Just code - Tamir Khason : download, Silverlight

New year – new blog or how to migrate Community Server to any other engine, supports XML-RPC

Tamir Khason — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 02:33:04 GMT

Please update your bookmarks, because the new url of this blog is http://khason.net/ (you have not update RSS feeds, it will be done automatically). Why I did it? Why I decided to go to “stand-alone”… Well. there are some reasons. Generally, I do not want to explain all those here, but trust me, there are some. The main reason is, that there is no responsible person in charge for this blog platform in Microsoft Israel. This why, if your blog is popular and you have a respect to your blog visitors, you cannot host it here… Take a look into new comments notifications in my inbox. Would you answer your readers with such “small amount” of SPAM and capcha, that cannot be fixed already for three years in this platform? This how my inbox looks like for last three years. So now, you should not ask me, why I not answered your email or comments. Aren’t you? :)

Currently, all comments in this blog are disabled, so if you want to comment, please use new url of posts (this will appear shortly in the beginning of each post). Also, this post will not be syndicated in RSS.

So, this post is the last. I loved this platform, and loved people started it. But, unfortunately, it seemed, that bloggers community is not important enough for new platform managers.

Also, If you want to learn how to use C# and XML-RCP to migrate from CS2007, used in this platform, visit my new home :)

Have a great year and, as always, be good people. This post marked with all possible tags automatically. Sorry.

Programming for Windows 7

Tamir Khason — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:12:38 GMT

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The new URL of this post is http://khason.net/blog/programming-for-windows-7/]

Well, Windows 7 is going to be released by the end of next year. This is great news, because it seemed, that Microsoft finally understand how to get the best of Windows Vista and make it to work not only on monster machines.

It even works on new brandy my wife's pinky machine. And if it works there and my wife is happy with it, this OS going to be very impressive.

But from the other hand, we, as developers should be ready today to developer Windows 7 ready application (by the way, Vista Battery Saver works for Windows 7 as well as for Windows Vista, in spite of the fact, that power management in Windows 7 was improved dramatically). So let's start!

First thing we need is to read big Windows 7 Developer Guide. This document will explain most of new features for developers to build applications right. What is includes?

Windows Driver Kit (WDK) 3.0

Basically, Windows 7 works with Vista drivers, however, hibernation, power management, networking, PREfast will work much better. You also will have new WMI access for reliability monitors and ACPI.

Management and deployment

By default Windows 7 uses PowerShell 2.0 and Windows Installer. For PowerShell it includes enhanced cmdlets to manage Active Directory, IIS, etc. For Windows Installer, you finally can build "chainers" by yourself (the same approach, used for latest deployment of Microsoft products such as Silverlight, Visual Studio 2008 SP1 etc.) Also, you can get advantage by using Windows Filtering Platform (Firewall) and User Account Control (UAC) from inside your application by using new APIs.

Performance

The most significant change in Windows 7 for end-user point of view is improved performance. Windows 7 kernel is much smaller, that kernel of Windows Vista. Also it uses specific patterns to decrease background activities on low power, based on system triggers. New user-mode and kernel-mode APIs are used by Windows Drivers Foundation much more efficiently. Also system services are much smarter. For example, DCIA starts only when you connect new hardware. After drivers were installed the service shuts down. The same approach used by domain join, GP changes, new IP fetching etc. Windows 7 knows to run and stop services, based on system events, which decreases average work load and enhances whole system performance.

Multi-touch gestures and Interia API and used interface in general

Yes, you can use this API for your applications. Finally we can have more, then just mouse. And it is not only about multiple mouse devices. We can use single finder panning, raw touch input data, internal multitouch ink recognition, which is also supports math. Also it uses build-in MathML export feature.

There are a lot of other enhancements, such as smart bars, windows' stacking, gadget desktop (it does not eat battery as external process anymore), system ribbon menu integration. etc

Graphics

Direct 11, new Direct2D, DirectWrite (we can turn text anti-aliasing for small fonts, hurrah!), improved WIC, DX/GDI interoperability on system level with automatic fallback for weak hardware (yes, you should not be worry about it anymore). Also new video and audio format support with human readable interfaces. Yes, no more DirectDraw hacks. We can use new high level interfaces such as MFPlay to manage playbacks, Source Reader for decoding, Sink Writer for transcoders and re-coding compressions.

Web and communication

WCF is inside, as well as distributed routing table for peer-to-peer operations. BranchCache - new technology to reduce WAN traffic and latency.

Also Windows 7 is compatible with OpenSearch (I told, that Microsoft does not know to build search engines). Sharepoint integration and environment sensors platform, that can be used either for desktop and web applications.

There are much more features, that makes Windows 7 to pretend to be very good operation system. If you want to learn more about all those Windows 7 new features, I highly advice you to download and read this document. It includes most of new features of new OS with explanations and screenshots to make your learn and understand what can your future application do with all those new features.

Have a nice day and be good people.

BTW, if you have PDC version of Windows 7 and want to unlock it for using of some cool features, introduced during keynotes, it worth to visit here and learn how to :)

Download Windows 7 Developer Guide and start programming.

