Now you . . . → Read More: Silverlight 5 Hosting :: How to Debug XAML Data Bindings in Silverlight 5 Beta ?]]>

Recently launched Silverlight 5 beta having nice features of XAML binding debugging. To Start with this, as a  prerequisites makes sure  you have  latest version Silverlight Toolkit SDK with  Visual Studio 2010 SP1 installed. Once you are done with the setup, first create a simple Silverlight 5 Application with which has some XAL Data Binding.

Now you can set the breakpoint for the data binding in XAML Code. Run the Application When a breakpoint is hit, you can use the Locals window to explore the state of binding .

There are some additional enhancement introduced with Silverlight Data Binding. you can get complete info from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg986857%28VS.96%29.aspx#xaml

This post requires to create a . . . → Read More: Silverlight Hosting :: Editing Silverlight page data using Domain Service]]> This post discusses to edit the displayed data in Silverlight page and save the changes back to database. Insert, Update and Delete operations can be done using domain service object context. All the changes you made to this object are collectively submitted to the database when you call the SubmitChanges method.

This post requires to create a Silverlight Business Application in Visual Studio 2010.
1. Open the Mainpage.xaml , Add the following XAML code to see the Save changes and Reject changes button

   1: <Button Content="Save Changes" Click="SaveButton_Click"  Margin="5"
   2:       x:Name="SaveButton"></Button>
   3: <Button Content="Reject Changes" Click="RejectButton_Click" Margin="5"
   4:       x:Name="RejectButton"></Button
   5: <TextBlock x:Name="ChangeText" VerticalAlignment="Center" Width="Auto"></TextBlock>

2. Add the code for button click event handlers as shown below

   1: private void SaveButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
   2:  {
   3:   awDept.SubmitChanges(OnSubmitCompleted, null);
   4:  }
   5:�
   6:  private void RejectButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
   7:  {
   8:    awDept.RejectChanges();
   9:    CheckChanges();
  10:  }
  11: private void CheckChanges()
  12:  {
  13:   EntityChangeSet changeSet = awDept.EntityContainer.GetChanges();
  14:   ChangeText.Text = changeSet.ToString();
  15:   bool hasChanges = awDept.HasChanges;
  16:   SaveButton.IsEnabled = hasChanges;
  17:   RejectButton.IsEnabled = hasChanges;
  18:  }
  19:�
  20: private void OnSubmitCompleted(SubmitOperation so)
  21:  {
  22:    if (so.HasError)
  23:     {
  24:         MessageBox.Show(string.Format("Submit Failed: {0}", so.Error.Message));
  25:         so.MarkErrorAsHandled();
  26:      }
  27:             CheckChanges();
  28:  }

  29: private void departmentDataGrid_RowEditEnded(object sender,
          DataGridRowEditEndedEventArgs e)
  30: {
  31:          CheckChanges();
  32: }

3. Open the Metadata file in server project and add the editable attribute to the Id and modified date as shown below

   1: internal sealed class DepartmentMetadata
   2:         {
   3:�
   4:             // Metadata classes are not meant to be instantiated.
   5:             private DepartmentMetadata()
   6:             {
   7:             }
   8:�
   9:             [Editable(false)]
  10:             public short DepartmentID { get; set; }
  11:�
  12:             public string GroupName { get; set; }
  13:             [Editable(false)]
  14:             public DateTime ModifiedDate { get; set; }
  15:�
  16:             public string Name { get; set; }
  17:         }

4. When you run the application you should be able to see the below screen

Web host providers in Europe can offer all the amenities that any host in an industrialized country can offer. Web site customers can find budget, dedicated, shared, reseller, and shared hosting. Applications include all the latest languages, frameworks, and capabilities that a consumer could find at a Web host in the U.S. Domain name . . . → Read More: Best Europe Web Hosting Providers]]> What is it?

Web host providers in Europe can offer all the amenities that any host in an industrialized country can offer. Web site customers can find budget, dedicated, shared, reseller, and shared hosting. Applications include all the latest languages, frameworks, and capabilities that a consumer could find at a Web host in the U.S. Domain name registration also is conducted throughout Europe. Top level domains are used for different countries (such as ‘.de’ for Germany), but consumers can find an purchase a registration for any top level domain through domain registrars or hosting companies throughout Europe.

What Are the Issues?

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Domain name registration can vary from country to country as well. Many registrars will offer all domain names, and others offer European top level domains only. Annual registration for domain names remains more expensive in Europe than it does in the U.S., and some domain names require a special set up fee depending upon the hosting service.

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As we know, Silverlight has limitations for accessing files from local drives. In this article, we will see how to read and write files anywhere in local drives.

Creating OOB Silverlight Application:

Fire up VS 2010 and create a Silverlight Application with the name ReadingWritingFiles.

Setting for OOB Silverlight Application:

The settings for OOB application is given here.

First, go to the . . . → Read More: Silverlight 4 Hosting :: How to Read and Write Files in Silverlight 4]]> Introduction:

As we know, Silverlight has limitations for accessing files from local drives. In this article, we will see how to read and write files anywhere in local drives.

