Just code - Tamir Khason

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Q: With…End With VB (.NET) also statement is very handy time saver. It makes you able to initialize properties of the object within one statement. Is there equivalent for this “With…End With” statement in C#?

Dim myObj As New MyObj()
With myObj
    .OneProperty = "Hello"
    .AnotherProperty = 2008
    .YetOtherProperty = "World"
End With

A: Yes it is. You should use following syntax to archive the same functionality.

MyObj myObj = new MyObj {
                OneProperty = "Hello",
                AnotherProperty = 2008,
                YetOtherProperty = "World"
            };

By the way. VB.NET (with Linq extension) also has similar syntax

Dim myObj = New MyObj() {
    .OneProperty = "Hello"
    .AnotherProperty = 2008
    .YetOtherProperty = "World" }

In addition, it can be anonymous in both languages

VB.NET
Dim myObj = New With {
    .OneProperty = "Hello"
    .AnotherProperty = 2008
    .YetOtherProperty = "World" }

C#
var myObject = new {
                OneProperty = "Hello",
                AnotherProperty = 2008,
                YetOtherProperty = "World"
            };

Have a nice day.

[This blog was migrated. You will not be able to comment here.
The new URL of this post is http://khason.net/blog/findresource-replacement-and-how-to-change-control-style-more-then-once-in-silverlight-20-application/]

As deeper we’re digging in Silverlight 2.0, we finding more and more WPF things and we’re really missing in Silverlight. One of such things is FindResources.

In WPF I had Visual and Logical tree, so I was able to travel the tree to find resource I need. Let’s see an example of the application. We have one resource defined in App level

<Application.Resources>
        <Style TargetType="Button" x:Key="green">
            <Setter Property="Background" Value="Green"/>
        </Style>
</Application.Resources>

Another resources are defined in different levels of Page

<UserControl.Resources>
        <Style TargetType="Button" x:Name="red">
            <Setter Property="Background" Value="Red"/>
        </Style>       
    </UserControl.Resources>
    <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">
        <Grid.Resources>
            <Style TargetType="Button" x:Name="blue">
                <Setter Property="Background" Value="Blue"/>
            </Style>
        </Grid.Resources>
        <Button Content="Click me" Click="Button_Click">
            <Button.Resources>
                <Style TargetType="Button" x:Name="yellow">
                    <Setter Property="Background" Value="#FFFFFF00"/>
                </Style>
            </Button.Resources>
        </Button>
    </Grid>

Now I want to call FindResource(“red”) and have my style ready for apply. I should not thing a lot about where the resource exists. There is no such method in Silverlight. If so, let’s see what we have. Looking in debugger I can find all my resources as members of the page.

But how to get them out? In Silverlight FrameworkElement, we have handy method named FindName. That’s exactly what we need. But how to get Application resources? Simple. Just look into it’s collection. Now, I can write small method, that help me to find resources in any level of Silverlight application.

public static object FindResource(string name)
        {
            if (App.Current.Resources.Contains(name))
            {
                return App.Current.Resources[name];
            }
            else
            {
                FrameworkElement root = App.Current.RootVisual as FrameworkElement;
                return root.FindResource(name);
            }
        }
        internal static object FindResource(this FrameworkElement root, string name)
        {
            if (root != null && root.Resources.Contains(name))
            {
                return root.Resources[name];
            }
            else
            {
                try
                {
                    return root.FindName(name);
                }
                catch { }               
            }

            return null;

Well now we can find all our resources. Let’s apply it to elements

Style s = (Style)Helper.FindResource("red");
b.Style=s;

It works perfect. Let’s take another one

Style s = (Style)Helper.FindResource("blue");
b.Style = s;

What is it? “Catastrophic failure (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8000FFFF (E_UNEXPECTED))”. Why this happens only after applying second style? Let’s look into MSDN: “Styles are write-once in Silverlight. You can set a style to override a built-in default style, but attempting to set the same style again will result in an exception.”

What to do? We just have to write our own multi-use styling engine. First of all, we should get all setters of the style

foreach (Setter setter in value.Setters)

Then check target type and set values of setters to appropriate properties.

