De-fault Screens

If you have tried implementing something that required a mechanism more complex than the default one provided by LightSwitch regarding default screen selection, you already are familiar with the limitations.
For the ones that don’t get what I mean, a very common example is open the details screen of an object from a list containing items from a view (database view) that include the id of the original object. Imagine you have a Customer entity and a CustomerInfo entity that comes from a database view bringing aggregated data of the customer from various tables. Selecting and editing the CustomerInfo you want to edit the Customer not the CustomerInfo.
The above is only one fast example. Another would be having Add/Edit Screens i.e. screens that can handle both create or edit an existing object. In any case if you need to modify the default signature of a default screen (adding an extra parameter for example) causes this screen to be unselected as default screen because LightSwitch mechanism for default screens cannot handle it.
Going back to the Customer/CustomerInfo example, I have come across at least a couple of posts in threads trying to find a way to “override” the default click behavior of links in collections. In our example clicking on the link of the customer’s name (for example) will open a default screen for CustomerInfo.
So, one easy solution is creating a default screen for CustomerInfo where upon load you will open the Customers default screen passing the id of the customer and close the current one. But how do you handle allowing only one instance of a details screen per object? Or all other issues that might come come up? (Imagine you have more than one view entities for the Customer entity).
Anyway, this is my approach at solving this issue, that works fine for me in a big project whose development runs for almost a year now (and by the way is the reason for not posting very often –understatement of the year- here lately):
Reintroducing the ShowDefaultScreen method of the Application in the Client project along with an interface defined and implemented by all screens that need to be involved.

• This is the interface definition:

public interface IDefaultScreen : IScreenObject
{
    bool Shows(IEntityObject instance);
    IEntityObject Object { get; }
}

• This is the code in Application.cs:

public new void ShowDefaultScreen(IEntityObject instance) {
      this.ShowOrFocusDefaultScreen(instance);
}

public void ShowOrFocusDefaultScreen(IEntityObject entity) {
  foreach (IActiveScreen activeScreen in this.ActiveScreens) {
    if ((activeScreen.Screen is IDefaultScreen) &&
        (activeScreen.Screen as IDefaultScreen).Shows(entity)) {
          activeScreen.Activate();
          return;
        }
      }
  entity.Details.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(() => {
    if (!HandleEntityDefaultScreen(entity))
      base.ShowDefaultScreen(entity);
  });
}

private bool HandleEntityDefaultScreen(IEntityObject entity) {
  switch (entity.GetType().Name) {
    case "CustomerInfo": {
        this.ShowEditCustomer((entity as CustomerInfo).Id);
        return true;
      }
      .
      .
      .
  }
  return false;
}

In the code displayed above the implementation in HandleEntityDefaultScreen code is just to demonstrate the concept. The ellipsis below the first case implies you can write whatever is required by your application.

• And finally this is the code from the Customer details screen that implements IDefaultScreen:

public partial class EditCustomer : IDefaultScreen
{
   .
   .
   .
  #region IDefaultScreen Members
  public bool Shows(IEntityObject instance) {
    return (instance is CustomerInfo) &&
           (instance as CustomerInfo).Id.Equals(this.CustomerProperty.Id);
  }

  public IEntityObject Object {
    get { return this.CustomerProperty; }
  }
  #endregion
}

The careful reader will notice that the IEntityObject Object { get; } property exposed by IDefaultScreen is not used in the sample code. I ported the code exactly as I use it in my projects (apart from the changes made to demonstrate the Customer/CustomerInfo paradigm) where this property is used for a different purpose. You can either remove it or find a good use for it .

Just Visiting or (not so) Simple Extension Methods (part 4)

One of my favorite design patterns since the age of c++ is the Visitor Pattern. I will not explain here what the visitor pattern is. But, if you know how to use the design pattern this is a post worth reading.
One may ask what the visitor pattern has to do with LightSwitch. Well, it doesn’t! I mean not exclusively. But the code below provides a full visitor pattern implementation background that can also be used in LS. Also, a part of the implementation is ideal for LS, since one of the challenges I had to face, when trying to widely use the visitor pattern, was make it work for “sealed” classes, classes that were not written by me and could not easily fit to my –reflection based- visitor pattern implementation. To solve this the best thing I could think of was “wrapping”. And working with LS, most of the classes (apart from the ones that belong to the domain/datasource) are actually “sealed” in the way described above.(I have to note here that this reflection-based implementation is a revision of an implementation I found (if I recall correct) in CodeProject).
First the two basic interfaces that have to be defined:
The IVisitor interface that has to be implemented by the “worker” (or helper to follow the VB-oriented naming of the LS Team ) class.

public interface IVisitor
{
  void VisitDefault(IVisitorTarget source);
}

Then the IVisitorTarget interface (implied above) that has to be implemented by the class to be “consumed/visited” by the Visitor.

