In response to my Twitter buddy Funwithcoding I made this post: In Silverlight you can only add one BitmapEffect (Blur or DropShadow) to one object at a time. But these effects are passed down to their child objects (inheritance). For that reason we can use a little trick and apply multiple effects to one object (or so it appears). In this Short two minute video I show you how:
An object with a DropShadow and Blur effect:
Enjoy
Hello All!
The June 16th Los Angeles Silvelright Usergroup meeting is going to be a very special one. Not only will one of the foremost experts in the world, Jason Cook, present on Behaviors but yours truly will present on Windows Phone 7!
Microsoft has sent me a special materials dubbed Event-In-a-Box. This special promotional material includes a pre-defined training regime as well as some pretty cool stuff to give away! There will be free shirts, mobile cases, USB drives and Window-Clings!
Make sure and join the LA Silverlight Usergroup if you have not done so already and attend our June 16th meeting! You can join and get meeting details at www.laslug.com
See you there!
Hello All!
On Saturday June 19th, 2010 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm (PST) I will be signing copies of my latest book Foundation Blend 3 with Silverlight and presenting/demoing the new features of Silverlight 4 at the Microsoft Store in Mission Viejo, California!
Join me as I show how to use the new Webcam and COM APIs, show how to build Out-Of-Browser (OOB) Silverlight applications and talk about Sketchflow Prototyping with Silverlight.
There will be plenty of prizes and give-aways from our sponsors. Microsoft will be giving away copies of the Expression Blend Suite, Apress will be giving away some of its most popular book titles based on .NET technologies and finally DevExpress will be giving away copies of its popular Silverlight Tools.
Join us for an evening of book signing, food and drinks, presentations and everything Silverlight! attendance is free but RSVP as space is limited.
See you there!
Just some of the free give-aways from DevExpress:
Just some of the free give-away prizes from DevExpress.
Sponsored By:
Hello All!
Recently I was asked to make a ToolTip that now only followed the Thumb of the Slider but also showed the value of what the slider was (see image above). I thought about this and I came up with a pretty quick solution. There may be other ways to do it but watch the short 1o minute video to see how I did it.
See it in action: http://tinyurl.com/39mbakt
Video: http://tinyurl.com/2wjzcps
Source Code: http://tinyurl.com/2wxln7j
Hello All,
As always I like to keep you all informed of where/when you can come and see me present on Silverlight. So, here is my current speaking schedule for the months of June and July 2010. Please note that some of these dates are tentative and subject to change. If they are tentative I will mention it. Thank You and I Hope to see some of you at these events. Be sure to come up and say hello if you do come!
Sat. June 19, 2010: Book signing/Silverlight 4 presentation – The Microsoft Store – Mission Viejo, CA:
This event is sponsored by Microsoft, Apress and DevExpress and held at the Microsoft store in Mission Viejo, CA. There will be food and lots of free stuff. DevExpress will be giving away free copies of their very popular Silverlight Controls like the AgDataGrid Suite. Apress, will of course be giving away books on Silverlight, WPF and .NET development. I am sure there will also be free copies of my last book, Foundation Blend 3 with Silverlight and possibly even advance copies of my next book Foundation Blend 4 with Silverlight 4. I will also be signing books and then doing a presentation right on stage. Will be showing off some new features of Silverlight 4 including but not limited to the Webcam and COM Interop APIs!
Sat. June 26: SoCal Code Camp – San Diego, CA
SoCal Code Camp is a place for developers to come and learn from their peers. I will be speaking on new Features of Silverlight 4, but this time with an emphasis on building Out Of Browser applications. Join me as I build right on stage an OOB Chromless application with Elevated trust. I am going to show you how to build the TutorialCam that I use on all of my free Silverlight video tutorials.
Friday July 23 – RIAPaloosa 3 – Chicago at the Illinos Technology Association:
RIAPALOOZA is a community-driven, non-profit, day-long event for professionals who design, develop, customize, maintain and maximize business value using rich platforms like Flash, Silverlight and HTML5. Join me as I present on Building RIAs without writing code with Silverlight 4 (session link coming soon). During this session I am going to show how to build Silverlight games using the Farsser Physics Library. More specifically, I am going to show how to build the popular 80′s game Asteroids all without writing a single line of code!
Wed. June 16 – Los Angeles Silverlight Usergroup – June Meeting
The Los Angeles Silverlight usergroup is a group created by myself and Jason Campbell so that interaction designers and developers can come together to learn about Silverlight, Expression and creating rich internet applications. Join us for some free food, free prizes and some great presentations. I say that because Yours Truly is going to present at this meeting and show how to develop Windows 7 Mobile applications using Silverlight! For this event Microsoft has sent me some Win7 Mobile swag that you’ll just love to have and I will love to be giving away!
