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.