My new article in DevProConnections Magazine is now live. If you want to see the top ten features of Windows Phone 7.5 (according to me), go see the article now!
So the Windows Phone Marketplace hit 40K apps. What does it mean to the platform? There are a number of articles out there that talk about the 40,000 apps and compares them to other platforms but I think they are missing a key differentiator.
If you're a XAML developer and have proudly stated that you hand-code all your markup, it’s time to learn how to be more productive. I’ve authored a new course for PluralSight. If you have a subscription, you can view it my new “Blend for Developers” course now:
After my recent post on Periodic Agents, I had a number of people react to specific parts of the API. Let’s discuss each of these separately.
I am happy to announce my new online course on using Silverlight Server Communication is now available on Pluralsight. This course covers the basics of using services from with Silverlight projects. The course covers:
I am headed to Build Windows next week and I have a lot of hopes for the conference. I haven’t been to a conference as an attendee alone in quite a long time. I am anxious to see what the v.Next is out of Redmond.
I am currently reading the Mango (Windows Phone OS 7.1) version of my Phoney Tools project. But I have a particular problem: I need to maintain both a 7.0 and a 7.1 version of the project builds. You might have the same issue with your own project so I thought it’d be a good way to show off some special features that Visual Studio has to help you solve these sorts of situations. Essentially my goal was to maintain one set of code but build both sets from the same source.
In finishing up my new Windows Phone book, I had to deal with the confusing version problem. There are three version numbers to be aware of:
Url: http://www.atlantacodecamp.org/default.aspx
Url: https://agilitrain.com/Workshop/EventInfo/225
Url: http://www.pluralsight-training.net/microsoft/o...
Url: http://phoney.codeplex.com
Url: http://phoney.codeplex.com
Url: http://www.vimeo.com/20362526
Url: http://phoney.codeplex.com/
Url: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ee720180
Url: https://agilitrain.com/Workshop/Outline/Silverl...
Url: https://agilitrain.com/Partner/Info/Ordina_Belgium
Url: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=185584
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/debuggingtombst...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/wp7childwindow.zip
Url: https://agilitrain.com/Workshop/Info/Silverligh...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/wp7odatamovies.zip
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/lottophone.zip
Url: https://agilitrain.com/Workshop/EventInfo/132
Url: http://www.atldotnet.org/default.aspx
Url: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff84745...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/PhoneListWithTr...
Url: http://wildermuth.com/2010/02/21/The_State_of_D...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/xboxbrowser.zip
I just returned from DevConnections and had a great time. This year it was also the launch of Silverlight 4 and Visual Studio 2010 so it was a big party. You should consider coming next time if you didn't make it this time.
Url: http://www.devproconnections.com/article/silver...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/RiaXBoxGames.zip
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/phonexboxbrowse...
Url: http://www.oredev.org/videos/whats-new-in-silve...
Url: http://agilitrain.com
Url: http://vimeo.com/9931529
Url: http://www.sparklingclient.com/silverlight_augm...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/PortlandGameEdi...
I've said much about my opinion of Silverlight data access. Currently this is Web Services, WCF Data Services and WCF RIA Services. Let's talk about Data Services and RIA Services and how they are related:
Url: http://www.survsoft.com/esurv.php?s=27432&k=128...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/HandledWithCare...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/funwithcommandi...
Url: http://visitmix.com/opencallvote/?query=Shawn%2...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/riaxboxgames.zip
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/RiaXboxGames.zip
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/riaxboxgames.zip
Url: http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/buzzfrog/scottre...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/printingfun.zip
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/takingmypicture...
As many of you don't know, I was previously known as "The ADO Guy" so of course my first jump into the new Silverlight 4 bits was to play with the new Data Binding changes. The improvements aren't dramatic but they do fill several key holes that existed in the earlier versions. Let's take these changes one at a time.
Url: http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/2009/11/18/wha...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/CollectionViewF...
Url: http://www.cloudcasts.net/ViewWebcast.aspx?webc...
Url: http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?ShowNum...
Url: http://niagara.codeplex.com
Url: http://slextensions.codeplex.com
If you're a regular reader of my blog, you'll probably remember my pithy blog post where I stated that "It all depends..." to the question "Which Data Access Should I Use for Silverlight 3?" The reality is that much like the similar question I am confronted with at user groups for the past decade ("What data access should I use in my .NET app?"). The reasons for picking a strategy are wide and varied so I will not try to analyze all possible outcomes, but I think the different strategies need to be explained better.
