Entries for Adam Kinney

New Features in Web Platform Installer v2 [New Features in Web Platform Installer v2]

Adam Kinney — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:14:00 GMT

What's new in version 2 of the Web Platform Installer?

Some of you may already know the "one-click install wonder tool", simply as the Web PI. Crystal Hoyer (PM), Andrew Brick (Dev) and Nitasha Verma (Test) came by the studio to talk about the new features released today including localized versions, many IIS Extensions, more tools and integration with the Windows Web App Gallery.

in reply to New Features in Web Platform Installer v2

U.S. Army using Silverlight for Resourcing Troops [U.S. Army using Silverlight for Resourcing Troops]

Adam Kinney — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:54:00 GMT

Dan Hickman from ProModel tells the story of converting their Predictive Troop Resourcing application for the U.S. Army from a Windows Forms application to a Silverlight-based application. Reusing existing .NET code, working with familiar controls from IdeaBlade, and helping to get Silverlight on the approved browser plug-ins list for the Army; ProModel was able to build the application in a very short amount of time.

in reply to U.S. Army using Silverlight for Resourcing Troops

Importing Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop files in Expression Blend 3

Adam Kinney — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:47:00 GMT

Janete Perez has posted a few blog posts on Photoshop Import in Expression Blend 3 and recently one on Importing Adobe Illustrator files in Expression Blend 3. The posts are definitely worth checking out if you think will ever need to import graphics into Blend.

Advanced Silverlight Rendering Techniques from Rick Barraza

Adam Kinney — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:25:00 GMT

Rick Barraza from Cynergy has been doing some great work showing how to use WritableBitmap and PixelShaders to create some very interesting effects in Silverlight. Check out both his recent posts Advanced Render Techniques with WriteableBitmaps and Fluid Dynamics in Silverlight.

Silverlight Control Template Modification Walkthrough from Dan Wahlin

Adam Kinney — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:08:00 GMT

Dan Wahlin has posted a tutorial on Cleaning Up the Disabled State of a Silverlight Control using Expression Blend. He shows how simple it is to update a control's template when it doesn't match the look of your UI.

A WPF WebBrowser Control that plays nice with layout and transforms

Adam Kinney — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Chris Cavanagh always seems to pick interesting projects. This time he's created a new WPF Web Browser control that plays nice with the WPF layout system and can be transformed.

Grab the source code or take a peek at his 3D Browser in the works.

Import artwork from Illustrator and easily make a scalable button in Silverlight

Adam Kinney — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:40:00 GMT

Peter Blois has posted a technique for creating Silverlight control templates from Illustrator artwork. In order to make the custom artwork scale appropriately he makes use of his Silverlight Nine Grid.

Embed the PDC2009 font in your Silverlight application

Adam Kinney — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:20:00 GMT

David Isbitski demonstrates how to install the PDC2009 font and then embed it in a Silverlight application. The nice thing is that the Font embed work can be done and customized with just a few clicks in the Font Manager tool in Blend.

Internet Explorer 8 Web Slice Tutorials Available

Adam Kinney — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:33:00 GMT

6 tutorials on Web Slices have been posted to MSDN.

"In these short lessons, you will learn how to add Web Slices to an existing Web page. You start with a Web page that contains a fictitious conference schedule, a weather report, and ticket auction for a hit Broadway musical. Initially, the page contains one simple Web Slice, but you will gradually implement additional functionality."

You can also download the Web Slice Tutorials for offline use.

Internet Explorer 8 named most secure browser

Adam Kinney — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:34:00 GMT

Yes, you read that right, Internet Explorer was named by NSS Labs the Most Secure Browser. Giorgio Sardo, our IE Evangelist, fittingly has all the details.

Silverlight Flag Effect from Charles Petzold

Adam Kinney — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:17:00 GMT

Charles Petzold posted a Flag Effect sample with source code for Silverlight. The image is diced up into many small square representations of an area of the image that is then transformed in coordination with all of the other elements.

WritableBitmap sample with Matrix4x4 from Joa Ebert

Adam Kinney — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:44:00 GMT

This is a very cool WritableBitmap sample from Joa Ebert with source code included. This was his first test with Silverlight, but it obviously shows his ActionScript skills transfer pretty easily.