public interface IVisitorTarget
{
  void Accept(IVisitor visitor);
}

Ok, I know, nothing much up to now. But as I say “The longest journey starts with the first step”…(yes I am an old Chinese philosopher)

To have your visitor pattern in place you need an extension method to do the trick:

public static bool ConcreteVisit(this IVisitorTarget target, IVisitor visitor) {
  Type[] types = new Type[] { target.GetType() };
  MethodInfo mi = visitor.GetType().GetMethod("Visit", types);

  if (mi == null)
    return false;

  mi.Invoke(visitor, new object[] { target });
  return true;
}

Now that these pieces are in place let’s say we have a class called DisplayNameBuilder that implements the IVisitor interface. Also, let’s say we have a Customer entity in our datasource and we want it to implement the IVisitorTarget interface. All we have to do is open Customer entity in the designer, click Write Code and change the class declaration to:

public partial class Model : IVisitorTarget

make sure you are using the namespace of the class where the above extension method is implemented and implement the IVisitorTarget interface like this:

#region IVisitorTarget Members
public void Accept(IVisitor visitor) {
  if (!this.ConcreteVisit(visitor))
    visitor.VisitDefault(this);
}
#endregion

Also this is a sample implementation of the DisplayNameBuilder class:

public class DisplayNameBuilder : IVisitor
{
  public string Name{
    get;
    private set;
  }

  public void VisitDefault(IVisitorTarget visitorTarget){
    Name = visitorTarget.ToString();
  }

  public void Visit(Customer visitorTarget){
    Name = string.Format("{0}{1}{2}", visitorTarget.FirstName, string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(visitorTarget.FirstName) ? "", " ", visitorTarget.LastName);
  }
}

In the above code please note these:

1. The code was written in Live Writer as it’s demo code, so maybe it does not compile as is.


2. The customer is implied to have a nullable FirstName property and a not nullable LastName (which I believe it’s a fair assumption and I agree with me).


3. The implementation, as obvious, is domain aware as it knows what Customer is. This implies that the ideal place for this class to live is in the Common project.

Now lets say you create a calculated string field in Customer entity called hmmmmm… DisplayName (surprised? It’s a gift I have regarding giving original names). This would be the code that would implement the calculation of DisplayName property:

partial void DisplayName_Compute(ref string result) {
  DisplayNameBuilder builder = new DisplayNameBuilder();
  this.Accept(builder);
  result = builder.Name;
}

I HAVE to stress one more time that the code is for demonstration purposes only. It’s not just you, it IS too much fuss for nothing.

Ok, now it should be easier to understand the problem of using the visitor pattern with pre-defined classes. You cannot add the IVisitorTarget behavior to most of the classes, automatically generated by LS.

So this is the solution to the problem.

public class IVisitorWrapper<TObjectType> : IVisitorTarget
{
  public TObjectType Content {
    get;
    set;
  }

  #region IVisitorTarget Members
  public void Accept(IVisitor visitor) {
    if (!this.ConcreteVisit(this, visitor))
      if (!this.VisitWrapper(this, visitor))
        visitor.VisitDefault(this);
  }
  #endregion
}

This is a wrapper class (one could say it is an IVisitorTarget decorator). If you are still with me and you keep on reading the code you have already noticed that VisitWrapper extension method is not yet defined, so this is it:

public static bool VisitWrapper<TObjectType>(this IVisitorWrapper<TObjectType> wrapper, IVisitor visitor) {
  Type[] types = new Type[] { typeof(TObjectType) };
  MethodInfo mi = visitor.GetType().GetMethod("Visit", types);

  if (mi == null)
    return false;

  mi.Invoke(visitor, new object[] { wrapper.Content });
  return true;
}

Now you can wrap any type of object and use the DisplayNameBuilder to build it’s display name. Also (as –I hope- you guessed) you have to implement the respective Visit method in DisplayNameBuilder in order not go get the type name back as Name.

Well, as Porky says: That’s all Folks . I hope that except for exhausting it was also interesting.

Application Logo (tailored on customer demand)

This is the most recent comment in the Application Logo Sample post:
“Hi Kostas,
I wanted to find out if there is a way of opening an active screen as soon as I click on the logo. I have tried but my attempt was in vain. If it is possible, could you please help me out?
Thanks,
Darryn”
My first reaction was to ask for details (typical way of buying time ). But then I though I could do the changes required and post a new article. So simply put, this is the answer I propose to Darryn:

public static void AddLogo(this Microsoft.LightSwitch.Client.IClientApplication application, System.Windows.HorizontalAlignment alignment, string screenName) {
  Microsoft.LightSwitch.Threading.Dispatchers.Main.BeginInvoke(() => { LogoPlacement.AddLogo(application, System.Windows.Application.Current.RootVisual, alignment, screenName); });
}