As RIA Services is plodding towards a release, many people are looking at it to help them with validation of data in Silverlight. Using this validation in Silverlight 3 is pretty straightforward but there are some caveats. I want to show you under the covers so you understand what is happening. In this first part of the series, let's look at what it means to use validation from the outside.
Today I was working with a client and ran into a problem I didn't expect. This particular problem had to do with Silverlight consuming a WCF Service. Sometimes WCF causes me to spew four letter words. There is a class of WCF problems that cause this: connection rejection. WCF has been designed to prevent common DDoS and other attacks that could cause servers to fail or at least not serve honest requests. To this end the default size of a request is quite small. In fact, its usually 64K in size. This size is fine for most every request but occassionally when a client wants to send a collection of things to the server this size is too small. But we'll get to that in a minute. First, some background...
Url: http://www.silverlightdata.com
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/declarativeui.zip
Url: http://dnrtv.com/default.aspx?ShowID=148
Url: http://expressionblend.codeplex.com/
Url: http://augustadevelopers.org/Events/August2009/...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/FunWithAppServi...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/MVVMExample_RIA...
As regular readers of my blog know (RIA Services Concerns Squashed), I have been a lukewarm supporter of RIA Services for Silverlight. As many of you know, Brad Abrams and company have come through with their latest release (RIA Services Preview July '09) with lots of changes I've been hoping for. Honestly I haven't had time to look at the new build (probably this weekend), but I am hopeful of its overall direction. I am still somewhat tentitive about some of the basic behavior of the framework but I will hold my tongue until I have more time to dive deeper into the code.
Url: http://dnrtv.com/default.aspx?ShowID=144
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/CustomModularit...
Url: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2009/07/...
Url: http://www.connectedshow.com/default.aspx?Episo...
Url: http://www.sparklingclient.com/prism-silverlight/
Url: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd9430...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/DevTeachGameSto...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/funwithdataform...
Url: http://silverlight-tour.com
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/BehaviorDemo.zip
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/BehaviorDemo.zip
Url: http://wildermuth.com/talks#Speaking_at_Gwinnet...
Url: http://www.sparklingclient.com/prism-in-silverl...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/accessiblesilve...
Url: http://silverlight.net/blogs/jesseliberty/archi...
Url: http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?ShowNum...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/caretbrush.zip
Url: http://silverlight-tour.com
Url: http://wildermuth.com/Talks#SharePoint_Satuday_...
Url: http://development-guides.silverbaylabs.org/Vid...
Url: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.a...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/oddsynccontext.zip
Url: http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/atlanta/defau...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/Setup_SLTools_U...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/RemoteMenu.zip
Url: http://blogs.msdn.com/amyd/archive/2009/03/18/s...
Url: http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/Continuum/Firewo...
Url: http://www.devlink.net/Speakers/ShawnWildermuth...
Url: https://silverlight-tour.com
Url: https://agilitrain.com/workshop/info/Advanced_S...
Url: http://videos.visitmix.com/MIX09/T66M
Url: http://blogs.msdn.com/brada/archive/2009/03/19/...
Url: https://silverlight-tour.com
Url: https://content.visitmix.com/2009/Sessions/
Url: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/mix/i...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/myoutofbrowser.zip
Url: https://agilitrain.com/workshop/info/Advanced_S...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/AtlCodeCamp2009...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/sldp.zip
Url: http://blogs.msdn.com/astoriateam/archive/2009/...
Url: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd4588...
Url: http://go2.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=119972
Url: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd45880...
Url: http://silverlight-tour.com.mx
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/funwithperf.zip
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/funinmn.zip
Url: http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596523091/index....
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/FunWithDragons.zip
Url: http://www.twincitiesdevelopersguild.com/
Url: http://silverlight-tour.com
Url: http://blogs.msdn.com/mswanson/archive/2009/01/...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/blinkctrl.zip
Url: http://www.twincitiesdevelopersguild.com/
Url: http://wildermuth.com/2009/01/18/Fun_with_Items...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/notalistbox.zip
Url: http://www.silverlightshow.net/shows/Control-Cu...
Url: http://blogs.msdn.com/webnext/archive/2009/01/1...
Url: http://www.silverlightshow.net/shows/Consuming-...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/movingchart.zip
Url: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx...
Url: http://silverlight-tour.com
Url: http://silverlight-tour.com
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/asynchronousclo...
