Friday, December 07, 2007

DataGridviewAutoFilter Sample Updated (Think "Click on a Grid Column Header and select value to filter rows on" sample)

Windows Forms Documentation Updates - DataGridviewAutoFilter sample updated

"I've made a few bug-fixes to my DataGridViewAutoFilter sample, which is described in Building a Drop-Down Filter List for a DataGridView Column Header Cell. It might be a week or two until the article is updated (as of December 5, 2007), but the new sample download has already been posted. The download contains C# and VB projects, plus the updated article in Word 2003 format.

Here's a summary of the fixes:

..."

 MSDN - Building a Drop-Down Filter List for a DataGridView Column Header Cell

"Summary: The Microsoft Windows Forms DataGridView control in Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 provides a grid experience similar to Microsoft Excel, but does not provide the column filtering drop-down lists that Excel provides in its AutoFilter feature. However, the DataGridView can bind to data sources that provide filtering, such as the ADO.NET DataView. This article describes how to build a custom DataGridView column header cell that displays drop-down filter lists, by taking advantage of the filtering capabilities of the data source and the new BindingSource component. (25 printed pages)

...

Aa480727_dtgrdvwaf01(en-us,MSDN_10)

..."

This is a feature found in many third party grids, which you can have for free...

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Google Chart API Released

Google Code Blog - Embed charts in webpages with one of our simplest APIs yet

"Today we're launching the Google Chart API, a really simple tool for creating charts and graphs that are perfect for websites.

Let's get straight in with an example. This URL:
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=p3&chd=s:hW&chs=250x100&chl=Hello|World
Creates this image:

That's it - no state, no calls, just send your data in an http request and get a png image graph back. Embed the request in an img tag and you're done. We currently support line charts, bar charts, pie charts, scatter plots, and sparklines.

..."

This is pretty cool. Now I want to write something that needs charting... :)

  

:|

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Microsoft Volta Tech Preview Available

Microsoft Live Labs - Announcing Volta: Web Development Using Only the Materials in the Room

"Today, we are announcing the Volta technology preview, a developer toolset for building multi-tier web applications using existing and familiar tools, techniques and patterns. Volta’s declarative tier-splitting enables developers to postpone architectural decisions about distribution until the last possible responsible moment. Also, thanks to a shared programming model across multiple-tiers, Volta enables new end-to-end profiling and testing for higher levels of application performance, robustness, and reliability. Using the declarative tier-splitting, developers can refine architectural decisions based on this profiling data. This saves time and costs associated with manual refactoring. In effect, Volta extends the .NET platform to further enable the development of software+services applications, using existing and familiar tools and techniques.

You architect and build your application as a .NET client application, assigning the portions of the application that run on the server tier and client tier late in the development process. You can target either web browsers or the CLR as clients and Volta handles the complexities of tier-splitting.  ..."

For get a high level feel, check out, Getting Started: Building an Application with Volta in 8 Steps.

The magic starts on step 6;

"...

Step 6: Refactor into a Multi-Tier Application

The Volta application built so far represents a single tier application; everything executes entirely on the client side, in the browser.

You transform it into a multi-tier application by declaratively specifying the split point using a custom attribute. To do that:

..."

While I'm still feeling beta burned out, I think this sounds uber cool enough to play with this Tech Preview. I'll be looking more at  the CLR client implementation than anything.

Downloading...

(via InfoWorld - Microsoft offers Volta preview for Web apps development)

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Visual Basic LINQ Hands On Labs

Microsoft Downloads - Visual Basic LINQ Hands On Labs for Visual Studio 2008

"...

These Visual Basic LINQ Hands-on Labs provide an introduction to the LINQ Project. Learn basic LINQ features, including the Standard Query Operators, and see how these features can be used against in-memory collections, connected databases, and XML documents. The labs also provide a clear picture of the relational data access support provided by the LINQ Project, referred to as LINQ to SQL.

..."