private static class LogoPlacement
{
  internal static void AddLogo(Microsoft.LightSwitch.Client.IClientApplication application, UIElement element, System.Windows.HorizontalAlignment alignment, string screenName) {
    if (rcb != null) return;

    for (int i = 0; i < System.Windows.Media.VisualTreeHelper.GetChildrenCount(element); i++) {
      if (rcb != null)
        return;
      UIElement child = (UIElement)System.Windows.Media.VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(element, i);
      AddLogo(application, child, alignment, screenName);
    }
    if (element is Microsoft.LightSwitch.Runtime.Shell.Implementation.Standard.RibbonCommandBar) {
      rcb = element as Microsoft.LightSwitch.Runtime.Shell.Implementation.Standard.RibbonCommandBar;
      Image myImage = new Image() {
        Stretch = System.Windows.Media.Stretch.Uniform,
        Margin = new Thickness(2, 8, 14, 8),
        HorizontalAlignment = alignment,
        Cursor = System.Windows.Input.Cursors.Hand
      };
      myImage.SetValue(ComponentViewModelService.ViewModelNameProperty, "Default.LogoViewModel");
      myImage.SetBinding(Image.SourceProperty, new System.Windows.Data.Binding { Path = new PropertyPath("Logo") });
      if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(screenName))
        myImage.MouseLeftButtonUp += (s, e) => { application.Details.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(() => application.Details.Methods[string.Format("Show{0}", screenName)].CreateInvocation().Execute()); };
      myImage.SizeChanged += (s, e) => {
        double left = (s as Image).HorizontalAlignment == HorizontalAlignment.Left ? e.NewSize.Width + 10.0 : 0.0;
        double right = (s as Image).HorizontalAlignment == HorizontalAlignment.Right ? e.NewSize.Width + 10.0 : 0.0;
        rcb.Padding = new Thickness(left, 0, right, 0);
      };
      ((Grid)rcb.Parent).Children.Add(myImage);
    }
  }

With bold I have marked the additions/changes I had to make to accommodate Darryn’s request.
I hope Darryn is happy .

Simple Extension Methods (part 3)

One very common task when one is implementing the business logic in Common project is writing custom PropertyName_Changed partial methods.
This “approach” has an undesired “side-effect” when the property is an entity property (as compared to screen properties). The property changes many times during the lifetime of the object. While loading, while deleting etc., whereas what we want to implement is handle the “actual” property changes caused either by the user or by some other piece of business logic.
I found myself debugging code that shouldn’t be executing (according to my logic, obviously LS had another opinion) before ending up writing a small extension method to use in all PropertyName_Changed partial methods. I don’t claim this method will help you avoid ALL unwanted business logic code execution, but covers most of the cases. I would be glad to read any comments improving it in a generic way.
Here is the code of the extension method:

public static bool IgnorePropertyChange(this IEntityObject entity) {
  return entity.Details.EntityState == EntityState.Unchanged ||
         entity.Details.EntityState == EntityState.Discarded ||
         entity.Details.EntityState == EntityState.Deleted;
}

And here how all my property changed partial implementations for entity properties look like

partial void ScheduledEndDate_Changed() {
  if (this.IgnorePropertyChange())
    return;
  .
  .
  .
}

This looks (and is) simple but the concept, alone, of “unwanted” code execution is important and should be taken good care of. If not using this extension method any other way one may like .

Simple Extension Methods (part 2)

In the previous post I presented an extension method used mostly for overriding the edit and delete commands of a collection. One may ask “why do I want to do this?”. Apart from any other requirements/business logic dependent reason one might want to implement, for me there is one simple yet important reason: I don’t like at all (to be kind) the default add/edit modal windows when adding or editing an entry. It’s not a coincidence that the FIRST sample I wrote for LightSwitch and posted in the Samples of msdn.com/lightswitch was a set of extension methods and contracts to easily replace standard modal windows with custom ones.
Most of the times when I have an editable grid screen, selecting Add or Edit I DON’T want the modal window to pop-up, I just want to edit in the grid. Or in list and details screen I want to edit the new or existing entry in the detail part of the screen.
This is the main reason I most of the times override the default Add/Edit command behavior. And for this reason I created and use the next two extension methods:

public static void AddFocus<T>(this VisualCollection<T> collection, string focusControl, bool inCollection)
      where T : class, IEntityObject {
      collection.AddNew();
      collection.EditFocus(focusControl, inCollection);
    }

    public static void EditFocus<T>(this VisualCollection<T> collection, string focusControl, bool inCollection)
      where T : class, IEntityObject {
      if (focusControl != null) {
        try {
          IContentItemProxy control = null;
          if (inCollection)
            control = collection.Screen.FindControlInCollection(focusControl, collection.SelectedItem);
          else
            control = collection.Screen.FindControl(focusControl);
          Microsoft.LightSwitch.Threading.Dispatchers.Main.BeginInvoke(() => {
            try {
              control.Focus();
            }
            catch {
              collection.EditSelected();
            }
          });
        }
        catch {
          if (collection.HasSelection())
            collection.EditSelected();
        }
      }
    }

So what you have to do in your MyCollectionAddAndEditNew_Execute partial method is write something like:

MyCollection.AddFocus("TheNameOfTheControlYouWantToFocus", true);

or for MyCollectionEdit_Execute partial method:

MyCollection.EditFocus("TheNameOfTheControlYouWantToFocus", true);

if you have a list detail screen the same code applies but with inCollection = false.

