Michael Crump

Visual Studio 11 Beta: Thoughts and Resources

2012-02-24T02:53:00-08:00

Introduction

A couple of things were announced today. First, Visual Studio 11 Beta will arrive on February 29th, 2012 with a Go-Live license and second we have a TFS Express edition coming out. But what most developers were interested in learning about is Visual Studio 11. So here it is, a screenshot of the next version of Visual Studio just before I head off to the MVP Summit next week.

(source)

And here is a similar screen of a Grid Application for Windows 8 taken from my Windows 8 Developer Preview box.

So, What do you think?

I’ve heard mixed reviews so far, but I must say that I kind of like it. As you can tell from the screenshot, this isn’t your typical Visual Studio. It follows the Metro guidelines that (some) have grown to love in Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8 applications. My first thought was, where are all the colors? This reminds me a Windows 3.1 application with all the gray.

(source)

Then I read the following quote:

In VS 11 we have eliminated the use of color within tools except in cases where color is used for notification or status change purposes. Consequently, the UI within VS 11 now competes far less with the developer’s content. Additionally, notifications and status changes now draw user attention much more readily than before. (source)

Then it started to make sense.

The first thing I notice in Visual Studio 11 is the design view of the application.
The second thing I notice is the code.
The typography in Visual Studio 11 is also pretty to look at and easy to read.
In VS10/Windows 3.1, they used the white background everywhere, in VS 11 it blends in with the theme and is only used in the code.
You can now read the text in the toolbar easier. Go ahead and compare the toolbar of Visual Studio 2010 and Windows 3.1 to the Visual Studio 11 version.

But the question remains, as a developer can you stare all day at the metro theme and be comfortable? I think this is a question that we will have to see. Let me also remind you that it comes with a dark theme as well. You can also create your own color schemes like we did in previous versions. (source)

So for now, I’ll focus on the improved feature set that Visual Studio 11 brings and try out the metro theme when it is in my hands. :)

Links

I’ve rounded up all the links posted so far on Visual Studio 11 Beta, so you don’t have to go digging around the net to find them. I’ve also included the post on TFS Express and some additional screenshots of Visual Studio 11 found in the Press Pass from Microsoft.

As always, leave any feedback or comments below and we can continue this conversation. I’m also on twitter if you want to connect on there.

Microsoft Silverlight 5: Building Rich Enterprise Dashboards Book Released

2012-02-22T08:00:00-08:00

Introduction

Almost a year and a half ago (as you can probably tell from my bio in the screenshot), I sat down and starting reviewing the Silverlight 5: Building Rich Enterprise Dashboards book. Fast forward to last month, this book became available for sale. It was a pleasure being part of the technical review for this book and I learned a lot of things throughout the review. I wanted to take a brief moment and tell you what the book has to offer.

But first, the Giveaway

I’ve got 3 copies of the eBook to give away – sorry no physical books. I know that a majority of people would rather have the electronic version where they can take it with them everywhere. All you have to do is leave a comment below where I can track you down. I’d also appreciate you leaving your twitter handle where I can send you a tweet. I will randomly select 3 winners on 2/29, so act fast.

Book Overview

Microsoft Silverlight is a powerful development platform for creating rich media applications and line of business applications for the web and desktop. Silverlight enables you to create, customize and design rich enterprise dashboards that highlight Key Performance Indicators for your business.

Microsoft Silverlight 5: Building Rich Enterprise Dashboards is a concise and practical tutorial that shows you how to create, customize and design rich enterprise dashboards with Silverlight.

This book provides real world user experience design topics and starts by providing an overview of the Silverlight Platform and the clear advantages it provides for building dashboards. The book then dives into topics such as Silverlight design and development tools, building a basic Dashboard, Dashboard types and user needs, Designing for Insight, Styling, Building an End to End Dashboard Solution and Data Access Strategies amongst others.

The Table of Contents

Below is a list of topics that the book covers with a link to a page with more information.

Chapter 1: The Silverlight Technology
Chapter 2: Overview of Dashboards and Silverlight
Chapter 3: Silverlight Design and Development Tools
Chapter 4: Building a Basic Dashboard
Chapter 5: Dashboard Types and User Needs
Chapter 6: Designing for Insight
Chapter 7: Designing your Dashboard
Chapter 8: Building an End-to-End Solution
Chapter 9: Data Access Strategies
Chapter 10: Building Dashboards in SharePoint and Silverlight

Snapshots of the Book

I decided to take a few snapshots of the book, mainly because I like to look back at things I have been involved in. :)

Wrap-up

Thanks to Packt Publishing for giving me this opportunity to review such a fantastic book. Also, thanks to you my loyal readers for reading my blog over the years and don’t forget to leave a comment below for a chance to win a copy of the eBook.

The first 10 Minutes of a C# Developer Exploring a Metro Application using Visual C++

2012-02-15T14:11:00-08:00

Introduction

I’m a C# guy through and through, but I have recently been exploring Visual C++ . I decided to take you with me as I spend 10 minutes exploring the Visual C++ Metro Templates included with Visual Studio 11. This blog post is written with my background in C#. I will try to point out the differences as I see them. We will look at Visual C++ templates, solution explorer, some XAML and even some code-behind.

Let’s get started with templates.

The Visual C++/C# Metro Templates built-into VS 11

Visual Studio 11 has the following templates built-into it for Visual C++/C# projects:

The description of each project type is located below:

Application – A blank project using the Metro style framework.
Grid Application – A multi-page project for navigating multiple layers of content with item details displayed on a dedicated page.
Split Application – A project for navigating among a master list of items while viewing their details on the same page.
Unit Test Project – A Unit Test Project.
WinRT Component DLL – Template for a Windows Metro Style server DLL.
DirectX Application – (Only in C++) Template for a blank Windows Metro style application using DirectX.

