Ohad's Blog

Composite Application Guidance for WPF-June 2008 RTM !

Ohad Israeli — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:52:24 GMT

Composite Application Guidance e.g. Prism project was released to the wild today !!!

So if you are building WPF apps and looking for a module loader, event broker and other goodies to build WPF Composite solutions hurry and download this cool framework from PAG.

So what you can find in this new framework ?

Stock Trader Reference Implementation
Composite Application Library for WPF
4 Quickstarts
Hands on labs – How to build a Hello world app
Documentation Documentation and hmm.. Documentation…. -
300 pages of documentation !!!!

Composite baseline architecture
UI Designer guidance
Design Concepts
Technical Concepts
Patterns
How-to’s

The cool thing with this framework is that you can use it as a whole… or take parts and use them on your own for example the Event aggregator and the Module loader can be taken an be used also in winform or non ui applications as theses modules are not using any WPF implementation in them !

If you want to learn about prism and building composite wpf apps David Platt is going to deliver a workshop of Building Composite apps using Composite Application Guidance in Israel 31/8/08 – 3/9/08 for more details check Idag’s web site

GO GO GO and download the Composite WPF, documentation and hands on labs over here : http://www.codeplex.com/CompositeWPF/ and here

Composite Application Guidance for WPF RC1 Shipped

Ohad Israeli — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 07:01:11 GMT

Project Prism - Composite Application Guidance for WPF just shipped release candidate 1 !

So if you are looking for a guidance of how to build a loosely coupled composite WPF application this guidance is for you.

Check it out over here (http://www.codeplex.com/CompositeWPF)

Surfing using IE8 Beta 1

Ohad Israeli — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 09:09:11 GMT

I've decided to check out IE8 Beta 1 to see what's new...

It took me no longer then 30 sec to find the first bug... take a look at how hebrew is displayed on the blogs.microsoft.co.il

Luckily IE8 has an Emulate IE7 button at the top... one click and we are back to normal:

SpeedFiler - Where have you been all my life ?

Ohad Israeli — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:55:00 GMT

Sometimes you get in touch with a tool that you just cant understand how previously you have been able to live without it, SpeedFiler is such a tool !

Last week a friend of mine (Ron Leeram) recommended that I'll check a cool outlook addin that is aimed to increases your productivity, as someone who is looking always for tools to increase his productivity and as one who is uses outlook on hourly basis I rushed to test this tool, few days after... I just dont understand how I was able to live without it.

SpeedFiler from Claritude Software is and email productivity tool, the tool takes care of filing your incoming and outgoing messages and it does it perfectly

After installing SpeedFilter you will notice a new toolbar which is added to your Outlook toolbars, this tool bar will enable you to quickly File incoming emails to the right directory.

The email filing uses a nice algorithm that suggests you where to file the incoming emails and even try to learn by looking at your taken actions, after several minutes the app learned most of my email's archive folders.

For the ones who doesn't like using toolbars SpeedFilter takes control of the Move-To-Folder shortcut and displays its ui over the standard ui, using SpeedFilter you can just start typing the name of the folder and click enter to file the email to the right folder.

If that is not enough, SpeedFiler will let you also File outgoing emails as you send them, meaning there is no more massive amount of emails laying at the "sent items" folder, from now on every outgoing email will be moved to the directory which is close to it context.

Now here is the nice part... this cool addin cost ONLY 24.95 for personal license and 39.95 for the pro license which is my favorite, so is it worth ? well YES it is worth every penny as it is one of the most incising productivity product that I came close to in the last year, I just don't understand how I could live without it.

Wana try it too ? there is a 30day trial version at Claritude site which you can install and check the tool.

For all the hebrew users, in order for this tool to work fine with hebrew past the following lines to a test file with .reg extension, run it once and reboot your system. This fix will substitute Tahoma,0 with Tahoma,177 which will fix some unicode issues.

---- cut here ----

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes]
"Tahoma,0"="Tahoma,177

---- cut here ----

TechEd Eilat Prism Deck

Ohad Israeli — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 08:09:03 GMT

If you are interested in knowing what PRISM (WPF Composite Client) is all about you are welcome to deck DEV432 - Hilton Knaan - Eilat - Today at 14:45 - 16:00

During the talk we will show you how you can build a simple wpf composite app using prism in which one of the modules in taking live pictures from my Canon EOS 400D.

Upgrading your GAT/GAX

Ohad Israeli — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 18:13:15 GMT

GAT/GAX the Guidance Automation Toolkit/Extensions are hard to remove once you have them installed, following is a procedure I am using in order to migrate the GAT/GAX.

