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Macedonian .NET Group goes on facebook!

dejanii — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:30:07 GMT

Hi to all, I would like to inform you that from now on we are present in facebook.

If anyone of you have facebook profile you can find us there !

The main purpose of this application is to promote the Macedonian .Net Group in front of facebook users, and to inform all our FANS about news and events that will come in future.

This is small step to improve our availability to .NET "addicts" to consume us as much as they like, and also it is a great advertising world wide.

I honestly expect that this application will increase our visitors number and I hope on Member++

ATENTION, ATENTION, Silverlight 2.0 Beta2 is released !!!

dejanii — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 06:55:14 GMT

Ladies and Gentleman, Designers and Developers, I'm proud to pronounce to you that Silverlight 2 Beta2 was released on 06.06.2008, as you can read from Scott Gu's Blog here are some information

Differences:

Browsers that have Silverlight 2 Beta1 installed which visit a site that hosts a Silverlight Beta2 application will be prompted to upgrade to the newer beta of Silverlight

Silverlight 2 Beta2 will not run applications that target Silverlight 2 Beta1, since they made a number of API changes between the two betas for the new features being added in Silverlight 2.

Once they do this they won't be able to run Beta1 applications without uninstalling Beta2. This means that if you have published a running sample on the web built with Beta1 you will probably want to update it to Beta2 soon.

Microsoft has published a document that details the changes between Beta1 and Beta2 here that can help with this.

"theADOguy" wrote one article for Upgrading your Silverlight 2 Project to Beta2:

If you're not using the Calendar, GridSplitter or DatePicker, remove the System.Windows.Controls.Extended.dll from your references. You don't need it for most controls anymore and its pretty big so it will just balloon the size of your .xap files.

If you are using ControlTemplates, you may need make a lot of changes. Look again at the default templates (Reflector is a good way of getting the generic.xaml that contains all the templates) to see how you should change them. TemplateParts have changed names and they are mostly using VisualStateManager for transition effects.
Upgrade to the new Silverlight.js to your project if you are using it to host your project. Its is in the SDK directory under "Tools".

Read this if you want more details about What's Changed in Silverlight 2 Beta 2?

Just for revision here re some of the major features of Beta2:

Technorati Tags: Silverlight Beta2

Visual State Manager - (VSM) feature that makes it much easier to build interactive control templates; introduces two basic concepts that you can take advantage of within control templates: "Visual States" and "State Transitions".

TextBox editing control: scrolling with text-wrap, multi-line text selection, document navigation keys, and copy/paste from the clipboard are now supported....

Input support: keyboard support in FullScreen mode (arrow, tab, enter, home, end, pageup/pagedown, space)

UI Automation and Accessibility: UI Automation (or UIA) enables screen readers and other assistive tools to identify and interact with the components

UI and Control Improvements, More Built-in Controls, Control Template Editing Support

Animation and Graphic System: animating custom dependency properties

DeepZoom: supports an XML based manifest file for DeepZoom collections, extensible MultiScaleTileSource support (which allows developers to hook up existing image pyramids that don’t conform with the Deep Zoom format to the high performance rendering of Deep Zoom)

WPF Compatibility, Media Improvements, Adaptive Streaming, Content Protection, Server Side Playlists, Networking Improvements

Cross Domain Sockets - now enables cross domain networking support using both HTTP and Sockets (meaning your application can call sites other than the one the application was downloaded from)

Duplex Communication (Server Push) - support for setting up duplex communication channels with a WCF service on a server

Web Services, Background Thread Networking, REST and ADO.NET Data Services, JSON, Data Improvements (DataGrid, DataBinding, Isolated Storage, )

WEB Graphics (DOJO, SVG, Silverlight)

dejanii — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:44:00 GMT

The three-year-old Dojo Foundation has put out version 1.0 of Dojo, an open source JavaScript toolkit for AJAX development meant for building rich Web 2.0 applications without proprietary plug-ins or single-vendor solutions.

The widgetry makes use of Google Gears, Google's solution for making applications work both on- and offline. What Dojo calls Dojo Offline is based on it.

