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Archive for the ‘WPF’ Category

Raising the right PropertyChanged with C# 5’s Caller Info Attributes

21 Sep
Implementing INotifyPropertyChanged typically requires the use of magic strings, and I've never been happy with the various workarounds available. They either affect performance or require a lot of extra developer ceremony (which is no good in big teams). I'd always been hoping that C# would introduce something similar to the "typeof" operator that would help you get the name of the current property (or method) without having to use any slow reflection. Before the "//BUILD/" conference, I had given up on C# 5 bringing in anything useful here. But then I was reading Colin Jack's summary of the //BUILD/ talk on Future directions for C# and Visual Basic, and was particularly interested by the new Caller Info Attributes feature of C# 5. This feature is not in the CTP of VS11 yet, so I can't test it, but I expect you'll be able to write the following RaisePropertyChanged method:
protected void RaisePropertyChanged([CallerMemberName] string member = "")
{
    var copy = PropertyChanged;
    if(copy != null)
    {
        copy(new PropertyChangedEventArgs(this, member));
    }
}
and now when you call this method from a property setter, leaving out the optional parameter:
public string UserName
{
    get
    {
        return _userName;
    }
    set
    {
        _userName=value;
        RaisePropertyChanged();
    }
}
the compiler will fill out the parameter for you, passing "UserName" to the RaisePropertyChanged method. What I like about this is that the compiler is creating the magic string for you on every compile - so when you rename your property, the string is automatically kept in sync. This is the best of both worlds, we get the performance benefits of a hardcoded string literal, while keeping everything DRY (and therefore hard to inadvertently break).  
 
22 Comments

Posted in .Net, WPF

 

Design time data nirvana in Blend 4

07 Feb
Quite a few of my posts have been about how to hack design time data into Blend. With Blend 4, you no longer have to hack! The new "Create Sample Data from Class..." option is perfect. Kirupa from the blend team has posted a great writeup on this technique. It works in WPF, Silverlight and WP7. Highly recommended.
 

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18 Dec

Thanks to Karl Shifflet and Unni Ravindranathan Buy tramadol from trusted pharmacy, , I've finally gotten my head around a superior method of populating Blend (and VS 2010's WPF designer) with sample data. This method, buy tramadol without a prescription, Tramadol price, coupon, which I am going to call the "DesignData build target", has the following advantages:


  • Blend will render your control as though it's running with real data, tramadol craiglist, Tramadol gel, ointment, cream, pill, spray, continuous-release, extended-release, as you design.

  • You won't have to look up and type magic strings when you're creating your bindings in Blend, Blend will be able to list the possible properties for you, order tramadol online c.o.d. Tramadol in canada, Intellisensational!

  • Once compiled, your output dll will have NO baggage associated with your designery frivolities.

  • You don't have to write lots of dummy / mock / stub code

  • You don't even have to finish writing your viewmodel: however you DO have to write all your properties, sale tramadol. Buy generic tramadol, This is a Good Thing, because it means your bindings will have the right magic strings in them.


How does it work?


First, buy tramadol online no prescription, Tramadol in us, you need a xaml file that builds up a sample instance of your viewmodel. Then all you have to do is set your Blend-specific DataContext to read from that file, buy cheap tramadol no rx.

How do I tell Blend where to get this design data?


I've already blogged about the d:DataContext attribute, letting you set up a DataContext but only inside Blend, buy tramadol from trusted pharmacy. Fast shipping tramadol, Another secret of the "d" xml namespace* is the {d:DesignData Source=someDesignDataFile.xaml} markup extension. So all you need in your UserControl or Window's xaml is (usually on the first element):

d:DataContext="{d:DesignData Source=someDesignDataFile.xaml}"

Karl's blog post explains this in a little more depth, tramadol san diego. Tramadol tablets,

What should be in this design data xaml file?