Hello All!
IMPORTANT: Watching the video I see I said “I am going to Undo that…” To Undo in Blend hit Control+Z
I have been asked repeatedly for the source code for the camera application I use to show myself when filming Silverlight video tutorials. Well, I decided to make a tutorial on how to build your very own TutorialCam (shown above). I takes about 27 minutes but is much easier than you would think. There are a lot of little things that you need to do but it is fun and when you are done you will be ready to make your very own Silverlight video tutorials just like me and possibly get MSFT MVP along the way.
Enjoy!
Victor
Video: http://tinyurl.com/2um4w4a
Source Code: http://tinyurl.com/28dw5ok
Hello All!
In this short 7.44 minute video I show you how you can, with one line of C# code fire one of two Visual States based upon the value of a Boolean variable, one if it is true or another one if it is false. This is much easier than evaluating the variable yourself and then firing each VisualState manually. Enjoy!
Video: http://tinyurl.com/2wj7fvu
My Source Code: http://tinyurl.com/36mro2k
Hello All!
As you probably already know there is no “built-in” way to accomplish Fast Forward with the Silverlight MediaElement. So, in this 24 minute video I show you how to:
1. Create a new Silverlight application;
2. Add a MediaElement, a Fast Forward Button and a TextBlock for the video’s position information;
3. Create a PlayState Enum and a DispatcherTimer
4. Then on click of the button I show you how to a. Make the video Fast Forward at 1x speed and b. click it again for 2x speed.
If you are doing video this is a must for any self-respecting video player!
Enjoy!
Video: http://tinyurl.com/3933h8t
Demo (see the Fast Forward button in action here): http://tinyurl.com/32kfu8q
Download my Source Code: http://tinyurl.com/265n5he
(My Source code is not downloading well for me and a few others, if that is the case Michael Washington, MVP has hosted the source on his servers: download here: http://tinyurl.com/2dwgsnm) Thank you Michael
I sat down and talked Silverlight 4 with Murray Gordon at MIX 10. Check out the interview here:
Have you ever needed to have your Silverlight Object’s ToolTip appear after a delay? Say, two seconds? Well, if you have done this in WPF you know that it is quite easy but not so for Silverlight. Until Microsoft adds that property we are just out of luck, or are we?
Well, after some research I found THIS project on CodePlex called the Advanced ToolTip project. The author, someone named XavierDecoster has extended the ToolTipService class and added a property called InitialDelay that sets the time before the ToolTip will appear and one called DelayTime that will set how long the ToolTip shows before it disappears. AWESOME!
So, I made a short, 7 minute video tutorial that shows you how to use this awesome ToolTipService.
Watch the video here: http://tinyurl.com/2bbklrk
Download my source here (the Silverlight.Controls.dll can be found in it): http://tinyurl.com/23pxxzw
This post was commented on by Microsoft’s own Scott Guthrie (the Gu) on 5.31.10
Hello All,
This is a post that keeps growing day by day so I need to update its postion to be at the top of my blog as the content grows. So, here it is again by popular demand:
49. How to add multiple BitmapEffects to one object in Silverlight: http://wp.me/pxXri-7K
48. How to build a Slider with a ToolTip that follows the thumb button and displays the value of the Slider: http://tinyurl.com/37ms8fl
47. How to build your very own TutorialCam like I use in my video tutorials! http://wp.me/pxXri-75
46. Fire one of two Visual States based on the value of a Boolean variable: http://wp.me/pxXri-71
45. How to add Fast Forward to the Silverlight MediaElement: http://wp.me/pxXri-6V
44. Create a custom ToolTip with a Delay: http://tinyurl.com/24cqcqu
43. Create a Silverlight Paging Systems to Load Pages on the Fly: http://wp.me/pxXri-6H
42. Create a Slide In/Out Navigation Panel: http://wp.me/pxXri-6B
41. How to use Joe Stegman’s PngEncoder to save an image from your Silverlight application: http://wp.me/pxXri-6y
40. How to create complex gradients: http://tinyurl.com/ycjcpd5