The only thing to note here is the inclusion of a DirectX Application with the C++ Templates. Everything else is pretty much identical in terms of the template structure.

The Solution Explorer

If you take a look at the “Application Template” for C++ vs. C# then you will notice some differences.

Looking at the C++ Solution Explorer in depth

If you expand “External Dependencies,” then you will see a long list of header files along with other files needed to build a C++ Metro application. This is necessary for the application to compile as we also have standard references needed to use certain libraries in a C# application.
The Resources Folder contains 4 PNG images that we are used to seeing inside of the Images folder in a C# Application.
The only difference in the App.xaml and MainPage.xaml is that in the C++ application, it contains both a .cpp (C ++) and .h (header) file whereas the C# version only contains the .cs (C Sharp) file.
The Package.appxmanifest exist in both projects and contains metadata that describes your app, including display name, description, logos, and capabilities.
Finally, we get to the pch.cpp/pch.h files which are pre-compiled header files and are obviously not included in the C# application.

The other thing you might notice is that the C# application contains an AssemblyInfo.cs under Properties whereas the C++ version did not. This file consists of all of the build options for the project, including version, company name, GUID, compilers options, etc.

Looking at a simple “Hello World” Application – The XAML

A button and a TextBlock… it doesn’t get any easier than this. If the user clicks the button, then it displays “Hello World” in a TextBlock as shown below.

Thankfully, XAML is XAML – the following code snippet works regardless if you are using C#, VB or C++.

<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="#FF0C0C0C">
              <StackPanel>
    <Button Content="Click Me" FontSize="24" Width="200" Height="60" Click="HelloButton_Click" />
    <TextBlock x:Name="DisplayText" FontSize="48" Foreground="White" />
     </StackPanel>
</Grid>

The Code Behind

You knew this part would be massively different, didn’t you? I hope so – we are talking about an entirely different language. :)

Below is a “Hello World” that works with the XAML included above in C#:

private void HelloButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    DisplayText.Text = "Hello World";
}

That same “Hello World” looks like the following in C++

void HelloWorld::MainPage::HelloButton_Click(Platform::Object^ sender, Windows::UI::Xaml::RoutedEventArgs^ e)
{
    DisplayText->Text = "Hello World";

}

Look at the way the event handler is setup. Looks foreign right now doesn’t it? No worries, give this free e-Book a spin to convert your existing C# skills to C++.

Wrap-up

What did we learn in 10 minutes? We learned about several differences in C# and Visual C++ Metro Applications. But the real challenge here isn’t learning the new templates, differences in solution explorer or XAML. It is that we need to learn the language. I’m not going to go into why I’m spending nights/weekends dabbling in Visual C++, but I think learning native application development is a great way to go. I’ll probably expand on this post with a more in-depth article on building a complete application with Visual C++ if enough people are interested. Until then - take care everyone!

Treadmill Assistant Windows Phone 7 App Released

2012-02-09T03:00:00-08:00

App Information:
Marketplace Link: http://mcrump.me/treadmillasst
Price: FREE

Product Description:
Use this application to quickly track treadmill runs from month to month. You can enter and store dates ran, duration, miles ran and notes. You can also view your run log and email it to yourself. The application is free so give it a shot today!

Why a Treadmill app?

Back in December 2011, I decided that it was time to start losing weight. So what did I do? I made a lifestyle change – not a fad diet. I decided that I would start eating healthier foods and allow myself one cheat day. I also started an exercise program using a treadmill and light weights. I started running 3.5 miles a day at least 4 days a week. After running for about a month, I decided that it would be interesting to keep track of my runs in a calendar view. So, what did I do? I looked for an existing WP7 app that had the functionality I wanted. I found several apps, but they seemed to never fit the bill so I just went ahead and built my own. Surprising isn’t it? :)

The App

Just like all of my other personal adventures, this app was built whenever I had free time. Nowadays, that is few and far between with two kids, a wife and a very sick mother-in-law. So, I used a mixture of tools including Telerik’s WP7 controls. I decided that I’d also try out the local database feature in Mango as well to become familiar with it. I wound up creating several helper classes that I should be able to reuse in other apps. The app was fun to build as it solved my problem flawlessly.

What’s Next?

I’m going to add charting and several quick glimpse screens. Those screens would tell the amount of miles ran in a month, calories burned and so forth. I also plan on adding some additional polish to the app as the current state is functional (at least to me) but could improve. I’ll also add a product page similar to this one I used for FullScreen Browser. ( product page ) If you download the app and have any questions or comments, then feel free to post them below. I’ve added a few screenshots below so you can get a taste of what it is like.

Screenshots

Using the Live SDK in Windows 8 XAML/C# Metro Applications

2012-01-30T08:00:00-08:00

I have a new article published on SilverlightShow today called, “Using the Live SDK in Windows 8 XAML/C# Metro Applications”.

Article Introduction

The Microsoft’s Live SDK (or commonly referred to as Live Connect), provides a set of controls and APIs that enables applications to integrate single sign-on (SSO) functionality using Windows Live ID. You can also use it to access data in SkyDrive, Hotmail, and Windows Live Messenger.

The library supports multiple platforms, including Windows Phone 7 Mango and Windows 8 Metro Style applications using either C#, Visual Basic or JavaScript. In this article, we will build our first metro style application using the Live SDK and XAML/C#.

The Full Article

The full article is hosted on SilverlightShow and you can access it by clicking here. Don’t forget to rate it and leave comments if you have any problems.

Fixing the [NeutralResourceLanguage] attribute is missing on the entry assembly.

2012-01-24T08:00:00-08:00

Introduction

I was trying to submit my new WP7 application to the marketplace when I got this error:

The [NeutralResourceLanguage] attribute is missing on the entry assembly. (2003)

I tried resubmitting it hoping that the coding gods would bless it. They didn’t, so I started researching it and decided that I’d share the steps that I took to resolve it below:

Let’s fix it!

