Channel 9

Microsoft DevRadio: (Part 1) APIMASH Starter Kit – Building a Meetup / Bing Maps Windows App

G. Andrew Duthie, DevRadio, ChrisCaldwell, API Mash — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 17:00:06 GMT

Abstract:
With unprecedented reach across a range of devices and availability in over 200 markets, there’s never been a better time to build for Windows and Windows Phone. APIMash Starter Kits for Windows show you how to use public Web Service APIs (such as Bing, Edmunds, Tom-Tom, Twitter, Tumblr, Yelp, Meetup and many others) to create compelling Windows Apps.

These starter kits will provide you a scenario, an app concept and a rich data set so you can more quickly develop any type of app and in a language of your choice, HTML5/JS or XAML/C#. Each kit calls an API, de-serializes the JSON/XML payload, copies the results in a View Model and binds to UI controls.

In today’s episode Andrew Duthie demos for us the Meetup/ Bing Maps Starter Kit. It leverages the Meetup.com API to search for upcoming meetups near a given location, with optional keyword filtering. Once the meetups are retrieved, the starter kit maps a selected item, and queries the Bing Maps Search API for nearby coffee shops, and maps those as well.

Check out all the APIMASH Starter Kits here | Download the Meetup/Bing Maps APIMASH Starter Kit

Next Steps:
Step #1 – Download the Tools for Windows 8 App Development
Step #2 – Download Visual Studio Express for Windows 8
Step #3 – Start building your own Apps for Windows 8

Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes, Windows Phone Marketplace, or RSS

If you're interested in learning more about the products or solutions discussed in this episode, click on any of the below links for free, in-depth information:

Blogs & Articles:

Videos:

7 Part Series – Using Windows Azure to Build Back-End Services for Windows 8 Apps

Virtual Labs:

Windows 8 Virtual Labs

Microsoft DevRadio: (Part 7) Using Windows Azure to Build Back-End Services for Windows 8 Apps – Authentication Tips and Tricks

Brian, G. Andrew Duthie, Peter Laudati, DevRadio, ChrisCaldwell — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 11:00:40 GMT

Like what you heard? Try Windows Azure for FREE and enjoy the freedom to use your preferred OS, language, database or tool. Windows Azure can help you deploy sites to a highly scalable environment, deploy and run virtual machines, and create highly scalable applications in a rich PaaS & IaaS environment. Give it a try!

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Abstract:
Wrapping up their “Using Windows Azure to Build Back-End Services for Windows 8 apps” series Brian Hitney , Andrew Duthie and Peter Laudati, as they showoff some useful tips and tricks around authentication for your Windows Azure Mobile Server based apps. Tune in as they enable persistent login for a mobile service, and then discuss how we can get additional information about users from the configured identity provider(s). Check out the full article here.

After watching this video, follow these next steps:

Step #1 – Try Windows Azure: No cost. No obligation. Start your FREE trial now.
Step #2 – Download the Tools for Windows 8 App Development
Step #3 – Start building your own Apps for Windows 8

Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes or RSS

If you're interested in learning more about the products or solutions discussed in this episode, click on any of the below links for free, in-depth information:

Blogs & Articles:

Videos:

Virtual Labs:

MSDN Virtual Labs: Windows Azure

Microsoft DevRadio: (Part 6) Using Windows Azure to Build Back-End Services for Windows 8 Apps – Adding Authentication

Brian, G. Andrew Duthie, Peter Laudati, DevRadio, ChrisCaldwell — Wed, 08 May 2013 12:00:59 GMT

Like what you heard? Try Windows Azure for FREE and enjoy the freedom to use your preferred OS, language, database or tool. Windows Azure can help you deploy sites to a highly scalable environment, deploy and run virtual machines, and create highly scalable application in a rich PaaS environment. Give it a try!

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Abstract:
In Part 6 of of their “Using Windows Azure to Build Back-End Services for Windows 8 apps” series Brian Hitney and Andrew Duthie explore the world of built-in support for authentication in Windows Azure Mobile Services. Tune in as they quickly demo for us the process of adding authentication for your mobile and Windows Store apps. Check out the full article here.

Watch Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

After watching this video, follow these next steps:

Step #1 – Try Windows Azure: No cost. No obligation. 90-Day FREE trial.
Step #2 – Download the Tools for Windows 8 App Development
Step #3 – Start building your own Apps for Windows 8

Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes or RSS

If you're interested in learning more about the products or solutions discussed in this episode, click on any of the below links for free, in-depth information:

Register for our Windows Azure Hands-on Lab Online (HOLO) events today!