One could implement one method for collections and one for details. Also notice where constraints applied to T generic parameter. The class constraint is required for declaring VisualCollection<T>. The IEntityObject constraint is required so that we avoid the arbitrary casting of collection.SelectedItem to IEntityObject so as to be passed to FindControlInCollection as second parameter.

Notice that in the extension methods I don’t check if the control name exists. I just use try catch. On error (if the control name is not valid) I choose to fall-back to the default behavior. You can change this without any intellectual rights being violated .

Simple Extension Methods (part 1)

As soon as I started writing LightSwitch applications I noticed that many times I was repeating the same code over and over for trivial tasks. So after all this time I have collected a number of extension methods that I widely use in my apps.
For me reusing code is a must and although the implementation of LS (IMHO) does not provide for this out of the box the underlying framework is ideal for writing extension classes and methods that are a major step towards code reusability. If you have downloaded any of my samples from msdn or have seen my Application Logo post, you already suspect I am an “extension method fanatic”.
So I will present a small series (I don’t know how small) of posts with extension methods from my Base.LightSwitch.Client library.
The first method is one of the first (if not the first one) extension methods I wrote. As soon as you want to override the code for default commands like Edit and Delete for a collection (let’s name it MyCollection) you have to write something like that:

partial  void MyCollectionDelete_CanExecute(ref bool result){
  if (this.MyCollection is null || this.MyCollection.SelectedItem == null)
    result = false;
  else
    result = true;
}

This is the minimum code (it can be written more elegantly I know but this is the concept) you need to write. I don’t take into account the permissions issue.

A similar chunk of code has to be written for Edit.

Isn’t the code listed below easier to read:

partial  void MyCollectionDelete_CanExecute(ref bool result){
  result = this.HasSelection("MyCollection");
}

It’s not only easier to read but is less error prone than the original. Plus you can inject any security logic in this HasSelection method.

And this is the code:

public static bool HasSelection(this IScreenObject screen, string collectionName) {
  if (!screen.Details.Properties.Contains(collectionName))
    return false;
  IVisualCollection collection =
    screen.Details.Properties[collectionName].Value as IVisualCollection;
  return collection != null &&
         collection.SelectedItem != null &&

         (collection.SelectedItem as IEntityObject).Details.EntityState != EntityState.Deleted;
}

For the ones that dislike using string property names I can suggest this version :

public static bool HasSelection<T>(this VisualCollection<T> collection) where T : class, IEntityObject {
  return collection != null &&
         collection.SelectedItem != nul &&
         collection.SelectedItem.Details.EntityState != EntityState.Deleted;
}

This version is more concrete is generic and also does not have to do the (out of thin air) conversion of SelectedItem to IEntityObject. If you use this version though you have to change your partial method as you cannot extend null:

partial void MyCollectionDelete_CanExecute(ref bool result){
  result = MyCollection!= null && MyCollection.HasSelection();
}

The choice is yours…

RIAlity Issues

Recently I had to face a very frustrating issue regarding the integration of a RIA Service as a LightSwitch Datasource. I tried to find references for it in the web. I did. But none of them (at least the ones I managed to find) didn’t seem to match my case. So after solving my issue I thought sharing was a good idea…
After having implemented and tested my RIA service using a small Silverlight application I decided to add a datasource and use it. Which I did. Focusing at the part of the RIA service that caused the problem, I had a class called ImageAttachment and 2 queries exposing it. Below you can see the initial code:

   1:      [Query(IsDefault = true)]

   2:      public IQueryable<ImageAttachment> GetImageAttachments() {

   3:        return new List<ImageAttachment>().AsQueryable();

   4:      }

   5:   

   6:      public IQueryable<ImageAttachment> GetFolderItemImageAttachments(Guid? providerId, string folderId, string mailItemId) {

   7:        if (!providerId.HasValue || folderId == null || mailItemId == null)

   8:          return GetImageAttachments();

   9:        return GetAttachments(providerId.Value, folderId, mailItemId);

  10:      }

Importing the RIA Service GetFolderItemImageAttachments was properly imported as an optional query for ImageAttachment.



I added an ImageAttachment visual collection in a screen fetching results from GetFolderItemImageAttachments query. Everything worked smoothly. But when the time came to load the visual collection (i.e. run the query) I got an exception I hadn’t come across before neither as a LS developer nor as a Silverlight one:

Load operation failed for query ‘GetFolderItemImageAttachments’.  The remote server returned an error: NotFound.