Slides and desks from my Expert Days’ sessions

Tamir Khason — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:43:17 GMT

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The new URL of this post is http://khason.net/blog/slides-and-desks-from-my-expert-days%e2%80%99-sessions/]

Because of the new job, I’m bit tight in time, however, I found a time to post slides from my sessions in Expert Days. Also, hand-on labs used for WPF beginners’ released as open source to CodePlex for your convenience.

Windows Presentation Foundation for Fellow Developers [4 MB]

Mastering Microsoft Silverlight 2.0 [11 MB]

Have a nice day and be good people.

Arabic and Hebrew languages bidirectional support for Silverlight 2.0 beta 2

Tamir Khason — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:27:00 GMT

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The new URL of this post is http://khason.net/blog/arabic-and-hebrew-languages-bidirectional-support-for-silverlight-20-beta-2/]

Those days, I’m, together with guys from Microsoft Egypt and Santeon, finishing development of bidirectional input and output support for Silverlight. I want you to take part in alpha testing of this solution. Please see the test form here and try it.

&lt;noframes&gt;Visit &lt;a href="http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/tamir/archive/2008/07/17/arabic-and-hebrew-languages-bidirectional-support-for-silverlight-2-0-beta-2.aspx"&gt;original article&lt;/a&gt; to test&lt;/noframes&gt;

Also, you can download latest development build or compiled binary version with debug symbols and try it yourself. Please, if you’re in any issue, report it, by using issue tracker in CodePlex.

In order to use it, all you have to do is to use custom namespace within your project and then, you’ll be able to get almost all controls, you know, but with Arabic and Hebrew RTL and LTR support. You have to set one property: FlowDirection to change the rendering method (exactly as in WPF). Here an example of usage.

<UserControl x:Class="BidiTest2.Page"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:l="clr-namespace:System.Windows.BidiControls;assembly=BidiControls">
…
<l:TextBlock FlowDirection="LeftToRight" Text="שלום עולם"/>

<l:TextBox FlowDirection="RightToLeft" Text="{Binding Text, Mode=TwoWay}"/>

That’s all. Thank you for your cooperation.

Printouts of the slides, presented on Silverlight 2.0 open house today

Tamir Khason — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:26:45 GMT

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The new URL of this post is http://khason.net/blog/printouts-of-the-slides-presented-on-silverlight-20-open-house-today/]

Thank you all, who participated today in Silverlight 2.0 for building Rich Internet Applications event. I uploaded printouts of the slides, presented during the session here. So, you can download it for reference.

I’m really interesting within your feedback (leave comments) in order for me to be able to enhance it for future events.

Also, I want to remind you, that due to lack of space we were unable to handle all those who want to attend, thus we decided to make another session within two weeks, so can register here. Remember, only registered attendees, who with confirmation received will allow to enter. So, hurry up.

If you want to learn more about Silverlight, you can register to attend Expert Days “Mastering Microsoft Silverlight 2.0 – 020” full day course, 13-August, were we’ll have Silverlight 2.0 deep dive training day. You can also review another two courses, I’ll have there:

12-Aug “Windows Presentation Foundation for fellow developers – 027”
14-Aug “Advanced .NET 3.5 SP1 – Windows Presentation Foundation – 011”

Download slides from today session >>

Register to attend next event at 23 July >>

Thank you and leave a comment…

Silverlight controls library has been upgraded to Beta 2

Tamir Khason — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 21:35:51 GMT

[This blog was migrated. You will not be able to comment here.
The new URL of this post is http://khason.net/blog/silverlight-controls-library-has-been-upgraded-to-beta-2/]

Finally this weekend I got a time to upgrade one of my OpenUp submissions, Silverlight controls library to work with Silverlight 2.0 beta 2. It was very interesting to track changes between developer’s (beta 1) and production (beta 2) go-live licenses. Let’s try to understand what has need changed.

Syntax of DependencyProperty registration. Now instead of DependencyProperty.Register(name, propertyType,ownerType,propertyChangedCallback) you should use DependencyProperty.Register(name, propertyType,ownerType,typeMetadata), which, actually receives only one parameter in constructor – propertyChangedCallback. This make Silverlight to be closer to WPF syntax and open it for future enhancements. You can download updated Visual Studio 2008 snippet for creation of Silverlight Dependency Properties.
OnApplyTemplate method of UserControl become public instead of protected
Thumb DragDelta event argument is not DragEventArg anymore. Now it’s DragDeltaEventArgs. So there is no HorizontalOffset and VerticalOffset attributes. They replaced by HorizontalChange and VerticalChange
DefaultStyleKey is not null anymore
Most of controls migrated from System.Windows.Controls into System.Windows namespace
Some changed to ToolTip service
Now Silverlight checks whether TargetType property of Style is really compatible with the control, you’re applying style to (this not happened in beta 1). Also DependencyObject.SetValue() method checks it’s type.
There is no InitializeFromXaml anymore. Now Silverlight works more “WPF style” with application services – Application.LoadComponent()
You cannot use x:Name and Name property together (someone did it?)