The toolkit is all of 25K in size and supports progressive enhancement and animations and is supposed to open the door to a wealth of high-quality widgets and extension modules. Dojo also supports the Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer and Opera browsers and the OpenAjax Alliance Hub 1.0 to guarantee interoperability with other toolkits

What is dojox.gfx?
dojox.gfx is a cross-platform declarative interactive graphics package. It follows SVG loosely as the underlying model. At present time SVG and VML back-ends are implemented.

What does it do?
The dojox.gfx package provides graphics rendering and manipulation. Under Firefox, Opera and Safari dojox.gfx renders the final product as SVG, under IE it renders as VML.

Potentially the gfx package can allow you to create live and interactive graphing, a web based vector drawing program, view svg files in IE.

Dojo Adds Silverlight Effects Support

Dojo Toolkit, a robust javascript library, recently update and added some support for Silverlight effects. This is one really cool aspect of Silverlight in that it allows you to script/code it in many languages in the DLR (Dynamic Language Runtime) including ironpython, C#, IronRuby, javascript and others. Where as with Flash you only have Actionscript3 available.

SVG to Silverlight via XSLT.

Yeah I know, it is embedded into HTML using comments, but look et this, it can be improved.

Demo: Toucan. Rendered using native SVG on recent Gecko, Opera, and Webkit based browsers. Converted to Silverlight and rendered (after a brief delay) using client side XSLT on MSIE browsers with Silverlight.

This technique may also be useful for people who want to embed Silverlight into Webpages, which apparently isn’t so easy to do.

Demo: Raven — currently MSIE/Silverlight only, but clearly the reverse is also possible.

FREE AgDataGrid Suite for Silverlight

dejanii — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:06:00 GMT

DevExpress announced at TechEd 2008 that it will release its upcoming AgDataGrid for Silverlight free of charge to the developer community. The DevExpress Grid for Silverlight has been engineered to fully exploit the power and flexibility of Microsoft's Silverlight platform and will ship with advanced data visualization and data shaping features...from column grouping and sorting, to summary calculations against multiple columns.

"Silverlight represents an exciting new development option for software developers and DevExpress is committed to delivering feature-complete presentation components for this next generation platform." said Julian M Bucknall, CTO of Developer Express Inc. "Over the coming months, DevExpress will release numerous controls for Silverlight to help developers deliver compelling solutions and address business needs in an elegant and effective manner."

The AgDataGrid for Silverlight Community Preview will be released in the coming weeks and once released, it will be available for download from http://devexpress.com free of charge and can be incorporated into any Silverlight application without licensing or royalty fees.

As the release of Silverlight draws near, DevExpress has invested the engineering resources needed to deliver a feature-rich grid control for Silverlight. Not just a "preview" of what is possible with Silverlight, the AgDataGrid Suite was developed to fully exploit the power and flexibility of the platform and will ship with the following features:

Data Grouping against multiple Silverlight Grid columns
Data Sorting against multiple Silverlight Grid columns
Comprehensive Summary Computation support against multiple Silverlight Grid columns
Column Movement
Column Resizing
Column Auto-Width
Row Editing
Row Preview (with animation)
Template Support (for cell content, cell editing, row preview and headers)
Auto Height Support for cells, headers, and totals.
Virtual StackPanel Row Container (simply means we are able to handle an unlimited number of rows)
Focused Row and Focused Cell
Multi-Row Selection
Cell Text Wrapping
Vertical/Horizontal Lines
Multiple column types/editors

Beyond the features we’ve listed above, the AgDataGrid will ship with the following capabilities:

Smart UI Element Management
AgDataGrid implements a smart loading and re-organization of the grid's inner UI elements to provide smaller control load times and faster data operations.
Designed for Future Performance Enhancements
Silverlight is all about client-side technology...But if client/server interaction will be implemented in future versions, our grid is ready to delegate data processing to the server side and thus boost application performance.
Higher-Level abstractions
With our unique measurement routines you don't have to think in terms of pixels - which you do with the standard Silverlight grid. Just like other advanced controls for older platforms, you simply specify styles and fonts and all element sizes are automatically modified.
Full Animation Support
It's hard to imagine any Silverlight control without compelling animation effects. Though the standard Microsoft Silverlight grid control's architecture doesn't support them, AgDataGrid fully supports animations for group row expansion, preview row display and other operations.