Type targetType = parent.GetValue(setter.Property).GetType();
parent.SetValue(setter.Property, setter.Value);

Another exception. That’s the mess? All values are strings. I need real values and I have no parsers. Fortunately, we have handy .NET method Convert.ChangeType. Let’s use it. Exception. Let’s check if the type is IConvertible (such as int, double, etc)

if(targetType is IConvertible)
            {
                return Convert.ChangeType(source, targetType, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
            }

No exception, but also no result. We need SolidColorBrush and we have only Color name, which is string. How to convert such string into Color instance and then into SolidColorBrush? The answer is reflection. We should write our own FromString converter. First of all let’s capitalize the string

static string Capitalize(this string str)
        {
            if (str.Length > 0)
            {
                return string.Concat(str.Substring(0, 1).ToUpper(), str.Substring(1, str.Length - 1));
            }
            return str;
        }

Then check whether I have static member with the same name in Colors class (not by hand of cause)

MemberInfo[] infos = typeof(Colors).GetMember(color.Capitalize());

If I have, let’s invoke it

if (infos.Length > 0)
            {
                return (Color)typeof(Colors).InvokeMember(color.Capitalize(), BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.GetProperty, null, null, null);
            }

Well done. Now we can use strings which have names of colors and convert them into real color. But what to do with not “well known colors”? Parse it

else if (color.IndexOf('#') == 0)
            {
                return Color.FromArgb(
                    byte.Parse(color.Substring(1, 2), NumberStyles.HexNumber),
                    byte.Parse(color.Substring(3, 2), NumberStyles.HexNumber),
                    byte.Parse(color.Substring(5, 2), NumberStyles.HexNumber),
                    byte.Parse(color.Substring(7, 2), NumberStyles.HexNumber));
            }

We done. Just write another attached method and use in in our converter

internal static Color ParseKnownColor(string color)
        {
            MemberInfo[] infos = typeof(Colors).GetMember(color.Capitalize());
            if (infos.Length > 0)
            {
                return (Color)typeof(Colors).InvokeMember(color.Capitalize(), BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.GetProperty, null, null, null);
            }
            else if (color.IndexOf('#') == 0)
            {
                return Color.FromArgb(
                    byte.Parse(color.Substring(1, 2), NumberStyles.HexNumber),
                    byte.Parse(color.Substring(3, 2), NumberStyles.HexNumber),
                    byte.Parse(color.Substring(5, 2), NumberStyles.HexNumber),
                    byte.Parse(color.Substring(7, 2), NumberStyles.HexNumber));
            }
            return Colors.White;
        }
……

else if(targetType == typeof(SolidColorBrush))
            {
                return new SolidColorBrush(ParseKnownColor(source));
            }

Now you turn to continue with string to object convention for your own need. Starting today you know how to do it.

Here the result

Have a nice day and be good people

Source code for this article>>

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Well, well, well. Two days ago, we spoke about using sockets within Silverlight 2.0 and WPF. Today, we’ll make a step ahead and will use TCP or UDP client-server connection within Silverlight 1.0. Yes, 1.0 (the one with JavaScript only and no sockets). So, let’s start Rock ‘n Roll.

Oh, baby – it cannot be done! Just kidding :) Silverlight 1.0 itself cannot use sockets, however ASP.NET can. We’ll reuse our socket library (from the previous post) and reference it to the ASP.NET page, that hosts our Silverlight 1.0 application.

So, on page load we’ll create our client channel and fully reuse the way we worked within WPF and WinForms. The only difference is that we’ll have three static web methods within our ASP.NET C# code

[System.Web.Services.WebMethod]
    public static string GetHoursAngle()
    {
        return ((msg.Hours * 30) + (12 * msg.Minutes / 60)).ToString();
    }

    [System.Web.Services.WebMethod]
    public static string GetMinutesAngle()
    {
        return (msg.Minutes * 6).ToString();
    }

    [System.Web.Services.WebMethod]
    public static string GetSecondsAngle()
    {
        return (msg.Seconds * 6).ToString();
    }

Those methods can be used (almost) from client side. In order to do it we should register ScriptManager and enable PageMethods on the page

<form id="form1" runat="server">   
<asp:ScriptManager ID="manager" EnablePageMethods="True"  runat="server" />
</form>

Then, create simple Javascript to call to our web methods

<script type="text/javascript">
        function UpdateHoursHand(angle)
        {
            updateClockHand('hTransform',angle);
        }
        function UpdateMinutesHand(angle)
        {
            updateClockHand('mTransform',angle);
        }
        function UpdateSecondsHand(angle)
        {
            updateClockHand('sTransform',angle);
        }
    </script>  

There is no problem to access Silverlight from the hosting webpage, so we’ll add following method to the Silverlight javascript

<script type="text/javascript">
if (!window.Silverlight1Client)
{
    Silverlight1Client = {}
}

