Silverlight Vietnam Community

Introducing JetPack–a new Silverlight 4 application theme

bientd — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:38:19 GMT

After a longer-than-should-have-been delay (you can blame me for that) allow me to introduce JetPack.

I’m really excited about this theme and the work that our team put together here.* You may have see Tsitsi talk about theming in general and introduce this theme on Silverlight TV.* The challenge behind this theme was to take some of the excitement around other Silverlight themes and create a great looking overall theme that could be used for line-of-business applications, but also extended as desired by any other application.

Working with the team at Pixel Lab, our small team looked at areas of inspiration from various online and client applications that are popular and what worked well about the user interaction on those themes.* Robby and team did a great job in my opinion of creating a very well designed theme that can be used in almost any circumstance.

During this September refresh of the themes we’ve also updated the previous 3 themes: Cosmopolitan, Windows and Accent Color with some minor fixes and tweaks based on some feedback we got.* You can see a preview of the various styles in JetPack here.

We hope you enjoy JetPack as much as we do!* We’ve provided the theme pack in the same way as we have the others, as templates for Visual Studio 2010 and Expression Blend 4 and the raw assets (resource dictionaries) for you to download.* Each Visual Studio template is build for modeling the Silverlight Navigation Application template and the WCF Ria Services Business Application template.* We’ve provided the VSIX installer formats so you just need to download that, double-click and you’ll have them in your File…New Project window for selection.

Thanks for your patience through the release of JetPack, there were some moving parts in the end (mostly delays in our release management system which underwent some changes) that were human-caused [blame me] but we’re glad to finally get it out in the wild!* Download all the themes here.

Hope this helps!

tags: silverlight, riaservices, expression blend, expression, xaml, themes, jetpack, ria
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution By license.

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10 New Showcase Apps

bientd — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:27:28 GMT

10 new Showcase apps have just been approved!"TimeMap Berlin" is educational application using Bing Maps, "Whole Globe" is a compact built-in 3D earth viewer for Silverlight, and "Asta Julian" is a site showcasing the work of Asta Julian. Think your app has what it takes? Submit your site to be showcased today!

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New Windows Phone 7 Video

bientd — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:27:28 GMT

Jesse Liberty walks you through a meaningful Windows Phone 7 application to get started on this exciting extension of Silverlight Programming.

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Smashing Magazine September 2010 Windows 7 Theme

bientd — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 05:51:19 GMT

September is here (apologies for being late - in all honesty I wasn't inspired by this months' selections)…time for an updated Windows 7 Smashing Magazine theme pack!

The September themes seem to be continuing the focus on 'summer' things.* So here is your September 2010 Windows 7 Theme Packs for wallpapers – unfiltered and uncensored – about 75 wallpapers in all.

For details on these and to see past ones, visit the Smashing Magazine Windows 7 Theme information for the specifications I used for the theme pack as well as previous themes.* Want to participate and submit yours?* Join in!

tags: smashingmagazine, smashing, smashingmag, win7, windows, themes, windows 7
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution By license.

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Convert từ Image thành dạng Stream

hoanglamth3 — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 16:01:19 GMT

Chào các bạn . Các bạn giúp mình cách chuyển dạng Image ( .jpg) thành dạng Stream bằng Silverlight với . Mình có biết cách chuyển bằng C# nhưng trong silverlight lại ko cho dùng thư viện System.Drawing nên mình ko dùng cách chuyển như trên winform đc.

7 New Community Samples

bientd — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 12:53:05 GMT

A lot of new Community Samples this week! Perlin noise animations shows off some nice shading techniques, Communication using Event Aggregator is an example of communication between user controls, and Printing and Image Generations shows you how to print sizes larger then a3. Have a sample you would like to share with the community? Submit yours now!

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Dơnload image vể máy tính

hoanglamth3 — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:33:34 GMT

Chào các bạn, Các bạn có thể chỉ giúp mình cách download 1 image từ server về máy tính client bằng silverlight và lưu nó trên thư mục trên máy tính đó đc ko ? Hiện mình vẫn ko biết cách làm

9 New Showcase Apps

bientd — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 04:59:43 GMT

9 new Showcase apps have just been approved! "Shedeye" allows you design sheds and garages in 3D, "Family Video Gallery" uses Silverlight to display some neat old 8mm footage, and "TiTiTaa" uses Silverlight to teach music online. Think your app has what it takes? Submit your site to be showcased today!

