Hi, I just added a new post that expresses my disappointment in the messages that have come from the Windows 8 launch:

http://mikehole.com/2011/06/06/an-end-to-the-good-times-before-they-even-start/

Just a short post to get something that has just started swishing about in my head out.

I just read the following article:

http://www.businessinsider.com/intel-exec-spills-the-beans-on-microsofts-tablet-plans-2011-5?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

In this article the beans are spilt in regards to Windows 8 running on ARM processors (by an Intel exec of all people).

Microsoft has targeted the ARM processor architecture because Win8 will have version that will run on all sorts of platforms that require low power consumption such as Tablets, Smartphones (although this is unlikely as we have WP7) and small form factor PC’s. This then is a big enabler for MS to finally get into the tablet market big time.

But there is one other point that is mentioned, and that is that legacy applications won’t run on the Arm architecture. The author even states ‘Developers may also face challenges writing their apps for both platforms’.

Urm no! – Yes we have to lament that great applications that you use every day won’t run but if you really need to run those applications then you can always stick to Intel based kit (and I am sure Intel will love you for it).

But us developers have Silverlight and I will bet my left arm that the Arm based Win8 is going to run that (This is another sign of why that shift in priorities that people saw as the death of SIlverlight was mentioned).

So what is SIlverlight? It’s an enabler for the write once run anywhere (pc, phone tablet, set top box etc.). Something that us app developers will cherish.

If you like me also follow the rumour mill then you will know that Microsoft are looking to create an app store (can I use those words without being sued?). The backbone of this considering the different architectures that Win8 is going to support has to be Silverlight based I am sure.

What this means for us developers is that there is yet another eco-system on it’s was (people are going to want applications and right now there isn’t any).

So if I was you I would start learning Silverlight and building your app ideas because it looks like there are some good time ahead for those who get in first. 

What are your thoughts? Feel free to leave a comment.

Cheers,

Mike

With MS using the new catch phrase ‘To the cloud’ and saying things like ‘three screens and the cloud’. You would think that they would consider their cross device support even if those devices are all Microsoft based ones.

We all can see that they have the cloud sussed with their Azure platform and services based offerings and this excites me greatly and makes me wish that I can start thinking about those three screens.

So the third screen is my TV right? How do I get to use my TV as the third screen well that would be with my Xbox surely. But do I really have to use XNA to realise this dream especially since I have all my design assets within XAML right now.

There have been all sorts of rumours regarding SL on the Xbox without any sort of foundation or demonstration from MS.

For yesterdays Future of Silverlight Keynote I was hoping that we would see some more regarding the platforms that Microsoft are targeting specifically hoping that one of those would be the xBox.

What I actually saw was how Silverlight Is concentrating on adding abilities that are mainly PC based along the lines of pInvoke and even remote control devices (surely this has been added because of a specific supplier request not because the public have asked).

It is about time they made things clear so that they can either quash or realise my hopes.

If you find yourself looking at error responses from the WCF data service  that only tell you ‘An error occurred while processing this request’ from a WCF Data Service then…

Just add:

            config.UseVerboseErrors = true;

to the method:

public static void InitializeService(DataServiceConfiguration config)

And you will get the full details of why your data service isn’t doing what you want it to.

If you want you can also override the HandleException method to capture the exception on the server:

        protected override void HandleException(HandleExceptionArgs args)        {            base.HandleException(args);

            //Do something to handle the exception.        }

Hope this helps – sure has helped me!

29/72010: Sorry but I am going to be dropping this series because my software focus has change to developing Windows Phone 7 applications. Maybe re visit this in the future (hopefully before CRM 5 is released

Hi, this is part 1 of a series of posts giving an introduction to extending Microsoft Dynamics using Silverlight.

In this post I will outline how to add a custom Silverlight control to any of the entity forms.

For these articles I will be using Visual Studio 2010 Professional with All of the usual Silverlight (version 4) tools installed.

At Sequence the company where I work we make use of the eService accelerator this allows our customers to log cases via an extension to our web site.  For this series of posts I am going to create a new tab in the contact entity screen that will display details of the contacts log in details that are stored in a separate ASP.NET authentication database.

How it works

The CRM 4 entity forms allow administrators to customise forms in many different ways but the one way that makes things handy for us is the ability to add IFRAME elements into a form. We will use this customisation to display a Silverlight control inside the form.