Silverlight1Client.Page = function()
{
}
Silverlight1Client.Page.prototype =
{
    handleLoad: function(control, userContext, rootElement)
    {
        this.control = control;
        canvas = rootElement;
    }
}

var canvas;     // the root canvas

function updateClockHand(element, value)
{
  hand = canvas.findName(element);
  hand.Angle = value;
}

if (!window.Silverlight)
{
    Silverlight = {};
}

Silverlight.createDelegate = function(instance, method) {
    return function() {
        return method.apply(instance, arguments);
    }
}

</script>

Now, we have prototype, that can access our Silverlight control, we have web methods, that can bring us information from the server side the only thing we should do is to enable server-side (where we actually receive  update notification) to call client side javascript in order to update layout. And this cannot be done due to the nature of client-server web architecture.

But who told, that we cannot force client side to tickle server side upon the event? We can – not very nice solution, but it works – set timer.

function UpdateClockHands()
        {
           PageMethods.GetHoursAngle(UpdateHoursHand);
            PageMethods.GetMinutesAngle(UpdateMinutesHand);
            PageMethods.GetSecondsAngle(UpdateSecondsHand);
            setTimeout("UpdateClockHands()",1000); 
        }

We add timer recursively to call client side javascript one a second and how it works.

At the end the small diamond for upcoming DEV335: Game Development Using Microsoft’s Latest Technologies…

[This blog was migrated. You will not be able to comment here.
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Me, personally, not a big fan of labdas. However, it looks like new blogger M. Orçun Topdağı is. He wrote three posts (1, 2, 3) about how to build value converters with lambdas and it looks very cool. Worth reading.

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You, probably, know how to use raw sockets in WinForms. It's pretty the same in WPF, however it is very different (and limited) in Silverlight. Today, we'll create sample application in Silverlight, WPF and WinForm that sending and receiving updates via TCP as well as broadcasting it via UDP (singlecast and multicast). So let's start.

First of all we'll create WinForms server, that should distribute updates. It knows what the time is it now and broadcasting the time message via UDP. Also it has TCP server, that distribute updates to all it's clients.

First of all UDP. We should create the working Socket first. It uses all ip addresses to broadcast changes via given port. In order to make the socket to be multicast, we should set appropriate socket options. Let's see the code.

lock (this)
                {
                    if (m_mainSocket == null)
                    {
                        m_mainSocket = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork,
                            SocketType.Dgram,
                            ProtocolType.Udp);

                        IPEndPoint ipLocal = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, port);

                        m_mainSocket.SetSocketOption(SocketOptionLevel.Socket, SocketOptionName.ReuseAddress, 1);

                        m_mainSocket.Bind(ipLocal);
                    }
                    IPAddress ip = IPAddress.Parse(castGroupIp);

                    EPCast = new IPEndPoint(ip, port);
                    m_mainSocket.SetSocketOption(SocketOptionLevel.IP, SocketOptionName.AddMembership, new MulticastOption(ip, IPAddress.Any));
                }

Now, the TCP part. It's very similar (for server we do not need specific IP address to bind), however, we should not set multicast options there aside with begin listening right after connection was established.

lock (this)
                {
                    if (m_mainSocket == null)
                    {
                        m_mainSocket = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork,
                            SocketType.Stream,
                            ProtocolType.Tcp);
                        IPEndPoint ipLocal = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, port);
                        m_mainSocket.Bind(ipLocal);
                        m_mainSocket.Listen(Backlog);
                        m_mainSocket.BeginAccept(new AsyncCallback(acceptCallback), null);
                    }
                }

In order to send data via UDP. All we have to do is to write it into current socket.

socket.SendTo(data, EPCast);

In TCP world, we should first know who we want to sent to, thus we have to enumerate all incoming clients to save the references to their sockets.

Socket workerSocket = m_mainSocket.EndAccept(asyn);
m_workerSocketList.Add(workerSocket.GetHashCode(), workerSocket);

m_mainSocket.BeginAccept(new AsyncCallback(acceptCallback), null);

Then when we know who to send, all we have to do is to send

socket.Send(data);

Now, when we know how to send, we should learn how to receive network messages. It's exactly the same within TCP or UDP. First check is there is data to receive, then receive it.

if (m_pfnCallBack == null)
                m_pfnCallBack = new AsyncCallback(dataReceivedCallback);
            SocketPacket theSocPkt = new SocketPacket(socket, bufferSize);

            socket.BeginReceive(theSocPkt.dataBuffer, 0,
                theSocPkt.dataBuffer.Length,
                SocketFlags.None,
                m_pfnCallBack,
                theSocPkt);

We done with WinForms and WPF networking. So, we can start with graphics. Since we have no a lot of graphics in WinForms, we'll focus on WPF stuff.