Windows Azure Hands-on Labs Online

Blogs & Articles

Videos:

Virtual Labs:

MSDN Virtual Labs: Windows Azure

Microsoft DevRadio: (Part 5) Using Windows Azure to Build Back-End Services for Windows 8 Apps – Adding Push Notifications

Brian, G. Andrew Duthie, Peter Laudati, DevRadio, ChrisCaldwell — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:00:05 GMT

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Abstract:
In Part 5 of of their “Using Windows Azure to Build Back-End Services for Windows 8 apps” series Peter Laudati, Brian Hitney and Andrew Duthie show us how to quickly add the ability to implement push notifications for his GameLeader Service using Azure Mobile Services. Check out the full article here.

Watch Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

After watching this video, follow these next steps:

Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes or RSS

If you're interested in learning more about the products or solutions discussed in this episode, click on any of the below links for free, in-depth information:

Register for our Windows Azure Hands-on Lab Online (HOLO) events today!

Windows Azure Hands-on Labs Online

Blogs:

Videos:

Virtual Labs:

MSDN Virtual Labs: Windows Azure

Microsoft DevRadio: (Part 4) Using Windows Azure to Build Back-End Services for Windows 8 Apps – Azure Mobile Services

Brian, G. Andrew Duthie, Peter Laudati, DevRadio, ChrisCaldwell — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 11:00:14 GMT

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Abstract:
In Part 4 of of their “Using Windows Azure to Build Back-End Services for Windows 8 apps” series Peter Laudati, Brian Hitney and Andrew Duthie show us how to build the same game leaderboard service on top of Windows Azure Mobile Services. Tune in as Andrew demos for us how to get started as well as lays out what some of the +/- are for using Azure Mobile Services for this kind of service. Check out the full article here.

Watch Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

After watching this video, follow these next steps:

Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes or RSS

If you're interested in learning more about the products or solutions discussed in this episode, click on any of the below links for free, in-depth information:

Register for our Windows Azure Hands-on Lab Online (HOLO) events today!

Windows Azure Hands-on Labs Online

Blogs:

Videos:

Virtual Labs:

MSDN Virtual Labs: Windows Azure

Microsoft DevRadio: (Part 3) Using Windows Azure to Build Back-End Services for Windows 8 Apps – ASP.NET Web API

Brian, G. Andrew Duthie, Peter Laudati, DevRadio, ChrisCaldwell — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 11:00:16 GMT

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Abstract:
Back for part 3 in their series for “Using Windows Azure to Build Back-End Services for Windows 8 apps”, Peter Laudati, Brian Hitney and Andrew Duthie show us how easy it is to host services built with the ASP.NET Web API using the new Windows Azure Web Sites feature. Check out the full article here.

Watch Part 1 | Part 2

IMPORTANT:

The Queryable attribute, as shown in the demo in this show, allows all supported query operations by default. Since some of these operations could potentially be used to attempt to mount DOS attacks, by sending complex queries to your service. As such, you should consider limiting the types of queries you allow using some simple properties you can add to the Queryable attribute, as shown in this blog post.

After watching this video, follow these next steps:

Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes or RSS

If you're interested in learning more about the products or solutions discussed in this episode, click on any of the below links for free, in-depth information:

Register for our Windows Azure Hands-on Lab Online (HOLO) events today!

Windows Azure Hands-on Labs Online

Blogs:

Videos:

Virtual Labs:

MSDN Virtual Labs: Windows Azure

Microsoft DevRadio: (Part 2) Using Windows Azure to Build Back-End Services for Windows 8 Apps

Brian, G. Andrew Duthie, Peter Laudati, DevRadio, ChrisCaldwell — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:00:32 GMT

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Abstract:
Peter Laudati, Brian Hitney and Andrew Duthie are back for part 2 of their series and in today's episode Andrew shows us how to deploy the OData Service for his Windows 8 app to Windows Azure as well as outlines the advantages and disadvantages to building back-end services via this approach. Check out the full article now!

Watch Part 1 here

After watching this video, follow these next steps:

Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes or RSS

If you're interested in learning more about the products or solutions discussed in this episode, click on any of the below links for free, in-depth information:

Register for our Windows Azure Hands-on Lab Online (HOLO) events today!