This all started with an innocent question by Bob Archer on Twitter. Bob wondered whether he could use ADO.NET Data Services in an application that was being touted as "Software as a Service" (SaaS). His concern was the apparent hard wiring of the Data Source in the DataService definition. This design might assume that you had to connect to a single database for all requests.
Url: http://silverlight-tour.com
Url: http://www.sparklingclient.com/win-a-spot-at-th...
Url: http://www.sparklingclient.com/win-a-spot-at-th...
Url: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/00036...
I often get questions about how the ContentPresenter works in ControlTemplates. There are certainly oddities to how it works in practice, but this is some additional information that should help you make sense of it.
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/ineta_wpb_20081...
Url: http://www.fladotnet.com/Reg.aspx?EventID=334
Url: http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?ShowNum...
Url: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc7942...
I get this question a lot when I teach the Silverlight Tour and when I do talks at conferences and user groups:
Url: http://www.silverlightdata.com
Url: http://www.silverlightdata.com
Url: http://www.microsoft.com/azure/data.mspx
Url: http://www.jeff.wilcox.name/2008/11/04/test-fra...
Url: http://www.dnrtv.com/default.aspx?showNum=127
Url: http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/26/netflix-fina...
Here is a quick but fun tip for working with Silverlight 2. I found that many people are using Isolated Storage for saving user preferences or other small pieces of information. When I look at the code, I am surprised by how much trouble they are going through to save small bits of data. That's where Isolated Storage Settings come in.
Url: http://silverlight-tour.com
Not a biggie, but just so that anyone that reads my blog knows...its "Silverlight 2", not "Silverlight 2.0". Wasn't my decision, but its the fact. Journalists and bloggers alike have been throwing out "2.0" a lot lately and after being hammered by some well-meaning Microsofties about the name, I just wanted to make sure everyone knows the right way.
In meeting with a client (Schoolmaster.nl who is building a cool LOB app), we came across the problem of one of their components was throwing Image Failed Javascript errors. Handling them in the App.UnhandledException event didn't help because the errors were surfaced outside the plug-in, directly to Javascript. Immediately I use the VisualTreeHelper to walk the entire XAML tree (including nested templates) to just add an event handler on to every ImageFailed events to try and suppress these errors.
I've started updating my sites that use Silverlight 2 to the RTW bits. So far I've got silverlight-tour.com and wildermuth.com updated. SilverlightData.com will have to wait a few days as I have a completely new example that is more complete and dynamically switches between NHibernate and Entity Framework. Look for an announcement on that this weekend.
There is a known problem with ADO.NET Data Services today that is important if you (or your server) lives in specific timezones. The problem is associated with the way that the Silverlight Data Services Library constructs their URI for searches.
Url: http://wildermuth.com/dirtylittlesecrets
In building my Silverlight RC example using ADO.NET Data Services for Entity Framework and NHibernate I ran into what I think is a common pattern. I am writing an editor for XBox game data. The model for this data uses decorator tables in the database which are modeled as a common "Product" class and derived "Game", "Console" and "Accessory" classes. In the application I am using paging to only look at fifty results at once. This works fine on both sides.
After digging and some prodding by a PM at Microsoft, I realize that the relative URI story in WebClient is different that I expected. I am not sure whether this changed from previous versions but Beta 2 and the RC this is the way that Relative URI's work in WebClient:
Url: http://www.saffroninteractive.com/silverlight.html
When making web requests in Silverlight 2, its easy to start with the simple WebClient class. In fact, it supports making simple requests (DownloadStringAsync and OpenReadAsync) as well as uploading through the class. On the other hand there are some that swear by the WebRequest route. What's the big difference?
Url: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/09/...
Url: http://www.silverlightdata.com
I was crufting up a sample LINQ to JSON example today to post in my blog but something odd happened. I couldn't find a public service that both used JSON and supports a security policy file. Let me clarify that.
Url: http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2008/0...
Url: http://www.adamjcooper.com/blog/post/Improved-M...
Url: http://blogs.msdn.com/peterlau/archive/2008/08/...
Url: http://blog.streamingmedia.com/the_business_of_...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/sl2_ds_example.zip
Url: http://www.silverlight-tour.com/schedule.aspx
Url: http://blogs.msdn.com/astoriateam/archive/2008/...
Url: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc7942...
Url: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc7942...
I am still working with Siebrand Dijkstra and his people at School Master, BV and they've opened my eyes to another interesting development.