Two Word docs LINQ (24 pages) and LINQ to SQL (28 pages) containing high level an hands on introduction to LINQ/LINQ to SQL. There are "beta 2" references in the doc's, so they may, or may not, work as is with RTM.

In any case, if you're looking for a quick hands on learning approach to getting started with VB and LINQ, you should check out these documents...

(via Public Sector Developer Weblog - How to: Visual Basic .NET LINQ Hands on lab for Visual Studio 2008 (FREE))

If you're graphically "challenged," can you have too many free icon sets? Silk Companion #1 Icons

damieng - Silk Companion #1 icons

"...

My set was fuelled by a need for a additional icons and variations in the same format. I had hoped to create more original icons in the same style however time constraints meant that majority of the 460+ icons are derivations and recompositions of the original set.

...

SilkCompanion1Thumb "

I can always use more icons... and the FamFamFam Silk Icons set is one of my favorites...

Released under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Licence.

(via DotNetKicks.com - More Silk-style icons)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
700 Free 16x16 PNG Bitmaps

Word ODF Addin v1.1 Released

OpenXML/ODF Translator Add-in for Office - ODF Add-in for Word v1.1 Release Download

http://odf-converter.sourceforge.net/download.html

"Highlights of ODF Add-in for Word 1.1

ODF Add-in for Word 1.1 has been released. Below are the enhancements to the existing Word 1.0

  • Japanese & Chinese localized Add-ins
  • Fixed read-only documents bug
  • improved installation process and dependencies detection

..."

The Word ODF v1.1 Source, Commandline and doc's were also released...

 

Related Past Post XRef:
ODF Translator (ODF for Word Addin) 1.0 Released

Sunday, December 02, 2007

More WiX Mixing (WiX, Votive and VS2005/8)

CodeProject - Creating an installer using Wix v3.0, Votive and Visual Studio 2005/8 - part 2, the GUI

"Introduction

We have already seen how to create a basic installer using Wix, but to the end user, the results weren't spectacular. A small box with a title and a progress bar were all we had to show for our work. In this article, we will cover adding a slightly more impressive GUI to the installer. This section will cover the inbuilt GUI capabilities of Wix. One of the great strengths of Wix is its extensibility, and this is particularly true of the GUI. Such extensibility is, however, beyond the scope of this article.

Prerequisites

It is assumed that you have followed the steps of the first article in this series. This article builds on the project from the first article, so you should obtain a copy if you plan to follow along. The prerequisites of the first article (Wix, Visual Studio with the Votive plug-in installed) are also required for this article.

Getting Started

We have our Windows Forms application, and we have our Wix project. At the moment, the installer provides no mechanism for user interactivity. In order to provide this, we will add a GUI to the installer.

..."

While we wait on "Rosario" to get WiX baked into Visual Studio Team System (Visual Studio ships the WiX toolset.) this CodeProject may come in handy.

 

Related Past Post XRef:
WiX Your Way to Installer Happiness
WixTrim - WiX Designer (with C# 2 Source)
Windows Installer XML (WiX) toolset has released as Open Source on SourceForge.net

Team System Web Access 2008 Available for Download

Microsoft Downloads - Visual Studio Team System Web Access 2008 Power Tool

"Team System Web Access (formerly known as TeamPlain) is a Web interface to Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server.

...

Team System Web Access is a free download that will be incorporated into a future release of Visual Studio Team System. You may install it with licensed installations of Team Foundation Server. You must be a licensed user of Team Foundation Server to access Team System Web Access.
Features

  • NEW: Direct links to work items, query results, diffs, change sets and more
  • NEW: Display custom controls on work item forms
  • NEW: View queued builds new, queue new builds
  • Add new work items or edit existing ones
  • Work with any type of work item, including custom ones
  • Add new work item queries or edit existing ones
  • View, download, upload, check-in and check-out documents on SharePoint team portal
  • View reports, export as PDF or Excel
  • Browse source control repositories, download files, view changesets, diffs, histories, and annotated views
  • View build results, start or stop builds
  • Search for keywords in work items

..."