Right-click your project name then click properties.

Click on the Application tab, then click the Assembly Information button.

If it says, (none) then you have found your problem so go ahead and set the Neutral Language to your intended culture as shown below.

Wrap-up

Anyways, I hope this helps someone with a similar problem. I created this blog partially for myself but it is always nice to help my fellow developer.

Thanks for reading.

10 Laps Around Silverlight 5 e-Book available to download for FREE.

2012-01-15T08:00:00-08:00

4 Formats: PDF, Word, EPUB, MOBI. (each format can be downloaded separately)
Number of pages: 60
Release date: January 2012.

Sponsored by Telerik

Download Link

The e-Book:

I’m late announcing it, but 10 Laps Around Silverlight 5 is available to download for FREE. This is a book that I worked on for approximately 10 weeks with the goal of teaching other developers all of the new features in Silverlight 5 in one short e-Book. If you want to learn about Silverlight 5, then go ahead and grab a copy and put it on your iPad, Kindle Fire, PC or other device and read a chapter a night. I hope you find the book useful and if you have any comments then please leave them below.

The Roadmap for the e-Book

Below you will find the list of topics that we discussed in this book. I tried to target the LOB developer and what features they would be interested in, but mixed in some XNA for those interested.

1. Introduction to SL5 – This post which provides a brief history of Silverlight and relevant links.
2. Binding - Ancestor Relative Source Binding and Implicit Data Templates.
3. Graphics –XNA 3D API and Improved Graphics Stack.
4. Media - Low-Latency Sound using XNA and Remote Control and Media Command (Keys) Support.
5. Text - Text Tracking and Leading, Linked and Multi-column Text, OpenType Support, Pixel Snapped Text and TextOptions.
6. Operating System Integration Part 1 - P/Invoke, Multiple Windows and Unrestricted File System Access in Full Trust.
7. Operating System Integration Part 2 - Default Filename for SaveFileDialog, 64-bit browser support and Power Awareness.
8. Productivity and Performance - XAML Binding Debugging, Parser Performance Improvements and Multi-core JIT for improved start-up time.
9. Controls - Double and Triple click support, PivotViewer and ComboBox Type-Ahead.
10. Other items - In-Browser HTML, PostScript and Tasks for TPL.

FullScreen Browser WP7 Download and Payment Stats

2012-01-15T08:00:00-08:00

App Information:

Product Page (including Screenshots): http://michaelcrump.net/fsb/
Direct Download Link: http://mcrump.me/zZwjPP

Product Description:

Tired of using the default browser that ships with Windows Phone 7? Would you like to browse the web using the full Windows Phone 7 Screen and for FREE? Well, that is exactly what this app offers. Not only can you surf the web using the full screen, but you can save and pin favorites, search the web, share the page using social media networks, email or SMS messages. You can even view the page in Internet Explorer if you want. Go ahead and check out the screenshots and grab it now while it's still free.

Introduction

In April 2011, I built and released FullScreen Browser in about a weekend. I decided that I would tweet about it and go on about my life. At the end of 2011, I decided that it would be interesting to see how many downloads it had as well as if I earned any money using the Microsoft Ads. Please keep in mind, that this is without updates, promotional advertisements or any additional post on social networks.

How Did It Go?

Total Downloads: I logged into App Hub and selected my app to find that it had been downloaded 15, 837 times. I was very impressed with this number as I said earlier, I haven’t updated or promoted the app. A quick search on Google reveals that even though I didn’t advertise it, other web sites did.

Money Earned: I logged into PubCenter and noticed that I have earned $138.13 on this application since the April 2011 release date. This isn’t much money when an hour consulting is worth about $80 or so, but it is still enough to take the wife out for dinner somewhere.

PreEmptive Solutions Stats: Unfortunately, PreEmptive Solutions suspended the free WP7 service in December 11. I did not renew and no longer have access to the data recorded.

What’s Next?

I’m going to record the stats on updating, advertising and polishing the app now and look at the difference. I’ve already submitted 2 app updates since January 2012 (updating to mango) and adding features that everyone wanted. I’ve developed a product page and plan to report back in 8 months or so what happened. If you have any questions or comments, then feel free to post them below.

Retrieving a WebPage Title and Sharing it with the ShareLinkTask in WP7

2012-01-07T08:00:00-08:00

Introduction

The ShareLinkTask introduced in Windows Phone SDK 7.1 enables users to share a link on various social networks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. The only thing that I wish that it had was a way to grab the page title for the link before posting. I found myself typing the page title and thought I’d write some simple code and share with everyone. Below is a snapshot of a post to Facebook that automatically added the page title to the post.

ShareLinkTask Intro

The following code is all you need to share links on Social Media Networks with WP SDK 7.1.

ShareLinkTask shareLinkTask = new ShareLinkTask();

shareLinkTask.Title = "Telerik";
shareLinkTask.LinkUri = new Uri("http://www.telerik.com", UriKind.Absolute);
shareLinkTask.Message = "Here are some great controls for Windows Phone 7.";

shareLinkTask.Show();

It will pop up a list of all the Social Media accounts that the user has registered on their device and after you select it then it will post automatically.

Instead of hard coding the title or message, we can add in the following code in and get the page title automatically.