We'll use ContentControl to present the content with datatemplate of our message. We'll create Ellipse for the clock and three rectangles for clock hands. Once data received, we should change RotateTransform value of RenderTransform for each of our rectangles (first set the TransformOrigin to the center of the clock). Bind it together

<Ellipse Width="250" Height="250" StrokeThickness="2" Stroke="Black"/>
                <Rectangle Height="100" Width="20" RadiusX="10" RadiusY="10" Fill="Black" RenderTransformOrigin="0.5,1">
                    <Rectangle.RenderTransform>
                        <TransformGroup>
                            <RotateTransform/>
                            <TranslateTransform Y="25" X="115"/>
                        </TransformGroup>
                    </Rectangle.RenderTransform>
                </Rectangle>
                <Rectangle Height="125" Width="10" RadiusX="5" RadiusY="5" Fill="Black" RenderTransformOrigin="0.5,1">
                    <Rectangle.RenderTransform>
                        <TransformGroup>
                            <RotateTransform/>
                            <TranslateTransform Y="0" X="120"/>
                        </TransformGroup>
                    </Rectangle.RenderTransform>
                </Rectangle>
                <Rectangle Height="125" Width="4"  RadiusX="2" RadiusY="2" Fill="Black" RenderTransformOrigin="0.5,1">
                    <Rectangle.RenderTransform>
                        <TransformGroup>
                            <RotateTransform/>
                            <TranslateTransform Y="0" X="123"/>
                        </TransformGroup>
                    </Rectangle.RenderTransform>
                </Rectangle>

How we should convert values received to the angle to turn the clock hand. We can use only one converter here and bind to the message, according following formula

HourAngle = (Hours * 30)+(12*Minutes/60);
MinuteAngle = Minutes * 6; (it's 360/60)
SecondAngle = Seconds * 6;

Let's run it. Nothing happens. Why? The reason is, that even each property of the object changes, it does not trigger binding, due to the fact, that whole object has not been changed. In order to fix it, we should bind to each property. And in case of hours to Hours and Minutes properties both. But how to make my converter to be single and multi value converter? Simple - all this about interfaces. So, following converter will do the work

public class TimeToAngleConverter : IValueConverter, IMultiValueConverter
    {       

public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
        {
            return (double)value * 6;
        }

public object Convert(object[] values, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
        {
            return ((double)values[0] * 30) + (12 * (double)values[1] / 60);
        }

public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)        { throw new NotImplementedException(); }

public object[] ConvertBack(object value, Type[] targetTypes, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)        { throw new NotImplementedException(); }

      }

Now binding expressions

<Rectangle Height="100" Width="20" RadiusX="10" RadiusY="10" Fill="Black" RenderTransformOrigin="0.5,1">
                    <Rectangle.RenderTransform>
                        <TransformGroup>
                            <RotateTransform>
                                <RotateTransform.Angle>
                                    <MultiBinding Converter="{StaticResource timeToAngle}">
                                        <Binding Path="Hour"/>
                                        <Binding Path="Minute"/>
                                    </MultiBinding>
                                </RotateTransform.Angle>
                            </RotateTransform>
                            <TranslateTransform Y="25" X="115"/>
                        </TransformGroup>
                    </Rectangle.RenderTransform>
                </Rectangle>
                <Rectangle Height="125" Width="10" RadiusX="5" RadiusY="5" Fill="Black" RenderTransformOrigin="0.5,1">
                    <Rectangle.RenderTransform>
                        <TransformGroup>
                            <RotateTransform Angle="{Binding Path=Minute, Converter={StaticResource timeToAngle}}"/>
                            <TranslateTransform Y="0" X="120"/>
                        </TransformGroup>
                    </Rectangle.RenderTransform>
                </Rectangle>
                <Rectangle Height="125" Width="4"  RadiusX="2" RadiusY="2" Fill="Black" RenderTransformOrigin="0.5,1">
                    <Rectangle.RenderTransform>
                        <TransformGroup>
                            <RotateTransform Angle="{Binding Path=Second, Converter={StaticResource timeToAngle}}"/>
                            <TranslateTransform Y="0" X="123"/>
                        </TransformGroup>
                    </Rectangle.RenderTransform>
                </Rectangle>

We done with graphics in WPF. Let's start it over in Silverlight. We cannot do at least half of what has been done in WPF. MultiBinding is not supported, there is no implicitly templating and Transform class does not support Binding. What to do? Let's remember old good world.