There are a ton of other changed, that was not related to Silverlight Control Library. For example, changed within Storyboard class, networking, cross-domain policy, other controls (e.g. DataGrid), Templates of some controls (e.g. Button, TextBox, etc) and API.

Also I want to invite you to take part into development of Silverlight controls library not because of complimentary ticket to PDC ‘08 or Mobile Memory Mouse 8000, but because Open Source is not “one-men-show”. To get access to SVN, submit your work and begin development of next generation of Silverlight controls, contact me via CodePlex and I’ll add you to the project as new contributor.

Quick note: New TechEd downloads

Tamir Khason — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:25:15 GMT

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The new URL of this post is http://khason.net/blog/quick-note-new-teched-downloads/]

There is TechEd in Orlando, and this means, that there are a lot of new announcements. Let’s fill up our download managers with expensive fuel and start.

New WM 6.1 images (both standard and professional) – absolutely required if you’re programming Windows Mobile
Managed Extensibility Framework – I blogged about it a little in the past. Really cool approach for adding extensibility features to your applications. Krzysztof explains new features there.
Windows Live Writer new CTP + new SDK – the best tool to post into your blog.
New CTP of Microsoft Project Codename “Velocity” – great approach for development applications, using high performance in memory cache. Here the deep explanations in the team blog + quick start and samples.

Silverlight 2.0 beta 2 + Microsoft Expression Blend 2.5 June preview will be available for download very soon. Keep watching. Meanwhile, you can start learn about new TabControl, VisualStateManager, new templating system and cross-domain policy from Tim Heuer’s blog. Also there are some news about event bubbling in beta 2 in Jesse’s blog.

Deep Zoom composer for download

Tamir Khason — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:21:00 GMT

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The new URL of this post is http://khason.net/blog/deep-zoom-composer-for-download/]

One of best technologies, presented at Mix'08 was HardRock Memorabilia. It uses technology, previously named Seadragon to adapt image resolution and size to what you're currently viewing. It montages number of images in different resolutions and then dispatches them upon your request. Take a look into Silverlight 2.0 poster, created by Joe Stegman

Now, the million dollar question, how to use it in my application? Simple just download and use it :)

Download Deep Zoom Composer for Silverlight>>

Some new post-mix downloads

Tamir Khason — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:01:44 GMT

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The new URL of this post is http://khason.net/blog/some-new-post-mix-downloads/]

Today is download day at MSDN. There are some very interesting things published.

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)

Enough for this morning. Warm up your download machines and start downloading.

Building custom user control in Silverlight 2.0 + how to build code snippet for VS as bonus

Tamir Khason — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 01:12:00 GMT

[This blog was migrated. You will not be able to comment here.
The new URL of this post is http://khason.net/blog/building-custom-user-control-in-silverlight-20-how-to-build-code-snippet-for-vs-as-bonus/]

Do you remember, that we have "go-live" for Silverlight 2.0 and already have build machines configured? Now it's time to build your very own custom control. Today, we'll build Range Slider.

What is range slider? Range slider is a control, that lets you input two values, typically an upper and a lower bound. Normal slider just lets you input one value. So, we have new behavior here, thus we'll have to build our own control without reusing existing one.

But, before we'll start, we'll build code snippet for Visual Studio, that allows us quickly build Dependency Property. Due to fact, that existing snippets (propdp, etc) do not fit Silverlight DP creation pattern. In Silverlight, we have no DependencyPropertyMetadata, so the registration pattern will be

DependencyProperty.Register(
                  "$property$",
                  typeof($type$),
                  typeof($ownerclass$),
                  On$property$PropertyChanged);

Open new XML file, read this and let's start. First of all, general stuff line who am I, what's the short string for the snippet, etc.

<CodeSnippets xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2005/CodeSnippet">
<CodeSnippet Format="1.0.0">
    <Header>
      <SnippetTypes>
        <SnippetType>Expansion</SnippetType>
      </SnippetTypes>
      <Title>Define a DependencyProperty for Silverlight application</Title>
      <Shortcut>propds</Shortcut>
      <Description>
        Code snippet for a property using DependencyProperty as the backing store and a Handler for the DependencyPropertyChanged event
      </Description>
      <Author>Tamir Khason</Author>
    </Header>
    <Snippet>
      <Declarations>
        <Literal Editable="true">
          <ID>type</ID>
          <ToolTip>Property Type</ToolTip>
          <Default>int</Default>
          <Function>
          </Function>
        </Literal>
        <Literal Editable="true">
          <ID>property</ID>
          <ToolTip>Property Name</ToolTip>
          <Default>MyProperty</Default>
          <Function>
          </Function>
        </Literal>
        <Literal Editable="false">
          <ID>ownerclass</ID>
          <ToolTip>
            The owning class of this Property. Typically the class that it is declared in.
          </ToolTip>
          <Default>ClassNamePlaceholder</Default>
          <Function>ClassName()</Function>
        </Literal>
      </Declarations>

Then the interesting stuff. Where my properties and variables.