WebClient wc = new WebClient();
wc.DownloadStringAsync(new Uri("http://www.telerik.com", UriKind.RelativeOrAbsolute));
wc.DownloadStringCompleted += (s, ev) =>
{
    strTitle = Regex.Match(ev.Result, @"\<title\b[^>]*\>\s*(?<Title>[\s\S]*?)\</title\>", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase).Groups["Title"].Value;
};

Wrap-up

Thanks for the help Regex! This was fairly painless process that only took a few minutes! If this post helped you or you know a better way then I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

11 Things every Software Developer should be doing in 2012.

2011-12-28T08:00:00-08:00

Introduction

2011 is winding down and 2012 is upon us. Have you set any goals for 2012 both professionally/personally? Regardless of the answer, I’m sure one or two of the items listed below can help. I usually don’t blog many opinion posts, due to the fact that I like to keep my blog technical. This post is an exception. :)

11 Things every Software Developer should be doing in 2012.

Get on Twitter – If you’re not using Twitter and are a Software Developer then you are missing out. I believe that Twitter is the one of the MOST important tool a Software Developer can use. Why?
1. Regardless if you have 10 followers or 10000 followers, any coding question can be found and answered in a matter of seconds using Twitter Hashtags.
2. Get software developer news straight from the source by following other developers.
3. Again hashtags – To monitor topics important to you. For example, I use it to monitor #wp7, #silverlight and #wpf.
4. To stay engaged in a conversation with other developers and to see what projects they are working on.
Read StackOverflow Daily – StackOverflow is the number one forum for asking a coding question. Even if you don’t have an account, it’s worth it just for browsing questions and learning. I think it is a wise investment of your time to spend at least 20 minutes a day reading StackOverflow.
Start a Blog – I believe that every Developer should have a blog. Why?
1. It is a footprint that we leave for other developers studying our craft.
2. It allows you to become engaged in the community.
3. It helps you market yourself as a professional.
Get out there – Get out of your shell and start talking to other developers at local user groups/other meet ups/conferences. I will let you in on a secret – most everyone is shy at first. If you start a conversation with them then it usually takes off very fast.
1. Networking with other developers is big – really big. You start building connections in the industry and if you ever need help then you have someone to go to.
Carry around a modern phone - If you’re a developer and carrying around an older phone then its time to upgrade. I remember a manager at one of my jobs that had to walk back to his desk to email me something. I remember thinking, “This guy is in IT?” Just like some industries you need to drive a fancy car, have nice clothes or the latest jewelry. In technology, we need to stay current with our computers, software and mobile phones.
Embrace Mobile – Do you think this “mobile” thing is going away? Well, it is just getting started. You need to know more than how to develop for the iPhone, WP7 or Android. You need to learn how to create web applications that will run on every mobile device. (Including phones, iPads, Windows and Android slates). I believe that every developer will have to create a mobile application in his/her programming career. This is something a modern developer cannot ignore.
Learn at least one design pattern- I am not going to tell you which one you should learn or focus on, but you need at least one. I prefer MVVM for myself because I am a Silverlight/WPF/WP7 Developer. If you are familiar with at least one design pattern then it would make me feel better about hiring you.
1. I’d start with this book: Gang of Four – Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable OOS.
Set reachable goals each and every year – Create a short-list of goals that you are looking to accomplish in the next year. Not only should you be challenging yourself with a set of goals, you should also create a quarterly outlook/Gmail reminder to evaluate your progress. I am a believer that you should start small with a goal and build up from there. I did this with my MCPD certification. I shot for the MCP, then MCTS then the MCPD.
Learn a different programming language – Simply put, it broadens your perspective and permits a deeper understanding of how a computer and programming languages actually work.
1. If the only tool you have is a hammer, you'll treat every problem as a nail.
Boost your confidence – It always amazes me how few developers are confident in themselves. If you feel like you’re behind on something then learn it. I can’t find any excuse for staying ignorant in this industry. There is just too many FREE resources on the web.
Read Blogs/Programming Books/Magazine – How many programming books have you read this year? What about good developer magazines? I believe a good developer would read at least 5 programming books a year and at least a magazine or two monthly. Even if you don’t have a subscription to MSDN you can get the .PDF for free a month after release. How can you get better if your not constantly reading?

Thanks for reading and please leave feedback in the comments section below.

Adding an Easter Egg to your WP7 Application

2011-12-26T08:00:00-08:00

Introduction

I was asked the other day how to detect if a user has touched a certain part of the screen. I created some sample code for them but decided that it might make a fun Easter egg as well. It does this by comparing the X and Y axis of the users current touch point to the location that the “M” exists. Basically, this application will detect if your user is touching the letter M as shown below.

The User Interface

Very simple, just add in the following XAML to the MainPage.xaml :

<!--ContentPanel - place additional content here-->
<Grid x:Name="ContentPanel" Grid.Row="1" Margin="12,0,12,0">
    <TextBlock x:Name="txtName" FontSize="56" Foreground="Red" />
</Grid>

I’ve added a TextBlock just to show you the current X and Y coordinates that the user has touched. It will also show you when the user has started and stop touching the device.

The Code

// Constructor
public MainPage()
{
  InitializeComponent();
  Touch.FrameReported += new
    TouchFrameEventHandler(Touch_FrameReported);
}

void Touch_FrameReported(object sender, TouchFrameEventArgs e)
{
  TouchPoint mainTouchPoint = e.GetPrimaryTouchPoint(ContentPanel);
   
  Point position = mainTouchPoint.Position;
    
  switch (mainTouchPoint.Action)
  {
    case TouchAction.Move:
      txtName.Text = String.Format("x: {0} , y: {1}",position.X, position.Y);
      if (position.X == 20 && position.Y == -132) MessageBox.Show("Secret Hit");
      break;
    case TouchAction.Up:
      txtName.Text = "Touch Ended";
      break;
    case TouchAction.Down:
      txtName.Text = "Touch Started";          
      break;
  }
}

This code is fairly simple as it just adds an event handler for Touch.FrameReported. Inside the method, we call GetPrimaryTouchPoint and pass it our ContentPanel (You can of course pass it any UI Element). Now that we have our main touch point, we can get the current position the user is touching. The last thing to point out is by calling mainTouchPoint, we can see when the TouchAction is Up, Down or Moving. Pretty powerful stuff with just a few lines of code.

So how did you know the X and Y positions of the letter “M”?