Just like you usually declare and populate a Window or UserControl, you can actually declare and populate your own view-models as the root element of a xaml file, online buying tramadol hcl. Tramadol to buy online, I got myself quite confused when I started working with this, because i didn't realise that the root element of the xaml file should be a declaration of your viewmodel (I was actually placing my viewmodel within a ResourceDictionary >< ):

image

Here you can see I've defined a new ScrumBoardDesignDataDemo.ViewModel.Board, tramadol in usa, Tramadol trusted pharmacy reviews, and started assigning some StageNames to it. Buy tramadol from trusted pharmacy, I've used the clr namespace of my viewmodel classes ("ScrumBoardDesignDataDemo.ViewModel") as the default xml namespace, instead of using what xaml files usually give you: the WPF control namespace. This just cuts down on the amount of typing required, tramadol in japan. Delivered overnight tramadol, Normally, if you're trying to instantiate a class without a public, buy tramadol from canada, Saturday delivery tramadol, parameterless constructor in xaml, you'll get a compiler error, buy cheap tramadol. Tramadol over the counter, You also won't be able to set properties that don't have public setters. This technique allows Blend to do a bit of magic (reflectively creating a doppelganger of your class) that means you can bend the rules a little, tramadol for sale. More on that in my next post, buy tramadol from trusted pharmacy. Buy no prescription tramadol online, Let's just concentrate on getting some sample data into Blend.

By now, tramadol from international pharmacy, Purchase tramadol, if you go into Blend and you try to set up a binding through the binding dialog (you get this by clicking on the peg next to a property, say ItemsSource, purchase tramadol online no prescription, Tramadol overseas, and choosing Binding), you'll get  this helpful dialog:

image

See how the "Fields" tree is populated, tramadol prices. Tramadol in uk, That's Blend's version of intellisense, which means you no longer have to rely on knowing what the right property name is and hand-typing it, tramadol from canadian pharmacy. Buy tramadol no prescription, Don't go away. Buy tramadol from trusted pharmacy, We are only half finished. Blend might be helping you choose property names, over the counter tramadol, Buy tramadol online without prescription, but we're left with two more problems:


  • Blend isn't displaying the sample data on screen.

  • This xaml file full of things that were only useful during development is being shipped to our customers inside our DLL.


We can fix this with a simple, but quirky little feature, tramadol to buy. Ordering tramadol online, By setting our design data file's build action to "DesignData" we will have both of our problems fixed. Blend will realise that it's ok to try and instantiate the object in the xaml file, tramadol pills, Tramadol prescriptions, and MSBuild will leave that xaml file out of our dll.

Setting DesignData build action for the first time


Normally, tramadol paypal, Buy tramadol online without a prescription, if you have a look at the properties of a xaml file in visual studio you'll see that the Build Action is set to "Page", or in the case of App.xaml it's "ApplicationDefinition", where can i find tramadol online. You'd think that it's just a simple matter of typing the word "DesignData" into that combobox, but if you try this, you'll get an exception message, buy tramadol from trusted pharmacy. Tramadol in india, Karl's blog post is about a template he wrote that gets over this problem (by creating the file with all the right properties for you), but I had to figure out how the magic worked, where can i buy cheapest tramadol online. Where can i order tramadol without prescription, It turns out that it's relatively easy to work around this, you just have to edit the csproj file manually, tramadol medication. Real brand tramadol online, I'll walk you through doing this with visual studio – although you could just as easily use notepad.

Save all your files, buying tramadol online over the counter, Order tramadol online overnight delivery no prescription, right click your WPF project and choose "Unload". Buy tramadol from trusted pharmacy, This puts your project into a disabled state where you can't do anything but hand edit the xml – which is exactly what we want to do.


  1. Right click the (now greyed out) project file and choose "Edit".

  2. Locate the design data xaml file: image

  3. Edit the element to be a "DesignData" element with no children: image

  4. Save your csproj file, order tramadol from mexican pharmacy, Tramadol in mexico, right click it and choose "Reload"


Now if you compile your project, you'll find that all traces of this design data have been erased, buy tramadol without prescription. Online buy tramadol without a prescription, Even better, if you go back to blend, where to buy tramadol, Cod online tramadol, you'll see that your sample data is now present (you may have to rebuild or even reload the project):

image

So hopefully you've got another tool in your toolbox to help you (or your graphic designer) be effective in Blend. This is my favourite method so far, buy tramadol online cod, Free tramadol samples, however there's a couple of situations where it might be unsuitable. My next post will be all about why, where can i buy tramadol online, Where to buy tramadol, but just so you know, this doesn't work well when:


  • You want custom logic to occur in your viewmodel at design time (ie a Color property on your viewmodel changes whenever another integer property goes below zero)

  • You are using DataTemplates with no Key, order tramadol from United States pharmacy, Buy cheap tramadol, just a DataType, and are relying on WPF to find the Template by your ViewModel class, where can i buy tramadol online. Tramadol san diego, (I understand that Silverlight doesn't support this anyway, so no problem there!)