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Update to Silverlight 4 GDR1

bientd — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 04:59:43 GMT

Silverlight 4 GDR 1 is now available! This version fixes several issues including data template memory issues and compatibility with Visual Studio LightSwitch.

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Silverlight 4 service release (September 2010)

bientd — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 05:06:52 GMT

Today we released an update to Silverlight 4 (update build is 4.0.50826.0) along with an updated SDK.* We appreciate our customers’ patience on working with us to help identify and verify necessary updates to this service release.* You can find all the details in KB2164913.* Here are the relevant highlights:

SDK feature to enable Add New Row capabilities in DataGrid control
Improving startup performance of Silverlight applications
Adding mouse wheel support for out-of-browser applications on the Mac platform
Various media-related fixes around DRM content
Fixed memory leak when MouseCapture is used
Fixed memory leak for DataTemplate usage

All the installer links have been updated to leverage these new bits for our customers.

For end users

For end users, having them simply install the runtime will provide them with the updated bits and benefits of the fixes/features in this service release.* The best way to force encourage your users to upgrade to this service release would be to leverage the MinRuntimeVersion attribute of your object tag:

1: 3: 4: 5: 6: 7: 8: 10: 11:

Notice lines 5 and 6 above.* This would trigger that the end user is required for your application to run and require them to upgrade. The minRuntimeVersion/autoUpgrade are the minimum to require your user to upgrade to the later version.* Ideally you would follow good installation experience guidance (see “Installation Experience Whitepaper” with complete sample source code) to customize your install and/or upgrade experience.

For Developers

If you are a developer and authoring Silverlight applications you may want to grab the new developer bits and updated SDK:

I would install the developer build first and then the SDK and you’ll have a refreshed environment.* As with any release we try to get you the information as soon as possible and sometimes the information flows faster than the download servers replicate.* If you aren’t getting the updated bits using the links above, please be patient as the download servers from Microsoft refresh their replication caches.*

Note that when you now create a new project you’ll be using the new SDK and so the minRuntimeVersion (see above) of the project templates as well as compiled bits for your SL4 application will be using/requiring the updated runtime.

There are NO Visual Studio tools updates for this release so the Silverlight4_Tools.exe package is not needed to re-install.

For Visual Studio LightSwitch Users

When Visual Studio LightSwitch shipped they included a pre-release later build of Silverlight 4.* This caused some issues for customers who were using a single machine to evaluate LightSwitch but also using the same machine.* Any Silverlight 4 application developed and deployed would give customers messages indicating that they needed a later version of Silverlight, but were unable to acquire a compatible version!

This is now solved with this service release.* Simply put: If you are using LightSwitch, install the updated developer runtime and SDK.* This will solve this issue and allow you to develop LightSwitch applications as well as production Silverlight 4 applications.

Hope this helps!* As always if you have feedback on Silverlight, here are some methods of providing feedback to our team.

tags: silverlight, expression, riaservices, lightswitch, xaml, ria
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution By license.

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Silverlight, HTML5 and the future

bientd — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 05:06:52 GMT

The Silverlight team today posted some information about what the future holds for rich Internet apps and where we have come with SIlverlight, where we see HTML5 playing a role and how Silverlight will be a part of the future of this next evolution of rich Internet apps.

Brad Becker, Director of Product Management, provides some information behind the value of Silverlight in a world where HTML5 will also co-exist:

Expect to see more from Silverlight in these areas especially in our focus scenarios of high-quality media experiences, consumer apps and games, and business apps.

When you invest in learning Silverlight, you get the ability to do any kind of development from business to entertainment across screens from browser to mobile to living room, for fun, profit, or both. And best of all, you can start today and target the 600,000,000 desktops and devices that have Silverlight installed.

