Sunday, May 31, 2009

Silverlight 3 Planned to release

As per Microsoft promise, Silverlight 3 is coming very soon. Finally, Silverlight 3 is ready to launch on July 10 including its Expression Blend Studio 3 family of designer tools.

Silverlight 3 adds some fetures:

  1. 3D Support

  2. GPU acceleration

  3. H.264 video support

  4. Out-of-browser support


out-of-browser support will allow Silverlight apps to run on Windows or Mac clients and provide users with online, offline or intermittently connected access to their Silverlight apps and content.

Right now, Silverlight 3 beta version is available for download

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Interview with Dotnetspider.com - MVM award

In continuation on my award of MVM from dotnetspider.com, DNS published my interview on this award.

In this interview I have shared my views with Raghav on my this achievement.

The tenure of interview is around 60-minutes, I really enjoyed with Raghav.

Here is the link of my interview : http://www.dotnetspider.com/forum/206904-Few-moments-with-Gaurav-Arora-DotNetSpider-MVM.aspx

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Visual Studio 2010 Beta-I : Ready to work

Its a great day for all techie today.
Microsoft released its new Visual Studion version.

Finally, Visual Studio 2010 Beta-I is released and available to download.

Get the cheat Sheet at : http://blogs.msdn.com/danielfe/archive/2009/05/20/visual-studio-2010-beta-1-cheat-sheet.aspx

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Defining and using styles in Silverlight

Defining and using styles in Silverlight



Lets take practical scenario for Styles in Silverlight.

Silverlight allows re-useable styles to be created to avoid duplication:


<Button x:Name="btnSubmit" FontFamily="Arial"
FontWeight="Bold" Width="100" Height="25"
Margin="10" />

<Button x:Name="btnCancel" FontFamily="Arial"
FontWeight="Bold" Width="100" Height="25"
Margin="10" />

We can also create Global Styles using app.xaml file


<Application.Resources>
<Style x:Key="ButtonStyle" TargetType="Button">
<Setter Property="Width" Value="100" />
</Style>
</Application.Resources>


Applying Styles to Controls:

With the help of Style property we can apply the global style to the properties:

<Button x:Name="btnSubmit" Content="Submit"
Click="btnSubmit_Click"
Style="{StaticResource ButtonStyle}" />

Silverlight : DataGrid Control

DataGrid

DataGrids are fundamental UI controls. They radically simplify the task of displaying structured data to users by automatically handling the rendering of rows, columns, headers, and data navigation. Silverlight's data grid is no exception. While it is far from being a complete or "advanced" grid control by today's WinForms and ASP.NET standards, it does provide basic grid functionality.

To use the DataGrid control, you must simply bind the Grid to a list of items (that implement IEnumerable) via the ItemSource property. In the simplest approach, the Grid will automatically generate columns based on the data you supply and even render "special" column types- like checkbox columns- based on your data types. You can, of course, take more control and manually define the columns that will be rendered in your grid by setting the AutoGenerateColumns property to false.

We have to add following namespace to use DataGrid:
xmlns:my="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Data"


<my:DataGrid x:Name="myDataGrid" AutoGenerateColumns="true" />

Silverlight Top 8 Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is Silverlight Tool Kit?

Ans: To create an application or game you need to design, code and give some extra feature to your output. 

To do the above, you need some controls, IDE etc.

Silverlight Tool kit is nothing but is a collection of Silverlight Tools, Components etc. It includes source code describing the all you need to develop an application.

Please visit this link for more info:http://www.codeplex.com/Silverlight


Q. Can I add more than one .xaml pages in silverlight application?

Ans: Yes, you can have multiple .xaml files in a single project.

In the App.xaml, in the method Application_Startup you can choose, which page you want to initially display.


Q. How can I create image pieces/sub image?

Ans: In straight way you can''t create a subimage from an existing image. Here you just clip an image, Clipping is just different from Cropping. In clipping, first you have to dictate which part of the images to draw and later you have to remove all but the desired part of the image. Silverlight does not support cropping.


Q. How does Silverlight 2 differ from Adobe Flash?

Ans: As I am from .Net background so in my views you can get C# / Vb.net compiled code but in Flash there is only action script.

You can find difference in depth at : http://silverlight.net/forums/t/3015.aspx


Q. How can I switch to Expression Blend from Visual Studio?

Ans: Expression blend provide great extensibility for XAML files.To switch to Expression Blend, right-click on the XAML file and select Open in Expression Blend.


Q. What happened when I press F5 within Visual Studio to run Silverlight application?

Ans: When you run the Silverlight application within Visual Studio, a new folder created in the web-site project for silverlight solution and it happened only first time. The folder name is ClientBin and having package with XAP extension which contains compiled project.


Q. Can you elaborate how to start a silverlight application with Visual Studio?

Ans : You can find a fully described article from http://www.silverlightclub.com/resources/1858-silverlight-lets-start-building-applications.aspx.aspx

In the following step(s) I am giving the ideas all about:

1.Create a project:Here you just start your visual studio, Select your programming language [C#/VB], Choose Silverligh Template give the name and save it.

2. Adding SIlverlight COntrols:One thing is happened here, controls cannot dragged onto the designer, you can draw/drag the controls on XAML page.

(a) Naming to control:In this step just give the name to your silverligt control like for Button you can give name as : btnmySilverligtButton

(b)Adding event handlers to Silverlight controls:Here you can give the event handlers like for click etc.

(c)Testing Silverlight applications in Visual Studio:Now just press F5 and test your application


Q. What is the best place to start Silverlight application?

Ans: There is no hard and fast rule to start Silverlight application. Every developer can start as per his/her experience. like as per my case I always prefer Visual Studio. SO, in my view Visual Studio is the best place to start with Silverlight2 applications.Microsoft provides templates for creating Silverlight applications and libraries in C# and Visual Basic.