UPDATE: The client doesn't mind that I mention them so I'll tell you that its the great people at SchoolMaster. Siebrand Dijkstra and his crew are doing some interesting things with Silverlight.
Url: http://deepfriedbytes.com/podcast/episode-10-a-...
Url: http://blogs.msdn.com/astoriateam/archive/2008/...
Url: http://deepfriedbytes.com/podcast/episode-9-a-p...
Url: http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/2008/08/11/vis...
UPDATE: Silverlight is now required to view the video...it no longer allows a downgraded experience.
Url: http://www.devworx.com.mx
Url: http://blogs.msdn.com/expression/archive/2008/0...
Url: http://www.silverlight-tour.com
Url: http://www.silverlightdata.com/simple/nhibernat...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/StateBrushes.zip
Short and sweet...if you are having Silvelright 2 Beta 2 issues with Firefox and media streaming, make sure you check Windows Update for a new fix. I think the OSX guys can just visit a Silverlight page to get it (using the auto-update stuff).
I was under a false impression. I've been using Twhirl for my Twitter client needs as it was the most feature complete client i could find. Twhirl requires the Adobe AiR runtime to work. I thought that AiR was a wrapper around Flex to allow desktop installation of Flex. What I didn't understand was that AiR is a runtime to allow Flex, Flash and HTML/AJAX apps to be hosted as a windowed desktop application. Interesting...so AiR isn't necessarily about Flex, but for all three platforms.
Url: http://www.silverlight-tour.com
Url: http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/2008/07/05/acc...
Url: http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/2008/07/02/upd...
Url: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/30/once-nearl...
Now that Silverlight 2 is getting closer to a reality (and a Go-Live license) the 3rd party controls are starting to sneak out. None of these are in 'release' quality but I thought it might help to get my opinion on the current state of these controls. Some of the vendors are releasing previews of their entire Silverlight 2 suites while others are releasing teaser controls (and some are even free!).
Url: http://silverlight.net/learn/learnvideo.aspx?vi...
Url: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/mseventsbmo/view...
I've been digging into some of the open source and 3rd party controls that are becoming available for Silverlight 2. While running into some odd issues with some of them it occurred to me that there are some design guidelines that haven't been well communicated. Back in the early days of WPF I learned (though exactly where is unclear) that every control should support an empty constructor and that all properties (e.g. XAML Attributes) should have a default value. I knew this to be true but I couldn't document where it came from.
When I teach Silverlight 2, I stress an important lesson that I thought that we (as developers) had learned the importance of linkability of the web. Early usage of Flash was the first time I noticed this. A number of those sites would create nested functionality that never changed the URL. If the URL doesn't change, i can't bookmark it. Most Flash guys learned their lessons pretty quick, but now I am inundated with AJAX driven sites that try hard to not to do post-backs. That's cool, but if the URL doesn't change I can't link to it.
Url: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.a...
If you've used Silverlight 2 much, you probably have already run into the issue with URI's that can be specified in XAML (e.g. Image and MediaElement). When using relative URI's for these elements, Silverlight 2 uses a "Site of Origin" resolution symantic. Instead of resolving the relative URI's based on the website that the Silverlight 2 application is hosted on, it resolves it based on the site of the origin of the application (the .xap file). If the application is hosted on a site (i.e. http://mysite.com) and our .xap file is in a directory (i.e. http://mysite.com/ClientBin), then a relative URI will be resolved based on the locaiton of the .xap file. This means that a relative URI like "/foo.jpg" we resolve to "http://mysite.com/ClientBin/foo.jpg" *not* "http://mysite.com/foo.jpg" as you might expect. In fact, changing this to "../foo.jpg" doesn't change anything. It thinks that the directory of the .xap file is the root of the URI, no matter what you do. Lastly, this also means that if your .xap file is hosted on a site other than your website, these URI's are relatvie to that remote web server, not yours.
Url: http://blogs.msdn.com/gduthie/archive/2008/06/1...
Url: http://silverlight.net/community/recognition
Url: http://silverlightrocks.com/cs/files/folders/sa...
In the documentation and change documents in Silverlight 2 Beta 2, they mention that the format of the Deep Zoom files have changed from a binary to an XML file. In fact, then mention that the file is called .DZI for a single image, and .DZC for an image collection.
I am headed to Europe this fall for two .NET conferences on the continent. I am excited to be speaking at these two great conferences:
Url: http://wildermuth.com/2008/06/06/Upgrading_your...