39. My Blend IDE series – Part 1 – the Blend Toolbar: http://tinyurl.com/yh48uh8
38. My Learn Blend IDE series Part 2 – Layout Controls and User Input Controls: http://tinyurl.com/yblcjyk
37. My Learn Blend IDE series Part 3 – The Properties, Projects and Data panels: http://tinyurl.com/ykvcdkk
36. My Learn Blend IDE series Part 4 – The Objects & Timeline and States panels: http://tinyurl.com/y8ztcds
35. My Learn Blend IDE series Part 5 - Blend’s Animation Workspace – Everything you need to know to create Storyboard Animations - http://wp.me/pxXri-56
34. How to make a 3 column ListBox in Silverlight: http://tinyurl.com/yhxspew
33. How to read XML into Silverlight and turn it into Native Silverlight Objects: http://tinyurl.com/ybm27su
32. Create a default Silverlight 4 Out Of Browser app that allows you to create new OOB apps in mere seconds: http://wp.me/pxXri-4h
31. How to make a forever scrolling Silverligh banner: http://tinyurl.com/ykkd7kl
30. How to create a Silverlight Color Resource in a ResourceDictionary: http://tinyurl.com/yhxc28z
29. How to make an Out of the Browser SL4 Web Browser Applicaiton: http://tw0.us/5jy
28. Use the new Silverlight 4 Webcam API to create a cool webcam app that even let’s you save images to your hard drive: http://tw0.us/5RD
27. Use the new Silverlight 4 COM API to make an Out of the Browser application that is able to open a MS Word document: http://tw0.us/5NN
26. How to make a Timer by using the DispatcherTimer class: http://tw0.us/4my
25. Create a Functioning Login UserControl: http://tw0.us/4o3
24. Use the FarseerPhysics Library to create a Ragdoll with simulated Physics: http://tw0.us/4pA
23. Create a Sortable ObservableCollection: http://tw0.us/5G0
22. Create a Silverlight Ragdoll with Simulated Physics: http://tw0.us/4pA
21. How to create a functioning Silverlight Login UserControl: http://tw0.us/4o3
20. How to create a Silverlight Timer using the DispatcherTimer class: http://tw0.us/4my
19. How to create custom RoutedEvents in Silverlight using Andrew Whiddett’s (IdentityMine) Eventing assembly reference: http://tw0.us/4cU
18. Use the Silverlight Toolkit’s WrapPanel to create a ListBox that displays three rows of Data: http://tw0.us/4aV
17. Create a Silverlight custom Silder: http://tw0.us/4LZ
16. How to create a Visual Tree Helper to locate FrameworkElements in the Visual Tree: http://tw0.us/46C
15. Using DataBinding to control the Visibility of any Silverlight Object using Blend and Visual Studio: http://is.gd/4jUYJ
14. How to create a complete Sketchflow Prototype in Silverlight: http://is.gd/41pjN
13. Creating a Custom Silverlight Button Just for Designers (using linear and radial gradients, the gradient tool and opacity masks): http://is.gd/3XAcr
12. Creating a Custom Silverlight Button: http://is.gd/3X1eZ
11. Creating a Storyboard Helper Class: http://is.gd/3mjXW
10. Importing Photoshop PSD files into Expression Blend 3:
http://is.gd/3f53d
9. Creating Morphing Vector Path Storyboards in Blend
http://tw0.us/4oI
8. Re-Creating a Metallic Logo in Vector using Blend 3
http://tw0.us/4oL
7. Creating Timed Storyboard Animations
http://tw0.us/4oK
6. Using TemplateBinding to Replace a ContentPresenter in a Silverlight Button
http://tw0.us/4oJ
5. Working with Data in BLend 3
http://tw0.us/4oN
4. Silverlight 3 Behavior Tutorial Video
http://is.gd/3ajTP
3. This Tutorial will teach you how to create a Card Flipping Animation!
http://is.gd/3ajpa
2. Observable Collection Tutorial
http://is.gd/3ajLK
1. Silverlight Extended Drag and Drop Behavior:
http://victorgaudioso.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/extended-drag-and-drop-behavior/q
Enjoy! Victor
Victor Gaudioso and Jared Potter at MIX10
Jarred Potter
Victor Gaudioso and Laurant Bugnion at MIX10
Laurant Bignion
Victor Gaudioso and Warren Wilbee at MIX10
Warren Wilbee
Victor Gaudioso and Joe McBride (my new tech editor) at MIX10
Joe McBride
Dave Campbell
Matthias Shapiro
John Papa
UPDATE: Here is just the first part of my presentation: http://www.windowspresentationfoundation.com/LASLUG/March/MarchMeeting.wmv
Here is Michael Washington’s presentation on how to use MVVM to build a Silverlight File Manager: http://www.windowspresentationfoundation.com/LASLUG/March/LiveStream03242010.wmv
Hello All!
