Reflection IT Blog

I finally found some time to test the beta of Visual Studio 2010. No problems found yet. It even supports a visual designer (Cider) for Silverlight projects. You can now use it to drag & drop controls from your toolbox, add rows/columns to a grid and set properties. Things which where only possible in Expression Blend.

I didn't go to the MIX09. Luckily Microsoft has published the sessions using high quality videos. Here are my favorites:

• Building Microsoft Silverlight Controls
• Consuming Web Services in Microsoft Silverlight 3
• What's New in Microsoft Silverlight 3
• High-Speed RIA Development with the Microsoft Silverlight Toolkit
• .NET RIA Services - Building Data-Driven Applications with Microsoft Silverlight and Microsoft ASP.NET
• Miss March and Other Distractions
• Building Amazing Business Centric Applications with Microsoft Silverlight 3
• Microsoft ASP.NET: Taking AJAX to the Next Level
• Building Data-Driven Scalable AJAX Web Pages
• Microsoft ASP.NET 4.0 : What's Next?
• Choosing between ASP.NET Web Forms and MVC
• Web Form Design
• User Experience Design for Non-Designers
• Ten Ways to Ensure RIA Failure
• RESTful Services for the Programmable Web with Windows Communication Foundation
• What's New in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) 4
• What's New for Microsoft Silverlight and Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) Developers in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

The Silverlight 3.0 Beta is out. Tim Heuer has written a great blog with all the new features. I have added the new SaveFileDialog to my Sudoku.

Now I can start to write a new Silverlight 3 training!.

Update 20 july 2009: Implemented Silverlight 3.0 RTW and moved the game to https://www.silverarcade.com/games/sonnemaf/sudoku 

I have created a LINQ extension method which can be used to Pivot an enumeration. Just like you can PIVOT a SQL Query in SQL Server.

The following example uses the Pivot() function to group Employees by Department and Function and aggregates the Salary using a SUM. The second example uses a different grouping and Counts the number of employees per group.

In order to make Cross Domain calls in Silverlight 2 applications, the server you wish to download data from must have a Policy File in place that allows access to your site. I have created a Silverlight Application in which you can check the content of the Policy Files (if exists).

Click on the image below to try the application

I have created a new Silverlight 2 Control which is used in the Objectmap website. This control makes it easy for the customers of accounts to find their nearest object (branch, offices or sales outlet). They can also immediately retrieve dynamic directions to this location or link to a more info page.

Have a look at this demopage, sorry in Dutch only.

This control uses: Cross Domain WCF networking, Data Binding, Isolated Storage Settings, Google Maps API calls, Cross Domain HTML Bridge and Styling.

Dit is mijn eerste Silverlight 2 instructie video. In deze video toon ik hoe je een eenvoudige Hello World applicatie kunt opzetten met behulp van Silverlight 2 (RC0) en Visual Studio 2008 met Service Pack 1.

Download de HelloWorld.zip sourcecode. Zorg er wel voor dat je alle benodigde software geinstalleerd hebt.

I have created a RollMenu control in Silverlight 2 Beta 2. It uses an Xml file to configure the menu items.

Click on following image for a live demo.

On June 17, I did two sessions on the Hot Technologies Day for Achmea (Interpolis) in Tilburg. I have given many trainings (C#, ASP.NET 2.0, AJAX, SQL2005, VS2008) at Achmea the last year. It is a very innovative company and very fun to work for.

This Hot Technologies Day was a mini seminar with 4 sessions: Silverlight 2, VSTS DB Pro, LINQ + Entity Framework, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. Here is a picture of me taken during the Silverlight 2 session:

In the Silverlight 2 session I gave an overview of Silverlight 2 Beta 2. You can download the slide deck here.

In the LINQ + Entity Framework session I gave an overview of C# 3.0, LINQ, LINQ to SQL and Entity Framework. You can download the slide deck here.

Bidirectional associations are easy to design but difficult to program. You must write lot's of synchronization code with the risk of making mistakes. Have a look at the following example in which there is a bidirectional association between Employee (Employer) and Company (Employees).

The synchronization code is implemented in the AddEmployee(), RemoveEmployee() and the (Set)Employer methods.