Kunal's Blog

“Easy Connect” - a Small WP7 Utility Application in Marketplace

2012-02-24T06:00:00.000+05:30

Here comes my 2nd Windows Phone 7 application in the Marketplace named “Easy Connect” to provide you easy access to the connectivity settings page in your device. Finding each page in the settings is little bit difficult and hence here is my application to help you. Find details about the application and the free downloadable links from Windows Phone 7 marketplace. Don’t forget to review the app and share your feedback. Easy Connect is a small utility application which will give you easy access to all the four connection settings page i.e. Airplane, Bluetooth, Cellular and Wi-Fi from a single page. You will find it useful as it will allow you to navigate between different connection settings page from a single location. Last but not least, don’t...

“Wallpaper Downloader” - My First WP7 Application in the Marketplace

2012-02-22T06:00:00.001+05:30

My first Windows Phone 7 is now in the Marketplace. It is a small application to fetch images and provide option to the user to save that image to the WP7 device so that you can set it as Phone background. Find the link mentioned below in the post and download it in your WP7 mobile for free. Don’t forget to provide your Review. When you launch the app, it will fetch images from server and show them in your mobile screen once loaded. You will be able to scroll the image list and select a specific image of your choice. Tap and Hold the image and this will popup a context menu in the screen, when tapped it will save the image in your Media Library. Future Improvements: Provide an option to search specific image category Provide an option to go directly to the phone’s Media Library Show a...

Microsoft Platform Guidance by Telerik is LIVE now

2012-02-21T00:35:00.001+05:30

The Microsoft .NET platform, originally introduced in 2002, is mature and it provides developers with great options for creating software that can meet the requirements of any project. With many options, though, it can be difficult for today’s .NET developer to choose the correct .NET technologies for a project. Addressing this problem, Telerik has assembled its senior technical leaders to produce the Microsoft Platform Guidance 2012. This document attempts to provide prescriptive guidance for .NET developers trying to determine the best .NET technologies to use for specific software challenges. Telerik senior leadership advise on the .NET options available to you and thus this document is now published for you. Note that, this guidance document does not include Windows 8, currently in a pre-beta preview. After Windows 8 reaches beta, we will update this guidance to reflect it. Read more about this from Telerik Website. Meet the...

How to Unlock Your WP7 Device for Development?

2012-02-20T06:00:00.000+05:30

If you have a Windows Phone 7 device and you are a WP7Dev, you may want to develop and test your WP7 application inside your device. All the time, the simulator doesn’t help us to test our application and hence you need the hardware device. The Phone 7 by default comes as a locked for development, but if you want, you can easily unlock it for testing and debugging purpose. In this small post, I will help you to understand each steps in detail. Continue reading to be familiar with the process. Prerequisite To begin with the process of unlocking your device, you must have completed the following points: A physical Windows Phone 7 device handy A Windows Live ID for AppHub account creation Register in the AppHub using your live ID (use Hotmail or Live account while registration, don’t use any other live IDS mapped with Yahoo, Gmail etc.) Pay $99 to activate your AppHub account (without valid and active AppHub account you cannot proceed) ...

How to Enable Call Waiting Service in WP7?

2012-02-16T06:00:00.000+05:30

If you are using Windows Phone 7 and want to activate the “Call Waiting Service”, this post will help you. You might came to this page by search engines if didn’t find any settings to activate this service in your phone. This post is not related to any sort of programming but just a small usages tips. Continue reading and activate the service right now if you are searching for this. Recently I noticed that the “Call Waiting Service” of my Windows Phone 7 is not working and I searched a lot in the settings page to find out the option. But could not figured it out anywhere. Later I heard it from my friend Senthil that the option is not available in the settings page unlike other phone devices. Activation Process: To activate this service go to the phone dialer and call to: *43# Deactivation Process: To deactivate this service go to the phone dialer and call to: #43# I hope this small non-development tips will help you to...

Microsoft Windows Phone (WP7) Camps Now in your City, WP7Dev Get Ready

2012-02-13T06:00:00.000+05:30

Microsoft Windows Phone 7 camps now in your city. If you are in India, you can now join the WP7 Camps in 6 major cities across India. Starting from 17th February to 29th February it will happen in Delhi, Bangalore, Indore, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Trivandrum. If you are in near by cities and want to join the camp, find the date and address in this post. Enjoy the event with Windows Phone influencers and learn more from them. In December 2011, Microsoft did the Windows Phone 7 Camp in Pune (20-Dec-2011) and Chennai (22-Dec-2011). Now it’s time for other cities across India. Here is the details of the Venue. Make sure that, you reach the venue on time. Don’t forget to register for the event where you want to participate. Date Address City Register Here 17th February 2012 Le Meridien, 8, Windsor Place Delhi Click Here 20th February 2012 Le...