Windows Azure Hands-on Labs Online

Blogs:

Videos:

Microsoft DevRadio: How to Integrate TFS Projects with Windows Azure Web Sites

Virtual Labs:

MSDN Virtual Labs: Windows Azure

Microsoft DevRadio: (Part 1) Using Windows Azure to Build Back-End Services for Windows 8 Apps

Brian, G. Andrew Duthie, Peter Laudati, DevRadio, ChrisCaldwell — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 12:00:41 GMT

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Abstract:
Peter Laudati and Brian Hitney welcome fellow Developer Evangelist, Andrew Duthie to the show as they kick off their series on how to build back-end services for their Windows 8 apps using Windows Azure. Tune in for part 1 as Andrew gives an overview of the series and introduces some potential techniques you could incorporate as you build your back-end services.

After watching this video, follow these next steps:

Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes or RSS

If you're interested in learning more about the products or solutions discussed in this episode, click on any of the below links for free, in-depth information:

Register for our Windows Azure Hands-on Lab Online (HOLO) events today!

Windows Azure Hands-on Labs Online

Blogs:

Videos:

Microsoft DevRadio: How to Integrate TFS Projects with Windows Azure Web Sites

Virtual Labs:

MSDN Virtual Labs: Windows Azure

Microsoft DevRadio: (Part 3) Using Blend to Help Design Your Windows 8 Apps–Interactive Mode

G. Andrew Duthie, DevRadio, ChrisCaldwell — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:00:21 GMT

Abstract:
In the final part of our Using Blend for Windows 8 apps series, Andrew Duthie and Kirupa Chinnathambi take a look at the Interactive Mode for Blend and demo for us how to style a template using CSS, data binding and more.

Next Steps:
Step #1 – Download the Tools for Windows 8 App Development
Step #2 – Download Visual Studio Express for Windows 8
Step #3 – Start building your own Apps for Windows 8

Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes, Zune, or RSS

If you're interested in learning more about the products or solutions discussed in this episode, click on any of the below links for free, in-depth information:

Websites:

Blogs & Articles:

Videos:

Virtual Labs:

Windows 8 Release Preview Virtual Labs

Microsoft DevRadio: (Part 2) Using Blend to Help Design Your Windows 8 Apps–Designing for Devices

G. Andrew Duthie, DevRadio, ChrisCaldwell — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 11:00:35 GMT

Abstract:
In Part 2 of our Using Blend for Windows 8 apps series, Andrew Duthie and Kirupa Chinnathambi take a deep dive into how you can use Blend to easily design your Windows 8 apps for various devices. In this episode they’ll show you how to use the device panel and how to react to views and view states.

Next Steps:
Step #1 – Download the Tools for Windows 8 App Development
Step #2 – Download Visual Studio Express for Windows 8
Step #3 – Start building your own Apps for Windows 8

Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes, Zune, or RSS

If you're interested in learning more about the products or solutions discussed in this episode, click on any of the below links for free, in-depth information:

Websites:

Blogs & Articles:

Videos:

Virtual Labs:

Windows 8 Release Preview Virtual Labs

Leverage the Maps app in your Windows Store app with Protocol Activation

G. Andrew Duthie — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 22:40:14 GMT

In this DevNugget, Microsoft Technical Evangelist G. Andrew Duthie, shows how you can leverage the functionality of the Maps app that ships with Windows 8 to provide mapping and directions for users of your app, using a simple uri syntax to leverage the Maps app's support for protocol activation.

The official docs for the Maps app uri scheme can be found here.

You can read more at his blog post on the subject, part of his "Windows 8: What I've Learned" series.

UPDATE: You can now download Community Megaphone for Windows 8 at:

http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/en-US/app/community-megaphone/65b28d25-c987-410f-8f72-c05cdb6fc55c

Microsoft DevRadio: (Part 1) Using Blend to Help Design Your Windows 8 Apps

G. Andrew Duthie, DevRadio, ChrisCaldwell — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 11:00:42 GMT

Abstract:
Andrew Duthie and Program Manager Kirupa Chinnathambi from the Microsoft Expression Blend team join us for part one of this series as we take an inside look at how Blend can help developers design their Windows 8 apps. Tune in as they build a basic “hello world” application, add HTML assets and style it using CSS.

Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes, Zune, or RSS

If you're interested in learning more about the products or solutions discussed in this episode, click on any of the below links for free, in-depth information:

Websites:

Blogs & Articles:

Videos:

Virtual Labs:

Windows 8 Release Preview Virtual Labs

Microsoft DevRadio: Reasons Why You Should Develop a Windows 8 App

G. Andrew Duthie, Jennifer Marsman, DevRadio, ChrisCaldwell — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 16:12:43 GMT

Abstract:
Andrew Duthie and Jennifer Marsman join us for today’s show as they discuss their top reasons for developing applications for Windows 8. From market potential and size, optimized discovery, flexible and money making opportunities, as well as free tools and guidance--- there’s no better time than right now to develop your Windows 8 app.

Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes, Zune, or RSS

If you're interested in learning more about the products or solutions discussed in this episode, click on any of the below links for free, in-depth information:

Websites:

Blogs & Articles:

Videos:

Virtual Labs:

Windows 8 Release Preview Virtual Labs

Microsoft DevRadio: Top 10 Windows 8 Secrets for App Success

G. Andrew Duthie, DevRadio, ChrisCaldwell — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 11:00:55 GMT

Abstract:
Andrew Duthie and Chris Bowen share with us their Top 10 Windows 8 secrets for App success. Tune in as they discuss the incredible money making opportunities available for developers who jump in and develop applications for Windows 8 as well as what free tools and services are available to help you along the way.

Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes, Zune, or RSS

If you're interested in learning more about the products or solutions discussed in this episode, click on any of the below links for free, in-depth information:

Websites:

Blogs & Articles:

Videos:

Virtual Labs:

Windows 8 Release Preview Virtual Labs

How Do I: Add Settings to a Windows 8 application?

G. Andrew Duthie, ChrisCaldwell — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 05:06:19 GMT

Abstract:
This video introduces and demonstrates the basic techniques needed to implement the Settings contract in a Windows 8 application using the WinJS libraries. You’ll see how to create the markup and script to implement and wire up a WinJS SettingsFlyout control that will smoothly integrate your app’s settings experience with the Windows 8 settings charm, making your apps settings easily discoverable, and consistent with other Windows 8 apps.

Next Steps:
Step #1 – Download Windows 8 Release Preview and Windows 8 SDK
Step #2 – Download Visual Studio Express for Windows 8
Step #3 – Start building your own Apps for Windows 8

Microsoft DevRadio: Developing a Windows 8 app for the “Rock, Paper, Azure” challenge

Brian, G. Andrew Duthie, Peter Laudati, DevRadio, ChrisCaldwell — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 16:46:29 GMT

Abstract:
In today’s episode Developer Evangelists Andrew Duthie, Brian Hitney and Peter Laudati recap the “Rock, Paper, Azure” – (#BeatTheGu) challenge from this year’s TechEd as well as how they built a Windows 8 Appfor the competition. Tune in for this lessons learned session on what considerations and features Andrew took into the design of the app.

Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes, Zune, or RSS

If you're interested in learning more about the products or solutions discussed in this episode, click on any of the below links for free, in-depth information:

Websites:

Blogs & Articles:

Videos:

Virtual Labs:

Windows 8 Release Preview Virtual Labs

Gadgeteer LED Matrix Module Demo

G. Andrew Duthie — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 02:15:32 GMT

Quick demo of the new (NOTE: this module only works with .NET Micro Framework 4.2, and the driver is still in beta at the time of this writing) LED Matrix module for .NET Gadgeteer, manufactured by GHI Electronics. The module, which is based on the DaisyLink protocol, and contains its own microprocessor (which can be flashed and reprogrammed, if desired) provides an 8x8 matrix of red LEDs for displaying patterns or glyphs.

In this video, I am using a helper class I wrote to display "HELLO WORLD". The driver for the module exposes a single API, DrawBitmap, which takes as an argument a byte array representing the on/off pattern for the LEDs. To make working with the module simpler, I wrote a class with a series of static properties that return the byte array for the uppercase English letters A-Z and numbers 0-9.

To generate the byte arrays required for each letter, I wrote up a quick and dirty HTML and JavaScript utility that displays an 8x8 array of checkboxes, which you can use to create the desired glyph, and which automatically provides the correctly-formatted byte array for use with the LED Matrix module.

With my helper class, I simply create an ArrayList of the letters I want to display, then loop through the ArrayList, displaying each letter in turn. I've named the letters using the NATO phonetic alphabet to make the API intuitive without using single letter property names.

Links:

.NET Gadgeteer and MIDI: Meet the MeeBlipiator

G. Andrew Duthie — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 19:01:49 GMT

Demonstration of my latest Gadgeteer project, a simple 8-step one-octave arpeggiator using Pete Brown's MIDI Module to drive a MeeBlip micro synthesizer.

Full source code is available at http://sdrv.ms/MeeBlipiatorSrc (MS-PL)

Detailed blog post at:

http://devhammer.net/blog/gadgeteer-and-midi-making-music-with-microcontrollers

CORRECTION: In the video, I note that my enclosure is a modified version of the "Gadgeteer Arcade Module". What I meant to say was "Gadgeteer Arcade Cabinet Enclosure". You can find the Ponoko project to make your own Gadgeteer Arcade Cabinet Enclosure here:

http://www.ponoko.com/showroom/NETGadgeteerProjects

Video: FEZ Spider .NET Gadgeteer Starter Kit Unboxing

G. Andrew Duthie — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 03:14:36 GMT

Just wanted to quickly share a video of me unboxing my latest gear, the FEZ Spider .NET Gadgeteer Starter Kit, from GHI Electronics. I also wrote up an intro to the starter kit and the platform on my devhammer blog, including lots of pictures, which you can view here.