Scale 9 Grid for Silverlight from Peter Blois

Adam Kinney — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:45:00 GMT

Peter Blois has created a Scale 9 grid in Silverlight. Using pixel shaders and Blend extensibility, Peter has a found a solution with design-time support and good performance.

ArcGIS Mapping and Charting API released for Silverlight and WPF

Adam Kinney — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:59:00 GMT

The ArcGIS API for Silverlight and WPF has been released along with a showcase application demonstrating some of the key concepts. Features include redlining (draw, edit, delete), layer controls, geodetic radius tool, line and polygon measure, GeoRSS layer, WMS Layer, Gazetteer locator control, HeatMap and more.

Home Shopping Network now in HD Smooth Streaming

Adam Kinney — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 23:00:00 GMT

The Home Shopping Network has upgraded their site to Silverlight 3 and their broadcast feeds to HD. This is the first 24x7 Smooth Streaming site that is accessible to the public. Almost makes you want to buy something... :)

The Power of Visual States in Silverlight from Jose Fajardo

Adam Kinney — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 22:28:00 GMT

Jose Fajardo has published a 4-part video series on the Power of States which highlights both the States feature within the Silverlight platform and the support for the feature in Expression Blend. He demonstrates his own technique along with the new features in version 3.

Windows 7 Training Kit for Developers now available

Adam Kinney — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:25:00 GMT

To help prepare your applications for Windows 7, download the Windows 7 Training Kit for Developers. The kit includes code, videos and labs for both native Win32 C++ developers and .NET developers covering the new features available in Windows 7.

3D Postcard Flip Behavior for Silverlight from Joel Neubeck

Adam Kinney — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:58:00 GMT

Joel Neubeck has posted two new behaviors. The first he calls the Flip TriggerAction, which provides the flipping postcard in the 3D space effect when clicked. The second behavior is Flip TargetedTriggerAction, which creates the same effect, but other elements, like a button, can trigger the flipping action.

Silverlight WritableBitmap Performance Test from Rene Schulte

Adam Kinney — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:49:00 GMT

Rene Schulte has been testing multiple implementations of dynamic bitmap images in Silverlight. He's posted his learnings along with the source code explaining how his test harness works.

TextTrimming TextBlock for Silverlight from Robby Ingebretsen

Adam Kinney — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:57:00 GMT

Robby has shared the source code for a TextBlock with TextTrimming for Silverlight, that neatly truncates text and adds an ellipses based on the amount of space available to the TextBlock.

Getting the most out of Silverlight 3 with the Griffs at PDC09

Adam Kinney — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:31:00 GMT

This is going to be a killer Workshop at PDC09:

"Come learn how the robust features of Silverlight 3 help developers to create innovative, compelling cross-platform internet applications without being limited by HTML and Javascript. In addition, hear some of the best practices and patterns for building Silverlight applications, and find out how to use Expression Blend to get the best productivity between designers and developers using them."

Learning about Silverlight and Blend from Ian Griffiths and Richard Griffin!

Silverlight Multi-touch tutorial from Tim Heuer

Adam Kinney — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:55:00 GMT

Tim Heuer presents the basics of Multi-touch in Silverlight tutorial along with a demo video and source code (both C# and VB). I can't wait to see what people build with this new feature in Silverlight 3.

Making Silverlight Code More Compatible with Blend using IsDesignTime

Adam Kinney — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:22:00 GMT

Dan Wahlin demonstrates a simple but very effective tip for Making Silverlight 3 Application Code More Compatible with Blend. The topic is centered around using a method exposed by the platform allowing to check when your code is running in DesignTime.

Drag and drop data features in Expression Blend

Adam Kinney — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:25:00 GMT

Evgeny takes us on a tour of some of the new functionality in Blend for working with Data. He demonstrates how can easily work with your sample-generated or working data by dragging and dropping fields to specific controls and areas in the workspace.

XAML Playground - A Designer built in Silverlight using Gestalt

Adam Kinney — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:00:00 GMT

Karsten Januszewski has posted a write up on his XAML Playground project, a design surface written in Silverlight using Gestalt. The source code is available so you can see a glimpse into the work it takes to create a design tool.