Creating OOB Silverlight Application:

Fire up VS 2010 and create a Silverlight Application with the name ReadingWritingFiles.

Setting for OOB Silverlight Application:

The settings for OOB application is given here.

First, go to the Project Properties -> Silverlight.

As shown above select the checkbox marked as 1 and click the Out-Of-BrowserSettings button it will pop up a window. In that Out-Of-BrowserSettings window select the Require elevated trust when running outside the browser which makes the Silverlight application to access the local files (My Documents, My Music etc.).

Now our OOB Application is ready to have the feature of reading and writing local files.

Designing the Silverlight OOB Application:

Design the Application as per the image given below.

Else, use the XAML code to produce the above design.

<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot"  Width="695">
        <Grid.Background>
            <LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="1,0.5" StartPoint="0,0.5">
                <GradientStop Color="Black" Offset="1" />
                <GradientStop Color="White" Offset="0.785" />
            </LinearGradientBrush>
        </Grid.Background>
        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
            <ColumnDefinition Width="115" />
        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <Border>
            <StackPanel Orientation="Vertical" Grid.Column="0" Background="Transparent">
                <RichTextBox Name="rtbContent" Height="405" ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto"  ScrollViewer.HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Auto" >
                </RichTextBox>
            </StackPanel>
        </Border>
        <Border Grid.Column="1">
            <StackPanel Orientation="Vertical" >
                <StackPanel Orientation="Vertical"  Height="20">
                    <Image Name="imgClose" Width="20" Height="20" HorizontalAlignment="Right"  MouseLeftButtonDown="imgClose_MouseLeftButtonDown" Source="/ReadingWritingFiles;component/Image/close.png"></Image>
                </StackPanel>
                <Button Content="Read File" Name="btnReadFile" Width="100" Height="20" Margin="0,160,0,0" Click="ReadFileFromLocalDrive"></Button>
                <Button Content="Write File" Name="btnWriteFile" Width="100" Height="20" Margin="0,30,0,0" Click="WriteFileToLocalDrive"></Button>
            </StackPanel>
        </Border>
    </Grid>

Reading Files from Local Drives :

Using the OpenFileDialog class, we are accessing the files from Local Drives. We cannot access the root path of file but we can access the file as a Stream using the following piece of code.

When you call the ShowDialog method in OpenFileDialog it will show the OpenFileDialog so that Silverlight gives the access permission to the files from anywhere in the local drives like from C:\ or D:\ etc.

However, when you try to access the root path of the file or when you try to access the files using the root path like c:\SomeFolder\SomeFile.txt at the time it will throw error.

The above code uses the method OpenRead () to read the stream of the file.

Writing Files to Local Drives:

As the image shown above, we can write the file in local drive with the help of SaveFileDialog.

The OpenFile() file method will open a text file in the selected folder to write the content.

Here we have used the RichTextBox to show the content of the text file and save the content to the File.

Summary:

In conclusion, we can access the files anywhere in the system using OpenFileDialog and SaveFileDialog in Silverlight 4.

Please provide your valuable feedbacks and suggestions. Thanks in Advance.

Create a new SL project as shown below :

Note the DLLs that are added when you enable WCF RIA Service support.

In the web project Add New Item . Add a Data Model . . . → Read More: Silverlight 5 Hosting :: Basic About Silverlight 5]]> In this article we are going to explore the WCF Ria Services with Silverlight 5. Lets start with the basics for the first timers .

Create a new SL project as shown below :

Note the DLLs that are added when you enable WCF RIA Service support.

In the web project Add New Item . Add a Data Model as shown below:

Then Build the Solution . It is necessary you give it a build otherwise when we create a Domain Service , the Data Model would not be recognised by the Domain Service .

Creating a Domain Service :

In the Web project , add a Domain Service.

Add new Domain Service class Dialog appears.

Select the Article Entity.

A couple of classes are generated as shown below:

Give it a Build again.

Go to the Data Menu and click Show Data Sources.

Data Sources Panel should now show the DataDomainContext. Under that Article.

Select the Article and a drop down appears. say Customize as shown below:

Go ahead and attach the DataGrid Control to the Data Source. You could select themes as well.

Notice the change in the icon.

Now go to the Design Screen. Simply drag and drop the entity into the MainPage layout area. A datagrid should be added automatically now.

Make sure AutoGenerateColumns=”True”

Build and Run it.

What is Web Deploy 2.0?

Web Deploy (Web Deployment Tool) simplifies . . . → Read More: HostForLife.EU now supports Web Deploy 2.0 Hosting]]> HostForLIFE.EU has supported Web Deploy technique on all our hosting plans. With a web deploy technique, a customer can efficiently synchronize sites, applications or servers across your IIS 7.0 server farm by detecting differences between the source and destination content and transferring only those changes which need synchronization.

What is Web Deploy 2.0?

