Revisiting Lorem Ipsum in Silverlight 4 with RichTextArea and Printing

Earlier I explored some options to allow inline hyperlinks in Silverlight 3 using some extensions and the WrapPanel. In Silverlight 4, which was released as beta earlier this week, the problem is solved in the framework. Silverlight 4 gives us the RichTextArea control, which allows us to organize runs, spans, paragraphs, and even embed other…

Dynamic Module Loading with Silverlight Navigation using Prism

I started a project to update my personal website using Silverlight. The goal is to use Prism/Composite Application Guidance to build out a nice site that demonstrates some Silverlight capabilities and make the source code available as a reference. One of the first pieces I chose to tackle was ensuring I could facilitate deep linking…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…