This Week: Silverlight 2 - Go Live !!!

dejanii — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:19:00 GMT

At TechEd Bill Gates said that the second beta of Silverlight 2 will be available for download at the end of the week with a Go Live license. The Go Live license is similar to the one that was used late in the beta process for Silverlight 1 and it allows developers to roll out applications to production but with limited support from Microsoft.

LINK: http://www.microsoft.com/techedonline/default.aspx

So on to the details of the fun stuff that's brand new in Beta 2:

UI Framework - Beta 2
Rich Controls - Beta 2
Networking Support - Beta 2
Rich Base Class Library - Beta 2
Deep Zoom - Beta 2

more you can read on http://scarynoises.com/blog/archives/2008/06/silverlight_get.html

The final version of Silverlight 2.0, which will largely compete with Adobe Flash, isn't due until later this year. But interest has been high enough that Microsoft has introduced a "Go Live" license for it, which means that Microsoft will now fully support Silverlight apps. NBC will roll out a vast Silverlight-based Olympics Web site before the plug-in's final release, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft plans to release new test versions of its Expression Blend user interface design software and a Silverlight development plug-in for Visual Studio 2008. A second test version of Internet Explorer 8 is due in August, and the final release of Microsoft's Sync Framework (plus a beta of a mobile version) is due in the third quarter. The Sync Framework allows developers to create Web applications that can allow for offline data access or synchronize data across multiple locations.

Месечната средба во Јуни на тема „Silverlight 2.0 и RIA“

dejanii — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:27:00 GMT

Како што е ред нели (секоја прва среда во месецот) на 04.06.208 се одржа 3-тата корисничка средба на групата се одржа во Клубот на Новинари.

Предавач беше мојата маленкост Дејан Аневски. Изненадувачката посетеност и аkтивната Q & A сесија повлекоа неколку прашања кои ќе се обидам да ги одговорам во овој пост.

Најпрво за агендата и за тоа што беше презентирано

Краток преглед за еволуцијата на User Experience
Што е RIA?
Какви можности ни нуди Microsoft за подобрување на UX и градење на RIA
Што е Silverlight?
Краток преглед на новините, предностите и недостатоците на Silverlight 2.0.
Дискусија за можностите кои ги нуди оваа платформа.
Претставување на останати алатки, контроли и околини кои работат над или со оваа платформа (Deep Zoom, Microsoft Expression, Moonlight)
Претставувње на RIA бизнис апликација
Q & A

Најпрво да ви се извинам за тоа што не ви презентирав никакво видео или апликациа, но ви ветив дека ќе ви посочам материали кои сигурно ќе ве маѓепсаат повекје отколку јас тоа да ви го презентирам

Погледнете ги двете сесии KEYNOTE 1 и 2

http://sessions.visitmix.com/?selectedSearch=KYN0801

http://sessions.visitmix.com/?selectedSearch=KYN0802

Овдека се презентирани сите револуционерни апликации кои ги орвараат вратите на User Experience со помош на RIA апликациите развивани во Silverlight

Додатни сесии кои ви ги препорачувам да ги погледнете доколку сакате подетално да се запознаете со Silverlight технологијата и со нејзините можности се следниве:

Building RIAs Using Silverlight 2 - Part I

http://sessions.visitmix.com/?selectedSearch=CT01

Building RIAs Using Silverlight 2 - Part II

http://sessions.visitmix.com/?selectedSearch=CT02

Integrating Media in Silverlight Applications

http://sessions.visitmix.com/?selectedSearch=BCT05

Creating Rich, Dynamic User Interfaces with Silverlight 2 Controls

http://sessions.visitmix.com/?selectedSearch=T20

Lighting Up Your AJAX Applications with Silverlight

http://sessions.visitmix.com/?selectedSearch=T10

Encoding Video for Microsoft Silverlight Delivery Scenarios

http://sessions.visitmix.com/?selectedSearch=BCT07

Working with Data and Web Services in Microsoft Silverlight 2

http://sessions.visitmix.com/?selectedSearch=T13

Некои од вас беа заинтересирани за Silverlight Reversi Game и за нејзиниот код, па затоа еве неколку информаци каде може да се најде кодот:

http://macedonia.silverlightchallenge.eu/Uploads/dejanii/0001_dejanii.rar

Ова се линковите од организаторот на натпреварот:

http://macedonia.silverlightchallenge.eu за МК

http://silverlightchallenge.eu за ЕУ

И уште еден совет за сите оние кои сакаат да започнат со развивање на Silverlight Аппликации.

Посетете ги следниве линкови и верувајте дека после неколку обиди ќе бидете спремни за развивање на апликации (нормално доколку предходно сте пишувале некаков код)

http://silverlight.net/learn/labs.aspx (Hands-On-Labs for complete end-to-end learning series)

http://silverlight.net/Learn/ (Videos designed for all Silverlight designers and developers, from the novice to the professional)

http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=473 (Free Silverlight Training on Lynda.com)

http://www.visitmix.com/University/ (MIX University - Visualize.Contextualize.Experience)

UI and friendly messages :)

dejanii — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:57:42 GMT

Hey user, read my mind!

HINT: someone told me that if I read carefully I'll see that somewhere is written "Silverlight-1.1-NotInstalled"

Need a Welcome or Cancellation from MVP Academy, now you have a choice :)

NO COMMENT :)

SVG vs. XAML vs. VML vs. ???

dejanii — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:26:59 GMT

Guys I have a problem! Every time when I open Blend and try to made something beautiful, the result is "beautiful" (read this: something more like ugly)

And than I considered that I have some psychological problem. I can't give away just like that from technologies that are familiar for me, and to run for new technologies. Ether in my nature I'm always curious for new things, but sometimes that isn't the case. So I'll come out of closet and say it loud:

Why MS, why, first SVG vs. VML, and now SVG vs VML and vs. XAML ????

Until when? Isn't SVG one already a pre-existing W3C standard for vector graphics which is supported in most modern browsers except Internet Explorer?

Has anyone know the list of all browser that are in common use all over the word, and platforms?

I hope that Silverlight will be the only plugin that my clients will need to download and to run their business world wide without any limitations.

After little research, I fond one playmate Jon Galloway, and he has the same thoughts read this and you'll get the idea.

FYI I didn't have setup versions, nether test environments for all this OS and browsers mentioned above, I use only one cool service (http://browsershots.org) that provides you with screen shouts for desired URL from most used clients combination of OS / Browser. Just look this list:

Linux

BonEcho 2.0
Dillo 0.8
Epiphany 2.14
Epiphany 2.18
Epiphany 2.20
Epiphany 2.22
Firefox 1.0
Firefox 1.5
Firefox 2.0
Firefox 3.0
Flock 0.7
Flock 0.9
Flock 1.0
Flock 1.1
Galeon 1.3
Galeon 2.0
GranParadiso 3.0
Iceape 1.0

Iceape 1.1
Iceweasel 2.0
Kazehakase 0.2
Kazehakase 0.4
Kazehakase 0.5
Konqueror 3.3
Konqueror 3.5
Minefield 3.0
Mozilla 1.7
Mozilla 5.0
Navigator 4.8
Navigator 9.0
Opera 9.25
Opera 9.26
Opera 9.50
SeaMonkey 1.0
SeaMonkey 1.1
SeaMonkey 2.0

Windows

Firefox 1.5
Firefox 2.0
Firefox 3.0
Flock 1.0
Flock 1.1
K-Meleon 1.1
MSIE 4.0
MSIE 5.0
MSIE 5.5
MSIE 6.0

MSIE 7.0
MSIE 8.0
Navigator 9.0
Opera 9.23
Opera 9.24
Opera 9.25
Opera 9.26
Safari 3.0
Safari 3.1
SeaMonkey 1.1

Mac OS

Firefox 2.0
Firefox 3.0
Safari 1.3
Safari 2.0
Safari 3.1

BSD

Epiphany 2.20
Galeon 2.0
Opera 9.25
SeaMonkey 1.1

MS Silverlight, isn't this just a .NET Flash?

dejanii — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:37:40 GMT

When I made my first in-deep contact with Silverlight (DevReach'07) I have a lot of difficulties to explain to everyone what is Silverlight.