I ran the application and moved the cursor to the position that I wanted the easter egg to occur in, then I added the if…then… statement inside of the TouchAction.Move switch statement.

The Demo

Here you will see a demo of what this project accomplishes. You can download the source code as well.

Wrap-up

As you can see from this post, it really just takes a few lines to get this up and running. It will also work even if the user switches screen orientation. If you have any questions then feel free to contact me. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed and follow me on twitter.

Taking a look at the Windows Simulator in Visual Studio 11

2011-12-21T08:00:00-08:00

Introduction

Today, we are going to take a look at the Windows Simulator which ships with Visual Studio 11 and is used to debug Metro Style apps for Windows 8. I think it is important to learn about the features available in the simulator where we can better understand the way our Metro applications behave. It is also beneficial for those of us without access to a touch-screen monitor.

Before we start, you can check out all of my Windows 8 Articles here.

We have three ways to debug a Metro Application

1) By default, if you run a Visual Studio 11 Metro Application it will run on the local machine.

2) You can also select Remote Machine and you will be presented with the “Select Remote Debugger Connection” as shown below:

This option deserves it own blog post, so for the time being just be aware that it exists.

3) The third and final way is Simulator – Which is what we are going to explore today.

Hold up!

What’s the difference between a simulator and a emulator?

Let’s say you want to duplicate the behavior of an old HP calculator, there are two options:

You write new program that draws the calculator's display and keys, and when the user clicks on the keys, your programs does what the old calculator did. This is a Simulator
You get a dump of the calculator's firmware, then write a program that loads the firmware and interprets it the same way the microprocessor in the calculator did. This is an Emulator

The Simulator tries to duplicate the behavior of the device.
The Emulator tries to duplicate the inner workings of the device.

This wonderful explanation was actually taken from Carlos Gutiérrez as he explained it to StackOverflow users.

Back to the Simulator

If you place a check in Simulator and run your application, you will see the following:

What is important to note here is that this simulation is actually a Remote Desktop Session into your machine.

Don’t believe me? Hit the Windows Start Button in the Simulator and you will see your desktop. You can browse, execute, and do everything you normally do.

The key thing to note here is the Touch Controls located to the right of the screen. Here is a quick reference that I created defining each item:

Let’s start with the fourth item down.

Touch Emulation

As soon as you select Touch Emulation and return to the simulator you cursor will look like the following:

This mode will simulate the user swiping with a single finger – one contact.

Touch Emulation Pinch/Zoom

As soon as you select Touch Emulation Pinch/Zoom and return to the simulator you cursor will look like the following:

This mode will simulate the users using multiple fingers to pinch/zoom in – two contacts. If you click the left mouse button and rotate the wheel simultaneously, the Windows Simulator will send touch events to the target application as if the user was performing a Pinch/Zoom gesture on a physical touch device. See the illustration below:

Touch Emulation Rotate

This mode will simulate the users using multiple fingers to rotate – two contacts. Looks like the Pinch/Zoom when first selected but when you use the mouse wheel it actually rotates the two contact points relative to each other.

Screen Rotation

Both of these settings will allow you to rotate the screen +90/-90 degrees to the left or right.

Change Resolution

This mode will simply allow us to change the resolution inside the simulator to test our apps against different size tablets. You can see the various options available below.

Resizing

While this isn’t part of the touch control it is a handy tip. You can resize the simulator by clicking on the bottom right corner and dragging your mouse cursor as shown below.

Wrap-up

As you can see from this post, the simulator is in a great shape starting from Day one. I normally wouldn’t expect this polished of a product until a later release. I believe this shows that Microsoft is committed to giving developers the right tools to build Metro applications. If you have any questions then feel free to contact me. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed and follow me on twitter.

Microsoft Touch Mouse Review

2011-12-18T21:47:00-08:00

Official Product Page
Official Showcase Video

Introduction

Back in July 2011, I decided to switch to a gaming mouse called the Razer DeathAdder. I switched for a number of reasons but mainly because I wanted a mouse that felt natural and didn’t hurt my hand after long periods of use. I’ve used it up until this point – December 16th, 2011.

Enter the Microsoft Touch Mouse - I recently became interested in the gesture support provided by this mouse and tweeted it asking developers their opinions. I had several people respond (with fairly positive feedback) and then Robert Bernstein offered to send me one in the mail (Thanks Robert!)

I was interested in the mouse for the following features:

One Finger: Scroll, flick, or pan any direction for quick navigation and you can sweep your thumb to go forward or back.
Two Finger: Snap to see your windows side by side, or maximize and minimize.
Three Finger: Show all open windows or reveal your desktop.
BlueTrack Technology – You are supposed to be able to track on anything, including carpet.

Day One

As soon as I plugged the device into my laptop, I kept expecting to see some sort of installer pop-up asking me to configure the mouse. That did not happen, instead I saw the Detecting Hardware pop-up and a few seconds later it asked me to reboot my machine. I proceeded to type on my keyboard and quickly found out that my keyboard was no longer responding. I had to unplug my keyboard (connected via USB) and plug it in again for it to work again.

I went ahead and rebooted it like it originally asked and still nothing happened on the screen. I headed over to Microsoft Touch Mouse support site and downloaded the latest IntelliPoint Software. After I downloaded and installed the software, it presented me with a gesture learning tutorial (screenshot to come). The tutorial was actually helpful as I learned what I needed to know in just a few minutes. I spent the rest of the day using it with my everyday work.. the results?

How was it?

I really enjoyed being able to snap windows, showing/hiding the desktop and maximizing/minimizing windows with just a gesture. I also like the way scrolling pages is implemented. You can scroll a page and leave your finger off of the mouse and it will continue to scroll very slowly. Since we all spend a lot of time on the web, it is simple to move backwards/forwards pages with a flip of your thumb.

Every time that you use a gesture you will something similar to the following to visually confirm the gesture.

Keep in mind that if the current window is not focused the gesture is not going to work.

