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Monthly Archives: March 2008

  • Silverlight Charts and Graphs - with Source Code

    If you are looking for some great Silverlight 2 charts and graphs for data presentation (not interactivity at this point), check out what the people at VISIfire have come up with. Besides being a great example of what one can do with vector drawing, and a quick way to get very good looking charts and graphs in your app, you get all the source code (GPL) for each so you can easily create your ow...

    Published Monday, March 31, 2008 | Tagged: , , , | 1 comment

  • Silverlight 2 for Business Applications Webcast Download

    The webcast recording is now online. To view the recording, register for the livemeeting and then click the view online or download links.Enjoy!

    Published Thursday, March 27, 2008 | Tagged: , , , | 6 comments

  • State Management and Isolated Storage in Silverlight 2 Beta 1

    Some of the questions that came out of the Silverlight for Business Applications webcast I did on Wednesday centered around how to handle "global variables" and how to handle state. I'll address both of those here as they are very common requirements in business applications.When I built Windows client applications (which doesn't happen that much any more, much to my disappoin...

    Published Saturday, March 22, 2008 | Tagged: , , , | 10 comments

  • Slides from Silverlight for Business Applications Webcast

    Thanks to everyone who attended Wednesday's webcast. In the past, I've used slideshare for uploading slides, but if you use non-standard fonts, the processing munges it. This time, I've posted PDF and XPS versions of the slides. The XPS version is a bit larger, but has better fidelity. Slides in XPS Format Slides in PDF Format The slides also include the eye chart at the end which compares ...

    Published Thursday, March 20, 2008 | Tagged: , , | 1 comment

  • Links from Today's Silverlight 2 for Business Applications Webcast

    I'll post a link to the recording once I have that. In the mean time, here are some of the links mentioned in today's Silverlight 2 for Business Applications webcast: Silverlight 2 Woodgrove Bank Sample Application Source Code for same (also includes a demo script which has more in it than I demonstrated today) Silverlight 2 Controls Demo Silverlight.net, the Official Silverlight C...

    Published Wednesday, March 19, 2008 | Tagged: , , , , , | 5 comments

  • Having Trouble with the Silverlight Blueprints for SharePoint?

    Just prior to MIX, I posted about the new Silverlight 2 Blueprints for SharePoint. Those have been very popular both inside my own company and out there in general. However, many people have struggled with how to get all the beta, ctp, preview etc. bits to all play together nicely.Marc Schweigert just posted about a very helpful screencast and posting that should help you get back on track.

    Published Wednesday, March 19, 2008 | Tagged: , | Leave comment

  • WCF Integration in Silverlight 2 Beta 1

    In preparation for my Silverlight for Business Applications webcast today, I decided to look more deeply into how Silverlight works with services. I originally concentrated a lot on security, and had a much larger post on how to secure your services, but ran into some issues there. More on that below.WCF Service Requirements for SilverlightIn Silverlight 2 Beta 1, WCF services must be set up to...

    Published Wednesday, March 19, 2008 | Tagged: , , , , | 21 comments

  • Accessibility and UI Automation in Silverlight 2

    Silverlight 1.0 didn't have much in the way of accessibility - essentially the equivalent of alt tags. Silverlight 2 will change that by exposing a full accessibility tree to accessibility tools in builds post Beta 1. In this video Mark Rideout from the Silverlight team discusses how Silverlight 2 handles accessibility. Mark was PM for accessibility in Windows Forms, and is also PM for accessi...

    Published Sunday, March 16, 2008 | Tagged: , , , | Leave comment

  • DPI Matters in Blend

    A recent post on Silverlight.net led me to revisit something I haven't played with in quite some time: DPI.If you wonder why you sometimes drag those pngs or other images onto the design surface in blend, and they come out the wrong size, there are several things to consider:Do I have the image inside a grid cell that is constraining or stretching it?Did I use the mouse to set the size of t...

    Published Wednesday, March 12, 2008 | Tagged: , , | 5 comments

  • asp:Silverlight Override for Setting the Splash Screen in Silverlight 2

    If you read my article on xap and saw the bit about how to set the splash/loading screen for your silverlight app, you may have been left wondering how you handle that without resorting to the old createSilverlight script.Cameron Albert has come up with the solution for you: a new class, derived from the System.Web.UI.SilverlightControls.Silverlight asp.net class, that handles that goo for you....