Set the control without using templates, then find resources and save references and set values explicitly (after subscribing to OnPropertyChanged event of cause. Other words, make binding with your own hands.

void onLoaded(object s, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            mt = ((RotateTransform)FindName("mTransform"));
            ht = ((RotateTransform)FindName("hTransform"));
            st = ((RotateTransform)FindName("sTransform"));
            ((NetTimeProvider)Resources["timeProvider"]).PropertyChanged += new PropertyChangedEventHandler(Page_PropertyChanged);
        }

        RotateTransform mt, ht, st;

        void Page_PropertyChanged(object sender, PropertyChangedEventArgs e)
        {
            //Binding to Transform does not supported (yet??);
            NetTimeProvider s = sender as NetTimeProvider;
            Dispatcher.BeginInvoke((SendOrPostCallback) delegate (object o)
            {
                NetTimeProvider ntp = o as NetTimeProvider;
                if (e.PropertyName == "Hour")
                {
                    ht.Angle = (ntp.Hour * 30) + (12 * ntp.Minute / 60); ;
                }
                else if (e.PropertyName == "Minute")
                {
                    mt.Angle = ntp.Minute * 6;
                }
                else if (e.PropertyName == "Second")
                {
                    st.Angle = ntp.Second * 6;
                }
            }, s);
        }

Now, when we have layout for our Silverlight control, we should connect to distribution network server. Reuse the manager, used for Winforms and WPF? We can't. Silverlight is subset of .NET framework, and it is not relays on it, so we have to write new network provider for Silverlight. UDP is not supported in Silverlight, thus we'll use TCP networking. Let's see what we have. WebRequest/WebResponse HttpWebRequest/HttpWebResponse - to use it - no. Our server neither HTTP nor Web server. We should use raw sockets in Silverlight. Socket class exists in System.Net dll for Silverlight, however it is very limited. Let's make the connection. First of all, we should know what IP to connect.

Due to security restrictions we cannot do DNS queries in Silverlight. From the other hand we do not want to restrict it to hardcoded name or IP address. In application class of Silverlight we have very handy property, named DnsSafeHost (Application.Current.Host.Source.DnsSafeHost). So let's use it.

What about ports? Can I use TCP socket for any port I want? No. This is another security restriction. The only port range able available for Silverlight is 4502-5432 (only 30 ports). So with those restrictions we'll create the connection as following.

socket = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp);
            DnsEndPoint ep = new DnsEndPoint(Application.Current.Host.Source.DnsSafeHost, 4502);
            SocketAsyncEventArgs args = new SocketAsyncEventArgs()
            {
                RemoteEndPoint = ep
            };
            args.Completed += onConnected;
            socket.ConnectAsync(args);

Now we should check if the connection is established successfully. The only place we can do it is in onConnected handler. Here also we'll reuse completed event of SocketAsyncArgs to perform read sequence. Upon the end of the handler we'll try to read something from inline socket.

void onConnected(object sender, SocketAsyncEventArgs e)
       {
           if (e.SocketError == SocketError.Success)
           {
               e.Completed -= onConnected;
               e.Completed += onRead;
               Message = "Connected";
           }

           readMoreData(e);
       }

If you remember in regular framework we can wait on socket. We can do it as well in Silverlight.

void readMoreData(SocketAsyncEventArgs e)
{
    e.SetBuffer(buffer, bytesRead, (buffer.Length - bytesRead));
    if (!socket.ReceiveAsync(e))
    {
        onRead(socket, e);
    }
    else
    {
        Message = "Disconnected";
    }

}

So, if everything is ok and we have data in the socket, let's read it. There is some fault proofing should be done in it. First we should check if we go all the message. We know, that the message size is 20 bytes (5 integers - we check first four). Then we should check, that the message we got is our message. So in the header we'll check for Magic number. Then if it's ok we'll parse it and fill all properties of our class.

void onRead(object sender, SocketAsyncEventArgs e)
        {
            if (e.BytesTransferred > 0)
            {
                bytesRead += e.BytesTransferred;
                if (bytesRead == 20 && BitConverter.ToUInt32(buffer, 0) == Magic)
                {
                    Hour = BitConverter.ToInt32(buffer, 4);
                    OnPropertyChanged("Hour");
                    Minute = BitConverter.ToInt32(buffer, 8);
                    OnPropertyChanged("Minute");
                    Second = BitConverter.ToInt32(buffer, 12);
                    OnPropertyChanged("Second");
                    bytesRead = 0;
                }
                readMoreData(e);
            }
        }

If everything fine, we'll return to wait for next message to arrive.