 

 

Getting Started

Create a new Silverlight application as normal ensuring that you enable RIA services and create a test web project.

NOTE: In future when you will want to make this live you will need a server available that you can add the .Net framework 4 and host the web site or virtual directory.

Identifying the Entity

So that the Silverlight application knows what entity it is using it will need to be passed the Id of the entity that is being displayed in the entity form. To ensure that this works when you add an IFRAME customisation to an entity you will need to ensure that the I frame is passed the record ID and type:

This results in the following URL:

http://localhost:40363/ContactDashboard.aspx?type=2&typename=contact&id={299390EB-049E-DE11-A280-00155D801211}&orgname=Sequence&userlcid=1033&orglcid=1033

To get these values into my Silverlight application I have decided to use Silverlight parameters. To do this I first added the following code to the ASPX page that displays the application:

public string SilverlightParams

{

    get

    {

string sRes = string.Format("id={0},type={1},orgname={2},typename={3}",

            Request["id"], Request["type"], Request["orgname"], Request["typename"]);

   return sRes;

    }

}

Then in the page mark-up I added the following to the params for the Silverlight application:

<param name="initParams" value="<% = SilverlightParams %>" />

So we get this:

<object data="data:application/x-silverlight-2," type="application/x-silverlight-2"

   width="100%" height="100%">

    <param name="source"   

      value="ClientBin/Sequence.CRM.SilverlightExtensions.MainDashboard.xap"/>

    <param name="onError" value="onSilverlightError" />

    <param name="background" value="white" />

    <param name="minRuntimeVersion" value="4.0.50303.0" />

    <param name="autoUpgrade" value="true" />

    <param name="initParams" value="<% = SilverlightParams %>" />

    <a href=http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=149156&v=4.0.50303.0

        style="text-decoration:none">

   <img src=http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=161376

       alt="Get Microsoft Silverlight" style="border-style:none"/>

    </a>

</object><iframe id="_sl_historyFrame" style="visibility:hidden;height:0px;width:0px;border:0px"></iframe></div>

Making the App Know the entity Id

In the Silverlight application project I added the following to the App class code:

 

private Guid? m_ContactID = null;

 

public Guid? ContactID

{

 

    get

    {

 

        return m_ContactID;

    }

}

In the Application_Startup method:

 

private void Application_Startup(object sender, StartupEventArgs e)

{

 

    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(e.InitParams["id"]))

        m_ContactID =

new Guid(e.InitParams["id"]);

 

   

    this.RootVisual = new MainPage();

}

We can now access the ContactID anywhere in the code like this:

((

App)App.Current).ContactID

 

Just checking

Here is a screenshot of a simple app in an I frame just to show it works:

In part 2 I will show how to hook this app up to the ASP.NET authentication database.

 

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Somehow I missed it but Microsoft launched a new phone platform recently (Kin). This comprises of two phones that have quite different factors but have one main purpose, to be the users social hub.

To promote the new phones Microsoft have put together a web site that gives the usual brochure-ware details about the product etc.

The Kin web site has been created using  Flash as a method of delivering the rich experience rather than Silverlight.

This has created the usual mutterings from people on Twitter with as you can guess the word ‘Fail’ being used quite a bit.

This really does rattle my cage. I for one can see why Microsoft have used Flash for the front end of the site and yes it is because of the market penetration that Flash currently has over Silverlight.

Imagine if you had a brand new product and you wanted to sell it to the masses but you told the people at the top that although 60% of the web population will get to see it straight away the other 40% will have to download an app first. You have to agree that the people at the top would ask you what pills you have been taking recently. You so have to go with market share on this one.

I am however reserving my bets for the fact that Kin Studio will be written in Silverlight. Kin Studio is the online face of the social aspect of the phones and it looks to be a good showcase of what can be achieved with the Microsoft technology stack including Azure, Silverlight and the new Windows Mobile 7 (platform). If Microsoft have used Silverlight for Kin Studio they will be increasing their penertration of silverlight and you never know maybe oneday they will have enough of a share that they will launch a new product / site with silverlight as the 1st thing people see.

I just hope I am not let down!

BTW: I imagine I will get some flames from this but hay I am sure it won’t be as much as Microsoft themselves.