I would encourage you to go and read “The Future of Silverlight” (frankly which I think should be titled The Future Includes Silverlight) as it provides some good information about what exists today, capabilities of platforms and where these technologies can grow into in the future.* Be sure to leave comments for Brad on the post as well!

tags: silverlight, expression, blend, xaml, html5, riaservices, ria
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution By license.

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My new Kindle 3 review–comparing against Kindle 2

bientd — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 07:41:43 GMT

When I first saw the Kindle 3 (is that even the new name?) was going to be offered with WiFi, I thought that was cool.* Then when I saw the price (USD $139) I figured it was a no-brainer to explore.* I had bought my wife a Kindle 2 a while back ($249 when I purchased it) as she is a reader and I thought she’d like it.* She does.* It turns out though, so do I!* I’ve found myself reading a LOT more lately and I really like the versatility this provides me in switching between books.* (If you are interested in seeing what I’m reading or just finished you can see my list on goodreads.com.)

Anyway, back on to the Kindle 3.* I just got mine today and wanted to share my first impressions/comparisons.* By no means is this an exhaustive review, but I compared for my own edification and thought I would share.

First Impressions

Amazon’s packaging of the Kindle since their first versions are great.* The self-contained box is awesome…unzip the recyclable cardboard and there it is.* No additional box to open.* It’s simple, and puts the focus on the device.* The box includes 3 things: Kindle, power cord and a user guide (that I almost mistook for a Field Notes large notebook).* The new device is compact, well-designed and attractive.* My first impressions were very good.

Power-on experience and WiFi connectivity

I powered it on and was instantly ready to go.* The user guide popped up with some initial information.* Having had a Kindle before, I ignored it all of course.* The next screen encouraged me to register the device and change the device name.* Before I could do that I needed some level of connectivity.* My home has two stories and my wireless router is upstairs behind a structured wiring panel.* For my laptop, mobile devices, etc. this hasn’t been a problem.* It isn’t the strongest signal, but it has done well.

The Kindle saw the wireless network fine and showed an adequate representation of signal strength.* I entered my password (WPA2) and it failed to connect.* And then I entered it again and it failed.* And again.* Then I tried “manual” and essentially just verified the information and clicked connect (my WPA2 password was already filled in the manual registration based on previous attempts).* This time it connected.* My gut tells me that the WiFi antenna isn’t the strongest on the Kindle device, so keep that in mind where you plan on using it.* I don’t see this as a huge issue as generally when you’d use it you are likely to be in a good range.* But so far my experience is that the range is much less than normal for Kindle than for other traditional devices.

Transferring content

There was an option for “transfer” of existing data (email profile and data).* Since I was planning on keeping both of them I chose to skip that.* There was an option to transfer Collections created from another device.* It showed me my device list, I selected it and the collections were transferred.* Simple.

Hardware

The hardware is physically smaller than the Kindle 2:

If you look at the second picture above you’ll see how they were able to reduce some width and height.* NOTE: While I’m sure there are some millimeter measurement differences in the thickness, I found it to be negligible…the blind eye wouldn’t notice much of any difference.

I tried to line up the screens (which is the same size) so you could see where the reduction is.* The keyboard keys are spaced the same amount apart (again maybe millimeter closer), but notice the removal of the numbered keys.* That eliminated an entire row from the keyboard.* On the width side of things, the next/previous page buttons are no longer labeled and are much thinner – this is noticeable, and welcomed.* There is now matching next/prev buttons on both sides of the Kindle so no matter how you hold it.*

The home, menu and back buttons are moved into the keyboard area along with a d-pad like replacement of the Kindle 2’s knob, again a welcome replacement in design and usability for me.