One more nail in my "wait for the TFS 2008 SKU" coffin...

I've been using Web Access since Microsoft first released the "free" version (you still need a TFS CAL) and am very happy with it. It provides quick and easy access to Work Items, reports, etc that comes in handy when you just need a quick bit of information or when don't have Team Explorer installed.

(via Refines.Info["Polo Lee"] - Visual Studio Team System Web Access 2008 Power Tool)

 

Update #1 12/2/2007 @ 1:30PM PST:

Some more details from Buck Hodges, Team System Web Access 2008 Power Tool is now available, including a good bit of information on how the new Direct Links feature works...

 

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Team System Web Access Power Tool Now Available (Think TeamPlain v2.0 but with added Microsoft Sauce)
Visual Studio Team System Web Access (formally known as TeamPlain Web Access) now Free

What's New for Team Build 2008 Video

Buck Hodges - Video on the new features in Team Foundation Build 2008

"There's a great new video on the MSDN web site by Richard Hundhausen that goes over the new features in Team Foundation Build 2008.  It's one of the featured videos this week.  The video covers the major new features and provides a great introduction to the product.

How Do I: Learn the New Features and Capabilities of Team Foundation Build 2008?

In this video, Richard Hundhausen explores the new features and capabilities of Team Foundation Build 2008, including defining and managing build definitions, agents, qualities, and retention policies.

Presented by Richard Hundhausen on November 20, 2007
Length: 14 minutes 33 seconds

Video Downloads:

ZIP | WMV | iPod | MP4 | 3GP | Zune | PSP

You can find more Visual Studio Team System videos at "How Do I?" Videos for Team Suite." [Post Leached in Full]

This is a nice 15 minute video about TeamBuild v2 (2008). It's great to see the polish being added to TeamBuild. V1 was pretty cool and v2 builds nicely on that. It's the things like the retention policies, not having to manually edit the teambuild project XML, the build triggers, etc that draw me to TeamBuild 2008.

This now has me rethinking my waiting for the TFS 2008 SKU to be available before I install it... sigh.. Stupid Microsoft, building cool stuff and improving my development live... Darn you!  ;)

Nice Things to Know about ClickOnce

Martha Amirzadeh's Blog (Mahta) - What you should know about ClickOnce deployment

"During past couple months I had a chance to work on ClickOnce deployment in WPF and I have started reading many articles on this topic. These are couple of must know details about ClickOnce that I am going to share here.

How ClickOnce Performs Application Updates

...

Providing a User Interface for Updates

Using this strategy, the application developer provides a user interface that allows the user to choose when or how often the application will check for updates. For example, you might provide a "Check for Updates Now" menu item, or an "Update Settings" dialog box with choices for different update intervals. The ClickOnce deployment APIs (System.Deployment.Application namespace) provides a framework for programming your own update user interface.

..."

Some nice snips of information and tips about ClickOnce. The one that struck me was the "Providing a User Interface for Updates" topic. That's something I always wanted to add to me ClickOnce app's. (also the Size Limitations was "interesting" information...)

TFS Inline Find (aka "Quick Search") VS2005 Plugin (with VS2008 coming soon)

parallelthinking - TFS Quick Search Plugin

"Working lately more and more with TFS I got a bit frustrated on scrolling in a long list of Tasks/Work Items/Issues to find for "that one task" that has a specific word in its description so I decided to write a small plugin to make my life easier.

Based on the Hawkeye core and the Dynamic Extenders that Hawkeye support I've build TFS Quick Search Plugin:

The plugin will add a small (and red) search text box to all TFS result windows. ...

For more details and installation instructions visit TFS Quick Search Project page."

Very nice... This is one of those little features that could really come in handy.

I'll be watching for the VS2008 version and will let you know when it comes out...