As always, where can i buy cheapest tramadol online, I'm keen to know if I got anything wrong. There isn't much information about the whole "d:" namespace on the internet. Also, my third and final post in this series (about the magic that makes this work and how said magic causes the above problems) will come with a demo project.

* This namespace is actually http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008, but Blend always imports this as "d".

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Buy Topamax From Trusted Pharmacy

16 Dec

Buy topamax from trusted pharmacy, How do you make sure that what you (or your designer) sees in Expression Blend is exactly what the finished product will look like. Buy topamax online cod, A while ago I posted about the d:DataContext attribute in Blend, and how you could leverage that to populate Blend with realistic sample data, buy topamax no prescription. Topamax in australia, What was awesome about that.


  • You could see exactly how the finished product would look WHILE you were designing, buy topamax without a prescription. Topamax paypal, True WYSIWYG means efficient designers!

  • Blend would provide typesafe data binding (I don't think I called this out, but bringing up the Binding dialog box shows a chooser for correct property names, topamax craiglist. Bye bye magic strings!)

  • Having sample data in your ItemsPresenters/ListBoxes/TreeViews means that blend will let you edit the template in place, providing for an even more useful WYSIWYG experience.


If you haven't tried it yet, but you are a XAML developer, I really suggest you try developing a screen in Blend when it's populated with sample data, buy topamax from trusted pharmacy. Fast shipping topamax, It's just so easy. With unit tests on your viewmodel and sample data in Blend, buy topamax online with no prescription, Buy topamax from mexico, you can finish a screen without ever having to press F5. Okay, topamax prices, Purchase topamax online no prescription, maybe once, but you'll be super happy because everything will work the way it was intended, topamax discount. Buy topamax online without prescription,

But at what cost?


Here are the problems that I've found with this approach in my own projects:

I often had to write alot of code, either dummy services to be passed into the viewmodel, topamax in us, Topamax in india, or lots and lots of code to simply add things into the derived viewmodel's collections. Buy topamax from trusted pharmacy, This code (often hacked together) got deployed, bloating my DLL file. This sucks extra for Silverlight where the DLL has to be downloaded every time) and, topamax in uk, Topamax in canada, well, looking messy, buying topamax online over the counter. Cod online topamax, Depending on how your viewmodel is coded, you can't always provide a simple design-time subclass that will populate everything you want, real brand topamax online. Buy generic topamax, While Dependency Injection is awesome, we aren't all the architects on our projects, buy cheap topamax no rx, Topamax prescriptions, and you might get handed a viewmodel that relies on hard coded dependencies that will do yucky things like call web services, read files or connect to a database, topamax trusted pharmacy reviews. Topamax over the counter, Other times, the ways in which the services are used are so watertight that it's impossible (or at least it would take hundreds of lines of well thought out code) to make sure you had the right sample data for your designer, buy topamax without prescription.

Whenever the viewmodel or the services evolved, the design-time viewmodel needed to keep up, buy topamax from trusted pharmacy. Free topamax samples, Often (on my project), the person adding features to the viewmodel wasn't the person who cared about the design time viewmodel, sale topamax. Purchase topamax, Sometimes they took the effort to make sure the design-time viewmodel compiled, other times they deleted it, topamax tablets. Buy topamax online no prescription, Which is fair enough, they didn't write the code, next day topamax, Where can i order topamax without prescription, they don't see the point of it, all its doing is helping me design the XAML, online buy topamax without a prescription. Buy topamax from canada, So I'd end up restoring the file from source control, adding it back into the project, over the counter topamax, Topamax medication, and maintaining it, which was often a lot of effort, where can i find topamax online. Topamax from international pharmacy,

The solution


In the meantime, I've been reading around the blogosphere and found a better way to do design data in blend, delivered overnight topamax. Order topamax from mexican pharmacy, It doesn't rely on Dependency Injection (although DI is lovely), it's easy to maintain and best of all it has NO effect on your compiled DLL, purchase topamax online. Topamax for sale, Stay tuned, having gone over (in tedious detail) the why of this new approach, topamax pills, Topamax in mexico, I'm going write a new post about how. Buy no prescription topamax online. Topamax to buy. Ordering topamax online. Saturday delivery topamax. Online buying topamax hcl. Order topamax online c.o.d. Topamax in japan. Buy topamax online without a prescription. Where to buy topamax. Topamax gel, ointment, cream, pill, spray, continuous-release, extended-release. Topamax from canadian pharmacy. Topamax to buy online. Topamax price, coupon. Where to buy topamax. Topamax buy online. Topamax overseas. Order topamax no prescription. Rx free topamax. Order topamax online overnight delivery no prescription. Topamax in usa.

