtualisiert ausgeführt. D.h., auch wenn Sie als Standard User beispielsweise ins Verzeichnis C:\ oder C:\Program Files schreiben, haben Sie den Eindruck, dass dies funktioniert. Der Aufruf wird aber von Windows virtualisiert, d.h. effektiv werden Ihre Dateien im User Verzeichnis abgelegt. Beachten Sie, dass dies nur eine temporäre Lösung sein kann und die Virtualisierung z.B. im 64 Bit Modus nicht existiert.
High DPI: Insbesondere ab Windows 7 werden die Benutzer angehalten, nicht die Bildschirmauflösung zu verstellen, sondern High DPI zu benutzen. Sie finden diese Funktion beispielsweise, wenn im Startmenu “Make text and other items smaller or larger” eingegeben wird. Als Entwickler haben Sie es also in der Hand, wie Ihre Applikationen unter High DPI daherkommen.

Geben Sie Ihren Applikationen grünes Licht für Windows 7

Wenn Sie ein Software-Hersteller mit einem Standardprodukt sind, bieten wir Ihnen die Möglichkeit, Ihre Produkte kostenlos in unserem Windows 7 Kompatibilitätscenter einzutragen. Dieses wird nach der globalen Verfügbarkeit von Windows 7 aufgeschaltet werden. Ihre Applikationen können Sie hier eintragen: www.isvappcompat.com. Auf dieser Website erhalten Sie zudem Zugriff auf hilfreiche Informationen sowie Zugang zu Windows 7 Marketingunterlagen.

Bemerkung: Alternativ können Sie Ihre Applikationen auch direkt im Windows 7 Compatibility Center eintragen.

Weitere Informationen

Wenn Sie an weiterführenden Informationen zu diesen Themen interessiert sind, werfen Sie doch einen Blick auf die verwendeten Slides dieses MSDN TechTalks oder nehmen Sie mit mir Kontakt auf:

MSDN TechTalk Windows 7 for developers – Part I (7.8 MB)
MSDN TechTalk Windows 7 for developers – Part II (4.7 MB)

Olaf Feldkamp

Infoveranstaltung “Was bietet Visual Studio Team System 2010 wirklich?”

2009-10-09T16:54:00Z

In rund einem halben Jahr wird der nächste grosse Release von Visual Studio erscheinen. Eine gute Möglichkeit sich schon einmal vorher mit dem neuen Entwickler-Powertool auseinanderzusetzen bietet die Infoveranstaltung “Visual Studio Team System 2010” von Crealogix in Zusammenarbeit mit Microsoft Schweiz und Comsoft direct. Der Event findet statt am Mittwoch, 21.10.09, von 15:00 bis 17:30 im Hauptsitz von Microsoft Schweiz an der Richtistrasse 3 in 8304 Wallisellen. Weitere Informationen und den Link zum Anmeldeformular findet sich hier.

Es lohnt sich!

ASP.NET Controls for IE 8 … discovering the new Web Application Toolkit for IE8

2009-10-02T17:38:00Z

At the beginning of this week we hold the IE 8 HOL, which walks you through building Accelerators, Web Slices, Search Provider with Search Suggestions and more.

At the end of last week Microsoft revealed the availability of the Web Application Toolkit for Internet Explorer 8, which provides a set of ASP.NET controls for building the same kind of functionality within IE8. So, if you are an ASP.NET developer you may find this toolkit quite useful, otherwise you can download our lab, which shows you how to integrate all those features within non ASP.NET applications.

Enjoy.

Internet Explorer 8 Hands-On Lab for Developers

2009-10-02T16:43:29Z

After running the “Internet Explorer 8 Hands-On Lab for Developers” last week, I have now published the content online for everybody to try.

The lab files can be downloaded as follows:

· The Presentation (PPTX)

· The Lab Manual (PDF)

· The Sample Code used (a Visual Studio Web Developer 2008 Express project)

The lab first introduces the newly released Microsoft Web Platform Installer in order to install Visual Web Developer 2008 Express edition. You don’t need to do this however to follow the lab, you can use your favorite XML/HTML editor and web server which is all you need to complete the lab. I just chose Visual Web Developer because of its great HTML/XML editor and built-in developer web server.

The lab walks you through building an “Accelerator”, a “Web Slice” and a “Search Provider with Search Suggestions”. It also shows how to create your custom edition of Internet Explorer 8 using the “Internet Explorer Administration Kit 8”.

The Accelerator built during the lab will allow you to mark any text on any given web page and search for this item on bing.com/shopping.

It’s very easy to adapt the Accelerator to your own web site, if you already have search functionality using a parameterized URL.

The Web slice built allows you to subscribe to Bing.com’s weather report, which then sits in Internet Explorer’s Favorites bar and tells you, if updated information is available.

The Search provider created in the Hands-On lab will query Wikipedia and shows Search Suggestions as you type, including images and descriptive text.

Finally, you will learn how to use Internet Explorer Administration Kit 8 to create a custom Internet Explorer 8 installation package containing the Accelerator, Web Slice and Search Provider created in the lab as well as your custom start page(s), favorites and application title.

The whole lab takes about two hours to complete and should give every developer a good idea how to optimally exploit Internet Explorer 8 for his site.

The best part is that all these add-ons are not applications that need to be installed, they are simple XML descriptors (in case of the Accelerator and the Search Provider) and HTML elements in your existing page with a special ID=”hslice” attribute which if not recognized by another browser is simply ignored. So introducing these add-ons won’t either break the user’s computer or the hosting web page.

For visibility, the add-ons can be uploaded to http://ieaddons.com, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 Add-On gallery.

Give it a try! And have fun, creating Internet Explorer 8 Add-Ons.

ASP.NET MVC 2 Preview 2 available

2009-10-01T00:24:00Z

For all people passionate about the MVC pattern, the Preview 2 of ASP.NET MVC 2 is now available for download.

This preview can be installed within Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and will be part of the Beta2 of Visual Studio 2010. For more information visit the codeplex project page.

Have fun.

Web Platform Installer 2.0 Released

2009-09-28T16:45:00Z

Last week, Microsoft launched WebsiteSpark, a program designed to jumpstart Web Development for individuals and small companies who make a living on the Web. More information available at http://blogs.msdn.com/swiss_dpe_team/archive/2009/09/28/microsoft-websitespark-visibility-support-and-software-for-web-agencies.aspx.

Microsoft also announced the final release of the Web Platform Installer 2.0 (Web PI), which makes it easy to install the latest components of the Microsoft Web Platform including IIS, ASP.NET, Visual Web Developer, SQL Express and more.

To get the new version you just need to launch Web PI and you'll be prompted to upgrade to the RTW version. Otherwise you can visit www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx, click on the download link and install it (the web page is still mentioning the old Web PI Relese Candidate 2.0, but the download link is pointing you to the right version J).

Since the launch (5 months ago) the Web PI has installed more than 840’000 apps, so if you have a cool Web App waiting to be discovered by the mass, submit it to the Windows Web App Gallery today. Besides being a great tool for making your Web App well known, the Web PI is of course a great tool for quickly provisioning web servers and web development machines.