Essential XAML

New Windows 8 Store Apps Development with C# 6 days Course by Tomer Shamam

Recently, I've been working hard, developing a new Windows 8 Store Apps 6 days Course for C# developers. Today I was very proud to deliver it to one of John Bryce customers, at Hi-Tech College, Herzliya, and it was a great beginning. The course is very detailed and practical, just like I did with a previous 6 days WPF course I've developed. Different content, different college, but same mini-Me J . So if you've enjoyed previous sessions with me, I'm sure you'll enjoy this course...

Displaying user Messages, Errors and Dialogs from a ViewModel using a Service – Part 2 by Tomer Shamam

Displaying user Messages, Errors and Dialogs from a ViewModel using a Service – Part 1 In my previous post , I've discussed a bit about using the MVVM pattern and how to display a message or opening a dialog from within the view-model. As part of the discussion, I've shown a possible way for displaying Messages, Errors and even Dialog or Popups. In this post I would like to provide more details about the implementation of the Dialog part. Recall previous post, we have the following two methods...

Displaying user Messages, Errors and Dialogs from a ViewModel using a Service – Part 1 by Tomer Shamam

Displaying user Messages, Errors and Dialogs from a ViewModel using a Service – Part 2 Years after the invention of the MVVM pattern and people are still asking many questions about how to do this and how to do that, and specifically, how to display a Message, Error or even opening a Dialog from a View Model without accessing the view layer or visual tree. If we go straight with the MVVM pattern concept, the view-model must not directly access or manipulate the View/Visual Tree or part of it in any...

Just in case Input Language in Windows 8 is driving you nuts... by Tomer Shamam

In case you’re working with more than one input language in Windows 8 (EN, HE…), and you’re wondering “Why the hell the input language is HE in vs2012 or EN in Word, or the opposite, and not switching back automatically…”? The answer for this question is: starting with Windows 8, the default for input language for any window is the last selected by the user (Users request from Microsoft…). This situation is great for users who are working with only one language. This feature is annoying for users...

Using C# types from C++/CX in Windows 8 Store Apps by Tomer Shamam

One of the best things happened to Windows 8 Store Apps (aka Metro apps) is the option to write apps and games with pure, native C++, with the help of CX extensions. Aside from performance gained by using C++, being able to develop with C++ in Windows 8 Apps addresses one of the most requested scenarios: Porting and Code Sharing. Lets say that you’re the creator of a famous Mobile Application, developed using C++ for Android and other platforms, and you may want to port this great app, or pieces...

Microsoft has just released Windows 8 and VS 2012 for MSDN subscribers by Tomer Shamam

Microsoft has just released Windows 8 and Visual Studio 2012 for MSDN subscribers! What are you waiting for? If you’ve MSDN subscription, go ahead, be first to download this long awaited release. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/downloads/hh442898.aspx Now with the release of both, Windows 8 and Visual Studio 2012 we can develop Windows 8 apps and upload them to the online store. Also don’t forget to check the Windows 8 Apps Development Microsoft’s Israeli forum I’m coordinating with...

Get screen resolution in Windows 8 Metro style application by Tomer Shamam

Today, someone asked an interesting question in the Israeli Metro forum I’m moderating. The question was: “How can I know what’s the screen resolution in a Metro style app?” This is a tricky answer, since: This capability has been removed from the RC. We can’t rely on current window Width and Height, since it may not be fully opened (snapping). Well, searching a bit over the API’s, I didn’t find anything that can help, but, we can always use DirectX. Creating a C++ Metro style application, here’s...

Windows Phone Summit – Live Blogging by Tomer Shamam

Windows Phone Summit is taking place right now, and I’m watching it Live over the the WEB at http://aka.ms/wpsummit Frankly, there’s nothing new I didn’t know, but now it’s official by Microsoft. There are about 9 new features in the future Windows Phone 8 Shared core between Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, includes Native Code apps! Support of Multi Core CPU’s Support for additional 2 screen resolution: 720p, WXGA Removable MicroSD support Internet Explorer 10, with HTML5 and better JS performance...

