Friday, November 21, 2008

I was trying to sort an Infragistics WinGrid automatically after each row insert or update by the user so in the AfterRowUpdate event, I added the following code:

grd.DisplayLayout.Bands[0].Columns["MyColumn"].SortIndicator = Infragistics.Win.UltraWinGrid.SortIndicator.Ascending;
grd.DisplayLayout.Bands[0].Columns["MyColumn"].Band.SortedColumns.RefreshSort(true);
grd.Refresh();

This works fine except that the grid does an alphabetical sort even thought the column type is numeric.  Ex:
1
10
2
22
3

A quick search lead me to this Infragistics knowledge base article:
http://devcenter.infragistics.com/Support/KnowledgeBaseArticle.aspx?ArticleID=7695

Although not exactly what I wanted, I slightly changed to code to sort my numeric column.

public class srtComparer : IComparer
{
    public srtComparer()
    {}

    public int Compare(object x, object y)
    {
        UltraGridCell xCell = (UltraGridCell)x;
        UltraGridCell yCell = (UltraGridCell)y;
        return Decimal.Compare((Decimal)xCell.Row.Cells["MyColumn"].Value, (Decimal)yCell.Row.Cells["MyColumn"].Value);
        }
}

grd.DisplayLayout.Bands[0].Columns["MyColumn"].SortComparer = new srtComparer();
grd.DisplayLayout.Bands[0].Columns["MyColumn"].SortIndicator = Infragistics.Win.UltraWinGrid.SortIndicator.Ascending;
grd.DisplayLayout.Bands[0].Columns["MyColumn"].Band.SortedColumns.RefreshSort(true);
grd.Refresh();

Of course, the above class could be made more generic by having a column name or number as an argument.

I would have expected that the grid would sort correctly depending on the column type but I guess this behaviour gives more flexibility.

Friday, November 21, 2008 9:44:57 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
Thursday, November 20, 2008

Today I came across and interesting WCF problem.  A dev in our team added a new method to a WCF service and tried to update the service reference from the client app but got this error:

The error message is very helpful because you can figure out from it that something is now larger then a default value, that something being the SOAP message sent by the metadata exchange binding.  Oh that’s easy to fix, just put bigger values in the config file right?  Wrong because the mexBinding doesn’t provide any properties to change these values.

A quick search lead me to this great post :
http://geekswithblogs.net/claraoscura/archive/2007/08/20/114806.aspx

Since you can’t change the default values, you need to use a different binding type and you also need to up these values in the Svcutil config file that Visual Studio uses to generate/update the service reference.

Why is the max value so low (16384)?  No idea.

Thursday, November 20, 2008 4:37:31 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
Monday, November 17, 2008

Warning: Use this at your own risk.  Not sure about the legality of the whole thing.

Got Windows 7 at the PDC?  Disappointed that some of the features shown in the keynotes are not present in that build?  Do you want to unlock them?

http://www.withinwindows.com/2008/11/09/blue-badge-tool-now-available-unlocks-all-known-protected-features/

Monday, November 17, 2008 7:10:39 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 

DevTeach is just a couple of weeks away and in this uncertain economy, the conference owner, Jean-René Roy, wants to make sure that each developer can attend the event.  Check these specials:

Save $350 over the regular registration price.

Register 3 persons for the price of 2 (on top of the $350 savings).

Contact JR directly for more info: Info4You@devteach.com

Monday, November 17, 2008 7:04:31 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 

http://www.dotnetmontreal.com

Sujet: SQL Server 2008 – New Features for Developers
Conférencier: Michelle Gutzait
Note: cette présentation sera en anglais

Microsoft recently released a new version of its flagship database server: SQL Server 2008.  With each new version comes a set of new features or enhancements that likely appeal to developers.  In this presentation, Michelle will speak about the many enhancements in the query editor and Management Studio 2008, working with the new version of SQL Profiler and query editor's debugger, the PowerShell integration, T-SQL  Enhancements and more.

