While I won't get into any misgivings or opinions on the use of the control, I will say that I wanted to provide a better experience for my application and wanted to provide the user with some sense of how many pages were in the particular series of "pivots" and exactly what page in that series they were on.

It is a simple concept really, we see these types of UI like experiences in other popular phone and web applications including Apple and Android. So with that said I created a control that is fully skinnable that mirrors those typical devices and works great with the pivot control.

So if you were looking for a solution to make your paging look like that of an apple or android paging indicator, look no further.You can simply enter the following xaml with the dll reference as follows or check out the sample to see a full sample use case:

<cl:PivotPageIndicator PageCount="{Binding Path=Items.Count,ElementName=PivotControlName}"SelectedIndex="{Binding Path=SelectedIndex,ElementName=PivotControlName}" />

Below is the source, so feel free to use at your liesure. I provided 2 things:

The DLL Only: PivotPageIndicatorDLL.zip 4Kb

The VS Source Project (with Sample): PivotSample.zip 98Kb

And please let me know if you enjoyed this solution and found it useful.

If you miss that talk, since I didn't give much heads up notice. I will also be doing this talk at the Silverlight User Group in Chicago on 6/1/2011 downtown at the ITA building. So if you are interested in Silverlight or want to know what's new, I encourage you to check it out.

For those who went to one of these talks or for those who just want to see code, I am attaching my demo below. Understand you will need Silverlight 5 beta 1 installed in order for this to work, but its yours to check out.

 Silverlight 5 Demo.zip 3.5mb

Step 1
In firefox, at the address bar type "about:config" without the quotes. If done correctly you will see a little warning.

Step 2
Accept the warning. Tell it you will be careful, you promise.

Step 3
In the filter field, type "dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npctrl.dll" and you should see only 1 entry.

Step 4
Change the value from "true" to "false". You can do this by just double-clicking the entry.

Step 5
Restart the browser and you should be good to go.

Of course you could ignore all that and manually attach the visual studio debugger to "plugin-container.exe" but that would be painful and the above way is much easier.

The talk focuses on subjects that are usually overlooked on your typical Silverlight or WPF presentations. I will focus on all things XAML. Specifically, I will be talking about Layout, Animation, Visual States, and Styling. So, if you are in Chicago, check it out.

As promised I uploaded the demo samples: XamlDemo.zip (570 KB)

Visual Studio 2010
First, Silverlight 4 development is only compatable with Visual Studio 2010 and NOT 2008. Therefore, if you have not yet gotten Visual Studio 2010, then I suggest using the express editions found here. (DONT WORRY! Visual Studio 2010 will install and work side by side with Visual Studio 2008)

Silverlight Tools for VS2010
Once you have Visual Studio 2010 in place, then you can get the Visual Studio 2010 tools, because VS 2010 ships only supporting Silverlight 3 out of the gate. Now this is where some confusion can set in. The tools, unlike the actual Silverlight 4 runtime have not been officially released. Thats right, the tools are only in "release canidate" mode and Microsoft promises to release these tools to official "RTM" soon but I don't know the date for them. You can get the tools here.

Silverlight Toolkit
Silverlight toolkit has been updated to an April release specifically to support Silverlight 4 and you can get those bits here.

Expression Blend 4
Like the VS2010 tools, Expression Blend 4 is also only in "RC" status and has not officially released yet. One great thing about Expression Blend 4 is if you currently own the full version of Expression Blend 3, you can upgrade to 4 at no additional cost. WOOHOO! You can download a trial of Expression Blend 4 RC here.

Silverlight 4 Training Kit
Microsoft has just released a new free Silverlight 4 Training Kit that walks you through building business applications with Silverlight 4. You can also download the entire offline version of the kit here.  You can use the 8 modules, 25 videos, and several hands on labs online or offline from links on the Channel 9 site.

The problem wasn't obvious here, but once the wait cursor is done with its task the mistake is setting the "Cursors.Arrow". The default value of "OverrideCursor" is actually null, not arrow. By forcing it to arrow means no other call can update the cursor but another Mouse.OverrideCursor. So to correct the issue your code should look like this:

Mouse.OverrideCursor = Cursors.Wait;

//random synch process stuff

Mouse.OverrideCursor = null;

In the XAML

<Image x:Name="OriginalImage" Source="img.jpg">

   <Image.Effect>

      <l:BrightContrastEffect  x:Name="MyEffect"

                    Brightness="{Binding ElementName=bVal, Path=Value}"

                    Contrast="{Binding ElementName=cVal, Path=Value}"/>

  </Image.Effect>

</Image>

In the Code

//using System.Windows.Media.Imaging;

//using System.Windows.Shapes;

//using System.Windows

//using System.Windows.Media;

BitmapSource bitmap = OriginalImage.Source as BitmapSource; //source from XAML

Size sz = new Size(bitmap.PixelWidth, bitmap.PixelHeight);

 

Rectangle r = new Rectangle();

r.Fill = new ImageBrush(bitmap);

r.Effect = MyEffect; //name applied in XAML

r.Measure(sz);

r.Arrange(new Rect(sz));

 

var rtb = new RenderTargetBitmap(

                    bitmap.PixelWidth, bitmap.PixelHeight, 

                    bitmap.Dpi, bitmap.DpiY, PixelFormats.Pbgra32);

rtb.Render(r);

What it essentially does is takes the effect you apply in the XAML and in the back end you can use that effect to create a new bitmap. You do this by virtually constructing a rectangle of the appropriate size and shape of the original image and applying the effect and the image to the rectangle and then saving that out using RenderTargetBitmap. I will upload a sample solution when I get home this afternoon.