Make a copy of C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Recipe Framework\ReceipeFramework.xml
Edit the ReceipeFramework.xml and remove the tags inside the <GuidancePackages> key.
Uninstall the GAT/GAX via the control panel. (prior to removing the packages the gat/gax wont let you uninstall it)
Install the new GAT/GAX versions.
Edit the ReceipeFramework.xml and insert back the removed files (from the copy that you've saved in step 1)

You will end up with a new GAT/GAX which has the same packages at before.

Unity 1.0 released !

Ohad Israeli — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 07:19:04 GMT

Unity, the next object builder, had been released yesterday to the wild !

During the preparation for TechEd's Prism deck I've got into core relationship with this new DI Container from Microsoft. One of the patterns which are the basis of Prism is Dependency Injection and as such Prism is designed to use a facade which will enable us to choose our own preferred DI container. Of course we need a default DI container and Unity is the one.

So hurry up and download it over here

TechED Eilat started for me on thursday

Ohad Israeli — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 07:10:23 GMT

TechEd Eilat only starting officially tomorrow but for me its already stated on Thursday when I picked up Glenn Block from the airport.

On Thursday's evening we had a great dinner and lots of geek discussions around the table, well what can you expect if you put Roy, Udi, me, Itay, Glenn and Oren on the same table.

During the talk Glenn showed his way to educate programmers to use patterns & practices products.

And since then... during the last couple of days and nights (yesterday... Friday night... we worked till 3am) we are working together in preparing our PRISM deck, so although the PRISM deck turned out to be the last TechEd's Deck (Last day, last deck) if you want to learn what PRSIM is all about... don't forget to show up.

DEV432 - Hilton - Knaan - Tuesday 8.4.2008 15:00 - 16:15

Prism First Drop

Ohad Israeli — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 06:23:03 GMT

Glenn Block & the Guys from Patterns & Practices just released to the public Prism First Drop, this drop includes a drat Reference Implementation (RI) which you can look and learn how to use the Prism.

If you want to learn more about Prism, Glenn block and me are going to talk about it in less then a month at TechEd Eilat.

Note that this is a code drop i.e. not all the functionality that is planned for the framework is currently implemented through you will be able to have a brief look at what you'll get during summer time.

You are more then welcome to download and give us feedback on what you like what, you dislike and if you have other ideas that we might use, not all the ideas will be implemented by p&p, we are planning to open community prism project where with the help of the community we will implement some of the ideas.

Download Prism First Drop

Prism project page at Codeplex

Prism is alive !

Ohad Israeli — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:54:41 GMT

Prism - WPF Composite Client codeplex web was born today :-)

"Prism" is a set of assets for developing Composite WPF applications, yes you can use Composite UI (CAB) to build composite application today, you can also use CAB to build wpf based applications but with Prism you'll be able to get all the benefits of Pure WPF apps with the lessons learned from the Composite UI (CAB) in order to build a true WPF Composite Solution.

What can you expect to see at the Prism web ?

You will see start seeing soon Prism drops where we would like to receive comments from you about the solutions we are providing to various Composite UI problems in the WPF domain.

If you want to learn more about Prism, Glenn Bloch and I are going to deliver a session at TechEd Eilat on this cool cool new block :-)

LiveIt at TechEd Eilat !

Check out the Prism web page at code plex

Playing with Fluent Interfaces - The Fluent Validator

Ohad Israeli — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 12:41:05 GMT

About a month ago I've visited redmond for a Prism (WPF Composite Client) design review, during the session Glenn Block had talked about the idea of building Prism using fluent interfaces . In the past I did play with the idea of building fluent interfaces api through it was for my own purposes.

Lately I've been requested to design a Validator for a company whom I'm helping and I've decided that a Validator is really a cool example where fluent interfaces may become useful.

Following is an example of declaring a new validation rule using my fluent validator:

Say for example that you have two entities where you want to govern the interaction between them.

Entity entity1 = new Entity();
Entity entity2 = new Entity();

Why not just declare it like this:

validator.Define.If(entity1).CanBe(ValidationAction.Connected).To(entity2).Return(true);

We can also check for validity of rules using:

validator.Validate.Can(entity2).Be(ValidationAction.Droped).On(entity1)

Indeed as you can see, there is no need for xml comment for these rules you can just fluently read what the code does.

Note: read more about fluent interfaces with the help of Martin Fowlers

Windows Server 2008 as Workstation

Ohad Israeli — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 11:18:28 GMT

For years I've been working with windows server editions as my main development environments, the reasons are plenty and among of them you can find the stability and the lose of useless services at workstations versions.

Last week I've decided that enough it enough and I cannot stand Vista anymore and decided to downgrade to XP just before going through the downgrade I've received a notification from the Windows Server Beta that they finally made Windows Server 2008 RTM so I've decided to give it a try AND I LOVE IT !

The installation of Windows 2008 Server went much faster then i expected.

After the installation I've started modifying the base install and adapting the server for a high end workstation.

