Rudi Grobler

Learning PRISM – 05/09/2008

2008-09-05T08:23:35Z

I was recently tasked with learning PRISM … The next few post will document my learning experience! PLEASE NOTE: I have no experience with previous technologies like CAB… This is truly my idiots opinion about what I have learned trying out PRISM! I have identified some key “things” I MUST know in order to use PRISM (This list might change in the future). As I learn more about each one of these… I will post about it! The first item on my list is Unity ! “ The Unity Application Block (Unity) is a lightweight...(read more)

XAML Power Toys

2008-09-01T07:40:15Z

Karl Shifflett (AKA The Molenator) has released a (another) AWESOME Visual Studio Add-in called the XAML Power Toys . This add-in, among other things, allow you to create data entry screens for business objects in just seconds… If you write any business applications at this stage, this tool will save you huge amount of work and time… I highly recommend checking this add-in out!!! Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!...(read more)

WPF in LOB

2008-08-28T06:56:00Z

Not to overflow you with too many TLA (Three Letter Acronyms) but one of the most talked about things in the WPF world is, is it ready for Line-of-Business? The purpose of this post is not to debate if it is ready, but rather link too 2 videos of WPF applications used in LOB environment! Lawson Smart Office brings WPF goodness to the enterprise This is a very detailed video of how the Lawson application works… It is a very slick user interface build using WPF… and it rocks!!! [UPDATE] Here is another...(read more)

RoboHum V2 (Part 2 – The operating system)

2008-08-25T09:51:00Z

If you missed part 1 , please read it here Next in our series of upgrading RoboHum from V1 to V2, we decided to change our operating system from Windows XP Embedded to Windows CE. The only real problem I ran into here was that I first downloaded the board support package (BSP) for the EBOX-2300 (Not realizing that I should have actually downloaded the EBOX-2300SX). Here is the links for the board support package, etc Windows CE 6 Vortex86SX Windows Embedded CE 6.0 BSP Version B (2008-07-24) Windows...(read more)

RoboHum V2 (Part 1 – The hardware)

2008-08-25T09:50:00Z

Ok, this is a 3 part series that I had on the back-burner for a while… never had the time to finish it!!! Well, after listening to a DotNetRocks show #364 ( Stacy Harris Does Home Automation! ) I decided it is time to finish it! For more info about RoboHum V1 , read the post here ! The first part of this series will cover the hardware… The new “PC” I selected is the VERY cost-effective EBOX-2300SX-JSK from DM&P. Here is a comparison between RoboHum V1 & RoboHum V2 RoboHum V1 RoboHum V2 Hardware...(read more)

Disposing my crap…

2008-08-20T09:56:00Z

[ UPDATED ] OK, ignore this post and read the IDispose Guidelines . This is a very lengthy post but well worth the read!!! When using unmanaged resources, you have 2 options cleaning up after using the resources: 1. Override the Finalize. Pro : Finalize() is called by the GC… just implement it and be sure that the GC will call it Cons : Performance hit 2. Implement IDisposable Pro: Lightweight and easy to implement Cons: Developer must remember to call Dispose() (And we are only human) Why not combine...(read more)

Slides and demos from Tech-ed

2008-08-20T07:58:12Z

I had a few emails asking for my slides and demos so here goes: DEV314 - Building Data Driven Applications using Windows Presentation Foundation Most rich applications present data, often lots of it. To avoid writing lots of code to support the presentation of that data, you should take full advantage of the data binding capabilities of your presentation platform. This session discusses and demonstrates the data binding capabilities of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). It explains what data...(read more)

Silverlight 2 + WCF Service Deployment Issue

2008-08-18T08:13:00Z

While deploying a very simple Silverlight application using a Silverlight enabled WCF service, I ran into this little problem: On my development machine hosting the app using the normal VS host (By running the app using F5) everything works perfectly (Creating a random port number for the app and service) If I now deploy this app and service to my production machine, the Silverlight app works but it can’t access the WCF service!!! Things I double checked: Make sure the Silverlight application runs...(read more)

The WPF DataGrid is finally here!!!

2008-08-12T07:04:00Z

Well, their is a huge hype surrounding the release of .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 & Visual Studio 2008 SP1 ! The one release that has silently gone unnoticed is the release of the WPF DataGrid (CTP) The binaries and source is available for download here Here is a list of some of the features: Auto-generation of Columns. Simply hook up the DataGrid to an ItemsSource and at runtime it will auto-populate with variety of pre-built column types. You can also hook into column generation events to modify...(read more)

Tech-ed South Africa 2008 Review

2008-08-11T08:25:17Z

Just finished my first Tech-ed and I must admit that this was a eye opening experience!!! Although speaking at Tech-ed looks easy… think again!!! Here is a list of my favorite sessions I attended: Introduction to Microsoft Sync Framework (DAT316) & Unlocking the Power of Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 (DAT304) by David Russell Optimizing your WPF Application (DEV318) by Tamir Khason First glance at Composite Application Library (CAL) for WPF by Ayal Rosenberg Developing solutions...(read more)

My Podder Skins

2008-07-31T09:29:44Z

Well, the extended deadline for the Podder skinning competition is fast approaching (4th August 2008). Today is my last day at the office (Tech-ed preparation) so I decided to post what I have… I created 2 skins and both of them are pretty simple: The old skin (WMP11), and And my slightly newer skin (iTunes) Here is the source Both these skins are based on design work done by Jose Fajardo If you have time this weekend and want to also enter, here is the basics: Follow these instructions on how to...(read more)

ConferencePlanner: Tech-ed South Africa 2008

2008-07-30T14:41:00Z

Well, in less than 1 week Tech-ed will start. As mentioned earlier , I am very busy preparing for my first Tech-ed… But probably the most difficult part of preparing for Tech-ed is deciding which sessions to attend! As a side project, I created ConferencePlanner! ConferencePlanner allow you to select sessions to attend! Although the Tech-ed website offer a planning service, it doesn’t allow multiple sessions to be selected per time slot or filter by track! To download ConfrencePlanner, click here...(read more)

2008-07-29T13:41:05Z

My 2 year old son is currently on a Cars phase! From the morning he wakes up till the evening he goes to bed all he wants to watch is Cars! I have been playing around with BabySmash and decided to modify it a little so that it randomly create characters from the cars movie (if he pressed the non alphanumerical keys). Unfortunately I am not going to release the modified code (The pictures might be copyright protected) but I will show what I did to make it work… here is a screen capture of the application...(read more)

WPF Links - 21 July 2008

2008-07-21T11:22:00Z

Sorry for not blogging anything for the last few weeks but things are very busy at this moment... preparing for Tech-ed 2008 South Africa , 2 projects at work's deadlines approaching fast, etc... I have so many half written blog post but I should hopefully be back too normal soon then I will finish and post them! For now, I thought I will just post a link list of WPF related posts I found useful the last 2 weeks! WPF Dr WPF has posted the next letter in his A to Z series covering the ItemsControl...(read more)

Tech-Ed 2008 South Africa

2008-06-26T14:23:00Z

The agenda is updated, here are the 2.5 sessions I will be presenting: Building Data Driven Applications using Windows Presentation Foundation 04 Aug 2008, 12:30 - 13:30 Session Room 7 Level: 300 Most rich applications present data, often lots of it. To avoid writing lots of code to support the presentation of that data, you should take full advantage of the data binding capabilities of your presentation platform. This session discusses and demonstrates the data binding capabilities of Windows Presentation...(read more)