Sergey Zwezdin: personal blog

Using custom domain with Office 365

sergey@zwezdin.com — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 17:35:23 +0400

This blog post contains steps to linking cutom domain to Office 365.

Using Visual Studio 2010 in different environments

sergey@zwezdin.com — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 20:24:45 +0400

Do you like to setup a Visual Studio with the personal preferences? Unfortunately, in some situations we are forced to change development environment settings according to that context in which at present we are. Let's talk about automation of this process.

Multitasking at Windows Phone 7 Series

sergey@zwezdin.com — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 03:05:00 +0400

One of most question, discussed with consideration of Windows Phone 7 Series is multitasking. As it was clarified, this question calls concern in a great number of users and developers. Let's more in detail consider this question.

Windows Phone 7 Series - what the new mobile platform hides in itself

sergey@zwezdin.com — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 21:21:01 +0400

By this post I wish to open a series of articles about development for Windows Phone 7 Series. We will start that we will consider philosophy of a new platform from the point of view of the developer.

My blog has been updated

sergey@zwezdin.com — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:31:50 +0400

My blog has been updated. Welcome! Don't forget to update your RSS readers.

Use of enum type in ADO.NET Data Services

sergey@zwezdin.com — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 10:33:00 +0400

This the autumn was possible to communicate about ADO.NET Data Services with the Izhevsk developers community. Except other discussed questions, we have started talking about use of enum type as a part of entity which is used in service based on ADO.NET Data Services. As after that in this question was interested some more person, I decide to take out this information here.

ADO.NET Data Services 1.5: server driven paging.

sergey@zwezdin.com — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:59:00 +0400

We continue to consider new possibilities of ADO.NET Data Services 1.5 and today we will look possibility of compulsory breakdown of data into pages.

ADO.NET Data Services 1.5: projections.

sergey@zwezdin.com — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:46:00 +0400

Recently I’ve started discussion about ADO.NET Data Services 1.5. I spoke about main trends in this project. Now I want to say about some details. Here we will speak about possibilities to create projections of data in version 1.5 of ADO.NET Data Services.

Displaying of progress of downloading data in WCF services

sergey@zwezdin.com — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:11:00 +0400

Platform Windows Communication Foundation can be used not only for a simple operations call, but also for transfer of big parts of data (for example, files in some mbyte). Sometimes such scenarios are applicable and on slow channels. In this case an indicator of executing of operation (progress bar) is necessary.

Throttling in WCF

sergey@zwezdin.com — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:11:00 +0400

Here I want to give the main information which need to be known at setting of the service working with high load.

ADO.NET Data Services – what waits for us in the future

sergey@zwezdin.com — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 17:27:41 +0400

Approximately hardly there is more than year back we have seen a new services platform - ADO.NET Data Services. Its occurrence has marked the beginning of wide use of the REST-approach by many developers. At that time this platform was represented as the convenient tool for access to data through HTTP.

ADO.NET Data Services v.1.5 CTP2

sergey@zwezdin.com — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:58:15 +0400

Astoria team has released next CTP of ADO.NET Data Services 1.5. In comparison with previous release, CTP2 is really big work and we can observe now already that ADO.NET Data Services becomes even more powerful platform. As a whole it is visible, that development of Astoria is directed on more closer integration with Silverlight and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1.

PHP Toolkit for ADO.NET Data Services – erasing bounds of technologies: PHP + .NET

sergey@zwezdin.com — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 07:29:10 +0400

Microsoft Interoperability team announced an release of the new project which is the bridge between PHP and.NET and erases bounds of technologies even more. This project allows developers on PHP even more easier to access and use all power of .NET services which based on ADO.NET Data Services.

Windows 7 Sensor and Location platform: Implementation of own sensor (Part 3/3)

sergey@zwezdin.com — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:02:00 +0400

Recently I have told about use Sensor and Location platform in the applications. We have seen, that use of this component set can be very convenient for the application and do not demand many efforts. Also we have an opportunity to work with set of devices in the unified style. Problem of use of this platform there is a presence of drivers for Windows 7 and presence of wrappers for Sensor API. Development of the driver for the device - a task of the manufacturer. And implementation of support in Sensor API can be made own forces.

Windows 7 Sensor and Location platform: Sensors programming (Part 2/3)

sergey@zwezdin.com — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:11:00 +0400

Recently I wrote about Sensor and Location platform in Windows 7 and for what purposes it is necessary. Now we will talk about how this platform can be used in the applications.

Windows 7 Sensor and Location platform: What is it? (Part 1/3)

sergey@zwezdin.com — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:28:00 +0400

One of components Windows 7 is Sensor and Location platform. Sensor and Location is part of Windows 7 which allows to work with various sensors and additional devices for measurement something.

