Project: GraphLib for mobile

The GraphLib for mobile is a library to draw some chart on a mobile. 

You can see more about this project in the section Project of this blog or by cliking here.


Sample of a bar chart Playing with the text

Posted by: franky
Posted on: 7/31/2008 at 11:07 AM
Tags: , , ,
Categories: .Net | Mobile
Actions: E-mail | Kick it! | DZone it! | del.icio.us
Post Information: Permalink | Comments (0) | Post RSSRSS comment feed

Project: DiagramLib

DiagramLib is a library that give the opportunity to draw some schema like Visio.  I did this librairy doing a addon to Microsoft Visual Studio.  The goal was simple use the drag&drop to quickly build a schema.

You can read more about it here

Some shapes and the property toolbar

 


Posted by: franky
Posted on: 7/31/2008 at 9:30 AM
Tags: , ,
Categories: .Net | Mobile
Actions: E-mail | Kick it! | DZone it! | del.icio.us
Post Information: Permalink | Comments (0) | Post RSSRSS comment feed

What you must have to enjoy IE7

Recently I got some trouble with the so lovely Firefox, so I got no choice to suffer and use IE.  But then I take the time to search how I can improve the application.  Here is my top 4 of some add-ons that are really nice....

Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar

The Microsoft Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar provides a set of tools for quickly creating and debugging web pages. Tools include such areas as exploring the DOM of a page, locating specific elements on a page, and outlining code blocks.  It's really look like FireBug, a MSUT to any developer. Download from here.

image

Inline Search

Inline Search is a quick way to search for content on a web page without pulling up the Find Dialog as well as providing the ability to find as you type and highlighted search terms.

http://www.ieforge.com/InlineSearch/HomePage

image

Extended Copy Menu

Again for all developer...  Adds a “Copy As Html” and “Copy As Plain Text” to the context (right-click) menu.

http://ryanscook.com/adminsBlog/2007/02/firefox-ie-copy-context-menus.html

image004

IE7Pro

IE7Pro is an add-on for Internet Explorer which adds a lot of features and extras which make your Browsing faster,More Responsive and Sleek.  It add also:

  • New Module: FasterIE,It will increase your IE surfing speed.
  • Add Session Manager function, it include save, load, copy, send by mail
  • IE context menu add save selected source code to file and clipboard as html, text, links
  • Online bookmark support IE8 webslice now
  • New ActiveXObject interface.
  • View page info SaveAs dialog support multi-select now
  • Add serverinfo plugin again

http://www.ie7pro.com/index.php?language=en

 

Voila!  I hope you will enjoy those.

François


Posted by: franky
Posted on: 7/17/2008 at 9:51 PM
Tags: ,
Categories: Windows
Actions: E-mail | Kick it! | DZone it! | del.icio.us
Post Information: Permalink | Comments (0) | Post RSSRSS comment feed

Change Font Color in Gnome Panels

I don't know if you are like me, but I prefer darker themes.

But with Ubuntu no UI interffface is present be default to change the color of the font in Gnome panels. Here the simple way I found.

  1. Open a terminal and type:
    sudo gedit .gtkrc-2.0
  2. Then a empty file will open so copy-paste this code:
    include "/home/autocrosser/.gnome2/panel-fontrc"style "desktop-icon"
    	{
    	NautilusIconContainer::frame_text = 1
    	text[NORMAL] = "#000000"
    	NautilusIconContainer::normal_alpha = 70
    	}
    	class "GtkWidget" style "desktop-icon"
    	#NautilusIconContainer::dark_info_color="#888888"
    	#NautilusIconContainer::light_info_color="#bbbbbb"
    	#NautilusIconContainer::highlight_alpha=20
    	style "panel"
    	{
    	fg[NORMAL] = "#ffffff"
    	# fg[PRELIGHT] = "#000000″
    
    	# fg[ACTIVE] = "#000000"
    	# fg[SELECTED] = "#000000″
    
    	# fg[INSENSITIVE] = "#8A857C"
    	# bg[NORMAL] = "#000000″
    
    	# bg[PRELIGHT] = "#dfdfdf"
    	# bg[ACTIVE] = "#D0D0D0″
    
    	# bg[SELECTED] = "#D8BB75″
    
    	# bg[INSENSITIVE] = "#EFEFEF"
    	# base[NORMAL] = "#ffffff"
    	# base[PRELIGHT] = "#EFEFEF"
    	# base[ACTIVE] = "#D0D0D0″
    