Video: MADExpo Kinect-enabled Session Finder

G. Andrew Duthie — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 03:03:55 GMT

Here's a video of a fun and cool project I worked on for the Mid Atlantic Developer Expo, namely a Kinect-enabled Session Finder.

The project uses the recently-released Kinect SDK for Windows beta, a custom version of the Session Sorter code from the MADExpo website, hosted in a WebBrowser control within a WPF application (the page uses the isotope.js library for sorting, filtering, and animated transitions, which would be a lot of work to replicate in WPF, so hosting in a WebBrowser control saved time). The WPF application is useful since I can use it to capture audio from Kinect and enable speech recognition, as well as to run the app in kiosk mode. Meanwhile, in the background, I'm running the Coding4Fun Mouse Cursor sample, which captures my gestures and turns them into mouse moves and clicks.

One tricky bit was getting the speech recognition commands passed through to the web page hosted inside the WPF app. Turns out that the WebBrowser control exposes a method called InvokeScript, which you can use to call a named function within the target page. So I coded up a series of javascript functions on the underlying page to do things like scroll up or down, simulate a click on the sort and filter elements (using jQuery's .click() api), etc. While the code isn't pretty, it was easy to do overall, and the result is pretty nifty. Here's the video...

Tweaking T4 Templates to Improve Script Performance

G. Andrew Duthie — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 17:49:09 GMT

In this DevNugget, a follow-up to part 1, Make Script Performance Automatic with Custom Templates in Visual Studio 2010, Developer Evangelist G. Andrew Duthie shows you how you can customize the T4 templates used for creating new Views in an MVC3 application, to move script references to the bottom of the page. Why the bottom? As explained in the previous installment, because some browsers won't load any additional content while they're busy downloading a script, so if you're loading a large script file from an external site, or if that external site isn't available, your entire page may be blocked from loading. Yikes!

Along the way, you'll learn a bit about quickly creating an MVC3 application using Entity Framework Code First and MVC3 Scaffolding.

For those of you who like your tutorials in step-by-step format, check out the accompanying blog post at devhammer.net.

Some additional resources:

Make Script Performance Automatic with Custom Templates in Visual Studio 2010 - Part 1

G. Andrew Duthie — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 20:42:37 GMT

In this DevNugget, Developer Evangelist G. Andrew Duthie shows you how you can create your own custom templates for your web application, with script references moved to the bottom of the page. Why the bottom? Because some browsers won't load any additional content while they're busy downloading a script, so if you're loading a large script file from an external site, or if that external site isn't available, your entire page may be blocked from loading. Yikes!

For those of you who like your tutorials in step-by-step format, check out the accompanying blog post at devhammer.net.

Some additional resources:

Get to Know Action Filters in ASP.NET MVC 3 Using HandleError

G. Andrew Duthie — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 04:57:23 GMT

In his latest DevNugget, Developer Evangelist G. Andrew Duthie takes you into the exciting world of action filters in ASP.NET MVC 3, and demonstrates how MVC 3 implements the HandleError action filter in the default internet application template, and how you can override this default behavior and customize the error handling that comes out of the box.

This video is a demonstration of the techniques described in the following blog post:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/gduthie/archive/2011/03/17/get-to-know-action-filters-in-asp-net-mvc-3-using-handleerror.aspx

Microsoft WebMatrix Beta 3 - New Features

G. Andrew Duthie — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 16:17:48 GMT

In this devnugget, Andrew demonstrates some of the new features in WebMatrix Beta 3, including rendering unencoded output with Html.Raw, new Package Management support, new publishing features, and a new options dialog.

You can keep track of what's happening with the DEvHammer on his blog, or on Twitter, and find out about upcoming developer and IT Pro events in your area on his site, Community Megaphone.

Intro to Pinned Sites in IE 9 Beta

G. Andrew Duthie — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 17:29:06 GMT

In this devnugget, Andrew provides a quick overview of the basics of pinned sites in Internet Explorer 9 beta.

You can keep track of what's happening with the DEvHammer on his blog, or on Twitter, and find out about upcoming developer and IT Pro events in your area on his site, Community Megaphone.