The behavior was very strange. Although the query was recognized and imported from LS for some reason at runtime it looked like the method was not found. I placed a breakpoint at the method and it didn’t hit. The method was never called. Before doing this I was sure it was some bug of mine in the implementation that caused the RIA service to throw this generic exception. But no! The execution never reached the web method. It was then that I decided to “google” it. Looked like it was a RIA Services+LightSwitch(?) issue. All references where either not appropriate in my case or had no effect. Then I did what I usually do when I have problem I cannot solve: I scrolled to the part of code listed above and started to just stare at the code waiting for an answer. And I came to me! Why not make sure the query method IS a query? So what I did was just add the QueryAttribute to my method with no parameters:

   1:      [Query(IsDefault = true)]

   2:      public IQueryable<ImageAttachment> GetImageAttachments() {

   3:        return new List<ImageAttachment>().AsQueryable();

   4:      }

   5:   

   6:      [Query]

   7:      public IQueryable<ImageAttachment> GetFolderItemImageAttachments(Guid? providerId, string folderId, string mailItemId) {

   8:        if (!providerId.HasValue || folderId == null || mailItemId == null)

   9:          return GetImageAttachments();

  10:        return GetAttachments(providerId.Value, folderId, mailItemId);

  11:      }

I thought that if it didn’t solve the problem I surely would not cause a new one. It IS a query method after all. Why let LS infer it? And it worked.

I am quite sure I was lucky. I mean, the query was recognized either way. I cannot explain what exactly was the bug the QueryAttribute fixed. To stress my point more, I have to admit that went back to the RIA Service and I removed the attribute. Still worked! Like a deadlock resolved. Maybe only LightSwitch Team can explain. Anyhow I thought of sharing in case anyone else runs into something like this.

You Are I.

Finding my application’s URI address either in deployment or development/debugging environment has been an issue I had to face in my early LightSwitch days. Although not a LightSwitch issue, but rather a Siverlight/ASP.NET one, I thought that sharing the 2 lines of code I have ended up using to discover the URI (along with the port, most important for debugging and/or standalone deployments) might be useful.
First the client. The first and easy approach was extracting the URI and port from System.Windows.Browser.HtmlPage.Document.DocumentUri. Nice! Not really. This only works for web and NOT OOB (Out of Browser) or Desktop according to LS naming, applications. System.Windows.Browser namespace is in general not available in ΟΟΒ applications.
The way I ended up adopting is accessing System.Windows.Application.Current.Host.Source.AbsoluteUri. Ok, I know it’s WPF/Silverlight way (System.Windows… I mean) but my experience says that a similar approach will be available even if HTML 5 is the next (not too soon I expect) output of LS.
Then the server. Here things are simpler and for as long as the server part of a LS application remains a Web Service the path will always be the same: HttpContext.Current.Request.Headers["HOST"].
That’s it! Short but juicy (I hope ).

CLASS Extensions Version 2 Fixes and Promises

Although it's been some time since my last post, I didn't quit on CLASS Extensions. On the contrary, I have been very busy working for a corporate project that uses CLASS Extensions and in the process I have made additions and fixes in CLASS Extensions. The most important fix is about Drawing business type and control so as to support standalone deployment.
As you might know, when running standalone a new host is launched every time, listening to a different port. As the drawing business type uses uris to set the drawing's background, the port active when the image was selected from the server, is included in the drawing serialization string. This means that next time the application is launched (standalone or debugging) and the port is changed the drawing's background is lost. This is fixed. Although the port is still serialized along with the drawing the port is automatically replaced with the current port of the hosting process.
There are also other small fixes regarding functionality.
Additions are to be announced officially but a (not all inclusive) sample list would include:

• an expander group control allowing you to expand/collapse regions of your screen (both horizontal and vertical).
• an ImageContainer group control that adds standard functionality to image editors and drawing controls to import automatically from camera and scanner (yes Del Sole's code is at the background, so before publishing I will definetly ask for permissions)
• a printable area group control which allows to both save a snapshot of the contained screen region and/or print it.
• a new color picker control that allows you to define a color by selecting it directly from an image using a sampler tool.

The additional features will not be released before the end of August. The price will be adjusted accordingly. Anyone that has already purchased the original version until then, they will get the new features for free earlier than official release for beta testing.

CLASS Extensions Version 2 Released

CLASS Extensions version 2 is now available. All the features demonstrated in the demo videos are included plus the AttachmentsListEx collection control that is demostrated in the sample application but was not mentioned in the previous post.

Features

Color Business type and Controls. This business type is used to represent color values. The underlying CLR type is integer. After a request the change from the previous free version is that by default the pop-up window color picker control is used both for details and collections. Boolean property called “Drop Down” was added in the Appearance category which is false by default. When checked the drop-down/expander color picker control is used instead. This property is ignored in collections (grids/lists etc.) and pop-up is used. The color-picker control (as mentioned in the first version also) is contained in SilverlightContrib Codeplex project under Ms-PL.