Url: http://www.sparklingclient.com/whats-new-in-sil...
Url: http://www.interact-sw.co.uk/iangblog/2008/06/1...
Url: http://www.fiddler2.com/fiddler2/
I've updated several of our sites that contain Silverlight 2 Beta 2 projects/apps. Here they are:
Something I never noticed before is the Document Outline window in Visual Studio (2008?). When editing large XAML files this is particularly useful to help navigate the tree of elements.
UPDATED: Essentially, no one else did write a bunch of upgrading blogs so I've amended this blog post to include more infomation on how to upgrade your projects.
Url: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/bb931106.aspx
Url: http://silverlight.net/getstarted
Url: http://geekswithblogs.net/WynApseTechnicalMusin...
Now that .NET 3.5 SP1 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1 have been Beta'd, I've been spending a lot of time digging deep into the ADO.NET Data Services in that release. Because of this, i've been very quiet. Look for this blog to get very loud in June after TechEd (no, I won't be there).
Url: http://www.silverlight-tour.com
Url: http://www.wilcob.com/Wilco/Silverlight/file-up...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/silverlightcros...
Url: http://blogs.msdn.com/brada/archive/2008/05/03/...
Url: http://blogs.msdn.com/expression/archive/2008/0...
Url: http://www.adobe.com/openscreenproject/
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/popupfun.zip
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/SeeMyXaml.zip
Url: http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/2008/04/06/sil...
Adam Kinney (of Silverlight Evangelism fame) was finding some odd behavior with his new (and cool) Silverlight Powered XBox Gamercard. Of interest was the Gamertag link on the Gamercard. When you use it on his site, it works like a dream but once you put the Gamercard on a separate site the link would cause the Silvelright app to just disappear instead of navigating to XBox.com.
Url: http://adamkinney.com/blog/322/default.aspx
Url: http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/resources/...
As I've been neck-deep in Silverlight 2 for a couple of months now I noticed that there are some bugs/inconsistencies that aren't necessarily known to everyone. Here's a list of some of the issues (with workarounds if possible):
Url: http://www.silverlight-tour.com
Url: http://wildermuth.com/silverlightseeqpod
Quick fix for a problem that was haunting me today:
Url: http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2008/0...
Url: http://wildermuth.com/silverlight/
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/backenabledsilv...
Url: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/u...
Url: http://blogs.msdn.com/brada/archive/2008/03/18/...
Url: http://www.interact-sw.co.uk/iangblog/2008/03/1...
There is a lot of chatter on the Silverlight Forums (http://silverlight.net/forums) about the lack of synchronous behavior with some of the .NET BCL that is included. It has made a number of people angry and unhappy. I wanted to venture an opinion about this.
Url: http://www.silverlightdata.com
Url: http://photozoom.mslivelabs.com/Default.aspx
Url: http://www.silverlight-tour.com
I've been noticing that VS 2008 was crashing a lot for me since installing the Silverlight 2 VS 2008 Tools. It seems that Cider is freaking out but Jon Galloway came to my rescue. If you're experiencing the crashes, go to:
Url: http://blogs.msdn.com/expression/archive/2008/0...
The Silverlight SDK contains a couple of interesting gems that aren't appearent in the docs. I'll let everyone espouse the virtues of the runtime for the time being, I'd like to introduce you to a couple of tools in the SDK:
Url: http://silverlight.net/GetStarted/#betajump
Url: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/05/adobes-fla...
Url: http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1236
I've been contacted by a couple of potential customers about how the AIR story compete with Silverlight. This has also come up at several talk i've done recently. I am not an Adobe or Flash guy so I may be the wrong one to broach the subject, but it feels like they are not necessary competing. In a large way it feels like Microsoft is trying to get into the web space and compete for RIA, whereas AIR seems to be attempting to get onto the desktop.
Url: http://searchwindevelopment.techtarget.com/tip/...
Url: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/02/...
Url: http://www.alabamacodecamp.com
Its been a crazy weekend. I've moved into my new servers at MaximumASP and I could not be happier. On the new server, I have full control over the box so I can make it work the way it should have. In the old system, I was doing all sort of re-routing tricks to host 8 sites under a single web site. It was a nightmare that made it difficult to use new technology (e.g. if the root site was using AJAX 1.0, I couldn't have one of the sub sites use 3.5). All that is over and hopefully you will see some new stuff on this site soon! .
