BESUG session on RIA Services: slides + code

Last Thursday, I presented a BESUG session on RIA Services.  Code & slides are online now, feel free to download them and have a look.  Most of RIA Services is covered, including but not limited to CRUD, Validation, extending generated code, Authentication and Authorization.  The Silverlight solution itself is built using a (pragmatic ;-)) MVVM approach.

Silverlight available on Windows Embedded CE R3!

Just now, I was surfing on the Infragistics site, having a look at their control suites.  I noticed their latest press release, concerning the development of a custom UI on Silverlight for MS Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R3. 

I was amazed.  Silverlight, on Windows Embedded CE?  That’s new. 

So I assumed this was just an announcement for something that would be released somewhere in the future.  Nevertheless, I decided to surf around some more, looking for more information, and sure enough I stumbled upon this page on the Microsoft site, which explicitly states Silverlight for Windows Embedded has been released, “enabling designers and developers to create exciting and visually compelling user interfaces for embedded devices”.  This update to Windows Embedded CE has been available since last week, and it can be downloaded here (update).

So, how come this wasn’t announced with lots of bells and whistles??  Beats me (well, maybe I just missed it ;-)), but nevertheless: way to go, Silverlight! ;-)  We can now design Silverlight applications for thin clients, set-top boxes, VoIP Phones, GPS devices, handheld terminals, …!

Update!  This is NOT the same Silverlight version you’d use for developing regular Silverlight applications, more information can be found here – yet it’s certainly a step in the right direction.

Silverlight, MVVM & Animations

When you’re working with the Model-View-ViewModel pattern in Silverlight, sooner or later you’ll run into the same problem most of us run into: what about animations?  Theoretically, if you want to follow the MVVM design pattern you’re using, your animation should be initiated from the ViewModel (no code behind on your View, remember?), but due the separation between your View and your ViewModel, the ViewModel shouldn’t know about a specific View.  It should exist indepently of it, so, for example, you can easily use the same ViewModel for multiple Views.

So, how do you solve this problem?  How do you get animations on your View while still respecting the MVVM pattern (more or less so, depending on your implementation)? 

Binary Bob has a very, very interesting post about this on his blog.  He talks about the problem, and then discusses several options on how to solve it, including sample code.  I especially like the StoryBoardManager-solution.  Make sure you check it out!