The Software

The IntelliPoint Software doesn’t have much to offer in terms of additional customization, but it does have one tab that you may want to look at which is called Touch. You can see from the screenshot below that you can enable/disable any of the gestures as well as turn off “Display touch trails”. Which after you have been using it for a while may be a good idea. You also want to pay attention to the Practice box which will allow you to re-run the setup tutorial. (You can always just navigate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft IntelliPoint\TouchMousePractice.exe as well).

If you click on “Practice gestures with your Touch Mouse…” then it will launch the tutorial pictured below that will help you get up to speed quickly.

PROS/CONS

PROS

+ Comes with a Nano receiver/USB Extension cable which makes it easy to leave it in your laptop when not in use.

+ Gesture Support works very nicely. It is quick to respond and fairly accurate.

+ Fits your hand very well.

+ BlueTrack Technology allows this mouse to work on just about any surface – including carpet (if you prefer to use your computer on the floor)

+ 3 Year Warranty. – Nice of them to stand behind their product.

CONS

- It made my keyboard unresponsive the first time that I added the mouse. It was quickly fixed by plugging/unplugging the keyboard’s USB.

- It did not download and install the IntelliPoint software after I plugged it into my system. It also didn’t come with a Driver CD. So if I didn’t have internet access or know to download the IntelliPoint software than I would miss the gesture tutorial.

- This point regarding a left/right mouse button is actually under the shell.

- Price: $70 is a bit steep. For this much money, it should have come with a carrying case.

Would I recommend it? I am enjoying mine, but still haven’t determined if this will be my primary device. This is one product that you probably want to try out in a store first before buying it.

Pictures

Below is a few pictures of the mouse.

Adding Tweet Buttons to a FunnelWeb Post

2011-12-14T03:59:00-08:00

Introduction

I’ve been asked several times how I added the Tweet Button below to all of my FunnelWeb post. Here is a quick blog post detailing how I did it.

Let’s do it.

1) Head over to Twiter.com and select the button that you want.

2) You will notice that it generates the following JS/HTML for you.

Please note the line numbers listed above.

3) Copy #1 into your HTML Head section on your FunnelWeb Blog site.

4) Copy #2 into your \Views\Wiki\Page.cshtml into the appendHTML variable defined below (be sure to escape the quotes if you use this method):

@model FunnelWeb.Web.Views.Wiki.PageModel
@{
  ViewBag.Title = Model.Entry.MetaTitle;
}

<div class='entry @String.Join(" ", Html.CssKeywordsFor(Model.Entry))'>
@{string appendHTML =  "<a href=\"https://twitter.com/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-count=\"horizontal\" data-via=\"mbcrump\">Tweet</a><a href=\"https://twitter.com/mbcrump\" class=\"twitter-follow-button\" data-show-count=\"false\" data-lang=\"en\">Follow mbcrump</a>";}
  @Html.RenderTrusted(Model.Entry.Body + appendHTML, Model.Entry.Format)
</div>

5) Upload the Page.cshtml to your web server and your ready to go!

Conclusion

Easy enough right? You can of course append any HTML to your Page this way. Google Plus, Linked In Share buttons anyone?

Silverlight 5 has been released plus other info!

2011-12-12T04:04:00-08:00

Silverlight 5 – The Final Version is here!

Introduction

On December the 9th, 2011, Microsoft released the final version of Silverlight 5. This release included many new features that I was looking forward to including: P/Invoke, XAML Binding Debugging and Implicit Data Templates. with this release came the Go-Live license. This meant that you can now publish Silverlight 5 application to production servers and get support! I am proud to see this release as I feel that I’ve been a part of it’s success with blogging, speaking, reporting bugs and emailing the team. So “Congratulations” to the team for this release. This blog post will not only offer links to download it but information on learning more about it. I also included a Mini-FAQ as several questions popped up earlier this year that I feel needs addressing.

If you want to know “What’s new in Silverlight 5” then check out this page on Silverlight.net and continue reading the article below.

Getting Started

First, we are going to need to download the required tools to install the Silverlight 5 RTM. Before getting started, please note that you can install the Silverlight 5 RTM on top of the final release of Silverlight 4. If you have the Silverlight 5 BETA/RC installed, then you might want to go ahead and remove those first.

Tools needed:

Visual Studio 2010 SP1 or Visual Web Developer Express 2010 SP1 is required to develop a Silverlight 5 RTM Application.
After you have installed VS2010 SP1 or Visual Web Developer Express 2010 SP1, then you will need to download and install the Silverlight 5 Tools for Visual Studio 2010 SP1.

This download will install all components necessary for Silverlight 5 and Microsoft WCF RIA Services V1 SP2 development including:

Silverlight 5 Developer Runtime
Silverlight 5 SDK
Update for Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 and Visual Web Developer Express 2010 Service Pack 1 (KB2502836)
Microsoft WCF RIA Services V1.0 SP2

If you want a direct link to the files then you can click here.

Documentation:

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions):

I’ve heard rumors that Silverlight 5 will only be supported in Internet Explorer, is this true? False, Silverlight 5 will support all major browsers including : IE 9, 8, 7, 6, FireFox 3.6+, Safari 4+ and Chrome 12+. (Reference: http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/what-is-silverlight/)
Is Silverlight 5 going to be officially supported by Microsoft and if so then how long? Silverlight 5 will support the browsers listed above through 10/12/2021. That is almost 10 years, that Microsoft will be supporting this platform. (Reference http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifean45#sl5)
Will Silverlight 5 run on a Mac? Yes, Silverlight 5 fully supports Mac OSX. The only items that will not work are 3D features requiring DirectX and p/Invoke/Com.

Learning Resources

In case you missed it, I have a 10-part series on Silverlight 5 on SilverlightShow.net. In this extensive guide to Silverlight 5, I give a step-by-step introduction to Silverlight 5, and dives into the features most important to a Silverlight developer.