Boolean Checkbox & Boolean Viewer controls. These controls handle bool and bool? (Nullable<bool>) values. No changes made from the previous – free – version.

Rating Business type and Controls. This business type is used to represent rating values. The underlying CLR type is integer. The control is using the Mark Heath’s Silverlight Star Rating Control from CodePlex under Ms-PL.

Percentage Business type and Controls. This business type is used to represent percentages. The underlying CLR type is decimal. In read-only mode a progress bar is displayed which is green for percentages <= 100% and red otherwise. It’s ideal for representing progress.

ImageURI Business type and Controls. This business type is used to display an image from a URI location. The underlying CLR type is string. You can define a thumbnail view and size and also choose if the URI should be visible (editable if not read-only). Stretch Image property applies Uniform stretch to the image.

AudioFile Business type and Controls.This business type is used to store and reproduce audio files from a URI location. The underlying CLR type is string. You can choose if the URI should be visible (editable if not read-only). Play, Pause, Stop, Volume Control are available. Progress is also displayed.
 

VideoFile Business type and Controls. This business type is used to store and reproduce video files from a URI location. The underlying CLR type is string. You can choose if the URI should be visible (editable if not read-only). Play, Pause, Stop, Volume Control are available. Progress is also displayed.

DrawingFile type and Control. This business type is used to store drawings. The underlying CLR type is string. The background of the drawing is defined as an image URI (not binary). Using the control you can draw lines, polygons and texts on a layer over the image store and edit afterwards to delete drawings, move edit or delete texts, change fonts and colors e.t.c. The control can also operate in local mode, where all drawings are saved in application’s Isolated Storage. Every time a drawing is saved a png image snapshot of the drawing is also generated and can be easily (with 2 lines of code) saved in traditional Image (byte[]) fields.

AttachmentsListEx Collection Control. This is a special use collection control used to represent collections of entities implementing CLASSExtensions.Contracts.IAttachment.

FileServer Datasource Extension. A very important RIA Service datasource provided to smoothly integrate all the URI-based features. This Datasource exports two entity types: ServerFile and ServerFileType. Also provides methods to retrieve ServerFile entities representing the content files (Image, Audio, Video, Document, In the current version these are the ServerFileTypes supported) stored at your application server. Also you can delete ServerFile entities. Upload (insert/update) is not implemented in this version as depending on Whether your application is running out of browser or not it has to be done a different way. Maybe in an update. The idea for this datasource was based on this article of Michael Washington.

A good numbered (30+) collection of ValueConverters and Extension Classes. You can reuse in your applications either to create your own custom controls and extensions or application code in general.

Pricing

The price is 50$ for the package without the code. Depending on demand a code inclusive version and pricing may become available. The payment is done through PayPal and if invoice is required will be sent by post. After payment you will receive a zip file containing the vsix file the sample application used for the demostration videos.

Remarks

• Regarding Rating business type the Maximum and Default rating properties have to be set on the control. Although I found I way to add attributes to the business type, I couldn’t find a way to retrieve in the control so that these parameters could be set once on the entity’s property.
• The reason DrawingFile is using URI as image background and not a binary image was a result of my intention to create a lightweight drawing type which is also portable. As long as the image URI is public the drawings can be ported to any other application using the extension copying just a few KBs.
• For the FileServer Datasource to work you must create a folder hierarchy in your web application’s folder. You have to create a Content (see also ContentDirectory appSetting below) sub-folder in the root folder of your application and a hierarchy like shown below. If the folders are not there, an attempt will be made by code to be created, but to avoid extra permissions issues you can create in advance. Also if you want to be able to delete files you have to take care of file permissions so that the account can delete files.
  
  Also, as you can see in the sample application you will receive along with the extensions, in ServerGenerated\web.config there are 2 appSettings entries:
  
  <add key="VirtualDirectory" value="" />
  <add key="ContentDirectory" value="Content" />
  
  The first one VirtualDirectory is compulsory and if your application is not running at the root of the publishing site the value should be the name of the virtual directory under which your application is running. In the sample the value is null.
  The second one ContentDirectory is optional and if omitted then Content is assumed as the folder to look for files.
• For AudioFile and VideoFile controls: The total duration of the media file is not always available so many times in the rightmost digital time display the value will be zero.
• For all URI based types: If you are using the FileServer Datasource while debugging you will have issues regarding the validity of the URIs. As between builds and runs the host’s port can change, a URI provided from the FileServer Datasource (containing the current port) during one debug session, may be invalid in a next session if the port changes. Of course after deployment this will never be an issue unless you somehow change your application’s URL.