The Kindle 3 also seems to weigh a slight bit less and I think this is due to a more plastic design than the metal backing on the Kindle 2.* I like the new Kindle material as it feels a little less industrial and more stylish.*

Software

One of my nags about the Kindle is not in the reading responsiveness, but rather in interacting with the menu system, the store, and navigating the device.* I was pleasantly surprised on the new Kindle 3 at the speed and responsiveness in everything I interacted with.* For me, this was very noticeable improvement on my previous experience.* The Kindle 2 isn’t bad, but it’s like driving a 200 horsepower engine after just driving a 550 horsepower engine.* The former isn’t bad and is adequate, but now that you’ve had more power, it’s hard to enjoy the adequacy.*

I think that this will greatly improve my overall experience on the device and for others.* The knob on the Kindle 2 may actually be the issue as I’ve always felt a delay in response after issuing a command.* Not so on Kindle 3 as interaction with the d-bad/arrows has been immediate for me.* Page turning comparisons between Kindle 2 and 3 is about the same in my book.* I want to believe the new one is faster, but honestly I can’t tell much of a difference.* It wasn’t bad for me before.

The software on the Kindle 3 reads “3.0” whereas my Kindle 2 is 2.5.6 right now so understandably there are some differences.* Perhaps the Kindle 2 will get an update that results in better responsiveness.

Browser

This was the biggest surprise to me.* The browser (which is actually in the “experimental” area of the Kindle OS) on the Kindle 2 sucks.* It barely works.* Lynx is a better browsing experience.* Seriously.* Knowing this I fired it up on the Kindle 3.* Wow.* I was impressed.* Here is Amazon’s home page on Kindle 2:

and on Kindle 3:

Most other sites are able to render well also.* Sure it is still monochromatic, but I don’t expect to be watching Hulu or anything on my e-reader.* It’s a primary-purpose device for me with ancillary benefits…and a MUCH better browser is a welcome experience for the few times I’ve actually wanted/needed to use it.* Bravo Amazon, bravo.

Wireless connectivity

Now the Kindle 2 always came with “3G” connectivity…that was the only wireless option.* The Kindle 3 offered a new option, WiFi only (in addition to WiFi+3G for a larger price).* I chose the WiFi only one because the times I’ve actually used the wireless connectivity (to buy a new book and to sync pages for my other reading devices) has been in areas where I would have had WiFi anyway.* The cost savings made it even easier of a decision.

The WiFi seems adequate speeds when connected to an access point in good range.* Again, this isn’t as big of deal for me because I don’t use it that much.* My Kindle 2 sucked down battery like crazy when I kept wireless on.* I’m keeping WiFi on my Kindle 3 initially to see the battery life.* Honestly though, unless I’m actually interacting with connectivity, I turn it off anyway…there isn’t a need for it on otherwise in my opinion.

Summary

If you’ve been holding back on getting a Kindle, the $139 WiFi only version just released should remove most, if not all, barriers in your decision.* For what you are getting on that price in an e-reader is amazing.* Sure I can get an iPad for 3x the cost and have Kindle on that, but I’m not sure it would make a good e-reader as a primary purpose device.* Also, take a look at this comparison of quality for reading purposes between iPad and Kindle.

My initial impressions of Kindle 3 as a previous Kindle user are awesome.* I’m impressed above the existing device I have and would recommend Kindle 3 to anyone on the fence about getting one.* If you think it is an iPad competitor, then you won’t be happy with it, but compared to other reader-specific devices out there, the price, the design and the available library of books is unmatched.* Go buy it now.

tags: kindle, amazon, ereader, reader, e-reader, e-ink, ipad, ebook, e-books
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution By license.

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Three New Community Samples

bientd — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 23:26:07 GMT

Three Community Samples were just published!Dynamically Loading Video Players shows how to deploy more than one view at a time,Orbiting 'Planets' creates a 'solar system' of ellipses that orbit around the center of the browser window, andCustom Draggable Cursor like Acrobat uses the drag behavior in blend to create a hand icon like in Adobe Acrobat.Have a sample you would like to share with the community? Submit yours now!

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Hỏi cách lấy tên của 1 Storyboard

nctit09 — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:55:58 GMT

Cho mình hỏi cách lấy tên của một Storyboard, vidu như lấy tên đó để nhét vô một textblock chả hạn,
tên Storyboard là MyStoryboard và nó sẽ hiện ra textblock khi chạy chương trình..giúp mình với...

5 More Spanish Language Videos

bientd — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 08:04:47 GMT

The last five Spanish Language Silverlight videos from Rodrigo Díaz Concha are now available. Check them out here.

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