How to download and save images in WP7 Media Library?

2012-02-10T20:14:00.001+05:30

Sometime we may need to download images from external location to our Windows Phone 7 Media Library. Few days ago, I tried to implement the same in one of my application. Initially, I thought that it is very easy to implement but later noticed the complexity. I did few R&D with Mayur Tendulkar to implement the same and came up with a solution. Thanks to Mayur for helping me out. It this post, I will discuss the way of implementation of it with the full code snippet. Continue reading to check out the downloading mechanism of external images to Media Library. Using WebClient to Download the Image To start with the implementation, design your page with a button. Register the click of the button and in the implementation part of it, write the following code: private void SaveImageClicked(object sender, GestureEventArgs e) { var webClient = new WebClient(); webClient.OpenReadCompleted +=...

Working with WP7 RadBusyIndicator control from Telerik

2012-02-06T06:00:00.000+05:30

Busy Indicator is a tool which you can add in your Silverlight or WP7 application to show a loading indication to your user while doing some sort of operations. This is just to let the user know that something is going on. Here in this article, we will learn how to use Telerik BusyIndicator control in your Windows Phone 7 and let the user know that some operations are going on in the background. In Windows Phone 7 SDK, we don’t have any special control to show the Busy indication service. As an alternative, the Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit has it’s own PerformanceProgressBar control and the Coding4FunToolkit has it’s own ProgressOverlay control. Telerik has their own Windows Phone 7 controls, where you can find the busy indicator control named RadBusyIndicator. Today, in this blog post we will discuss about this control with a small nice demo. Here I will be using the 2012 Q1 Release of the Telerik Windows Phone 7 controls library. In this...

Weekly News Digest @SilverlightZone - 29-January-2012 to 04-February-2012

2012-02-05T06:21:00.000+05:30

Here comes the most popular 5 posts of the week (29th January 2012 to 4th February 2012) at silverlight-zone.com. This week most viewed posts were from Daniel Rubino, @f5Debug, SilverSpot, Barry Lapthorn and Joe Mayo. Read more to find out the popular links read by the developer community. Don’t forget to follow @SilverlightZone on Twitter. Become a “Fan” of our Facebook Page by clicking the “Like” button to stay updated. Subscribe to our Newsletter in case you want to get digest mail notification. Popular 5 Posts of the Week Here is the list of top 5 posts from Daniel Rubino, @f5Debug, SilverSpot, Barry Lapthorn and Joe Mayo: WP7.6 "Tango" to feature native Google+, Skype in alleged screenshot - by Daniel Rubino File this under rumor, folks, as these screenshots can easily be faked, but PocketPC.ch is reporting that Windows Phone "Tango" will be know... Learn WP7 Development in 31 Days - by @f5Debug Welcome to the 31 Days of...

Register for Q1 Release Webinar by Telerik - Sharpen your .Net Ninja Skills

2012-02-02T08:12:00.001+05:30

It’s time for you to sharpen your .Net Ninja skills. The latest Telerik release is just around the corner and Telerik has tons of new stuff to show off. If you are eager to see the new bits and sharpen your .NET skills, be sure to sign up for Release Webinar Week. This 3-day event is packed with hour-long webinar sessions on the coolest new features shipping with the Q1 2012 release. Release Webinar Week will be held on February 20 – 22, so mark your calendars and win some cool stuffs from Telerik. Release Webinar Week will be held on February 20 – 22, so mark your calendars. One lucky winner from each webinar will leave with a Telerik Ultimate Collection license worth $1999. To enter the drawing and participate in the Q&A session, you must attend the live webinar. Registration Link: http://www.telerik.com/support/webinars.aspx Here are the 10 topics those will be cover in the webinars arranged by Telerik. You can...