CLASS Extensions Version 2 Demo

After a long time of preparation, my company Computer Life and me we are ready to publish the next –commercial- version of CLASS Extensions.

In this SkyDrive location you can find 2 videos briefly presenting capabilities of this new version. In less than a week a page will be started here, where you would be able to buy the package you prefer. There will be 2 packages: no source code and with code and code documentation. Pricing will be announced along with the official release.

CLASS Extensions Demo Part I.swf

CLASS Extensions Demo Part II.swf

In these videos you will find a brief demonstration of the following controls and/or business types:

• Color Business Type and Control. This was available also in the first free version. It has been improved to automatically detect grid or detail and read-only or not.
• BooleanCheckbox and BooleanViewer controls. These were also available in the first version. No change to this one.
• Rating Business Type and Control. A new business type to support ratings. You can set maximum rating, star size, show/hide starts and/or labels, allow/disallow half stars.
• Image Uri Business Type and Control. A new business type to support displaying images from a URI location instead of binary data.
• Audio Uri Business Type and Control. A new business type to support playing audio files from a URI location.
• Video Uri Business Type and Control. A new business type to support playing video files from a URI location.
• Drawing Business Type and Control.  A new business type that allows the user to create drawings using an image URI (not binary) as background. The drawing can be saved either as a property of an entity (the underlying type is string) or in the IsolatedStorage of the application. Also, every time the drawing is saved a PNG snapshot of the drawing is available and can be used any way you want, with 2 (two) lines of additional code. The drawings, both local or data service provided, can be retrieved any time and modified and saved back again.
• FileServer Datasource Extension. A very important RIA Service datasource provided to smoothly integrate all the URI-based features. This Datasources exports two EntityTypes: ServerFile and ServerFileType. Also provides methods to retrieve ServerFile entities representing the content files (Image, Audio, Video, Document, In the current version these are the ServerFileTypes supported) stored at your application server. Also you can delete ServerFile entities. Upload (insert/update) is not implemented in this version as depending on Whether your application is running out of browser or not it has to be done a different way.

Last but not least. There is a list of people whose code and ideas helped me a lot in the implementation of this version. Upon official release they will be properly mentioned as community is priceless.

Application Logo Sample

Application Logo post had the dazzling number of 4 questions regarding how to use the code. So as I promised to the last guy that asked how to use the extension class I created a small sample and uploaded to msdn's Lightswitch samples. You can find it here

Re-Views

In previous posts I made reference to views (DB or RIA) as an alternative (amongst other well-known potentials of views) to search and sort against fields that would normally be relations (lookups or however you want to call them).
From the very beginning I had an issue with SQL Server views imported to LS. LightSwitch had a very strange way to define the primary keys of the views. These “inferred” primary keys are most of the time very complex combined keys. And this is not an issue actually until you decide to add a relationship between this view (which 99% of the times has only one field as actual primary key) and another table. Then you realize this, otherwise benign, complex primary key is an issue (to say the least).
It was only recently, in this thread, after Yann Duran’s suggested reading (always to the rescue and always having something useful to contribute), that I managed to both understand how LS “infers” the Primary Key for a View and realize how one can “force” a primary key.
The bottom line is that LS decides that all not-nullable fields will be part of the inferred primary key. Not very inspired but I must admit I cannot think of anything better. So, how one can force the primary key one wants? The way is re-introducing all you not-nullable, non-key fields by cast/convert to the same data-type (or another one if needed). This way the definition of the “table”/”view” imported by LS contains all, originally not nullable fields, as nullable.
Very short example. Imagine Table Person as
Id int not null, PK
LastName nvarchar(50) not null,
FirstName nvarchar(50) null,
.
.
.
Your view’s SQL would be
select Id, CONVERT(nvarchar(50), LastName) as LastName, FirstName
from Person
Simple, dummy example just to display what I mean.
I feel I am re-inventing the wheel as this information was already out there, but in Greece we say “Επανάληψη μήτηρ μαθήσεως” or “Repetition is the mother of Learning” or something like that. Looks like we never learned much from this anyways…

P.S. After Yann's suggestion I have to note that actually this inferred primary key mechanism is Entity Framwork's native and not LightSwitch own behaviour. Although I had that in my mind I didn't make it clear here. I apologize for any missunderstanding and I thank Yann once more for the comment.

Application Logo

Reading this article in MSDN forums and taking the best (I hope) of what LR_ and Michael Washington offered as solutions I ended up with an extension class that allows you to put your application’s logo on the Ribbon Bar of any shell having one. You also have the choice to put it either on the left or the right. LR_’s original code was only modified in 2 points.

1. You can decide if you want you Application Logo on the left or on the right of your commands.
2. You don’t need to pass a URL to the image. The application’s logo (defined in project properties) is bound inspired by the XAML provided by Michael Washington.

I even left the LeftButtonDown part as it’s a good idea.