Microsoft TechEd-2009

Lets cheers, its a good news for all Microsoft lovers.
Microsoft TechEd2009 will be conducting in Hyderabad from May13 to May15.

Main attention of the eve is Steven A. Ballmer,CEO Microsoft. This is the greatest and biggest eve in India and expecting to see a huge crowd from developer community.

To grab more details please visit : Microsoft TechEd2009.

Activities of CodeDigest - May'2009

CodeDigest Article Digest

CodeDigest For the Month 5\2009

This Month Contest
Universal TV/VCR/DVD Remote Controller Watch with World Time
Contribution Required:4 articles or 6 code snippets
USB AA/AAA Battery Charger
Contribution Required:2 articles or 3 code snippets
Mini Pig 2 LEDs Flashlight White

Contribution Required:For Participation

New Articles Published
Edit,Update and Delete in GridView using DataKeys
Edit,Update and Delete in GridView using DataKeys,A datakey represents the primary key field or field of a record in a data-bound control. Many a times in our applications we use primary keys to get control of the particular record in the gridview. For this situation, many developers use invisible columns (Hidden columns) in the gridview to identify that row. We can achieve the same functionality using Datakeys.
Beginning Silverlight Development
Beginning Silverlight Development,Microsoft introduced Rich Internet Application with the introduction of Silverlight which is a very lightweight and a client-side application.
Better Practices on Building High Performance Web Pages
This article details out the better practices on how to get the most out of your web pages in terms of delivering, parsing and rendering the content on a web browser.
Optimizing Performance in WPF Applications
This article explains how to optimize your XAML markup to speed up your WPF applications.
How to perform WPF Data Binding using LINQ to XML
Most of the times, you may have to display XML data in your WPF applications. Traditionally, you might use XML plug-ins offered by ADO.NET. But, LINQ is the mantra now. Using LINQ to XML, it is much easier and fun to bind your WPF controls and perform data binding as a new fashion.
Using HyperLink Control in DataBound Controls
In this article, I will explain different ways of using hyperlink control in data bound controls like GridView,DataList and Repeater control.
How to skip SharePoint spell check for an input control
KwizCom's VP R&D Shai Petel makes complex SharePoint issues – simple. Here he explains how to skip SharePoint spell check for an input control.
Picasa Style Photo Album Using ListView Control in ASP.Net 3.5
ListView is a new databound control that is shipped with ASP.Net 3.5. Read my previous article - ListView Control in ASP.Net 3.5 which elaborates the usage of this new control. ListView control is one of the most flexible databound control that can be used to present the data in any custom format. Moving forward, in this article we will use this new control to create Google’s Picasa style photo album.
Building Collapsible Panel Control using jQuery in ASP.Net Page
It is a technique where we can provide expand/collapse feature to a section of page. Technically, it is nothing but providing expand/collapse feature to a DIV element. So, a page with lengthy content can make use of this feature to display only less content and show the full content on demand.
Single Button Click Custom Control
This article demonstrates a custom control for button which gets disabled after user clicks on it so that we can stop user to resubmit the same information again and again intentionally or unintentionally.
Here, when user clicks on submit button, its first checks the validation part. After passing it, the data gets posted & button gets disabled. After that the button gets enabled for new submission. Also the text written in the textbox gets changes dynamically.
Useful Tools for Web Developers
There are so many handy tools that we use in our day to day life to simplify our work. This article will list some of the useful tools that a webdeveloper should be aware.
Silverlight 2 Controls – Overview
In the present article we will learn something about the available Silverlight Controls.Silverlight Controls basically can be divided into: Layout Controls, Input Controls, Media Controls and Other Controls.
How to perform WPF Data Binding using LINQ to XML - Part 2
This article is a sequel to the previous artile that shows how to perform binding to inline XML data using XLINQ objects. In this part, we discuss how to bind to an XML file using XLINQ objects and details out a sample application.
Choosing the Right DataBound Control in ASP.Net
There are various databound controls available in ASP.Net to display data. For example: GridView, DataList, Repeater, ListView, etc. Whenever we get a requirement to display data, there is always a confusion to choose the right databound control that can satisfy our needs. This article will help you to understand all these controls and their advantage in a particular scenario which can help us to choose the right control that can fit our needs.

New Codes Published
WaterMark in ASP.Net TextBox using JavaScript
Encrypting/Decrypting Connection String in ASP.Net
Using RegisterClientScriptBlock() Methods of ClientScriptManager Class
Using RegisterStartupScript() Methods of ClientScriptManager Class
Using RegisterOnSubmitStatement() Method of of ClientScriptManager Class
Accessing Master Page Members from Content Pages in ASP.Net

New FAQs Published
What is jQuery? How to use it in ASP.Net Pages?
How to enable jQuery intellisense in Visual Studio 2008?
How to use jQuery intellisense in an external javascript file?
How to get image pieces in Silverlight2?
Can you elaborate how to start a silverlight application with Visual Studio?
How does Silverlight 2 differ from Adobe Flash?
What are virtual path providers?

Last Month Winners
Winner:balamurali balaji
1.5" LCD Rechargeable Digital USB Photo Frame Keychain (107-Picture Memory Storage)
Contribution Done:4 Articles Or 8 CodeSnippets
Winner:ph madala
Stylish Moonbeam Bedside Digital Clock
Contribution Done:3 Articles Or 6 CodeSnippets
Winner:balamurali balaji
LED keychain
Contribution Done:For Participation
Winner:Gaurav Arora
LED keychain
Contribution Done:For Participation