Work with the taskbar of Windows 7 in WPF applications

sergey@zwezdin.com — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:49:00 +0400

Recently I have published a series of articles that has been devoted to possibilities of Windows 7 for developers to work with the task panel. I have received a large quantity of responses for this time. Thanks you very much for it. That is interesting, questions were absolutely various subjects. However, the most part of questions was on a theme of use of similar functionality in WPF applications. Really, in the majority of examples I have lost sight WPF applications. I will try to compensate this defect here.

Integration of your data sources with Windows 7 Federated Search

sergey@zwezdin.com — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:00:00 +0400

How often you should search for the various information? Most likely it occurs every day. It is important, that an information search problem not trivial. Also the information can is in various sources - in files, in e-mail messages, in documents etc. Not the secret, that most part of an information is in a network - local and global.

Change of the background image on the logon screen in Windows 7

sergey@zwezdin.com — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:50:00 +0400

As it has been announced earlier, in new operational system Windows 7 it is possible to easily change a background of a logon screen. For this purpose it is not required to change resources in executable files or to carry out still any special actions. Process of changing of the image is very simple and can be executed without use of additional tools. This functionality is accessible and correctly works since 7057 build.

Animation of switching of tasks in Windows 7

sergey@zwezdin.com — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:54:00 +0400

Among an users of Windows there are such people to whom smooth animations are not necessary at switching of windows etc. It is important for these users is speed of work and convenience. In a word, that is necessary for them - the responsible user interface. More recently we communicated with such user by e-mail. Its problem consisted that it is necessary to wait few time before he will see a preview window for the application at hovering on an application icon in the task panel. For this reason I have decided to write pair of tips for such category of users.

Microsoft Sync Framework 2.0 CTP2

sergey@zwezdin.com — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:24:11 +0400

Today next preview version of Sync Framework became accessible.

Windows Mobile 6.5 SDK is accessible to download

sergey@zwezdin.com — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:09:14 +0400

Today it became accessible SDK to develop for Windows Mobile 6.5. This pack includes the documentation, examples, header files and libraries (for native), tools for Visual Studio and images of emulators. Emulator's versions are accessible:

Give green light to your applications together with Windows 7!

sergey@zwezdin.com — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:40:00 +0400

Is your applications are completely compatible with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2? You can outstrip the competitors, having checked up your applications on compatibility with Windows 7 already today. If your company is ISV you can be helped by a isvappcompat.com resource.

Windows 7 programming: Taskbar. Part 10 (final part) – JumpLists.

sergey@zwezdin.com — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:49:00 +0400

One of the major features of the task panel of Windows 7 are Jump Lists. Jump lists are displayed if to select an application icon in the task panel and to press the right button of the mouse. If the application uses functionality of JumpLists, then except standard actions (pin, close) there will be some more additional actions which facilitate our daily work.

Windows 7 programming: Taskbar. Part 9 – PeekBitmap.

sergey@zwezdin.com — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:47:00 +0400

Earlier I wrote about possibility of the task panel of Windows 7 to change preview for a window. We said that in preview it is possible to display both a window part, and own image. At Windows 7 there is such pleasant feature, that if we will hover the mouse cursor on preview windows all other windows will disappear, and the selected window will be displayed. It looks as follows.

Windows 7 programming: Taskbar. Part 8 – IconicThumbnail.

sergey@zwezdin.com — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:22:00 +0400

Recently I have told about how it is possible to influence on preview windows in the task panel of Windows 7. We displayed only that part of a window which is most important for the user in that time. Nevertheless in certain situations be much more useful displaying of other picture (an application state), instead of window parts.

Windows 7 programming: Taskbar. Part 7 – ThumbnailClip.

sergey@zwezdin.com — Tue, 26 May 2009 10:03:00 +0400

As we already saw, Windows 7 possesses convenient functionality for display preview of windows of applications. It is possible to look the reduced representation of a window for few seconds at mouse hover at a window icon in the task panel. It is very convenient when at the user openly considerable quantity of windows.

Windows 7 programming: Taskbar. Part 6 – AppId.

sergey@zwezdin.com — Sun, 24 May 2009 16:21:00 +0400

Recently I wrote how it is possible to display tabs for child windows of our application. In this case we needed to display child windows of our application. For these purposes we used CustomWindowManager class.

Windows 7 programming: Taskbar. Part 5 – CustomWindowsManager.

sergey@zwezdin.com — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:23:00 +0400

We continue to study possibilities of the task panel in Windows 7. For certain all of you have paid attention that if the same application to start some times, Windows 7 will automatically group them in one button on the task panel. Besides at hover on a icon of this application the task panel will show a set preview for these windows.

Windows 7 programming: Taskbar. Part 4 – Custom OverlayIcon.

sergey@zwezdin.com — Tue, 19 May 2009 01:44:00 +0400

Earlier I wrote how it is possible to add a icon of a state for your application in the task panel of Windows 7. We considered static images for these purposes. I will remind, that for this purpose we used SetTaskbarOverlayIcon method in which parametres the reference on Icon is transferred.