Web Deploy (Web Deployment Tool) simplifies the migration, management and deployment of IIS Web servers, Web applications and Web sites. Administrators can use command-line scripting with Web Deploy to synchronize IIS 6.0 and IIS 7.0 servers or to migrate an IIS 6.0 server to IIS 7.0. Web Deploy Tool also enables administrators and delegated users to use IIS Manager to deploy ASP.NET and PHP applications to an IIS 7.0 server. 

Web Deploy 2.0 Features             

- Seamless integration with IIS 7.0 Manager and Visual Studio 2010 interface for creating packages and deploying them onto a machine, both locally and remotely
- Seamless integration with the Web Platform Installer to install community web applications simply and easily.
- Web application packaging
- Web application deployment
- Web server migration and synchronization
- In addition to the IIS Manager and Visual Studio 10, tasks can be performed using the command-line or public APIs.

Makes sure that you have downloaded latest version Silverlight Toolkit SDK .If not download from here .Also make sure that you are running on VisualStudio SP1.

The example demonstrated here implement basic XAML data binding with DomainDataSource control , lets look at the XAML binding of one of the controls.

Nothing fancy , simple binding.

Note that regardless of Web service type i.e., SOAP or RESTful the configuration process is same. Technical environment:-

Visual Studio 2010 with .NET 4.0 Enterprise library 5.0 WCF

ASP.NET Web application on Client end.

Open Service Web.config using Enterprise library configuration tool

Open the Service . . . → Read More: Silverlight WCF Hosting :: Configuring WCF service to utilise Enterprise Library – Logging application to log data to database]]> This article walks through the ‘Enterprise Library: Logging application‘ configuration process to log data to database using WCF service.

Note that regardless of Web service type i.e., SOAP or RESTful the configuration process is same.

Technical environment:-

Visual Studio 2010 with .NET 4.0
Enterprise library 5.0
WCF

ASP.NET Web application on Client end.

Open Service Web.config using Enterprise library configuration tool

Open the Service Web configuration file using Enterprise library configuration tool, which can be found at C:\Program Files\Microsoft Enterprise Library 5.0\Bin [assuming that you chosen C: drive for Enterprise library installation process]

[Image: Enterprise library configuration tool location]

Note: Make sure that Service Web.config contains database connection string in connectionStrings section.

Step 1: Open Enterprise library configuration tool

Below screenshot shows the configuration tool after opening the service web.config file.

[Service web.configuration with in Enterprise Library configuration tool]

Step 2: _Choosing the Default database instance with in Database settings section

Choose the Default Database Instance from drop down list, in this example Logging is chosen as default one as shown below.

[Default Database Instance]

Step 3: Add Logging block block

Choose ‘Logging Settings’ to add logging application block from Blocks menu as shown below screenshot.

[Add_Logging_Block]

Step 4: Expand Logging Settings section

In order to configure Logging block, expand logging settings by clicking the icon on the  left hand side as marked in red below image.

[Expand_Logging_Section_Image]

Step 5: Add Database Trace listener

From Logging Target Listeners selecting the + opens ‘Add Logging Target  Listeners’.

Choose ‘Add Database Trace Listener’ from context menu that is opened from
‘Add Logging Target Listeners’ as shown below screenshot.

[Add-database-trace-listener]

Step 6: Choose Database Trace Listener as default listener

Make sure that ‘Database Trace listener’ is chosen as default listener in Logging settings –> General section as shown in below image.

[Choose-db-trace-listener]

Note:- By selecting right mouse button on particular configuration section it is feasible to Validate particular section as shown in below image.

[Configuration-Sections-Validate]

Step 7: Enterprise library application block DLL references

Make sure that below mentioned references from Enterprise library API are added to
the service WCF service as shown in below image.

These DLLs are available from Enterprise Library installation at

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Enterprise Library 5.0\Bin

[Required DLLs]

Step 8: Add required ‘using’ statements

using Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Logging;
using Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Common.Configuration;
using Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Logging.ExtraInformation;
using Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Logging.Filters;
using Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Data;
using System.Data;

Step 9: Create a method that utilises Logging application block to log data to database.

Create a private LogWriter variable as below;

private LogWriter writer = EnterpriseLibraryContainer.Current.GetInstance

Logger method can be similar to the one below or it can have more parameters.

///Create a logEntry object and write to database
public void  DbLogger(string _Title, string _Message, string _MachineName
{
    LogEntry logEntry = new LogEntry();

    logEntry.Title = _Title;
    logEntry.Message = _Message;
    logEntry.MachineName = _MachineName;
    logEntry.TimeStamp = DateTime.Now

    writer.Write(logEntry);
}

Step 10: Test the functionality with a client instance

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            //Create an instance of client proxy
            Service1Client client = new Service1Client();
            client.Open();

            try
            {
                client.DbLogger("Logger service consumer", "Testing the
            }

            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Response.Write(ex.InnerException.Message.ToString());
            }
        }

Running the client app with above should log data to Logging database, which can be installed from scripts provided with Hands-on-Labs referenced below.

Creating Logging database

Note that Logging database can be created by running the SQL script provided with Enterprise Library 5.0 Hands on labs, which can be downloaded at http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=6932.