<Code Language="csharp">
        <![CDATA[
#region $property$

/// <summary>
/// Gets or sets the $property$ possible Value of the $type$ object.
/// </summary>
public $type$ $property$
{
    get { return ($type$)GetValue($property$Property); }
    set { SetValue($property$Property, value); }
}

/// <summary>
/// Identifies the $property$ dependency property.
/// </summary>
public static readonly DependencyProperty $property$Property =
            DependencyProperty.Register(
                  "$property$",
                  typeof($type$),
                  typeof($ownerclass$),
                  On$property$PropertyChanged);

/// <summary>
/// $property$Property property changed handler.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="d">$ownerclass$ that changed its $property$.</param>
/// <param name="e">DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs.</param>
private static void On$property$PropertyChanged(DependencyObject d, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
$ownerclass$ _$ownerclass$ = d as $ownerclass$;
if (_$ownerclass$!=null)
{
    //TODO: Handle new value.
}
}
#endregion $property$
$end$]]>
      </Code>
    </Snippet>
</CodeSnippet>
</CodeSnippets>

We done, you can either download the ready snippet for Silverlight Dependency Property creation here. All you have to do is to put it into %MY DOCUMENTS%\Visual Studio 2008\Code Snippets\Visual C#\My Code Snippets or \Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC#\Snippets\1033\Visual C# directory. Now, we can use "propdps" to quickly define Dependency Property for Silverlight class.

Well done, and now we can start writing. First of all, we'll create base logic class to encapsulate Minimum, Maximum, ValueLow, ValueHigh properties and ValueChange routed events. The only object we can derive from in order to use Dependency Property is Control. So we'll do it.

public abstract class DoubleRangeBase : Control
{

Building Minimum property...

#region Minimum

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets or sets the Minimum possible Value of the double object.
        /// </summary>
        public double Minimum
        {
            get { return (double)GetValue(MinimumProperty); }
            set { SetValue(MinimumProperty, value); }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Identifies the Minimum dependency property.
        /// </summary>
        public static readonly DependencyProperty MinimumProperty =
                    DependencyProperty.Register(
                          "Minimum",
                          typeof(double),
                          typeof(DoubleRangeBase),
                          OnMinimumChanged);

        /// <summary>
        /// MinimumProperty property changed handler.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="d">LowHighRangeBase that changed its Minimum.</param>
        /// <param name="e">DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs.</param>
        private static void OnMinimumChanged(DependencyObject d, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
        {
            DoubleRangeBase _LowHighRangeBase = d as DoubleRangeBase;
            if (_LowHighRangeBase != null)
            {
                _LowHighRangeBase._requestedMin = (double)e.NewValue;
                _LowHighRangeBase.CoerceMaximum();
                _LowHighRangeBase.CoerceValues();
                _LowHighRangeBase.OnMinimumChanged((double)e.OldValue, (double)e.NewValue);
            }
        }
        #endregion

Isn't it nice snippet? :) Now events

public event RoutedPropertyChangedEventHandler<double> ValueLowChanged;
public event RoutedPropertyChangedEventHandler<double> ValueHighChanged;
public event RoutedPropertyChangedEventHandler<ValueChangedEventArgs> ValueChanged;

Handlers... Some virtual and some not

protected virtual void OnMaximumChanged(double oldMaximum, double newMaximum)
        {
        }

protected virtual void OnValueChanged(double oldValue, double newValue, ValueChangeType type)
        {
            RoutedPropertyChangedEventHandler<ValueChangedEventArgs> handler = ValueChanged;
            if (handler != null)
            {
                ValueChangedEventArgs oVal = new ValueChangedEventArgs(oldValue,type);
                ValueChangedEventArgs nVal = new ValueChangedEventArgs(newValue, type);
                handler(this, new RoutedPropertyChangedEventArgs<ValueChangedEventArgs>(oVal, nVal));
            }
        }

Coerces (that we missing in Silverlight, and as for my, this approach much better, then lazy counters, used in extended Silverlight controls)...

private void CoerceValues()
        {
            // Ensure it's a valid value
            if (!IsValidDoubleValue(_requestedValueLow) | !IsValidDoubleValue(_requestedValueHigh) | !IsValidDoubleValue(_requestedMax) | !IsValidDoubleValue(_requestedMin))
            {
                throw new ArgumentException("Invalid double value", MinimumProperty.ToString());
            }

            double minimum = Minimum;
            double maximum = Maximum;
            double valueHigh = ValueHigh;
            double valueLow = ValueLow;

            if (valueHigh < minimum)
            {
                SetValue(ValueHighProperty, minimum);
                return;
            }
            if (valueHigh > maximum)
            {
                SetValue(ValueHighProperty, maximum);
                return;
            }

            if (valueLow < minimum)
            {
                SetValue(ValueLowProperty, minimum);
                return;
            }
            if (valueLow > maximum)
            {
                SetValue(ValueLowProperty, maximum);
                return;
            }