For anyone who might want to move like me here is my WIN2008Workstation list:

Disable shutdown event tracker
Start->Run->"gpedit.msc" -> Administrative tools->System-> Display Shutdown event tracked -> Disable
Disable IE Security
Start->Server Manager->Configure IE Sec->Off both options.
Enable Wireless Support
Start->Server Manager->Features->Add Feature->Wireless LAN Services
Enable Audio support
Start->Run->"Service.msc"->Windows Audio -> Automatic
Start->Run->Services.msc"->Windows Audio Endpoint Builder->Automatic
Install hardware drivers
I am using ThinkPad t60p so my driver list is here
Note that mobility center is missing from windows 2008 server so there is no need to install it.
IBM Network access connection will crash on you if you will not enable the wireless support (Look above)
Enable Vista Experience (look & feel including Aero, Media Player etc.)
Start->Server Manager->Features->Add Feature->Desktop Experience

More info including how to enable sleep support on windows 2008 server you may find over this kb: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947036)
Enable Themes
Start->Run->"Service.msc"->Themes->Automatic
Enable .NET 3.0
Start->Server Manager->Features->Add Feature->.NET Framework 3.0 Features
Enable Windows Search (for searching outlook emails)
Start->Server Manager->Roles->Add Roles->File Services->Windows Search
Enable SuperFetch
Start->Run->"regedit"

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters

Add a new DWORD by the name of EnablePrefetcher and assign is the value of 3
Add a new DWORD by the name of EnableSuperfetch and assign is the value of 3

Start->Run->"services.msc"->SuperFetch->Automatic
Install Messenger
Latest Live Messenger will not install on Windows 2008 Server, you should install a former version (8.1 and not 8.5) and then you may copy the Live Messenger folder from a working machine and work with it.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=d78f2ff1-79ea-4066-8ba0-ddbed94864fc&DisplayLang=en
Install Skype
Latest Skype version will crash 2 seconds after login, you need to install a former skype version Skype 3.1.0.152 works great.
http://filehippo.com/download_skype/2473/
Install Office 2007
Install Visual Studio 2008
Setting Processor Scheduling
Start->Control Panel ->System ->Advanced system settings-> Advanced -> Performance -> Settings->Advanced->Adjust best performance->Programs
update:
Changing DEP Mode
Start->Control Panel ->System ->Advanced system settings-> Advanced -> Performance -> Settings-> Data Execution Prevention-> Turn On DEP for essential Windows programs and services.
update2:
Fixing ASP.NET Development Server
After installing visual studio you might want to start working with Casini, the asp.net dev server but it seems that the ie cant find it.
Edit the hosts file located at: C:/windows/system32/drivers/etc

comment the following line :
::1 localhost
by replacing it with:
#::1

(the "::1" is use for the localhost for ipv6)

Serious Outlook Bug - What a waste of a working day !

Ohad Israeli — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 22:06:03 GMT

Yesterday I've been hit by a really nasty Outlook 2007 bug, for the first time in my life i nearly gave up on a bug and was on the edge of reinstalling my laptop.

For almost 24hr I had experienced outlook crashes two to five seconds after starting outlook up, for most of the day I was looking for the source of the problem but I just couldn't find it.

I did try to remove every outlook add-in, starting in outlook safe mode, exchanging pst's, diagnosing psts, diagnosing office suite. I even reinstalled office completely from scratch but nothing helped, the outlook continued to crash on my every 5 sec... this really made me crazy.

All i could get is the following event log msg:

"Faulting application OUTLOOK.EXE, version 12.0.4518.1014, time stamp 0x4542840f, faulting module ntdll.dll, version 6.0.6001.17042, time stamp 0x47329a8e, exception code 0xc0000374, fault offset 0x000af2a0, process id 0x1744, application start time 0x01c8509d220a95db"

I was goggling like nuts for the solution but I just haven't found any way out of these crashes.

Finally after almost giving up I found some email about other person's prob. and I've decided to try apply the same solution:

I've opened regedit and navigated to the following key: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32

Then i've renamed msacm.voxacm160 to no.msacm.voxacm160

Strangely things went back to normal after reboot.

I hope this note will help someone with the same prob. to solve it in less time.

Free Microsoft Press E-Books !

Ohad Israeli — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 22:27:24 GMT

Microsoft Press is handing out 3 great books !

So if you want your own free LINQ / AJAX / SilverLight ebook check it out over here

Introducing Microsoft LINQ
by Paolo Pialorsi and Marco Russo
ISBN: 9780735623910

Introducing Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX
by Dino Esposito
ISBN: 9780735624139

Introducing Microsoft Silverlight 1.0
by Laurence Moroney
ISBN: 9780735625396

Building Service Oriented UI (SCSF & CAB Training)

Ohad Israeli — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 22:03:23 GMT