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Buy Naltrexone From Trusted Pharmacy

02 Aug

Update: I've detailed another technique for implementing design time data in blend in this newer post (using something called DesignData) Buy naltrexone from trusted pharmacy, How can you develop a complex GUI without ever needing to build and run it.

WYSIWYG tools have come a long way in recent years, buying naltrexone online over the counter, Buy cheap naltrexone no rx, and if you're building a WPF app you can't go past Microsoft's newly-released Expression Blend 3. I'd always preferred Blend 2 over Visual Studio 2008 for building my XAML, buy generic naltrexone, Online buy naltrexone without a prescription, not least because of the Silverlight support. But Blend 3 has some features that quite frankly put me in GUI developer nirvana, naltrexone trusted pharmacy reviews. Real brand naltrexone online, Sketchflow shows an awful lot of promise, but what's really floating my boat is the almost undocumented design time only datacontext support, naltrexone in japan. What does that even mean, buy naltrexone from trusted pharmacy. Naltrexone in uk, Let me use a simple WPF game, Connect 4, naltrexone to buy, Naltrexone san diego, to show you...

Lets say I've already built the game, order naltrexone from United States pharmacy. Saturday delivery naltrexone, Just pretend I'd even written most of the XAML by hand. Here's what the game looks like when it's just been launched:

running_startgame

and here's a game that's partway through:

running_midgame

Buy naltrexone from trusted pharmacy, Perfect. Where can i buy cheapest naltrexone online, The game is finished. Let me tell you about how this was built:

First, online buying naltrexone hcl, Order naltrexone online overnight delivery no prescription, I coded my ViewModel, a bunch of classes that the XAML binds to, naltrexone prices. Where can i order naltrexone without prescription, I've implemented INotifyPropertyChanged where necessary, and am using ObservableCollections instead of Lists, rx free naltrexone. Naltrexone gel, ointment, cream, pill, spray, continuous-release, extended-release, Note that this is quite a simple game, and I don't really have a Model (in the M-V-VM sense) to speak of:

viewmodel

The Game is the root of everything, naltrexone in usa, Naltrexone over the counter, it tracks the Players, whos turn it is, buy naltrexone from canada, Naltrexone trusted pharmacy reviews, and the Columns. Columns have a collection of Cells, and Cells track whether or not  a Token has been placed within, buy naltrexone from trusted pharmacy. I've exposed a Command on the Column class, over the counter naltrexone, Where can i find naltrexone online, which picks up mouse clicks through a tall, invisible button in my XAML, naltrexone paypal. Buy naltrexone without a prescription, The XAML for this game is quite straightforward. The window contains an ItemsControl for the columns, naltrexone to buy online, Purchase naltrexone online, the column template contains an ItemsControl for the cells, and the cell template renders a blue rectangle with a hole in it, naltrexone pills, Buy naltrexone online cod, and an optional token. Grab the code and check it out if you like - you can download all this source at the bottom of the post.

Lets say that I had made this Viewmodel the datacontext of my main Window in the Window.Loaded event:

public void Window_Loaded(...){LayoutRoot.DataContext=new Game(7,5);}

When I come to edit the XAML in Blend (let's say I was planning to make the UI look a bit foxier, sale naltrexone, Naltrexone craiglist, with animations and gradients and whatnot), this is what I get:

No data in blend

Which is fair enough, buy naltrexone from mexico, Naltrexone for sale, because blend is effectively running my program with no data. Buy naltrexone from trusted pharmacy, The Window_Loaded event won't be fired by Blend, Blend only works with the XAML. The Visual Studio WPF designer has the same problem:

Visual Studio with no data

A feature of WPF that has always existed, naltrexone prescriptions, Purchase naltrexone online no prescription, and is completely cool is that you can shift this datacontext declaration into your XAML (Note that the use of an ObjectDataProvider is optional. If we were using silverlight we'd turn these constructor arguments into properties):

xaml_datacontext

Even before Blend 3 came along, where can i buy naltrexone online, Purchase naltrexone, doing this would mean that Blend (and Visual Studio) would be able to render your XAML as though a game had just started:

blend_realdata

This is nice. Now we get a good idea of how the GUI will really look when it's running, buy no prescription naltrexone online. Order naltrexone no prescription, We can even edit the XAML Templates in place (to see what I mean, download the source, buy naltrexone without prescription, Naltrexone in australia, right click an ItemsControl and edit its ItemsTemplate). We'd be in big trouble, however, if our ViewModel tried to call anything external on construction, buy naltrexone from trusted pharmacy. For example, buy generic naltrexone, Where to buy naltrexone, if we were building a twitter client, we might start downloading tweets through a web service call, naltrexone in canada. Next day naltrexone, This may or may not work when your code is running inside blend, but you'd be working with variable results, buy naltrexone online without prescription, Naltrexone in us, and as soon as you have an exception your designer would die. Jonas Follesoe has a great post that talks about how you can leverage Dependency Injection to get design time data services and runtime data services going, where to buy naltrexone. Online buy naltrexone without a prescription, Go read it - that's the post that made me realise how cool and important it is to get realistic data into your design time experience. Buy naltrexone from trusted pharmacy, Now that Blend 3 is out, however, we've got a new tool in our belt. I don't know if you've ever tried to change the DesignWidth or DesignHeight of a UserControl or Window from Blend, delivered overnight naltrexone. Naltrexone price, coupon, This post explains it pretty well, if you haven't... Well, fast shipping naltrexone, Buying naltrexone online over the counter, Blend will go and add a bunch of namespace declarations to your XAML, the most important alias of which is "d", buy naltrexone no prescription. Naltrexone buy online, You'll notice that you can put d:DesignWidth in any element you like, and nothing will happen at runtime, buy naltrexone online no prescription. Naltrexone in india, If you're lucky (or you put it in the right place), blend will pick up this design-time data, buy cheap naltrexone no rx, Buy cheap naltrexone, and will render your control at that width, but only from within blend, naltrexone tablets. The fact that your XAML can contain directives that will only be executed / honoured / considered by Blend is quite a powerful one.  There aren't very many of these attributes available, however,  Blend 3 introduced a big one: "d:DataContext", buy naltrexone from trusted pharmacy.

I stumbled across d:Datacontext when I was playing with Blend 3 and tried adding a "live datasource" to my window. I thought it was going to behave just like the old way of setting a DataContext, but when I ran my application, there was no data. I had a look at the XAML and saw that a Datacontext was being set on my root element, just like I expected. But why wasn't this being applied at runtime. Buy naltrexone from trusted pharmacy, I had a really, really close look at the XAML and spotted the "d:" before the word datacontext. Sweet. I deleted that, and the app ran as expected. My next thought was to try setting both a design time (d:) and a run time (no d:) Datacontext. It worked.

So the upshot is, now we can write code like this:

Setting a runtime AND a designtime datacontext

Or we can even set the real DataContext at runtime through the Window_Loaded (or whatever) event, buy naltrexone from trusted pharmacy. Why is this exciting. Now, it's easyto have blend show a truly representative form of our gui at design time:

blend_designdata

This, by the way, was acheived with the following design time subclass of Game:

code_designgame

Simple, no. By using an ObjectDataProvider, we can even prevent the DesignTimeGame from even being instantiated at runtime. If you're coding in silverlight, you'd use an alternative: "d:DataContext={d:DesignInstance vm:DesignTimeGame}", which would only work with an empty constructor - which is fine, because even if the runtime game requires constructor parameters, we can just write an empty designtimegame constructor that passes some dummy ones in. Buy naltrexone from trusted pharmacy, Now that we've got this design time data, it's much easier to spruce things up in the XAML (note that I'm editing a template in-place, and that I deliberately coded the design time model to have a token in the top left cell):

Editing a template in place with DesignTime data

I can't really express how much easier this design time data can make your coding. So please, download my example project, open it in blend 3, and try (for example) adding a gradient overlay to the tokens, or even just resizing them. I have to admit, I didn't hand code the XAML, I blended it in about ten minutes once I had the design time data available to me. And I didn't have to run it till I'd finished.

Download the Connect4 Source here.

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