            if (_requestedValueHigh < valueLow)
                _requestedValueHigh = valueLow;

            if (_requestedValueHigh > maximum)
                _requestedValueHigh = maximum;

            if (_requestedValueHigh < minimum)
                _requestedValueHigh = minimum;

            if (_requestedValueHigh != valueHigh)
            {
                SetValue(ValueHighProperty, _requestedValueHigh);
                return;
            }

            if (_requestedValueLow > valueHigh)
                _requestedValueLow = valueHigh;

            if (_requestedValueLow > maximum)
                _requestedValueLow = maximum;

            if (_requestedValueLow < minimum)
                _requestedValueLow = minimum;

            if (_requestedValueLow != valueLow)
            {
                SetValue(ValueLowProperty, _requestedValueLow);
                return;
            }

        }

And we done... Now the turn of the original class. We want to be able to template it, so, let's add first generic.xaml with control template of our range slider. This is pretty simple, but there are some chatchus with it. One, you should explicitly specify the assembly, your control resides in. Another, that implicit styles do not work in Silverlight, so you should specify it. Other stuff is rather similar to WPF (even namespace)

<ResourceDictionary
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:controls="clr-namespace:Sharpsoft.Controls;assembly=Sharpsoft.Controls"
    >

....

<Grid x:Name="HorizontalTemplateElement">
                            <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                                <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" />
                                <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" />
                                <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" />
                                <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" />
                                <ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
                            </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

                            
                            <Rectangle Stroke="Black" StrokeThickness="0.5" Fill="{TemplateBinding BackBrush}" Grid.Column="0" Grid.ColumnSpan="5" Height="3" Margin="5,0,5,0" />

                            
                            <Rectangle x:Name="HorizontalLowFillerElement" Fill="Transparent" Grid.Column="0" Height="3" />
                            <Thumb Style="{TemplateBinding ThumbStyle}" x:Name="HorizontalLowThumbElement" Grid.Column="1"/>
                            <Rectangle x:Name="HorizontalCenterFillerElement" Fill="{TemplateBinding SelectionBrush}" Grid.Column="2" Height="3" />
                            <Thumb Style="{TemplateBinding ThumbStyle}" x:Name="HorizontalHighThumbElement" Grid.Column="3" />
                            <Rectangle x:Name="HorizontalHighFillerElement" Fill="Transparent" Grid.Column="4" Height="3" />
                        </Grid>

We want to be able to change an orientation of the range slider, so adding another section for vertical alignment.

<Grid x:Name="VerticalTemplateElement" Visibility="Collapsed">
                            <Grid.RowDefinitions>
                                <RowDefinition Height="*" />
                                <RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
                                <RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
                                <RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
                                <RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
                            </Grid.RowDefinitions>

                            
                            <Rectangle Stroke="Black" StrokeThickness="0.5" Fill="{TemplateBinding BackBrush}" Grid.Row="0" Grid.RowSpan="5" Width="3" Margin="0,5,0,5" />

                            
                            <Rectangle x:Name="VerticalLowFillerElement" Grid.Row="4" Width="3" />
                            <Thumb Style="{TemplateBinding ThumbStyle}" x:Name="VerticalLowThumbElement" Grid.Row="3" />
                            <Rectangle x:Name="VerticalCenterFillerElement" Fill="{TemplateBinding SelectionBrush}" Grid.Row="2" Width="3" />
                            <Thumb Style="{TemplateBinding ThumbStyle}" x:Name="VerticalHighThumbElement" Grid.Row="1" />
                            <Rectangle x:Name="VerticalHighFillerElement" Grid.Row="0" Width="3" />
                        </Grid>

Now, when we done, we can start with the code of the control. Don't forget about TemplatePart attributes....

[TemplatePart(Name = RangeSlider.ElementHorizontalHighFillerName, Type = typeof(Rectangle))]
    [TemplatePart(Name = RangeSlider.ElementHorizontalLowFillerName, Type = typeof(Rectangle))]
    [TemplatePart(Name = RangeSlider.ElementHorizontalCenterFillerName, Type = typeof(Rectangle))]
    [TemplatePart(Name = RangeSlider.ElementVerticalTemplateName, Type = typeof(FrameworkElement))]
    [TemplatePart(Name = RangeSlider.ElementVerticalLowThumbName, Type = typeof(Thumb))]
    [TemplatePart(Name = RangeSlider.ElementVerticalHighThumbName, Type = typeof(Thumb))]
...

public class RangeSlider : DoubleRangeBase
    {

Don't forget to create and register those properties in backend.