Url: http://www.silverlight-tour.com/freesignup.aspx
Url: http://www.silverlight-tour.com/freesignup.aspx
I've gotten the question a number of times about problems getting intellisense with Visual Studio 2008. If your XAML looks like this in Visual Studio 2008 then I can help you:
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/igooglesilverli...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/manipulatestory...
Url: http://cstechcast.com/home.aspx?Episode=9
Url: http://hanselminutes.com/default.aspx?showID=115
Url: http://wildermuth.com/silverlightseeqpod
Url: http://www.silverlight-tour.com
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/spotlightproble...
I was teaching on the Silverlight Tour today and since the new release of Silverlight 2.0 is around the corner, I decided to do most my demos in Silverlight 1.1 instead of Silverlight 1.0. There were two problems that cropped up during the class. Luckily my students were patient while we dug deeper to find out why it was acting wonky. The two issues I found were:
If you have spent anytime with Silverlight, you've likely run across the cross-site scripting issue. Essentially, the browser doesn't let you do web requests from other sites than the one you're hosted in. This is to prevent nasty script kiddies from doing nefarious things.
Url: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx...
We are happy to announce that we have winners for the caption contest. The winning caption is:
Due to trouble contacting all the winners of the contest, we've decided to delay the announcement of the winners until Thursday, January 10th. Thanks you for patience.
Url: http://wildermuth.com/2008/01/01/Win_a_Seat_to_...
Url: http://silverlight.r2musings.com/weatherwidget/...
I am giving away a free seat to the Silverlight Tour stop in Atlanta on January 15th - 17th, 2008. This includes free admission to the workshop and all the materials associated with the class. If you are not in the Atlanta area, you are responsible for all travel expenses for the workshop.
I just arrived back from teaching Silverlight in Toronto and was thinking about what I was doing this time last year. A year ago I had just finished spending a couple of months with WPF/E (the name before it was Silvelright) and had given a two day class in Seattle to some internal groups on WPF/E. In addition, I was just finishing up the first draft of the WPF/E (previous name of Silverlight) appendix for Chris Sells/Ian Griffith's WPF Book. I've spent most of this year working on Silverlight (both articles, the courseware and actually teaching the Silverlight Tour). Its been a great year.
While playing with Astoria and Silverlight today, I found a problem with the WebRequest Headers. Luckily, Pablo Castro in the ADO.NET Team at Microsoft was there to set me straight. I wanted to warn everyone of this bug in case it bites you:
Url: http://www.newyyz.com/NtgSite/?Category=Microso...
Rik pointed out to me that there is a new "Web Site" template for Silverilght (I don't use Web Sites but almost always use "Web Applications" so I never noticed it). So I fired up Visual Studio 2008 to take a look and this template is kinda wierd to me. It seems like a step backwards from other templates (and there still isn't a 'good' Silverlight 1.0 template in my mind). This template differs from others by doing two things:
Url: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/11/...
Url: http://connect.microsoft.com/Expression/feedbac...
Url: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/11/...
Url: http://blogs.msdn.com/mharsh/archive/2007/11/20...
Url: http://www.silverlight-tour.com
Url: http://silverlightdata.com
Url: http://silverlightdata.com
Now that Visual Studio 2008 is released it would be nice to do some Silverlight development on it (instead of the Beta). Good and bad news:
I've had a number of people ask me about intellisense with Silverlight 1.0 on VS 2008. The trick is to *not* use the WPF Editor (the one that won't show Silverlight WPF anyway). To make it work:
Url: http://silverlight.net/GetStarted/
With today announcement of Visual Studio 2008 going RTM this month, we start the inevidible task of determining how many of the VS 2008 tools are going to have toolkits installed. Of most interest to me are:
Url: http://www.silverlight-tour.com
Url: http://www.adefwebserver.com/DotNetNukeHELP/Mis...
Url: http://www.silverlightdata.com
Url: http://silverlight.net/learn/learnvideo.aspx?vi...
Url: http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/EventDetail.a...
Url: http://blogs.msdn.com/synergist/archive/2007/07...