    Published Tuesday, March 11, 2008 | Tagged: , | 1 comment

  • Silverlight 2 Beta 1 Path and File Resolution

    How paths are resolved in Silverlight 2 can be somewhat confusing. This has come up a lot in the Silverlight.net forums and elsewhere, so I thought I'd take a stab at putting it all down here. For additional information on Silverlight 2 Beta 1 and how packaging and applications work, see my two part Xap/App posts here: Part 1, Part 2 Images with Leading Slash (like <Image Source="/foo....

    Published Sunday, March 9, 2008 | Tagged: , , | 22 comments

  • Silverlight and Expression Links from MIX

    I'm still adjusting to the 3 hour time change plus 1 hour daylight savings time (why do they even bother with that any more?) However, here are some useful sites and links that came out of MIX08:First, of course, is the Microsoft Silverlight Community site. This is the first place to visit if you are at all interested in learning Silverlight. Visit the getting started section, and then head...

    Published Sunday, March 9, 2008 | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave comment

  • Great Usability - or Not

    So I'm trying to complete registration at this site today, and I noticed that there is no textbox next to state. I figured maybe they pulled the state from the zip code. So, I fill everything else in and submit, and get this wonderful screen telling me State/Province is required - even though there's no field for me to input into. Refreshing the page didn't fix the problem. I had to close ...

    Published Saturday, March 8, 2008 | Tagged: , | Leave comment

  • Silverlight 2 for Business Applications Webcast

    The registration link for my March 19 Silverlight 2 webcast is now on-line. If you're interested in developing LOB applications in Silverlight, or want to learn more about what Silverlight 2 Beta 1 brings to the table, be sure to register.This is an introduction to Silverlight with a strong LoB Applications focus.

    Published Wednesday, March 5, 2008 | Tagged: , , | 2 comments

  • Xap! App! Pow! Packaging and Application Startup in Silverlight 2 Beta 1 - Part 2

    In Part 1, I discussed the new Silverlight 2 packaging model (xap). In Part 2 below, I cover the new application model and startup sequence, as well as how to show your own splash screen while loading your Silverlight app.Keep in mind that since this is Beta technology, anything you see here is subject to change.Application Model and StartupIn Silverlight 1.1, the first places you could run man...

    Published Wednesday, March 5, 2008 | Tagged: , , | 2 comments

  • Xap! App! Pow! Packaging and Application Startup in Silverlight 2 Beta 1 - Part 1

    This is Part 1 of a two-part series. Part 1 focuses on the new packaging model. Part 2 focuses on application startup and loading.One of the nicest changes in Silverlight 2 is the addition of the new packaging model for managed code applications. While you can still use the loose file (xaml + JavaScript) methods for JavaScript applications in Silverlight 2, you must use the xap packaging model ...

    Published Wednesday, March 5, 2008 | Tagged: , , | 10 comments

  • Silverlight Balloons for Silverlight 2 Beta 1

    The first real demo I did for Silverlight 1.1a was the Silverlight Balloons demo. I ended up building upon it a bit over time, as my son (now two years old) absolutely loved seeing the balloons float up the screen.Well, since Silverlight 1.1a code no longer works on any PC in my house, I figured I'd better hop to it and update the examples :) (as an aside, by the time you read this, I ...

    Published Wednesday, March 5, 2008 | Tagged: , , | 11 comments

  • Nokia Signs up for Silverlight Mobile

    Looks like Nokia has signed up with Microsoft to include Silverlight in its S60 and S40 mobile phones as well as Nokia internet tablets.The Register mentions (despite the unnecessary jabs at Nokia and backhand at Microsoft) that this will be demo'd at MIX tomorrow. More cool stuff to look forward to!Excerpt:But adding Nokia's S60, based on the Symbian OS, is a far bigger deal. Nokia is ...

    Published Tuesday, March 4, 2008 | Tagged: , , , , | Leave comment

  • What's up (or down) with Windows Live ID?

    Ok, I've imbibed more Microsoft Kool-aid than most people. I love working with Microsoft tools and with Microsoft employees. However, Windows Live ID (Passport) is starting to really get on my nerves.The other day, right before I was to demo a Silverlight site (www.heroeshappenhere.com) as part of a Silverlight talk for a CIO audience, something at Windows Live ID went down. I couldn't ...

    Published Monday, March 3, 2008 | Tagged: , , , | Leave comment

  • Silverlight 2 Blueprints for SharePoint

    Thanks to Tad at AIS for bringing this one to my attention. We have some early experience in combining Silverlight and SharePoint, based on the 1.1 alpha work we did back in July as well as some 1.0 work since then. We did only the most basic integration early on, though. We're working on combining Silverlight 2 and MOSS/WSS (within AIS and on the revamp of my own site), so this couldn'...

    Published Monday, March 3, 2008 | Tagged: , , , | 2 comments