Monthly Summary - January 2012

2012-02-01T09:56:00.001+05:30

Here comes the “Monthly Summary” of January 2012. During January 2012, I have published 16 blog posts with mix of mood. In this post, sharing all the posts in category wise sorted for you, so that, you can find them easily from here. January was a great month for me. Celebrated 1 yr. of silverlight-zone.com. My Telerik and Codeproject MVP awards were renewed in this month. Also, I had a chance to visit Florida to attend the Telerik Influencers Summit. It was a hectic time at the end of the month. Tips (WP7 & Silverlight) In this month, published a few tips on Silverlight and Windows Phone 7 listed here. Those who are new with the WP7 device, can get help from these two WP7 tips: WP7 Tips: How to Pin an Application to the Start Screen? WP7 Tips: How to Unpin an Application from the Start Screen? How to host a Silverlight Application using JavaScript? SQL Guest Posts Thanks to Mr. Joydeep Das for sharing his knowledge on...

Data Compression in SQL Server 2008 - Guest Post by Joydeep Das

2012-01-23T06:00:00.001+05:30

This is another small guest post on SQL Server submitted by Joydeep Das. In the previous post, he described about "Join Hint in SQL". In this post, he will guide you to illustrate the concepts of Database Compression on SQL Server 2008. It is the concepts behind the compression only. For details level of learning you need to follow the MSDN or any MS Notes. Read more to understand the concept from Joydeep and don’t forget to ask your SQL Queries in the comments section. Know about the Guest AuthorMr. Joydeep Das is a Microsoft Certified Database Administrator (MCDB), currently working with database design and implementation as a Sr. Software Developer in an ERP development company. Connect with him in his blog: http://sqlservernet.blogspot.com for SQL Server related articles. Where we can do the Data Compression?Data compression can performs only in SQL Server 2008 and not for all versions. It takes: SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition SQL Server 2008...

Weekly News Digest @SilverlightZone - 15-January-2012 to 21-January-2012

2012-01-22T12:08:00.000+05:30

Here comes the weekly Silverlight-Zone digest for the week 15th January 2012 to 21st January 2012. This week major posts were on Silverlight and Windows Phone 7. Popular posts were from Christine L., who showcased "Water ScrollViewer", a must read if you didn't yet read; followed by Steve Adey, Stephan Wick, @dotMorten and @mbcrump. Read the complete post to find out the popular 5's and links towards the daily news digest, if you missed any one issue, you can get it here. Popular 5 Posts of the WeekHere comes the popular 5 posts of the week at silverlight-zone.com. This time top viewed post was from Christine L. who demonstrated the Water ScrollViewer control in Silverlight. A must watch post from him. Water ScrollViewer for Silverlight - by Christine L.An animated "Water" Scroll Viewer. Made with custom user controls and editing the ScrollViewer template. I was inspired by several design... MVVM Series: Part I - by SteveAdeyIn this basic introduction to MVVM,...

How to host a Silverlight Application using JavaScript?

2012-01-19T22:00:00.004+05:30

We all know the process to embed a Silverlight application inside a Webpage using div and object tag. When we create a new Silverlight application project, those tags automatically generates by the IDE inside the html and aspx pages. In many cases we need to dynamically add the Silverlight application inside a webpage. In this post, we will learn the process to host it using JavaScript. Looks interesting? Read to know more. About the APIEvery Silverlight web project consists of a JavaScript helper file called "Silverlight.js", that you can reference in your HTML or ASPX pages. You can call the createObject and createObjectEx functions defined in this file to host your Silverlight plug-in inside a Web page. Those functions accept configuration details as input parameters and generate equivalent HTML object elements. Let's start describing more about this with a simple example to help you to understand it better. Embedding Silverlight Application using <object />...

PUG Presents 4 days WP7 Development Training Program

2012-01-17T18:04:00.001+05:30

Pune User Group in association with Microsoft is hosting a 4 days FREE training program for technology professionals in Pune. In this training program, attendees will learn about application development for Microsoft Windows Phone devices. Registration for this training program is absolutely FREE for any technology professional, who wants to learn Windows Phone Application Development. Continue reading this post to know more about this program, session agenda and venue details. At the end, submit 3 applications and claim your FREE Windows Phone 7 device. See you all there. Grab a Windows Phone 7 Device: How?Pune User Group is happy to host a 4 days (28th Jan, 2012 to 25th Feb, 2012) FREE training program for technology professionals. In this training program, attendees will learn about application development for Microsoft Windows Phone devices. Registration for this training program is absolutely FREE. Read FAQs to know more about this Training program. Here are few steps...