For the first time in its short history the LA Silverlight Usergroup will be streaming its meeting LIVE in Silverlight. Please log on at 6:45pm PST and watch our meeting Live!
Tonight Michael Washington MSFT MVP will show how to build a Silverlight FileManger
After that I, Victor Gaudioso, Co-Founder of LA Silverlight Usergroup and MSFT MSA will talk about, what else? How to do Live Streaming in Silverlight!
The URL for this event is: http://windowspresentationfoundation.com/LASLUG/March/
Make sure and joing us and leave any comments regarding the meeting on this blog post or on our usergroup website, www.laslug.com.
Also, if you attend the meeting we will have what we call “Hello Mom!” time where you can get on the camera and say hello to whomever you like. Just keep it clean. So be sure to tell your loved ones you are going to be at the on the VCast of the LA SL Usergroup meeting tonight and come on down!
See You There! Victor
Hello All,
DZone has something called REFCARDZ that help you to get started in any programming platform. They needed a series that were dedicated to help people learn Expression Blend and Silverlight. You can do the math and guess who they approached to do this; Yep they ASKED ME! So, I did my first one for them and today it just went LIVE. So, check it out (It’s a FREE DOWNLOAD):
http://refcardz.dzone.com/refcardz/getting-started-silverlight?oid=hom20371
Please provide comments here!
Victor
Hello All,
Tonight (March 31st, 2010) Microsoft announced their new highly coveted MVP award recipients. MVP stands for Most Valuable Professional and it is a pretty big deal in the technology space. And tonight they announced the three newest awardees and I was one of them! Yes, you read correctly, I am now a Microsoft Expression Blend MVP!
So, I would like to say thank you to all of those who supported me, read my books, tutorials and articles. If it were not for you I would not be one of the few Blend MVPs in the world.
And Congrats to the other two newly awarded MVPs: Adam Grocholski (@agrocholski) and Colin Blair (@slcolinblair).
You can read all about what it is to be an MVP here: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Thanks, Victor
Hello All!
Recently I had a developer ask me how he could fire an event from the CheckBox that I had put in the Style of the UserControl I gave him.
I thought about it and, the problem is that objects in a Style are not really part of the Visual Tree until the Style is attached at runtime.
After a lot of thought and many failures I developed a Behavior (IN CODE) that can be attached to objects in or out of Styles that allows you to specify what Method they need to fire. This Behavior uses Reflection to find and invoke the specificed method.
I made a video tutorial to show you how to do it too!
Enjoy!
Victor Gaudioso
Video: http://tinyurl.com/yhp96zr
My MVP Award just came in the mail and it did not dissapoint. There was a really nice plaque, a glass award, an MVP ID card and an MVP pin. Take a look at the video of me opening my award!
Hello All!
In doing a lot of speaking engagements I get asked lots of Silverlight questions. From these questions I have noticed a pattern emerging whereby many people have a terrible time working with gradients. Of course the real trick, as is with anything, is practice but before one can start to practice they have to understand the tools of the trade. So, in this short, 10 minute video I show you how to duplicate a somewhat complex gradient while along the way explaining the tools required to do the job; namely, the Gradient tool, the color palette and the Gradient Eyedropper tools.
With this video and a little practice you too will be able to duplicate the most complex of gradients all on your own!
So, roll up your sleeves, fire up Expression Blend and Get To It!
http://www.windowspresentationfoundation.com/Tutorials/Gradients/
I have decided to accept a position as a Senior UX Evanglist developing WPF and Silverlight with TechPath.
TechPath, a Microsoft Managed and Gold Certified Partner is an expert in Microsoft technologies. TechPath aids a host of different Fortune 500 companies decide what MSFT technology best meets their specific needs and then aids them in implementing that technology. Some of these clients are, but not limited to: Microsoft, Disney, Universal, Viacom among others.
I am proud to join TechPath as their principal Silverlight UI expert!
Hello All,
I get asked this question probably more than most and that is, how can I save an image to my hard drive from my Silverlight applications. Well the answer is, I use Joe Stegman’s PngEncoder.cs to do the job. It works so well and you can implement it in about 5 minutes. Don’t believe me? Watch this 7 minute video where I show you how to create a new Silverlight application, add an image to it, add two class files and one method and then save an image right from my Silverlight application.
Video: http://tinyurl.com/34b6lqp
Source Files:
The SaveTheImage Method (text file) http://tinyurl.com/34xu9ms
My PhotoboothApp http://tinyurl.com/3957u55
The PngEncoder.cs file: http://tinyurl.com/28u26mq
The EditiableImage.cs file: http://tinyurl.com/2uuhvrn
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