Recently, I started working on a new ASP.NET MVC 2 project and I wanted to reuse the data access (LINQ to SQL) and business logic methods (WCF RIA Services) that had been developed for a previous project that used Silverlight for the front-end. I figured that I would be able to instantiate the various DomainService classes from within my controller’s action methods, because after all, the code for those services didn’t look very complicated. WRONG! I didn’t realize at first that some of the functionality...
A popular topic that comes up when talking about MVVM is the use of a ViewModelLocator and the many different ways one can be implemented. Rather than getting into the pros and cons on when or why you should use it, I decided I would just post my version of a simple ViewModelLocator and let those who like it use it, and those who don’t, well you know… :) First, a disclaimer. I have not used this code in a production application, it is just something I was tossing around while reading others’ posts...
There were a lot of announcements made during the keynote at MIX10 today, most notable were the releases of Silverlight 4 RC, Silverlight 4 Tools for Visual Studio 2010, Expression Blend 4 Beta and the Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools. I was glad to see that developers will be able to use Silverlight to create awesome applications for Windows Phone 7 so we can reuse our WPF and Silverlight skills to target mobile devices! With so much information coming out of this conference, I wanted to be sure...
Just a quick update to let everyone know that I have updated the Whiteboard demo application. I added a few options to make it more interesting to use! I showed it to the kids and they loved it (even though they kept asking ME to draw pictures for them)! Here is a list of available options: Color Picker for line color Slider for line thickness Save to valid XAML file Open saved drawing Clear whiteboard Hold down ESC key to erase And here is a screenshot of my beautiful artwork! :) So what are you...
I have come across several instances of people having trouble using the new Reactive Extensions (v1.0.2.5) in projects that reference the Silverlight Toolkit (Nov09) due to the fact that the original release of the Rx Framework (v1.0.0.0) was bundled with the Toolkit. The trouble really becomes evident if you are using the Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) to discover and compose portions of your application. Update: After getting some feedback in the comments, I was able to find a solution for...
Update (14-Mar-2010): Updated the Whiteboard Demo I must have tried reading through the various explanations and introductions to the new Reactive Extensions for .NET before the concepts finally started sinking in. The article that gave me the ah-ha moment was over on SilverlightShow.net and titled Using Reactive Extensions in Silverlight. The author did a good job comparing the "normal" way of handling events vs. the new "reactive" methods. Admittedly, I still have more to learn about the Rx Framework,...
Quick Links Introducing the Earthquake Locator – A Bing Maps Silverlight Application, part 1 Live Demo Source Code Since volcanos are often associated with earthquakes, and vice versa, I decided to show recent volcanic activity on the Earthquake Locator map. I am pulling the data from a website created for a joint project between the Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Program and the US Geological Survey's Volcano Hazards Program, found here. They provide a Weekly Volcanic Activity Report as an RSS feed....
Quick Links Introducing the Earthquake Locator – A Bing Maps Silverlight Application, part 1 Adding Volcanos and Options - Earthquake Locator, part 2 Live Demo Source Code I finally got a live demo up and running! I signed up for a shared hosting account over at discountasp.net so I could post a working version of the Earthquake Locator application, but ran into a few minor issues related to RIA Services. Thankfully, Tim Heuer had already encountered and explained all of the problems I had along...
Quick Links Adding Volcanos and Options - Earthquake Locator, part 2 Live Demo Source Code The recent wave of earthquakes (no pun intended) being reported in the news got me wondering about the frequency and severity of earthquakes around the world. Since I’ve been doing a lot of Silverlight development lately, I decided to scratch my curiosity with a nice little Bing Maps application that will show the location and relative strength of recent seismic activity. Here is a list of technologies this...
Not too long ago, someone asked me why they couldn't use their mouse to select and copy text from their favorite Silverlight application to paste into other applications they use on a daily basis, like Word or Excel. "I can do it on other web applications, why not yours?" is what I kept hearing during the course of the project. So, because of my desire to make the user happy, along with the fact that I would never hear the end of it if I didn't come up with a solution, I started looking for a way...