When I told to my parents that I won on European Silverlight Challenge they ask me what I have done...

I told them ".... hmm... application...no... program... no .... luck I made one ...hmmm.... BINGO... I made game on Silverlight..."

And that was enough because they know that previously work something on my PC that move tings around, blinks, flash, drags, (they were Flash web sites and multimedia CD).

The problem comes when I need to explain the differences to someone that knows what can be done in Flash, but he has no clue how is done.

So searching for right answers and words and sentences to explain myself, I land myself on Chad's Blog. and look what I found:

Isn't this just a .NET Flash?
And WPF/E was what?
Isn't this just a .NET Java?
Why didn't Microsoft just expand on SVG?
....

That was THE solution for my problems, so before you start preaching to everyone about Silverlight, read this and be prepared for exactly this type of questions.

Preloader in Silverlight of data chunks

dejanii — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:02:44 GMT

Sorry for my absents into blogsphere but I have big excuse, MIX was happen to me, and I'm still "on impressions" and also I have plaint of job on work that need to be done on time, so here are me. I promise that this will never happen again

If you ever been developed some RIA into Flash, than certainly you are very familiar with data transfer problem. I do not like to sound pretentious, but when I first start to seeing Silverlight as a promising platform, I checked this functionality.

Preload is simple - EUREKA !!!

The zip downloading is attractive and much of this is going on in Flash with FZip and/or ASZip, in Silverlight is different than in Flash. Into Flash world swf filec can't be compressed with significant difference, but in Silverlight world, XAML files (txt files) compress very very well.

So I found this VIDEO "USE THE SILVERLIGHT DOWNLOADER"

There actualy one magic Javascript

// Event handler for initializing and executing a download request.
function onMouseLeftButtonUp(sender, eventArgs)
{
    // Retrieve a reference to the plug-in.
    var slPlugin = sender.getHost();

    // Create a Downloader object.
    var downloader = slPlugin.createObject("downloader");

    // Add DownloadProgressChanged and Completed events.
    downloader.addEventListener("downloadProgressChanged", onDownloadProgressChanged);
    downloader.addEventListener("completed", onCompleted);
}

// Event handler for initializing and executing a download request.
function onMouseLeftButtonUp(sender, eventArgs)
{
    // Retrieve a reference to the plug-in.
    var slPlugin = sender.getHost();

    // Create a Downloader object.
    var downloader = slPlugin.createObject("downloader");

    // Add DownloadProgressChanged and Completed events.
    downloader.addEventListener("downloadProgressChanged", onDownloadProgressChanged);
    downloader.addEventListener("completed", onCompleted);

    // Initialize the Downloader request.
    // NOTE: downloader APIs disallow file:\\ scheme
    // you must run this sample over localhost: or off a server or the following call will fail

    downloader.open("GET", "promo.png");

    // Execute the Downloader request.
    downloader.send();
}

You can find more about preloads in MSDN Downloading Content on Demand in Silverlight

Also you can find very intresting things on David Kelley's Blog and certainly on Ryan Christensen's Blog "draw*logic"

"Silverlight does not compile to one file or into compressed binary currently and this offers flexibility but it also makes file sizes at their default size very big. PNGs for instance can’t be zipped any smaller usually but in Flash9 these are sometimes 1/10th the size of the actual file when compressed better in the SWF file. Even if you zip them in Silverlight they are still around the same size. Silverlight XAML files compress well and these can get very large if lots of pathing is used"

- Ryan

The hard part is deciding where to put your preloaders and how to load things, so that's why somewhere there exists Developers, not just Coders :) Right?

