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May 2010 - Posts

• JetBrains Team City

  We’re currently using JetBrains Team city ( http://www.jetbrains.com/teamcity/) to provide our CI (Continuous Integration) environment on our project. There are many reasons for choosing Team city for this purpose, over something like TFS Builds for example. Read More... Posted 26 May 2010 16:25 by merrick.chaffer | 0 Comments Filed under: code, TeamCity

• Post build event for copying a target dll to an extensions folder

  For example if you wish to create a MefExtensions directory for a main assembly to use the DirectoryCatalog to load in plugins at application startup then add this to your sub project's post build event SET DestDir=MefExtensions SET DestDir=$(SolutionDir)\$(SolutionName)\$(OutDir)%DestDir%\ Read More... Posted 26 May 2010 15:31 by merrick.chaffer | 0 Comments Filed under: Microsoft, C#, .NET, batch, Howto, MEF

• A good WPF busy spinner indicator

  http://blogs.msdn.com/b/pigscanfly/archive/2010/01/11/bizzyspinner-2-a-wpf-spinning-busy-state-indicator-with-source.aspx Read More... Posted 26 May 2010 12:02 by merrick.chaffer | 0 Comments Filed under: Microsoft, WPF, Blend

• Windows 7 TaskBarItemInfo in WPF for Progress bar style feedback

  In windows 7 you may have noticed when items are copying across in windows explorer, that you get a nice progress bar reported on your task bar for windows explorer. This can be achieved in your own WPF applications using the Window.TaskBarItemInfo dependency Read More... Posted 24 May 2010 15:18 by merrick.chaffer | 0 Comments Filed under: Microsoft, C#, .NET, Howto, WPF, Windows 7, .NET4.0

• Snoop that works for WPF applications

  Most versions of snoop that I keep coming across have a problem updating the UI dynamically at runtime via the SNOOP property grid editor. Felix Corke recently pointed me in the direction of a fixed version… http://snoopwpf.codeplex.com/ The most recent Read More... Posted 18 May 2010 16:37 by merrick.chaffer | 0 Comments Filed under: Microsoft, Gotcha, .NET 3.5, Blend, .NET4.0

• Kuler colour theme selector

  If you’re having difficulties selecting a colour for your new web site or application, then use the following tool… http://kuler.adobe.com/#create/fromacolor It’s great for devs, there is also a Expression Blend panel plugin for it http://jonas.follesoe.no/AnnouncingColorfulExpressionStudioAddIn.asp Read More... Posted 17 May 2010 15:00 by merrick.chaffer | 0 Comments Filed under: Microsoft, Howto, WPF, Blend

• Reflection filling with Blend

  When you’re creating a reflection using a visual brush in xaml, then to create the mirrored effect, simply flip the filled rectangle vertically, and then set the OpacityMask to have the first stop at 0% alpha setting. Read More... Posted 17 May 2010 14:37 by merrick.chaffer | 0 Comments Filed under: Microsoft, Howto, WPF, Blend

• Windows Phone Developer Tools (installation issues)

  If you have issues whereby the installation of Windows Phone Developer Tools wont install as it says it is already installed, when attempting to install the April refresh, then look here for the solution… Aaron Stebner's WebLog  XNA Game Studio Cleanup Read More... Posted 11 May 2010 11:27 by merrick.chaffer | 0 Comments Filed under: Microsoft, .NET, code, Gotcha, Howto, Windows Phone

• Where did Help About go in Microsoft Office 2007?

  I needed to find the standard help about dialog in Excel 2007 the other day, and normally I would have just gone to the Help menu, but this strangely is now hidden under the Office button, Excel Options, Resources, About… Read More... Posted 10 May 2010 10:17 by merrick.chaffer | 0 Comments Filed under: Microsoft, Gotcha, Howto, Office

• Using d:DataContext design time expression with Visual Studio 2010 Xaml file editing

  Setting the design time datacontext in visual studio 2010 in your xaml file, makes intellitype work for a deep traversal of any of your view model properties... You can set the data context type to your view mode, and then data binding to your view model Read More... Posted 04 May 2010 14:53 by merrick.chaffer | 0 Comments Filed under: Visual Studio, code, .NET 3.5, Howto, WPF