We done. WinForms, WPF and Silverlight speaks over the network one with another, by using TCP and UDP raw sockets. What can be better? When our message is not just clock information, but something related to gaming world (e.g. current position or state of other network players). What am I speaking about? Come to reveal it on my session DEV335: Game Development Using Microsoft’s Latest Technologies in TechEd Israel.

Have a nice day and be good people.

Source code for this article.

[This blog was migrated. You will not be able to comment here.
The new URL of this post is http://khason.net/blog/you-can-meet-me-face-to-face-in-teched/]

Starting today, if you are attending TechEd '08 Israel, you can set an appointment with me, by using a meeting system in TechEd website. All attendees received an email with username and password to access the system. So enter, click Find and look for WPF, Silverlight or, just תמיר חסון. Then click Request to meet and that's it.

Note, my free slots will be closed very soon, so, if you want to see and ask me question, hurry to close your time slot.

Meet me at Teched '08 Israel >>

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 If you have cool WPF application (in production or near production state) and want to present it to more, then 2000 people, please, contact me ASAP. (Israel only)

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A couple of days ago, new great product [PDF] was released by SAP together with Microsoft. It named SAP Enterprise Services Explorer for Microsoft .NET (you can download sneak preview for free). It come to exchange SAP.NET Connector and enables to use SAP Enterprise Services as regular Web references or WCF services. This product still in beta, however there is already major issue - it does not work in localized version of Visual Studio. Neither 2005 nor 2008. Why this happens? The reason is simple. Visual Studio always asks for localized resources for addins and there is no way to work around it.

From one hand, it's bad, that such global company as SAP does not want to localize it's products. From the other hand, there are very few developers, who working with localized versions of development environment. Anyway I started to look into the product to understand what has been done by developers. Oh, my god. They put resources into GAC. How to get them out there?

Actually, GAC is regular windows directory, that exists in %windir%\assembly\GAC\ or %windir%\assembly\GAC_MSIL\. But smart Windows replaces regular Explorer view by customize ActiveX. This does not mean, that you cannot pick files from there. To prove it map GAC folder to another disk. From command line run following command "subst z: %windir%\assembly\GAC_MSIL\". Now you have your GAC mapped to network virtual drive Z

So, if it is regular directory, you can get files from there and put it into any place you want. But why copy it if we can use hard links?

What's the hell are "hard links"? Hard links are symbolic links or symlinks, we know from Unix environment. Yes, you ca ln -fs in Windows :) To do it, you should use file system utility, named fsutil. Actually, those only pointers to real files in your file system. So, "fsutil hardlink create <copy> <original>" will do the work.

Now, when we know where to get those files and how to make symbolic links to them, we should know what versions of Visual Studio we have installed and what are languages of those products. To do this, we have to make a small trip into registry and look into HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DevDic\VS\Servicing. There we will find node 8.0 if VS2005 installed and 9.0 if VS2008 installed. Actually, we can pick all necessary information there. Let's see. This key build according following pattern: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DevDiv\[Product Family]\Servicing\[Product Version]\[Product Edition]\[Product Language]. That's exactly what we need. But what are possible values?

• Product family
• URT - .NET framework
• VB - Visual Basic Express
• VC - Visual C++ Express
• VCS - Visual C# Express
• VJS - Visual J# Express
• VNS - Visual Web Developer Express
• VS - Visual Studio (all versions)
• VSTF - Visual Studio Team Foundation Services
• Product version
• 8 (or 8.0) - 2005
• 9.0 - 2008
• Product Edition
• VSTD - Standard
• PRO - Professional
• VSTS - Team System
• Product Language
• Integer of Culture identifier (or other words LCID)

Now, when we know what versions and what languages are installed we should detect where Visual Studio is installed. In this case, we'll need another registry key "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\". Under this node we'll find again 8 or 9 and then value "InstallDir", that, actually, tells us where the current version of Visual Studio is installed.

Last thing to remember, that Visual Studio looks into it's root directory (that we detected in previous step) for directory with two letter ISO language code and resources there.