Michelle is the SQL Server Team Lead at The Pythian Group (http://www.pythian.com/), a remote DBA firm that offers full database support for SQL Server, Oracle and  MySQL as well as System Administration services, including monitoring, reporting, and 24/7 service.  She has been in the IT for over 20 years, working exclusively with SQL Server in the past decade, consulting for many and diverse clients, from small businesses to enterprise. Some of her recent clients in Montreal and Canada are: Bombardier Aerospace, SCN Lavalin, CBC-Radio-Canada, CN, Lauzon and McCain Foods. Michelle's skills include infrastructure and database design, performance tuning, security, High Availability and Clustering, consolidation analysis, Disaster Recovery, Very Large DataBases, replication, T-SQL coding and optimization, DTS/SSIS packages, administrative and infrastructure tools development, Reporting Services, Analysis Services, MIIS, developer/DBA training, and more. She also regularly writes technical articles for the Tech Target WEB site.


 

Monday, November 17, 2008 6:55:24 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 

Accueil

http://www.visualstudiotalkshow.com

Vincent Vergonjeanne: Silverlight et Expression Blend

Nous discutons avec Vincent Vergonjeanne de Silverlight 2.0. Entre autres, nous discutons pourquoi la maitrise par les développeurs du language XAML et de l'outil expression Blend est une nécessité.

Vincent Vergonjeanne est ingénieur logiciel senior chez Microsoft à Dublin en Irlande. Il est responsable de créer des contrôles avancés de visualisation avec Silverlight pour le groupe GPD-Europe. Un ancien programmeur de jeu vidéo, gagnant en 2004 de la compétion mondial Imagine Cup dans la catégorie "Software Design", sa carrière se concentre principalement dans le domaine du multimédia et de la visualisation.

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Monday, November 17, 2008 6:48:22 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
Sunday, November 02, 2008
All the PDC 2008 keynotes and session are available online for free.  Why not watch the keynotes over lunch with your collegues?

https://sessions.microsoftpdc.com/public/timeline.aspx

Sunday, November 02, 2008 7:48:46 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/google-doesnt-use-openid/

I guess it's OK for Google since they do no evil  ;-)

Sunday, November 02, 2008 7:29:46 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
Accueil
http://www.visualstudiotalkshow.com

Bernard Fedotoff: PDC 2008: Les nouveautés annoncées au Microsoft Professional Developer Conference

En direct de Los Angeles, dans le cadre de la conférence PDC 2008, nous discutons avec Bernard Fedotoff des nouveautés annoncées par Microsoft. Entre autres, nous discutons de nos coups de cœur respectif.

Bernard Fedotoff est Microsoft Regional Director depuis 1996 ; il a animé les Devdays et Techdays en Suisse et en France depuis 1997. Il a été fondateur et PDG de PSEngineering depuis 1990, société qu’il a revendue en 2004. En 2005, il a fondé la société Agilcom. Bernard a mené auprès de clients français, suisses, et d'afrique du nord de nombreuses missions en technologie .Net, d'architecture et de coaching d'équipes de dévoppement. Son passé de Pdg et son expertise technologique apportent aux projets qu'il accompagne deux points de vue riches d'expériences et de convictions. Il a aussi accompagné la mise en place de plateaux offshores vers la Tunisie, en implémentant des approches Agile avec Team Foundation Server. Enfin, il est aussi co-auteur de nombreux ateliers des coachs publiés sur le site MSDN de Microsoft France. Bernard est titulaire d’un diplôme d’ingénieur ainsi que d’un troisième cycle universitaire en robotique. Il consacre ses quelques minutes de temps libre à la montagne.

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Sunday, November 02, 2008 7:18:41 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
TechDays attendees will receive a set of TechEd 2008 DVDs featuring session recordings but there's an issue with the included content browser that was created with a pre release version of Silverlight.  The issue is with the content browser itself, not the content (videos).  You can still view the videos.