Review Report: 70-515 Exam .NET 4.0 Preparation Kit from uCertify

2012-01-16T06:00:00.003+05:30

Few days ago, I received an offer from uCertify to review their Exam Preparation Kit and then I started reviewing 70-515 Exam .NET 4.0 Preparation Kit (PrepKit) from uCertify. In the previous post “I am reviewing 70-515 Exam .NET 4.0 Preparation Kit from uCertify” I shared few information about the product and informed that, I will share in-depth report after the review period. Today in this blog post, I am sharing the complete review report of the Preparation Kit. Read how it will help you to prepare yourself for the Exam. Also, there is a contest available for you. Participate in the contest to win a Free License from me. Information for the Readers: Don’t forget to participate in the contest mentioned at the end of this post. You could be the lucky winner to win a fully functional licensed copy of the Preparation Kit worth ~120$ from me. My blog followers will have a special discount. If you want to purchase the product from uCertify, contact me first and...

Weekly News Digest @SilverlightZone - 08-January-2012 to 14-January-2012

2012-01-15T06:00:00.000+05:30

Here comes the weekly news digest of Silverlight-Zone.com. We submitted around 60 new links during 8th January 2012 to 14th January 2012 in our Silverlight or WP7 portal. Read more to find out which are the top 5 posts of the week. Also sharing the daily digest links at the end of this post. Most Popular Posts Here comes most popular posts of the week at Silverlight-Zone. Top 5 posts were from @dpatra, @mvsaradhi, Ashley Davis and @othmanirabeb. Congratulations to all of you for sharing your posts to the community. Displaying Notification Messages in a Silverlight Dashboard Application - by @dPatra Nowadays dashboard applications are becoming popular in Silverlight applications. Well Dashboard applications are normal Silverlight applica... WP Development With “Essential WP 7.5 Application Development with Silverlight”– Part 1of Many - by @mvsaradhi I wanted to introduce to you all to a wonderful book that I came...

Join Hint in SQL - Guest Post by Joydeep Das

2012-01-12T11:07:00.002+05:30

This is a small guest post on SQL Server submitted by one of my friend Joydeep Das. In this post, he will guide you to understand the basics of Join hint and when to use that. He will also guide you on various types of Join hint used in SQL Server with algorithm and code example. So, why are you waiting for? Read more to understand the concept from Joydeep and don’t forget to ask your SQL Queries in the comments section. Know about the Guest Author Mr. Joydeep Das is a Microsoft Certified Database Administrator (MCDB), currently working with database design and implementation as a Sr. Software Developer in an ERP development company. Connect with him in his blog: http://sqlservernet.blogspot.com for SQL Server related articles. What is Join Hint and When to use that? Join hint specifies that the query optimizer enforced the join strategy before joining two tables. By default SQL server takes the best execution plan before joining table’s objects, be careful...

WP7 Tips: How to Unpin an Application from the Start Screen?

2012-01-11T08:12:00.001+05:30

Few days ago, I started with the Windows Phone 7 tips and published a post on “How to Pin an Application to the Start Screen?” where we demonstrated how to pin an application for easy access. Today in this post, we will learn how to unpin the pinned application from Windows Phone 7 start screen. So, read on to learn it. Again, this is a beginner level tips & tricks to start with Windows Phone 7 device. How to Unpin an Application from the Start Screen? Once your WP7 Start screen has one or more application pinned, you will be able to unpin those apps from there. If you don’t have any applications pinned in the Start Screen, it will directly navigate you to the application list. If you want to pin an application, read this post: How to Pin an Application to the Start Screen? First of all, come to the start screen of the device (assuming that you have at least one application pinned there). You will see as below. Tab and hold the application for a...

Rewarded as Codeproject MVP 2012

2012-01-10T07:18:00.001+05:30

Yippee!!! That’s a very good mail came up in my inbox late night which I read just now in the morning. Yes, I have been re-awarded as Codeproject MVP 2012 for my contribution towards the Codeproject portal. This is the 2nd continuous year when I received this award. My sincere thanks to all my friends, GIT members of Codeproject for their continuous support through out the year. Also my sincere thanks to my parents. Without those it was very tough to achieve. Here is the short mail that I received in my mail box: Hi Kunal Chowdhury, Congratulations! In recognition of your outstanding contributions to the community, either through Quick Answers, the forums or through articles and tips, you have been awarded CodeProject MVP status for 2012. Your MVP status will be recognized through the MVP icon you will have next to your forum postings as well as a notice in your member profile. Also, as formal recognition of your award status we will...