/// <summary>
        /// Horizontal low filler
        /// </summary>
        internal virtual Rectangle ElementHorizontalLowFiller { get; set; }
        internal const string ElementHorizontalLowFillerName = "HorizontalLowFillerElement";

        /// <summary>
        /// Vertical template root
        /// </summary>
        internal virtual FrameworkElement ElementVerticalTemplate { get; set; }
        internal const string ElementVerticalTemplateName = "VerticalTemplateElement";

Internally subscribing to mouse and keyboard events in constructor...

public RangeSlider()
        {
            Minimum = 0;
            Maximum = 100;
            ValueHigh = 80;
            ValueLow = 20;

            IsTabStop = true;
            IsEnabled = true;
            Orientation = Orientation.Horizontal;
            GotFocus += delegate { IsFocused = true; };
            LostFocus += delegate { IsFocused = false; };
            KeyDown += delegate(object sender, KeyEventArgs e) { OnKeyPressed(e); };
            MouseEnter += delegate(object sender, MouseEventArgs e) { OnMouseEnter(e); };
            MouseLeave += delegate(object sender, MouseEventArgs e) { OnMouseLeave(e); };
            MouseLeftButtonDown += delegate(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e) { OnMouseLeftButtonDown(e); };
            MouseLeftButtonUp += delegate(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e) { OnMouseLeftButtonUp(e); };
            SizeChanged += delegate { UpdateTrackLayout(); };
        }

And overriding OnApplyTemplate methods...

protected override void OnApplyTemplate()
       {
           base.OnApplyTemplate();

           ElementRoot = GetTemplateChild(ElementRootName) as FrameworkElement;
           ElementHorizontalTemplate = GetTemplateChild(ElementHorizontalTemplateName) as FrameworkElement;
           ElementHorizontalLowThumb = GetTemplateChild(ElementHorizontalLowThumbName) as Thumb;
           ElementHorizontalHighThumb = GetTemplateChild(ElementHorizontalHighThumbName) as Thumb;

Don't forget about Drag events.

if (ElementHorizontalLowThumb != null)
            {
                ElementHorizontalLowThumb.DragStarted += delegate(object sender, DragStartedEventArgs e) { OnLowThumbDragStarted(e); };
                ElementHorizontalLowThumb.DragDelta += delegate(object sender, DragDeltaEventArgs e) { OnLowThumbDragDelta(e); };
            }

Let's add some UI related properties like Orientation, IsFocused, IsEnabled, SelectionBrush, BackBrush, etc... Even ThumbStyle (do you remember, it does not work implicitly)

#region ThumbStyle

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets or sets the ThumbStyle possible Value of the Style object.
        /// </summary>
        public Style ThumbStyle
        {
            get { return (Style)GetValue(ThumbStyleProperty); }
            set { SetValue(ThumbStyleProperty, value); }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Identifies the ThumbStyle dependency property.
        /// </summary>
        public static readonly DependencyProperty ThumbStyleProperty =
                    DependencyProperty.Register(
                          "ThumbStyle",
                          typeof(Style),
                          typeof(RangeSlider),
                          null);

        #endregion ThumbStyle

Ah, snippets is cool thing! Now we can override virtual methods to handle it

protected override void OnValueHighChanged(double oldValue, double newValue)
       {
           base.OnValueHighChanged(oldValue, newValue);
           if (ElementRoot != null)
           {
               UpdateTrackLayout();
           }
       }

Mouse events

private void OnMouseEnter(MouseEventArgs e)
        {
            e.Handled = true;
            IsMouseOver = true;
            if ((Orientation == Orientation.Horizontal && ElementHorizontalLowThumb != null && !ElementHorizontalLowThumb.IsDragging && ElementHorizontalHighThumb != null && !ElementHorizontalHighThumb.IsDragging) ||
                (Orientation == Orientation.Vertical && ElementVerticalLowThumb != null && !ElementVerticalLowThumb.IsDragging && ElementVerticalHighThumb != null && !ElementVerticalHighThumb.IsDragging))
            {
                UpdateVisualState();
            }
        }

Stubs for possible animations...

internal void ChangeVisualState(Storyboard state)
        {
            Storyboard previousState = _currentState;
            if (state == previousState)
            {
                return;
            }

            if (state != null)
            {
                if (previousState != null)
                {
                    previousState.Stop();
                }
                _currentState = state;
                state.Begin();
            }
        }

And position calculations at the end

private void OnLowThumbDragDelta(DragEventArgs e)
        {
            double offset = 0;

            if (Orientation == Orientation.Horizontal && ElementHorizontalLowThumb != null)
            {
                offset = e.HorizontalOffset / (ActualWidth - ElementHorizontalLowThumb.ActualWidth) * (Maximum - Minimum);
            }
            else if (Orientation == Orientation.Vertical && ElementVerticalLowThumb != null)
            {
                offset = -e.VerticalOffset / (ActualHeight - ElementVerticalLowThumb.ActualHeight) * (Maximum - Minimum);
            }

            if (!double.IsNaN(offset) && !double.IsInfinity(offset))
            {
                _dragValue += IsDirectionReversed ? -offset : offset;

                double newValue = Math.Min(Maximum, Math.Max(Minimum, _dragValue));

                if (newValue != ValueLow)
                {
                    ValueLow = newValue;
                }
            }
        }

The only thing we have to do is to treat those measurement and layout calculations

protected virtual void UpdateTrackLayout()
        {
            double maximum = Maximum;
            double minimum = Minimum;
            double valueLow = ValueLow;
            double valueHigh = ValueHigh;