To help you browse the content, Tim Heuer has posted a PDF file listing all the sessions.

http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/2008/10/31/teched-north-america-dvd-silverlight-update.aspx

Sunday, November 02, 2008 7:17:00 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
Thursday, October 23, 2008
With Silverlight 2 just being released, you may be looking for training.  Check out the Silverlight sessions that will be presented at DevTeach Montreal 2008.  BTW, for US folks....the Canadian dollar is at around 78 cents US.  That's like saving 22% over the admission fee!!!  If you use this promo code when registering, you'll also save $50: G0005GUVSM.

Building Silverlight Controls
David J Kelley - SLV467
Designed primarily for Developers. This technical presentation walks through a number of senerios for building Silverlight Controls including user controls and custom panels. The usage of properties, dependency properties, events, reusability, and encapsulated control architecture is reviewed in detail. In the presentation we will build a custom chart control based on a user control and built custom panels and review dispatch timer and multi threading in the context of controls. 

Comparing Silverlight to ASP.NET
D'Arcy Lussier - SLV301
With Silverlight, web developers now have a new option for delivering browser-based applications. But does Silverlight negate HTML-based web development? Should we put aside traditional web development for this new paradigm? In this session we’ll compare Siilverlight and ASP.NET, not to prove one as better than the other but to show why you might consider one over the other for your next web application. 

Data Visualization with WPF and Silverlight 2.0

Tim Huckaby - SLV202
Building Data Visualization Applications with the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) & Silverlight 2.0
This session will be heavily demo focused to accentuate how the power of the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Silverlight 2.0 can be used to visualize data. WPF is the next-generation presentation sub-system for Windows. It provides developers and designers with a unified programming model for building rich Windows smart client user experiences that incorporate UI, media, and documents. WPF uses vector based graphics rendering, which results in better graphics and presentation for an application. WPF also has other features such as layout, styling, and data binding, which, when you mix with interactivity, enables scenarios such as interactive data visualization. When you put all this together, you have a unified API for various presentation components, such as 2D and 3D documents and declarative programming through XAML, which is a powerful platform for data visualization that can be used to really “light-up” you enterprise applications.
 
Designing Interfaces with Expression Blend
Markus Egger - SLV333
Silverlight and WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) are powerful UI technologies, and XAML represents a fascinating new way of programming WPF and Silverlight. However, without tools, XAML gets tedious quickly, and a good designer is needed. Microsoft offers a whole set of such tools. This session focuses mostly on MS Expression Blend (used in combination with Visual Studio). This session provides an overview of the goals, features, and characteristics of this tool and shows how to create a small next-generation application using it. This session also shows developers how good looking interfaces can be created using a few simple and repeatable tricks. 

Hacking Silverlight 2.0
David J Kelley - SLV469
Hacking Silverlight 2.0 for designers and developers
Designed for Designers and Developers. This engaging presentation gets the audience involved in bridging the gap between design teams and software development using Silverlight and the Silverlight toolablity story. The presentation is full of audience participation and skits that get audience members up out of their seats and excited about Silverlight. The basics of team work using Microsoft tools for design and development are used and the audience is shown some of the coolest Silverlight hacks that can make Silverlight applications really shine. With the “Coming out of the closet” skit the audience is shown sexy UI using Silverlight, learning about speed of development and why we care about Sexy engaging Web 2.0 experiences.
 
Silverlight 2 Controls: Data on Board
Dave Campbell - SLV355
Learn how to populate your Silverlight controls with data, and how WebServices are your friend. This will be done using LINQ and WCF webservices, in addition to more traditional code-behind and asmx. 

Silverlight 2 Controls: Your Controls, Your Way
Dave Campbell - SLV389
Learn how to use the Parts and States model and VisualStateManager to your benefit in your environment. Starting with existing controls through modification using VS2008 and Blend to produce a Custom Control that is then consumed. 

SilverLight 2.0 Achitectural Best Practices
David J Kelley - SLV421
Designed Developers and Architects or people wanting to understand Silverlight archtecture. This presentation startings with a detailed technical review of Silverlight control, application architecture and design patterns. Design patterns as applied to Silverlight application development and general best practices are reviewed in detail. The presentation includes learning from the trenchs of building Silverlight apps on a large scale including horror stories and ‘Anti-Patterns’ or things ‘not to do’ are reviewed. 