Windows 7 programming: Taskbar. Part 3 – OverlayIcon.

sergey@zwezdin.com — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:51:00 +0400

This time we will talk about other feature of task panel of Windows 7 - OverlayIcon. This possibility is very useful for applications which have any state from the point of view of the user.

PHP driver for SQL Server now in Web Platform Installer

sergey@zwezdin.com — Sun, 17 May 2009 21:57:21 +0400

Web Platform Installer is a tool, which contains many libraries, components and ready to use solutions. This tool very useful, because allow to save many time. Also, it is free tool and you can download it and install on your machine.

Windows 7 programming: Taskbar. Part 2 - ThumbButtons.

sergey@zwezdin.com — Fri, 08 May 2009 23:05:00 +0400

Recently I was telling about how we can display progress inside task panel in Windows7. This time we will continue to talk about Windows 7 possibilities for developers. Let’s look how we can use buttons in window’s preview in task panel.

jLinq – LINQ for JavaScript

sergey@zwezdin.com — Tue, 05 May 2009 10:04:21 +0400

Many developers are using JavaScript today. However, the programming JavaScript is not pleasant occupation. Therefore, many JavaScript frameworks (jQuery, ExtJS, Prototype, Moo etc) and libraries appeared lately.

Windows 7 programming: Taskbar. Part 1 - Progress Bar.

sergey@zwezdin.com — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 22:39:00 +0400

New OS Windows 7 contains a considerable quantity of innovations and improvements. These improvements concern safety, productivity, reliability etc. Also, the big attention is given to the user interface. In several posts we will talk about the innovations and program model.

VisualStateManager - how we can define user interface in WPF and Sliverlight

sergey@zwezdin.com — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:57:00 +0400

It is known, that technologies WPF and Silverlight allow to change appearance of the application essentially. However, as it is found out, it is far not all know as it it is possible to do conveniently.

3D-capabilities in Silverlight 3

sergey@zwezdin.com — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 01:45:00 +0400

As is known, in WPF there are great possibilities to work with 3D. Silverlight concedes WPF because it is cross-platform technology. However, in Silverlight 3 a support of 3D has appeared. Let's consider this subject.

Use of hyperlinks inside text at Silverlight 3

sergey@zwezdin.com — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 01:03:00 +0400

Insert of a hyperlink in the text - absolutely usual task for web-applications. Frequently we do it when makes HTML documents. Unfortunately, default controls in Silverlight do not allow to insert a hyperlink in the text. Let's consider an example of how it is possible to bypass this restriction.

Tooltip in Silverlight 3 – part 2

sergey@zwezdin.com — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:47:00 +0400

Recently we have talked about how it is possible to redefine appearance of the tool tip in Silverlight applications. The tool tip has taken more interesting form after that. However, the effect of show and remains sad :) Let's try change a way of show of this tool tip by animation addition.

Tooltip in Silverlight 3 – part 1

sergey@zwezdin.com — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 22:30:00 +0400

Frequently in our appendices we need to create tool tips. Class ToolTip exists in Silverlight for these purposes. We can create such tool tips more easily by using this class.

Use together ADO.NET Data Services with SQL Compact

sergey@zwezdin.com — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:24:00 +0400

Yes, you were not mistaken, having read title. Now we will look how it is possible to work with data from SQL Compact using ADO.NET Data Services.

How I can define custom instance logic of data model in ADO.NET Data Services?

sergey@zwezdin.com — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:48:00 +0400

When we work with ADO.NET Data Services we reference data model via generic-parameter. Thus, instance of data context class it is created by infrastructure of ADO.NET Data Services. In this case ADO.NET Data Services use constructor without parameters.

ADO.NET Data Services и LINQ to SQL: continuation

sergey@zwezdin.com — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:57:07 +0400

Recently I wrote about what actions are necessary, that the LINQ-to-SQL data model could work together with ADO.NET Data Services. I wish to add this information with one important fact.

Updating data into ADO.NET Data Services which based on LINQ to SQL

sergey@zwezdin.com — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:30:00 +0400

We continue to investigate possibilites of use LINQ to SQL as model of data for ADO.NET Data Services. Today we will talk about possibility of change data.

ADO.NET Data Services and LINQ-to-SQL

sergey@zwezdin.com — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 12:46:00 +0400

As a rule, ADO.NET Data Services works over ADO.NET Entity Framework data model. However, work with real projects (and customers:)) sometimes specifies to us other conditions. Frequently there is no necessity to use Entity Framework. And in this case we start to think of use LINQ-to-SQL as data model.

Debugging ADO.NET Data Services

sergey@zwezdin.com — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:16:15 +0400

Interest to ADO.NET Data Services platform obviously is growing up among developers of web-services. It also confirmed when I receive e-mail letters with questions about different problems. As a rule these questions are reduced to serivce error after some actions, when serivce say about general error and not takes details. In this case services say that he stored information about error in logs.