Although implied from the detailed reference to them I want to thank both guys for making it so easy for me to put my logo on screen.

    private static class LogoPlacement

    {

         public static void AddLogo(this Microsoft.LightSwitch.Client.IClientApplication application, System.Windows.HorizontalAlignment alignment) {

           Microsoft.LightSwitch.Threading.Dispatchers.Main.BeginInvoke(() => { LogoPlacement.AddLogo(System.Windows.Application.Current.RootVisual, alignment); });

         }

      internal static void AddLogo(UIElement element, System.Windows.HorizontalAlignment alignment) {

        if (rcb != null) return;

 

        for (int i = 0; i < System.Windows.Media.VisualTreeHelper.GetChildrenCount(element); i++) {

          if (rcb != null)

            return;

          UIElement child = (UIElement)System.Windows.Media.VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(element, i);

          AddLogo(child, alignment);

        }

        if (element is Microsoft.LightSwitch.Runtime.Shell.Implementation.Standard.RibbonCommandBar) {

          rcb = element as Microsoft.LightSwitch.Runtime.Shell.Implementation.Standard.RibbonCommandBar;

          Image myImage = new Image() {

            Stretch = System.Windows.Media.Stretch.Uniform,

            Margin = new Thickness(2,8,14,8),

            HorizontalAlignment = alignment,

            Cursor = System.Windows.Input.Cursors.Hand

          };

          myImage.SetValue(ComponentViewModelService.ViewModelNameProperty, "Default.LogoViewModel");

          myImage.SetBinding(Image.SourceProperty, new System.Windows.Data.Binding { Path = new PropertyPath("Logo") });

          myImage.MouseLeftButtonUp += (s, e) => MessageBox.Show("Here may be some About...");

          myImage.SizeChanged += (s, e) => {

            double left = (s as Image).HorizontalAlignment == HorizontalAlignment.Left ? e.NewSize.Width + 10.0 : 0.0;

            double right = (s as Image).HorizontalAlignment == HorizontalAlignment.Right ? e.NewSize.Width + 10.0 : 0.0;

            rcb.Padding = new Thickness(left, 0, right, 0);

          };

          ((Grid)rcb.Parent).Children.Add(myImage);

        }

      }

 

      private static RibbonCommandBar rcb = null;

    }

Save (is a pain in the) As

Currently being in the process of developing a business application, I came across an issue that looked harmless, but turned out to be what the title elegantly :-P implies.
Being very proud of what I can achieve in no time with LS, I had my product manager testing the application, when she ask me the simple: “How can I change something and save it as a new object with a new name?”. “It’s not implemented yet, but I am getting my hands on it right now and you will have it in no time”. What a typical developer answer!
“No time” turned out to be a full workday of experimenting trying to find out the best and most generic way to implement Save As functionality. Having an object being copied to another was something I had already implemented but I worked fine only on originals. Fetching an object to the client, modifying it somehow and then trying to copy to a new one, discard the changes of the original object and save the copy…well it was not a piece of cake, rather a pastry shop.
Creating a new object in a different instance of the dataworkspace and trying to copy ended up in a threading hell, as my object was not a simple one but having many one to many and many to many relations and threading had to be made “safe” to ensure consistency. Even if could manage to do it for the type of object requested by my product manager, the solution would be specific to this object and generalization would be a project on its own, with doubtful result.
Having the original and the copy on the same screen and context, made almost impossible to find a general way to discard changes made to the original (or any of the related objects) before saving the dataworkspace.
The final solution was rather naive, but totally generic and “LightSwitch” with only one drawback that I will mention at the end.
My datasource was an SQL Server based one. So I created a new one called myDataSourceNameCopy from the same database and also named all the entities EntityNameCopy (much better that EntityName1 suggested by default from LS. Now I had a myDataSourceName.Customer (for example) instance on my Customer Details screen and a myDataSourceNameCopy.CustomerCopy property waiting to be instantiated upon “Save As” command by the user.
A small parenthesis: one of the first contracts I designed and implemented for all the objects need was ICopyTo<TEntityType> where TEntityType : IEntityObject, which exposes a void CopyTo(TEntityType target). So Customer was already implementing ICopyTo<Customer> and what I had to do was implement ICopyTo<CustomerCopy> (and all referenced objects accordingly of course).
In order to by able to save from my screen both in myDataSourceName and myDataSourceNameCopy Ι took a look at this video tutorial. In the end when the used confirms the Save As, I save the changes in myDataSourceNameCopy, I discard the changes of myDataSourceName, close the screen, refresh the list of Customers (or whatever) and my “Saved As” Customer is there in the list of Customers ready to use. Well, I have to update two datasources every time my database changes but it’s a small price to pay, given that save as Is very important for my application.
The drawback is that I haven’t yet managed to figure out how this can be achieved with native LS datasources.
If anyone has implemented some other generic way to support Save As functionality and has to offer any ideas I would very much appreciate the comments.