            Grid templateGrid = (Orientation == Orientation.Horizontal) ? (ElementHorizontalTemplate as Grid) : (ElementVerticalTemplate as Grid);
            if (templateGrid != null)
            {
                if (Orientation == Orientation.Horizontal && templateGrid.ColumnDefinitions != null &&
                    templateGrid.ColumnDefinitions.Count == 5)
                {
                    templateGrid.ColumnDefinitions[0].Width = new GridLength(1, IsDirectionReversed ? GridUnitType.Star : GridUnitType.Auto);
                    templateGrid.ColumnDefinitions[4].Width = new GridLength(1, IsDirectionReversed ? GridUnitType.Auto : GridUnitType.Star);
                }
                else if (Orientation == Orientation.Vertical && templateGrid.RowDefinitions != null &&
                    templateGrid.RowDefinitions.Count == 5)
                {
                    templateGrid.RowDefinitions[0].Height = new GridLength(1, IsDirectionReversed ? GridUnitType.Auto : GridUnitType.Star);
                    templateGrid.RowDefinitions[4].Height = new GridLength(1, IsDirectionReversed ? GridUnitType.Star : GridUnitType.Auto);
                }
            }

            if (Orientation == Orientation.Horizontal && ElementHorizontalCenterFiller != null &&
                ElementHorizontalLowFiller != null && ElementHorizontalLowThumb != null &&
                ElementHorizontalHighFiller != null && ElementHorizontalHighThumb != null)
            {
                ElementHorizontalLowFiller.Width = (valueLow - minimum) * (ActualWidth - ElementHorizontalHighThumb.ActualWidth - ElementHorizontalLowThumb.ActualWidth) / (maximum - minimum);
                ElementHorizontalCenterFiller.Width = (valueHigh - valueLow) * (ActualWidth - ElementHorizontalHighThumb.ActualWidth - ElementHorizontalLowThumb.ActualWidth) / (maximum - minimum);
                ElementHorizontalHighFiller.Width = (maximum - valueHigh) * (ActualWidth - ElementHorizontalHighThumb.ActualWidth - ElementHorizontalLowThumb.ActualWidth) / (maximum - minimum);

            }
            else if (Orientation == Orientation.Vertical && ElementVerticalCenterFiller != null &&
                ElementVerticalLowFiller != null && ElementVerticalLowThumb != null &&
                ElementVerticalHighFiller != null && ElementVerticalHighThumb != null)
            {
                ElementVerticalLowFiller.Height = (valueLow - minimum) * (ActualHeight - ElementVerticalLowThumb.ActualHeight - ElementVerticalHighThumb.ActualHeight) / (maximum - minimum);
                ElementVerticalCenterFiller.Height = (valueHigh - valueLow) * (ActualHeight - ElementVerticalLowThumb.ActualHeight - ElementVerticalHighThumb.ActualHeight) / (maximum - minimum);
                ElementVerticalHighFiller.Height = (maximum - valueHigh) * (ActualHeight - ElementVerticalLowThumb.ActualHeight - ElementVerticalHighThumb.ActualHeight) / (maximum - minimum);
            }
        }

...and we done.

Now we can do to our Silverlight project and add the control there. something like this will work

<c:RangeSlider
            ValueHigh="{Binding Value1, Mode=TwoWay}"
            ValueLow="{Binding Value2, Mode=TwoWay}"
            Minimum="50"
            Maximum="250"
            SelectionBrush="Red"
            BackBrush="Blue"
            ThumbStyle="{StaticResource thumb}"
            Grid.ColumnSpan="2"
            />

<c:RangeSlider
            ValueHigh="{Binding Value1, Mode=TwoWay}"
            ValueLow="{Binding Value2, Mode=TwoWay}"
            Grid.RowSpan="3"
            Grid.Column="2"
            Orientation="Vertical"
            />

Of cause you need data in backend to bind to. Silverlight does not support ElementName in binding by now. Thus, you should work with object bindings only.

public class MyObject : INotifyPropertyChanged
    {
        double val1, val2;
        public double Value1 { get { return val1; } set { val1 = value; fireChanged("Value1"); } }
        public double Value2 { get { return val2; } set { val2 = value; fireChanged("Value2"); } }

        #region INotifyPropertyChanged Members

        void fireChanged(string prop)
        {
            if (PropertyChanged != null)
                PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(prop));
        }
        public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

        #endregion
    }

As exposed thumb style property, so why not to create cool thumb as well?

<UserControl.Resources>
    <l:MyObject x:Name="obj"/>
    <Style TargetType="Thumb" x:Key="thumb">
        <Setter Property="Template">
            <Setter.Value>
                <ControlTemplate TargetType="Thumb">
                    <Path Data="M3,1 L2,2 L1,1 L2,3 z" Stretch="Fill" Fill="Yellow" Stroke="Black"/>
                </ControlTemplate>
            </Setter.Value>
        </Setter>
        <Setter Property="Width" Value="20"/>
        <Setter Property="Height" Value="20"/>
    </Style>
</UserControl.Resources>
<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White" DataContext="{StaticResource obj}">

And that it. Now we have out range slider up and working. (You cannot see it from your feed reader. Visit the original page to view)

You cannot see it from your feed reader. Visit the original page to view

And the small tip at the end. If you want to register Silverlight MIME extension in your IIS (webhosting, etc), you should use application\x-silverlight-app application type for .xap file extensions.