Silverlight Development: Lessons from the Trenches
D'Arcy Lussier - SLV349
So what’s it like creating a line of business application using Silverlight? What are the differences in developing a Silverlight application compared to a Winform or ASP.NET based application? In this session I’ll share with you my experiences in creating a real-world Silverlight based application and what you should expect /look out for when developing with this exciting new technology. 

Silverlight: Business Oriented App. (In French)
Laurent Duveau - SLV321
You've already heard a bit about Silverlight? You have some knowledge of this technology which is now available?
Come discover how to create a business oriented application: that means manipulate data and build a rich UI with Silverlight!   During this session I'll use Visual Studio 2008 and Expression Blend to build an application that retrieves SQL server data through a LINQ model and exposes it to Silverlight client via a WCF service. I’ll use a grid to display the data and asynchronously update the model as users edit the grid. Finally I will show you how to place the data in local cache on the client to optimize network traffic.
 
Turning on the Silverlight – A Silverlight Intro
Markus Egger - SLV201
Microsoft Silverlight is the latest generation of Microsoft UI technologies for web browser applications. It is based on (and a sub-set of) WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation). It enabled developers to create next-generation user interfaces in web browser applications that work not just on Windows systems, but other environments such as the Apple Mac or mobile devices. This is a radical departure from previous .NET development, which was limited to Windows systems. Silverlight applications enable developers to run .NET code on non-Windows Systems. This session also compares Silverlight to other technologies such as Flash. Attendees of this session will get a good feel for what it is like to develop real life applications in Silverlight. 

User Controls, Customization, and Styling

Dave Campbell - SLV312
Silverlight 2 Controls: User Controls, Customization, and Styling
Get your Silverlight application Stylin’ with out-of-the box techniques for making your UI to not only look like it was all written by the same company, but also matching your corporate identity. This will be showing VS2008-only concepts, so no design knowledge or interest is necessary.


Thursday, October 23, 2008 6:11:18 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
[From Eric Moreau]

If you need a reminder for TechDays...


Thursday, October 23, 2008 5:56:11 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
Wednesday, October 22, 2008

OMG!!!  I haven't packed my things for PDC next week and now Microsoft has just opened registration for Mix09!

http://2009.visitmix.com/

Wednesday, October 22, 2008 3:34:22 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
Sunday, October 19, 2008
There were some changes this week in the MSDN Canada DPE group.  Jean-Luc David is moving to Redmond to work at corp.
http://blogs.msdn.com/cdndevs/archive/2008/10/14/farewell.aspx


That's JL on the left with me at the MVP Summit.


He's replaced by Joey deVilla, the accordion guy!

Joey deVilla on Accordion

http://blogs.msdn.com/cdndevs/archive/2008/10/17/an-accordion-a-new-addition-a-great-team-and-big-challenges.aspx


Best of luck to both of you!


Sunday, October 19, 2008 8:40:48 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
This is a special offer from MSDN Canada to the user group members of the Montreal area for TechDays Montreal.

quote.png
In anticipation of the upcoming Tech•Days 2008 tour date in Montréal on November 6th and 7th, I’m writing to inform you of an EXCLUSIVE OFFER that Microsoft Canada is extending to user group members in the Montréal and surrounding area.
 
The first 500 user group members to send their confirmation e-mail for early bird registration to me (v-anhow@microsoft.com) will personally receive a NEW XBOX 360 title at the event on November 6th, 2008.
 
In order to be eligible, registration must be completed prior to the early bird registration deadline on October 29th, 2008 (NOTE: Early Bird Registration is the largest discount being offered and has been extended.  In Montréal, $249 instead of $499).  In addition, the confirmation e-mail must reference the user group(s) to which they belong and must be forwarded to Andrew Howell no later than October 31st, 2008 at 5:00pm EST.