Thanks for reading!

1360x768x32 Resolution in Windows 8 in VirtualBox

2011-11-26T00:00:00-08:00

My Lenovo ThinkPad's built-in screen maxes at 1366x768x32. I wanted to use that same resolution with Windows 8 Developer Preview inside of VirtualBox. So, what did I do?

Downloaded the latest build of VirtualBox v4.1.6 (because it supports Windows 8 x64).
Installed Windows 8 Developer Preview in VirtualBox as I did earlier this year.
Installed Guest Additions.
Ran the CustomVideoMode described in this blog post.

…and quickly found out that I didn’t have the option to use 1366x768x32 inside of VirtualBox despite using the following command:

VBoxManage.exe setextradata "[Virtual Machine Name]" CustomVideoMode1 1920x1080x32

So how do you fix it? If you do a little research on this resolution, then you will find it is a non-standard resolution. Even if you run the command:

VBoxManage.exe setextradata "[Virtual Machine Name]" CustomVideoMode1 1366x768x32

It will still not show that resolution inside of VirtualBox. You can fix this easily by using the following command as shown below:

VBoxManage.exe setextradata "[Virtual Machine Name]" CustomVideoMode1 1360x768x32

I hope that you noticed the command used the resolution of 1360 instead of 1366. Now if you go to your display option for Windows 8 inside of Virtualbox then you can select that resolution.

Anyways, I hope this helps someone with a similar problem. I created this blog partially for myself but it is always nice to help my fellow developer.

Thanks for reading.

Fixing a broken toolbox (In Visual Studio 2010 SP1)

2011-11-18T20:16:00-08:00

I was recently running into a situation where every time I opened Visual Studio 2010 SP1, the following message would appear for about 60 seconds or so:

"Loading toolbox content from package Microsoft.VisualStudio.IDE.Toolbox.ControlInstaller.ToolboxInstallerPackage
'{2C98B35-07DA-45F1-96A3-BE55D91C8D7A}'"

After finally get fed up with the issue, I started researching it and decided that I’d share the steps that I took to resolve it below:

I first made a complete backup of my registry.
I then removed the following key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Packages\{2c298b35-07da-45f1-96a3-be55d91c8d7a}]
I went to the following directory: C:\Users\Your Name Here\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\ and created a folder called bk and moved the .tbd files to that folder (they are hidden so you will have to show all files). I then removed the .tbd files in the root directory.

I then launched Visual Studio 2010 SP1 again and it recreated those files and the problem was gone.

Anyways, I hope this helps someone with a similar problem. I created this blog partially for myself but it is always nice to help my fellow developer.

Thanks for reading.

Kinect Presentation at Chippewa Valley Code Camp

2011-11-15T01:58:00-08:00

On November 12th 2011, I gave a presentation at Chippewa Valley Code Camp titled, “Kinecting the Dots with the Kinect SDK”. As promised, here is the Slides / Code / Resources to my talk.

(click image to download slides)

The Kinect for Windows SDK beta is a starter kit for applications developers that includes APIs, sample code, and drivers. This SDK enables the academic research and enthusiast communities to create rich experiences by using Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect sensor technology on computers running Windows 7.

Resources :

Download Kinect for Windows SDK beta 2 – You can either download a 32 or 64 bit SDK depending on your OS.

FAQ for Kinect for Windows SDK Beta 2

Kinect for Windows SDK Quickstarts for Windows SDK Beta 2

Information on upgrading Kinect Applications to MS SDK Beta 2. – Brand new post by me on how to upgrade Kinect applications to Beta 2.

Getting the Most out of the Kinect SDK by me for the Microsoft MVP Award Program Blog.

My “Busy Developers Guide to the Kinect SDK” (still references Beta 1 – but most information is still valid)

Helpful toolkits / templates mentioned in the talk.

Coding4Fun Kinect Toolkit – Lots of extension methods and controls for WPF and WinForms.

KinectContrib – Visual Studio 2010 Templates (not updated for Beta 2 as of 11/14/2011).

Fun Projects for learning purposes (all updated to Beta 2):

Kinect Mouse Cursor – Use your hands to control things like a mouse created by Brian Peek.

Kinect Paint – Basically MS Paint but use your hands!

Kinecting the Dots: Adding Buttons to your Kinect Application (not on Beta 2 – but check out the guide by me on how to do this)

Thanks for attending!

I had a really great time at the event and would like to personally thank everyone for coming out to support the local community.

Thanks for reading.

Information on upgrading Kinect Applications to MS SDK Beta 2.

2011-11-14T20:21:00-08:00

Introduction

Microsoft recently released the Kinect for Windows SDK Beta 2. It contains many enhancements and fixes that can be found here. The only problem with it is that a lot of current demo applications no longer function properly. Today, I’m going to walk you through a typical scenario of upgrading a Kinect application built with Beta 1 to Beta 2.

Note: This tutorial covers WPF, but you can use the same techniques for WinForms.

1) Fix the references

Let’s start with a fairly popular Kinect demo called Kinect User Interface Demo.

This project uses the beta 1 version of Microsoft.Research.Kinect.dll and version 1.0.0.0 of Coding4Fun’s Kinect library.

After you download the source code and extract the zip you will see the following references in Visual Studio 2010:

Pay attention to the following references as these are the .dlls that you will have to update:

Coding4Fun.Kinect.Wpf
Microsoft.Research.Kinect

If you click on Coding4Fun.Kinect.Wpf file you will see the following version information (v1.0.0.0):

This needs to be upgraded to the Coding4Fun Kinect library built against Beta 2. So head over to http://c4fkinect.codeplex.com/ and hit download and you will have the following files.

Go ahead and hit the delete key on your keyboard to remove the Coding4Fun.Kinect.Wpf.dll file from your project. Select “Add Reference” and navigate out to the folder where you extracted the files and select Coding4Fun.Kinect.Wpf.dll.