Usability and Silverlight

dejanii — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 08:18:00 GMT

There is no mouse double-click event on UIElements in Silverlight. Some people think this is an odd omission. Silverlight's cousin WPF can fire a double-click event, so why not Silverlight? Even JavaScript can catch double-click events inside a web page, but we are not here to discuss what can be and what can’t be done, as we all know nearly everything can be done, it’s just a meter of time and money. What is revolutionary from the early beginning is in other technologies the exact behavior depends on the combination of browser version, operating system, and a small million of other tiny things

Silverlight is built for the web, and many consider double-clicking on the web to be a usability no-no.

Peter Chng once say: Take this comment by about the new Yahoo! Photos site; the user laments about the interface requiring a double-click to open a full-size image rather than just a traditional single-click as on most other websites. (The double-click detection is done via JavaScript) I'll admit that while I was first confused by this action, I thought little of that user's comment - I mean, how hard can it be to learn a simple action like that? But, after some more thinking, I've come to agree with the comment - breaking the pattern of how a user navigates on a website is not a good idea, even if it's done to try to make your website feel more like a desktop application. The New York Times website includes a feature that launches a search (in a pop-up window) when you double click a word inside an article. Digital Inspiration believes this behavior is user unfriendly, while Dion thinks the feature is a bug. You might also have noticed the only mouse button events in Silverlight are LEFT mouse buttons events. Edit (I haven't kept up with changes in the other lifestyle...) Macs don't have a right mouse button, and my guess is they never will (adding one now would be like admitting defeat). Exposing a right-click event could only invite more usability problems. Silverlight has some wonderful potential, do not forget that because after Silverlight mobile applications will never be the same again.

Las Vegas, here I come!

dejanii — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 08:12:00 GMT

Before several days in 03:30 AM I receive SMS on with content “Enjoy your flight to Las Vegas”. Several times I receive this kind of LOST messages, where I’m the random receiver by accident. Then I come on work, open my e-mail and some Jose with e-mail account on google have sent me an e-mail with content

Hi Dejan,

That's what I'm trying to do, send you to the MIX :)

Congratulations!!! you are now Europe's N1 Silverlight Developer.

And Thanks for participating!!!
Let you know later, stay online as much as you can today as I will need you :)

Best,
Jose

I’ts a little weird, right, it’s like SPAM, like I don’t know…And first thing that I’ll do isOpen IE and instantly type http://macedonia.silverlightchallenge.eu/ and http://www.silverlightchallenge.eu/ And because of the stupid right BANER and advertysing module who is flying right on top of my name, I did not find or read myself as a “2008 Europe's Best Silverlight Developer”. I always believe in “Run > notepad” … and I saw my name and the name of my country “MACEDONIA” Thanks giving: All this period from the day when I receive the SMS and today when I’m waiting a VISA, I was supported and “плескан по рамена” from several peoples, institutions, companies, organizations, groups, family members… But for now I would like to say a little TNX which means “Thank you and Bless you, I’m delighted, YOU make my live beautiful and I’ll never forget that” Special TNX to Ineta TNX and to MKDOT.NET end one extremely big TNX for my Technology Line Manager Dejan Dimitrovski (read this as a “madafa*ka in .NET”) who motivate me to participate on the European Silverlight challenge. TNX to all participants on Macedonian Silverlight Challenge expressly to Joco who know to make wonderful things in Silverlight, believe me, we are working together on one very cool Seavus product (I’m not telling anything more because somebody may kill me) “What’s happen in Vegas, stay in Vegas” vs. “MIX’08 happen in Vegas, go in Vegas” MIX is an intimate conversation between developers, designers and business professionals to explore: · High-fidelity commerce, content, media, services and security · How new technologies can help find, retain and up-sell customers · The latest on Silverlight, Internet Explorer, ASP.NET, Expression, Windows Live and other key technologies. Keynotes, presentations, discussions, labs · Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer will share his thoughts as well · Maybe it’s because we’re huge “The Tao of Steve” fans, or we can’t help but return to one of the hottest nightclubs on the strip . . . the MIX bash this year will be at TAO in the Venetian