At this point we know all necessary information in order to work, so we have our program ready. You can, even download and use it :)

So, after running and clicking "Apply fix" button (if possible - you have SAP ESA Explorer and localized version(s) of Microsoft Visual Studio), we can start using this great product in any available version of Visual Studio. In English of cause)

Have a nice day and do not forget, that not everyone work with English version of development tools.

Download Localization fix for SAP ESA Explorer for Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 (no installation needed - just unzip and run) >>

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What do you think, is it possible to run WPF on Windows CE enabled devices (e.g. gas pumps, GPS systems, robots, game or automatic teller machines or, even, scientific calculators)? Let's see following code:

StackPanel panel = new StackPanel(Orientation.Horizontal);
            Ellipse ellipse = new Ellipse(10, 10);
            ellipse.Fill = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Red);
            ellipse.Stroke = new Pen(Color.Black);
            Rectangle rect = new Rectangle();
            rect.Width = 40;
            rect.Height = 40;
            Line l = new Line(20, 20);
            Polygon polygon = new Polygon(new int[] { 0, 0, 20, 0, 20, 20, 0, 20 });
            panel.Children.Add(ellipse);
            panel.Children.Add(rect);
            panel.Children.Add(l);
            panel.Children.Add(polygon);

            panel.AddHandler(Buttons.ButtonUpEvent, (ButtonEventHandler)delegate
            {
                panel.Orientation = panel.Orientation == Orientation.Horizontal ? Orientation.Vertical : Orientation.Horizontal;
            }, false);

Or even this code

void OnButtonHeld(object o)
{
    Button b = (Button)o;
    Dispatcher.Invoke(TimeSpan.FromTicks(10), (ButtonHeldDelegate)delegate(Button btn)
    {
        while (Buttons.IsButtonDown(btn))
        {
            switch (btn)
            {
                case Button.Left: p.X--; break;
                case Button.Up: p.Y--; break;
                case Button.Right: p.X++; break;
                case Button.Down: p.Y++; break;
                case Button.Select: p.X = mainWindow.Width / 2; p.Y = mainWindow.Height / 2; break;
            }
        }

        moveMouse();
    }, b);
}

void moveMouse()
{
    host.DrawRectangle(Colors.Black,2,p.X,p.Y, 100, 100,0,0,Colors.Red,0,0,Colors.Blue,100,100,255);
    host.Flush();
}

This code will run on any Windows CE device. And it is not WPF :) It's .NET Micro Framework. Actually, when we're looking for it's syntax, it looks like WPF/Silverlight and .NET Micro Framework have the same architect. However, it cannot use hardware acceleration and has very limited number of objects. All this because of it's purpose "platform to devices that do not need the fuller functionality available in the .NET Framework and the .NET Compact Framework". I would add Windows Presentation Foundation as well.

The application model of .NET Micro Framework is very similar to WPF. It has native CLR/PAL and HAL and managed libraries.

Sufficient number of components in CLR - types, threads and timers, reflection, serialization, GC, networking, other connectivities etc., enables you to create, even games, that will run on even Heart Device.

Other words, cool technology and possible cool appliance for your programming skills. 

How to start? First of all, download .NET Micro Framework v2.5 (VS2005, you can also add Microsoft.SPOT assemblies into your regular VS2008 project) and start programming. It's really simple (I build snake game for less, then hour)

See your applications, running on embedded devices. BTW, I'll probably present something, developed with this framework in my TechEd session aside with WPF, Silverlight and XNA... Keep tuned and have a nice day

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I know only one person, who has following problem, however it makes sense to post all steps to perform in order to solve the problem. Let's start from the error:

While trying to run XBAP application with user's account on my machine, I get following error:

System.UnauthorizedAccessException was unhandled Message="Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))" Source="System.Deployment

while administrators on the same machine have no problem to run the same XBAPs.

Side note: Similar problems might be while running XPS viewer directly from Internet Explorer.

Declaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Following methods are not an officially supported feature. You can use it strictly for debugging purposes.

Following steps you should take in order to find the root of the problem

• Check it your users able to get cookies (they should be able to write into isolated storage)
  in order to do it, repair simple HTML page on web server in the same security zone and put following code there
  
  document.cookie = "testxbapcookie=whatever;expires=12/12/2999 00:00:00";
  var c = document.cookie.match ( '(^|;) ?testxbapcookie=([^;]*)(;|$)' );
if(c)
document.cookie = "testxbapcookie=whatever;expires=12/12/1999 00:00:00";
else
alert("cannot set cookie");

If you see alert - enable cookie support for this security zone

• Next step is to check if the user able to write into storage. To do it try to copy and then read some file into "documents and settings\[USERNAME]\Local Settings\Apps\2.0" directory. If you cannot - ask the administrator to give full access to the user to this directory - it's the user's own directory
• Next step is to check ability of the user to write into some registry key. Try to write something into HKCU\Software\Classes\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Deployment\SideBySide\2.0 if you cannot - ask administrator to give right for this node. Alternatively, you can run simple .NET program.
  