Migrating your Windows 8 Consumer Preview app to Windows 8 Release Preview by Tomer Shamam

Lately, Microsoft released Windows 8 Release Preview , and also Visual Studio 2012 RC . If you’re a Metro Style application developer, you might wonder what has changed from the last Beta. As one who have already developed Metro Style apps, I can say that there are braking changes! One of my favorite is in the Dispatcher ( CoreDispatcher class) which no longer contains BeginInvoke pre-historic operation style of the old version of asynchronous pattern. Instead it contains the modern ‘async’ convention...

Installing SQL Server R2 Management Studio on machine with VS2008 without SP1 by Tomer Shamam

I’ve been trying to install SQL Server R2 Management Studio on my customer site DEV machine I’m working with, and suddenly the I’ve got an annoying message saying that I don’t have VS2008 SP1 installed and the installation failed. Mainly I’m working with VS2010 only, and I really don’t care about VS2008, especially not in concern with Management Studio… Now I have three options: 1. Uninstall Visual Studio 2008 2. Download and install VS 2008 SP1, which takes decades… 3. Fool installation app to think...

Windows 8 Development Tutorial – Part 1 – First Steps by Tomer Shamam

Now that both Windows 8 Consumer Preview and Visual Studio 11 Beta have been released, it’s a fantastic time posting about Windows 8 programming, especially about the new Metro style based applications. For the sake of rapid-start, I’ll save the writing about what Metro Style application is, but I’ll give you a link in case that you’ve missed that: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh464920.aspx Installing Windows 8 Customer Preview Before we begin, I highly recommend you to install...

Windows 8 Consumer Preview (beta) is out! by Tomer Shamam

Windows 8 Beta build 8250 is out, and you can download it from here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/download The new beta is called Consumer Preview and it contains some installed apps and other 100 can be downloaded from the Windows Store. Here are some of the new features you can find: New bootscreen New branding New shortcut menu New way to close Immersive Apps New start button New Aero lite theme New Ribbon organization New splitted touch keyboard organisation

Windows Devices User Group Meeting - Windows Phone Navigation & Life Cycle by Tomer Shamam

במפגש משתמשים Windows Devices השני, שיתקיים במיקרוסופט רעננה, בתאריך 28/2/2012, יום שלישי, אני מעביר הרצאה בנושא Windows Phone Navigation and Application Life Cycle. בהרצאה זו אדבר על יכולות הניווט בין אפליקציות ובתוך אפליקציות Windows Phone, ואראה כיצד הן משפיעות על תהליך ריצת האפליקציה. כמו כן, נלמד להבדיל בין שני המצבים Dormancy ו- Tombstoning, וכיצד לקחת מצבים אלו בחשבון בזמן תכנון אפליקצית Windows Phone. לפרטים נוספים אודות הארוע, ורישום: http://windowsphonenavandlifecycle.eventbrite.com אשמח...

Advanced Windows Phone 7.5 Applications – Presentation and Demo by Tomer Shamam

Thank you for participating my Advanced Windows Phone 7.5 Applications session at Microsoft, Raanana today. It was a great fun, and I’m very happy that you’ve enjoyed the session. As I promissed, here is a SkyDrive link for both the Presentation and Demo code. Please leave comments should you have any questions about the session. Thanks, Tomer Shamam

Developers Seminar at Microsoft about Advanced Windows Phone 7.5 by Tomer Shamam

אני שמח להזמין אתכם ליום עיון למפתחים במיקרוסופט רעננה, בתאריך 13/2/2012 שיוצא ביום שני, בו אני מרצה בנושא Advanced Windows Phone 7.5 Applications . בהרצאה זו נדבר על מרכיב חדש שהתווסף לגרסת מנגו, שמאפשר לתהליכים באפליקציה לרוץ ברקע בזמן שהאפליקציה אינה רצה. מה שבעצם מכונה Background Task, ונלמד כיצד בעזרת תהליכים מקביליים אלו תוכל האפליקציה לעדכן Tiles, לבדוק שינויי סטטוס, לבצע סנכרון מול השרת, ועוד, ובו זמנית לשמור על חיי סוללה תקינים וחווית משתמש איכותית. פרטים נוספים אודות האירוע, והרשמה תוכלו...