The XBOX title will be available for pick-up at designated times at the event.  Specific details will be communicated directly to each individual recipient in advance of the Montréal event.

We sincerely hope that you’ll take advantage of this exclusive offer and look forward to seeing you at the Palais des Congrès on November 6th and 7th, 2008!
unquote.png

Sunday, October 19, 2008 8:29:55 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
Accueil
www.visualstudiotalkshow.com

Arnaud Cleret: Serveur Biztalk

Nous discutons avec Arnaud Cleret du serveur Biztalk. Entre autres, nous discutons en quoi le serveur Biztalk est une pièce maitresse pour l'implantation d'un "Enterprise Service bus" (ESB).

Suite à cinq années passées aux Aéroports de Paris en tant que Chef de projet et Architecte Logiciel spécialisé sur les problématiques d'architectures distribuées et d'industrialisation des développements, Arnaud Cleret a rejoint Exakis en janvier 2005 en tant qu'Architecte Logiciel et Leader Technique .Net. Depuis juillet 2008, Arnaud est Directeur Technique (CTO) et a en charge l'activité Architecture Logicielle dont le rôle est d'intervenir principalement sur des missions de définition d'architecture, d'expertise et d'audit chez les clients autour des technologies Microsoft mais aussi en interne chez Exakis pour promouvoir et favoriser l'adoption des nouvelles technologies. Arnaud est aussi impliqué dans différentes communautés et à ce titre, depuis 2006, à été nommé MVP sur la technologie C# puis sur BizTalk.

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Sunday, October 19, 2008 8:25:10 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Mike Nash announced on Monday that Windows code name 7 will be officially called...Windows 7.

http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2008/10/13/introducing-windows-7.aspx

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 11:33:13 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
Monday, October 13, 2008
Microsoft has announced that Silverlight 2 has RTM'ed today and will be available tomorrow (Oct 14th).

Read about it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/oct08/10-13Silverlight2PR.mspx

Listen to ScottGu's teleconference here:
mms://wm.microsoft.com/ms/presspass/2008/10-13SL2_RTW_TeleconferencePlayback.wma

Download it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/

Another interesting announcement is that Microsoft is funding an Eclipse project in order for Eclipse developers to be able to develop Silverlight applications.
http://www.eclipse4sl.org/

Monday, October 13, 2008 3:55:55 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
Thursday, October 09, 2008
A Facebook group was created to help Canadians meet, exchange and connect at PDC 2008.

www.CanucksAtPDC.com

Thursday, October 09, 2008 6:25:59 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
Wednesday, October 08, 2008

I was hit with the dreadful "The breakpoint will not currently be hit" problem this week.  Searching the Web, looks like it is a common problem both with VS 2005 and 2008 however, it was the first time I experienced it.

The symptom
You have a solution with a client project and a Web or WCF project.  You place breakpoints in both projects so you can step thru the code on both side.  You break in your client code but you can’t jump in the Web/WCF code.  When you look at the Web/WCF breakpoint while debugging, the red dot displays an exclamation mark and this message: "The breakpoint will not currently be hit".

 BreakpointWillNotCurrentlyBeHit.jpg

The solution
Looks like there are many solutions to the problem.  Here’s what I did:

  • Checked that VS was not in release mode.  Nope, I was in debug mode.
  • Deleted the \bin\debug folders.  No good.
  • Deleted both the \bin\debug and \obj folders.  No good.
  • Deleted all source code and retrieved everything from source control.  No good.
    Out of three developers, I was the only one with the problem so I checked if my VS debugging settings were changed.  Nope, we all had the same settings.
  • Tried to reset my settings anyway with devenv /resetsettings.  No good.
  • Started a new solution with a simple WCF project and a Console app client.  No good, same problem so it's really VS, not the code.
  • Tried a VS repair.  No good.
  • Uninstalled and reinstalled VS completely.  Bingo, it worked!

The problem
I have absolutely no clue.  Anyone has an idea on why this problem happens?

Wednesday, October 08, 2008 11:33:07 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 

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