  Guid ri = new Guid("a5c62f6d-5e3e-4cd9-b345-6b281d7a1d1e");
  object o = GetUserStore(0,IntPtr.Zero, ref ri);
  
  if it failed, enable the access for this node. If you want to me  general, check whether client can read HKCU\Software\Classes before. Also you can check and access to HKCR\Interface\{79EAC9C9-BAF9-11CE-8C82-00AA004BA90B} registry node.
• If the problem still exists, ask administrator to go to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\Windows Presentation Foundation\Hosting node in registry and create DWORD RunUnrestricted=1 value. This will force PresentationHost to restart itself might solve the problem. Please note, setting RunUnrestricted value might have side effects
• If you still have a problem - try to delete and recreate the user or reinstall your operation system.

Have a nice day and don't fall with problem - if you do not really need XBAP - do not use it!

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• New release of Windows SDK (new classes for WPF 3.5, bugs fixes, and enhanced support for Windows Server 2008, including speech, error reporting and UAC). Download it here. For more information, visit SDK blog
• Windows XP SP3 RC2 (it's not final release), but if you want to try it (not in production environment) download it here. As well as if you are ready to harm your system. Give a try to Windows Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for XP (or for Vista/Home Server 2008, or Windows Server 2003 SP2).
  
• There are some fixes for Microsoft XNA Game Studio 2.0 (make sure, that you know what is it. If not, come to see my TechEd session). Also, you can download Games for Windows - LIVE redistributable .
  
• If you are lucky Zune owner, you can download PC software 2.3 for it
• If you Virtual Earth fun, add realistic 3D capabilities to use online Live Search Maps.
• If you still have no Silverlight Tools for VS2008, be sure to download it (this is not chained installer, tools only)

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If you're trying to implement sample XSS networking with Silverlight as it explained in QuickStart guide, but with your own remote host, you'll probably get strange "Not Found" error. You'll check your host, firewall setting, etc and everything looks ok. So what's the problem?

HttpWebRequest req = (HttpWebRequest)HttpWebRequest.Create(new Uri("http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/tamir"));
           req.BeginGetResponse(getResponse, req);

void getResponse(IAsyncResult ar)
        {
           HttpWebRequest req = (HttpWebRequest)ar.AsyncState;
            HttpWebResponse res = (HttpWebResponse)req.EndGetResponse(ar);
            if (res.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.OK)

WebClient client = new WebClient(new Uri("http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/tamir"));
            client.DownloadProgressChanged += new DownloadProgressChangedEventHandler(client_DownloadProgressChanged);
            client.DownloadStringCompleted += new DownloadStringCompletedEventHandler(client_DownloadStringCompleted);
            client.DownloadStringAsync();

void client_DownloadStringCompleted(object sender, DownloadStringCompletedEventArgs e)
       {
           //DONE
       }

       void client_DownloadProgressChanged(object sender, DownloadProgressChangedEventArgs e)
       {
           //Update progress
       }

The reason for it, two small lines in the guide: "Note that the server hosting the feed must opt-in to cross-domain access by providing a Clientaccesspolicy.xml or Crossdomain.xml file at the root of the domain."

Oh, baby, how can I missed it? Create your own Crossdomain.xml now and put it into root directory of your web server. Remember to register XAP MIME type too :)

Have a nice day

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If you are unable to debug your own control. If nothing happens when you are using in your code the custom control created. If you do not know what's bad you're doing, and there is no error appears. Know, you should put user controls in other assembly and then reference to the assembly of controls in your project and in xaml code. Like this

<UserControl x:Class="MySilverlightProject.Page"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/client/2007"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
   xmlns:c="clr-namespace:MySilverlightClassLibrary;assembly=MySilverlightClassLibrary"

In this case your controls will work.

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According the video, that Robert Scoble recorded for his FastCompany.tv lunch, he'll be in Israel on April. The only interesting place to visit for him next month is TechEd '08. So see him there... And don't forget to attend my session about XNA and WPF as well...