I begin my review by breaking the application down into six different aspects of User Experience and I note the positives and negatives of each aspect... what works and what doesn't. The aspects that I look at are as follows:

1. Communication

How well does your application communicate to the user. In most situations we as business application developers are in the habit of creating forms with a simple 1 or 2 word label and some sort of input field. The big problem is we rarely write descriptions into these forms. We rarely describe the field outside of the 1 or 2 word label and sometimes that is just not enough to explain the input field. Additionally the overall application, the overall form itself may require some simple descriptions in why or what the user is filling out. And don't just stop there, context sensitive help, tool tips, even taking a note from MS Money and provide camtasia like videos showing some brief examples of how a particular function works when its not straight forward can help communicate and lower the need for training of your applications.

2. Usability

This is probably the most synonymous to UX, how usable is your application. How intuitive is your application. There are plenty of sources of what this is and what it takes to make a usable application. A simple and easy way to determine how usable your application is, simply sit behind several users using your application without helping them with it. Let them sit down and just use it... you will be surprised where users may stumble in your application and provide very clear areas you may need to improve.

3. Visual Aesthetics

Visual Aesthetics is probably the most bizarre to some application developers as well as the most obvious to understand. We as a world generally care what something looks like it, we make decisions and spend billions of dollars on physical appearances of things consciously and subconsciously. I have been in many different development shops who quote the same thing... "I don't care what it looks like, Our users care more that it works and makes their job easier." I wont deny this as true, but I guarantee you if you application was compared to a equally working application that looks better, everyone would choose the better looking application. Its just plain fact. People do care of the physical appearance of things, and as the exposure of technology increases among our users, expectations in this department will continue to be raised. Don't let your applications feel dated by simply having an application with zero visual appeal.

4. Utility

Utility is my own term, and probably the reason most of us are employed into application development. What I mean by utility is how useful is the application. Is the work flow accomplishing its usefulness, is the interface doing what it set out to do. One of the most common mistakes I have seen in the past was business mainframe UI's converted to web based applications. Most developers didn't take the quick response and the simple fact mainframe users never really dealt with a mouse and presented these users with a web based solution. The usefulness was lost in translation and what was intended to be a better system all to often cost more time instead of saving it. The key point is make sure your application is accomplishing its stated and sometimes unstated goals.

I always use the analogy of the swiss army knife... I once had a magazine with all sorts of different swiss army knifes. Each had a different collection of blades, tools, toothpicks, pliers, spoons, etc...  The idea is making sure you have the right knife set for the job. You could always purchase the knives in the back of the book that had every single utensil in them, but it was bloated and introduced a new problem that typical knives didn't have... where is the tool you need. The same holds true for our applications.

5. Delivery

Delivery is simple, small and in the world of business applications sometimes overlooked. The basic concept is your application delivering appropriately to the audience. Make sure you're not giving them a web app when they need a windows app, and vice versa. Make sure it works in the users screen resolution, that it runs effectively with their PC's. Simple, easy, and if it fails, it fails horribly. Consider the user in delivery, not the developer.

6. Hype

Last but not least is hype, the major concern I have on any job is how do users feel about the new application. Are they happy with it, what are their expectations, do they look forward to the new changes... hype is important. Its important your users have a good vibe, a good attitude towards what you're developing. A great application can fail in the eyes of the business if the users have a bad attitude towards change. It can be the difference if users use the application or continue doing what they did before the application was ever built... or keeps them from constantly complaining and making your developments look bad. Don't under estimate this.

I have been known to recommend books during my UX talks  from authors such as Alan Cooper and Steven Krug. And while those authors are considered legendary and the forefathers to usabality and interaction design, I consider this book on par and a must have for anyone interested in UX as a practice.

September 16, 2009 - Chicago .NET User Group
CNUG website (rsvp here)
2 topics - Technical Introduction Silverlight 3 and Blend 3 for developers. 

October 7, 2009 - Chicago Designers and Developers User Group
CD2UG website (rsvp here)
1 topic - Technical Introduction Silverlight 3

Both events will cover the introduction to what's new in silverlight 3 and then continue to show the details of some of these new bits and how to utilize them in your applications. I hope to cover both Silverlight in Visual Studio and also how developers can begin to utilize some of the new features in Blend 3, such as design with data, photoshop/illustrator import, behaviors, sketch-flow, and more.