If you click on the Coding4Fun.Kinect.Wpf.dll file and check properties it should be listed at 1.1.0.0:

Fix Microsoft.Research.Kinect.dll

The official SDK Beta 2 released a new .dll that you will need to reference in your application. Go ahead and select Microsoft.Research.Kinect.dll in your application and hit the Delete key on your keyboard. Go ahead and select Add Reference again and select Microsoft.Research.Kinect.dll from the .NET tab. Double check and make sure the version number is 1.0.0.45 as shown below.

References fixed – Runtime needs to be updated.

So we have fixed the references in a typical Kinect application that uses Microsoft’s SDK and C4F Kinect libraries. Now, we will need to update the runtime. All Beta 1 Kinect applications will instantiate the Runtime with the following code:

Can you see that it is now marked with [Depreciated]? That means we need to update it before Microsoft decides to remove it from future versions of the SDK.

We can fix this very easily by replacing this code:

readonly Runtime _runtime = new Runtime();

with

Microsoft.Research.Kinect.Nui.Runtime _nui;

and adding similar code to our Loaded event as shown below

public MainWindow()
{
    InitializeComponent();
    Loaded += new RoutedEventHandler(MainWindow_Loaded);
}

void MainWindow_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    if (Runtime.Kinects.Count == 0)
    {
        txtInfo.Text = "Missing Kinect";
    }
    else
    {
        _nui = Runtime.Kinects[0];
        _nui.Initialize(RuntimeOptions.UseColor);

        // Video Frame Ready Event can happen now!!! 
        //_nui.VideoFrameReady += new EventHandler<ImageFrameReadyEventArgs>(_nui_VideoFrameReady);
        _nui.VideoStream.Open(ImageStreamType.Video, 2, ImageResolution.Resolution640x480, ImageType.Color);

    }
}

In this sample, I am testing to see if a Kinect is detected and if it is then I initialize the runtime with my first Kinect by using the Runtime.Kinects[0]. You can also specify other Kinect devices here. The rest of the code is standard code that you simply modify however you wish (ie Skeletal, Depth, etc) depending on what type of video feed you want.

Conclusion

As you can see it really wasn’t that painful to upgrade your project to Beta 2. I would recommend that you go ahead and upgrade to Beta 2 as future versions of the SDK will use these methods.

Thanks for reading.

My guest-blog post on Kinect for the MVP Award Program Blog

2011-10-31T19:24:00-07:00

Introduction

I’m sure by now you have heard that the Kinect SDK has been released by Microsoft. I recently had a chance to Guest Blog for the Microsoft MVP Award Program Blog on “Getting the Most out of the Kinect SDK”. Now before we get started learning about it, let’s look at what it is:

*Kinect for Xbox 360, or simply Kinect (originally known by the code name Project Natal),^[8] is a motion sensing input device by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 video game console. Based around a webcam-style add-on peripheral for the Xbox 360 console, it enables users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without the need to touch a game controller, through a natural user interface using gestures and spoken commands.^[9] The project is aimed at broadening the Xbox 360's audience beyond its typical gamer base.^[10] Kinect competes with the Wii Remote Plus and PlayStation Move with PlayStation Eye motion controllers for the Wii and PlayStation 3 home consoles, respectively.

*Definition taken from the wikipedia article on Kinect

The Full Article

The full article is hosted on the Microsoft MVP Award Program Blog. You can also access it by clicking on the screenshot below. Don’t forget to rate it and leave comments if you wish.

Thanks for reading!

Michael Crump

Visual Studio 11 Beta: Thoughts and Resources

Introduction

Links

Visual Studio 11 Resources

TFS Express Resources

ScreenShots

Microsoft Silverlight 5: Building Rich Enterprise Dashboards Book Released

Introduction

But first, the Giveaway

Book Overview

The Table of Contents

Snapshots of the Book

Wrap-up

The first 10 Minutes of a C# Developer Exploring a Metro Application using Visual C++

Introduction

The Visual C++/C# Metro Templates built-into VS 11

The Solution Explorer

Looking at the C++ Solution Explorer in depth

Looking at a simple “Hello World” Application – The XAML

The Code Behind

Wrap-up

Treadmill Assistant Windows Phone 7 App Released

Why a Treadmill app?

The App

What’s Next?

Screenshots

Using the Live SDK in Windows 8 XAML/C# Metro Applications

Article Introduction

The Full Article

Fixing the [NeutralResourceLanguage] attribute is missing on the entry assembly.

Introduction

Let’s fix it!

Wrap-up

10 Laps Around Silverlight 5 e-Book available to download for FREE.

The e-Book:

The Roadmap for the e-Book

FullScreen Browser WP7 Download and Payment Stats

Introduction

How Did It Go?

What’s Next?

Retrieving a WebPage Title and Sharing it with the ShareLinkTask in WP7

Introduction

ShareLinkTask Intro

Wrap-up

11 Things every Software Developer should be doing in 2012.

Introduction

11 Things every Software Developer should be doing in 2012.

Adding an Easter Egg to your WP7 Application

Introduction

The User Interface

The Code

So how did you know the X and Y positions of the letter “M”?

The Demo

Wrap-up

Taking a look at the Windows Simulator in Visual Studio 11

Introduction

We have three ways to debug a Metro Application

Hold up!

Back to the Simulator

Touch Emulation

Touch Emulation Pinch/Zoom

Touch Emulation Rotate

Screen Rotation

Change Resolution

Resizing

Wrap-up

Microsoft Touch Mouse Review

Introduction

Day One

How was it?

The Software

PROS/CONS

Pictures

Adding Tweet Buttons to a FunnelWeb Post

Introduction

Let’s do it.

Conclusion

Silverlight 5 has been released plus other info!

Silverlight 5 – The Final Version is here!