Have a nice day and be good people.

Source code for this article.

Tafiti goes open source (well, actually, shared source under MS-PL)

Tamir Khason — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 13:37:00 GMT

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All those, how want to implement data visualization in Silverlight (as Tafiti does), can look into this CodePlex project and use it for your own. Notice, you can download, modify and, even, resell this code, due to fact, that it's under MS-PL shared source licence. Well done, Live team.

Silverlight tools for Visual Studio 2008 RTM

Tamir Khason — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 21:51:00 GMT

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After upgrade to Visual Studio 2008 RTM from Beta 2, you, probably, will need Silverlight tools for VS2008. Download and install it from here. Please note, before installation, you should completely uninstall previouse version of Silverlight tools for Visual Studio 2008 beta 2.

Silverlight installation experience

Tamir Khason — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:39:00 GMT

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You are, probably, know who looks Silverlight installation. Logo calls for download -> another page -> EULA -> another page -> download file -> another page -> look for the file, just downloaded -> run it -> close and reopen everything to be sure, that Sivlerlight runtime was installed. The same way for other browser type (in case, you have some). This was the only avaliable way to install Silverlight... until today. See this installation experience guide, that illustrates direct (recommended) and indirect way to install Silverlight runtime engine. Great work (includes code samples)!

Sorted dictionary class for Silverlight

Tamir Khason — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:06:00 GMT

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Yes, Silverlight 1.1 is far from being perfect. It's lack of some very important classes. The good example for it is SortedDictionary and binary search tree. Why it's so important and what top-down (red-black) binary search trees are?

If you want to use generic dictionary not only for storing key-value information, but also for searching and accessing data by other criteria, you, probably, can implement IComparable interface and for each new data entry or update resort whole list. But, if you are looking not only for such functionality, but, also, for performance, you'd like to use black-red trees to achieve the behavior. So, what we really have?

Our data exists in Key-Value pairs
Total order of items is predefined
We can sort by such criteria keys and values and not only keys.

All those features are defined by Binary Search Tree (or BST). But SortedDictionary is maintaining not only those trees, but, also, the criteria or, other words, the order. It also uses sequential algorithm to locate keys. SortedList has linear search time, as the last key in the list will require comparisons to every preceding key, so item insertion, removal and retrieval time will be O(log n) contrasts SortedList, that inserts and removes items with O(n) time and lookup O(log n). So, it's obvious, that SortedDictionary works much faster with large amount of frequent changing data. However, it uses much more objects on heap, due to fact, that all of it's items are linked together with tree, wrapped in a Node (that internally implemented reference type)

Each application should choose what type of sorted collections to use, however, it's really important to understand, that even in SL application, we should have SortedDictionary class.

I got shared source CLI for 2.0 (ECMA CLI and C# for XP), which is freely available through MSDN and wrap and fix SortedDictionary class to be used within Silverlight constraints. So, if you need such class in your Silverlight application, download it here.

Microsoft Expression Blend 2 August Preview is available

Tamir Khason — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 06:20:01 GMT

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New refreshment of great XAML editing tool is available for download as Preview version. What's new? Silverlight (working with Silverlight 1.0 RC) and Visual Studio 2008 (Orcas) integration support, User controls authoring, XAML editor got some improvements, such as changing font sizes, word wrapping, etc. You can now target your build by using $(BuildingExpressionBlend) property. New storyboard picker replaces old Storyboard combobox and you can finally manipulate (scaling, resizing, etc) multiple objects.

We're looking forward for your feedbacks

Download Microsoft Expression Blend 2 August Preview

Just code - Tamir Khason : download, Silverlight

New year – new blog or how to migrate Community Server to any other engine, supports XML-RPC

Programming for Windows 7

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Windows Driver Kit (WDK) 3.0

Management and deployment

Performance

Multi-touch gestures and Interia API and used interface in general

Graphics

Web and communication

Slides and desks from my Expert Days’ sessions

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Arabic and Hebrew languages bidirectional support for Silverlight 2.0 beta 2

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Printouts of the slides, presented on Silverlight 2.0 open house today

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Silverlight controls library has been upgraded to Beta 2

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Quick note: New TechEd downloads

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Deep Zoom composer for download

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Some new post-mix downloads

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Building custom user control in Silverlight 2.0 + how to build code snippet for VS as bonus

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Tafiti goes open source (well, actually, shared source under MS-PL)

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Silverlight tools for Visual Studio 2008 RTM

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Silverlight installation experience

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Sorted dictionary class for Silverlight

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Microsoft Expression Blend 2 August Preview is available

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