Url: http://www.silverlight-tour.com
Url: http://www.wildermuth.com/silverlight
I've been digging into Moonlight and with a lot of help on the Olive mailing list I finally got the current build of Moonlight built on Ubuntu 7.04. Here it is on Silverlight.NET's Showcase page:
Url: http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2007/Sep-24-1.html
After teaching Silverlight this week and spending my evenings digging into Moonlight, I am getting used to the fact that Silverlight fits into a graphically and functionally intense ecosystem that includes Adobe's offering (Flash, Flex, or Apollo) and open source equivalents (Moonlight, SVG, et al.). So I really wonder how many technologies are really at odds here. Of particular interest (because I am only now digging into how it works) is SVG.
Url: http://www.silverlight-tour.com/st/workshop.asp...
Url: http://www.silverlight-tour.com
Url: http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2007/Sep-05.html
Url: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/09/...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/scrollingsilver...
If you are playing with Silverlight 1.0 and Visual Studio 2008 like I am, you've probably noticed that the templates won't install without Visual Studio 2005. Luckily there is a good workaround. The templates are a simple .zip file inside the MSI installer that just need to be placed in a specific directory to work..that's all. If you want to walk through specific steps to get the templates to work with Visual Studio 2008, follow these steps:
Url: http://silverlight.net/Learn/learnvideo.aspx?vi...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/scrollingregion...
Url: http://blogs.msdn.com/geekspeak/archive/2007/08...
Url: http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2007/08/23/m...
Url: http://wildermuth.com/silverlight/silverlightaj...
Don't tell anyone but I've been playing with Ubuntu on an extra server. I am having fun trying out MonoDevelop and seeing what of my apps run on Mono. Of course everyone knows I've been neck deep in Silverlight for a while so I navigated to my website using Firefox. I viewed the recent AJAX sample I blogged about earlier to see what would happen for Silverlight users on an unsupported platform. Here's my page on Firefox in Ubuntu (click on the images for full-size):
Url: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx...
Url: http://silverlight.net/Learn/LearnVideos.aspx#v...
Url: http://www.cio.com/article/128700
Url: http://silverlight.net/learn/learnvideo.aspx?vi...
Url: http://blogs.msdn.com/mharsh/archive/2007/08/06...
Url: http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2007/08/01/s...
I've been looking at different ways of using XAML in Silverlight and I finally got around to wanting to have that cool animated Silverlight Logo (note it won't show up correctly until they update their code from Beta to RC if you have updated to the RC).
Url: http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?showNum...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/loadingdemo.zip
Url: http://wildermuth.com/silverlight
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/silverlightgadg...
Silverlight.net released two more of my videos today. If you're learning Silverlight, these videos are a great place to get started. Here's the latest videos:
Url: http://blogs.msdn.com/bclteam/archive/2007/06/2...
Url: http://silverlight.net/learn/learnvideo.aspx?vi...
Url: http://silverlight.net/learn/learnvideo.aspx?vi...
Url: http://weblogs.asp.net/jezell/archive/2007/05/0...
I was doing a Silverlight video player for some videos I am doing and I was playing with different ways to show the timeline of a playing video. There are a couple of ways to do this, but in Silverlight 1.0 the typical way was with an animation on a hidden Canvas that you restart over and over to mimic the behavior of a Timer:
Url: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb2328...
Url: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb2328...
Url: http://wildermuth.com/xaml/aglogo.xaml
Url: http://silverlight.net/GetStarted/
Url: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596510688/?C...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/WPFEBlendTempla...
Url: http://blogs.msdn.com/mharsh/archive/2007/02/05...
Url: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb2328...
Url: http://wildermuth.com/videoplayer.aspx?id=1
The February release of the CTP is available (just in time since the old WPF/E timed-out this afternoon). According to Mike Harsh, a new SDK and samples will be available soon. I've updated my examples we well. Here are bunch of key links:
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/wpfesample.gadget
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/adoguy.web.wpfe...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/adoguy.web.wpfe...
Url: http://wilderminds.blob.core.windows.net/downloads/ADOGuy.Web.Wpfe...
Url: http://wildermuth.com/presentations/wpfe.pdf
Url: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.a...
Url: http://blogs.msdn.com/geekspeak/archive/2007/01...
Url: http://weblogs.asp.net/dwahlin/archive/2007/01/...
Url: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.a...
Url: http://wildermuth.com/wpfesamples/slideshow.aspx
Url: http://richardleggett.co.uk/downloads/wpfe/Test...
Url: http://www.interfacett.com/wpfe/eggtimer/defaul...
Url: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/asp.net/bb1873...
Url: http://microsoft.com/expression
Url: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/asp.net/bb1873...
Url: http://wildermuth.com/WPFESamples/agvideoplayer...