Blogs|Nov 16, 2009

Fixing a Nasty Windows 7 + Mac Pro Sleep and Hibernation Problem

As I’ve written before, Windows 7 and Mac Pros are made for each other. Except when the Mac Pro doesn’t want to wake up from sleep or restore from hibernation. That’s one scary problem and I thought I’d share my debugging notes on how I diagnosed the problem. As I am feeling generous on this…
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Blogs|Nov 14, 2009

WiX Projects vs. TFS 2010 Team Build

As I mentioned before, I’m in the process of moving my life over to TFS 2010 Beta 2. I’m using the excellent WiX 3.5 Beta that plugs into Visual Studio 2010 to create my setup and I had a developer build working like a dream. Things got a little more exciting when I created my…
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Blogs|Nov 13, 2009

Inline Hyperlinks in Silverlight 3 (Equivalent of A HREF)

One common complaint I see regarding Silverlight is the inability to include inline hyperlinks. While Silverlight does provide a HyperlinkButton, you cannot do something simple like: This is some text. This is <a href="https://training.atmosera.com/">a hyperlink</a>, in case you were wondering. There are a few solutions available via third-party controls, but it’s a good exercise to…
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Blogs|Nov 12, 2009

ASP.Net Dynamic Data (LINQ) Tips and Tricks

Dynamic data is a technology that enables RAD (rapid application development) for data-driven applications. What is a data-driven application, or rather, when does it make sense to use ASP.NET Dynamic Data? Any type of CRUD (create/read/update/delete) application is a prime candidate for dynamic-driven applications. In fact, if you are building an internal site simply to…
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wintellect-blogs|Nov 8, 2009

TFS 2010 Build Number and Assembly File Versions: Completely In Sync with Only MSBuild 4.0

Edit: 09/11/2011: This entry still describes how the build numbers work, but I’ve updated the files and shown how to incorporate these changes into .CSPROJ and .VCXPROJ files, Read the follow on blog entries, https://training.atmosera.com/CS/blogs/jrobbins/archive/2011/09/05/tfs-2010-build-numbers-file-versions-from-inside-your-c-and-c-projects.aspx and https://training.atmosera.com/CS/blogs/jrobbins/archive/2011/09/11/more-on-tfs-2010-build-numbers-inside-your-projects.aspx.  Obviously, based on all the web links out there, keeping your TFS 2008 build number and your assembly…
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wintellect-blogs|Nov 6, 2009

Silverlight 3’s New Application Extension Services

Another feature of Silverlight 3 that has flown under the radar since the product’s release is application extension services, or application services for short. Application services are client-side services that start when the application starts and end when the application ends. In other words, their lifetime parallels that of the application itself. An application service is…
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wintellect-blogs|Nov 5, 2009

Silverlight 3’s New {RelativeSource} Markup Extension

One of the more obscure features introduced in Silverlight 3 is the {RelativeSource} markup extension. It’s poorer than its counterpart in WPF because the Silverlight version supports only two modes: Self and TemplatedParent. There are precious few examples out there demonstrating why you’d ever need {RelativeSource} in Silverlight. Here’s one example. Suppose you’re building a custom control…
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wintellect-blogs|Nov 5, 2009

Implementing CoverFlow in Silverlight 3

Apple’s CoverFlow interface has become popular for presenting collections of items in a highly browseable format, especially on mobile devices where real estate is limited. Thanks to the PlaneProjection class introduced in Silverlight 3, CoverFlow interfaces are now possible in Silverlight, too. I recently set out to build a control that encapsulates all the features needed to build CoverFlow interfaces…
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Blogs|Nov 3, 2009

Silverlight Communication: Three Ways to Connect

Silverlight has myriad ways to connect to other systems and retrieve information for your applications. It is a common question people ask (“How do I get my data from the database to Silverlight?”) and each method has its own pros and cons. The purpose of this project, “Silverlight Communicator,” is to provide a simple, easy…
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