    	# base[SELECTED] = "#DAB566″
    
    	# base[INSENSITIVE] = "#E8E8E8″
    
    	# text[NORMAL] = "#161616″
    
    	# text[PRELIGHT] = "#000000″
    
    	# text[ACTIVE] = "#000000″
    
    	# text[SELECTED] = "#ffffff"
    	# text[INSENSITIVE] = "#8A857C"
    	}
    	widget "*PanelWidget*" style "panel"
    	widget "*PanelApplet*" style "panel"
    	class "*Panel*" style "panel"
    	widget_class "*Mail*" style "panel"
    	class "*notif*" style "panel"
    	class "*Notif*" style "panel"
    	class "*Tray*" style "panel"
    	class "*tray*" style "panel"
    That time I change the color code of: fg[NORMAL] = "#FFFFFF". You can change this fffor any color by using the #RRGGBB equivalent code.
  3. Save. Close the editor. Re-log and Enjoy!

  If you dont know the code for the color you want you can go here, Or you can use gcolor2.   To install it type in a terminal

sudo apt-get install gcolor2

And when you are done, type: gcolor2 and voila!

 

I hope this little trick will make it eiser for you!

Franky 


Posted by: franky
Posted on: 5/30/2008 at 1:30 AM
Tags: ,
Categories: Ubuntu
Actions: E-mail | Kick it! | DZone it! | del.icio.us
Post Information: Permalink | Comments (0) | Post RSSRSS comment feed

Wubi: The ultimate Ubuntu installer for Windows

Wubi
The ultimate Ubuntu installer for Windows
Wubi_logo

Wubi

Wubi (Windows-based Ubuntu Installer) is an officially supported Ubuntu installer for Windows users that can bring you to the Linux world

with a single click. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other Windows application, in a simple and safe way.

Pros and cons

Windows will not be touched, Wubi only adds an extra option to boot into Ubuntu. It doesn't require a partitions of your PC, or a different boot loader (like GRUB), and does not install special drivers. It works just like any other application. And if you do not like it, you can simply uninstall it as any other application (with the add/remove Programs of Windows).

This look fantastic the solution got a price. Using Wubi to install Ubuntu should be a no permanent solution.

  • Because it use a virtual file a partition the performance of Ubuntu will be very affected. Also this file is in a NTFS drive so the Ext3/4 and the file will become fragmented.
  • Hibernate is not possible with Wubi because no swap partition is created.
  • With this solution Ubuntu is dependant from Windows. If you finally like the Ubuntu and decide to use it as primary OS, then you can't remove you're windows, because there are link together.
  • With this kind of install Ubuntu is vulnerable to any windows infection. If you're windows got a virus then you're Ubuntu can be affected too.

Conclusion

Wubi is a great solution for people how want to try Ubuntu. Is so simple, you can just insert the Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron (or newest) or Just run the installer.

Wubi_screenshot

The Wubi popup menu will show, enter a password for the new account, and click "Install" and voila!

Note:

  • Lubi, uses Linux as the host system instead of Windows.
  • Mubi:for the Mac OS as host, will eventually be supported.

Requirements

  • 256 MB memory
  • 5 GB harddisk space
  • Windows 98, 2000, XP, Vista

References

Official web site: http://wubi-installer.org/


Posted by: franky
Posted on: 4/30/2008 at 11:51 PM
Tags: ,
Categories: Ubuntu
Actions: E-mail | Kick it! | DZone it! | del.icio.us
Post Information: Permalink | Comments (0) | Post RSSRSS comment feed

Line of Business Accelerator 2008 – Part 1

Line of Business Accelerator 2008 – Part 1

Manage store procedure with SQL Compact 3.5

This article is the first of a series were I will explain in small chunk the best practices use in Microsoft Line of Business Accelerator 2008.

Prerequisites

To be able to do it you will need:

  • Visual studio 2008 – with SQL compact 3.5

  • Line of Business Accelerator 2008

  • SDK Mobile 6.0 Standard (smartphone, no touch screen)

  • Microsoft Active Sync 4.5

Create the Project

Open Visual studio and create a new Mobile 6 project. You can pick any platform for this demo but a select the framework 3.5 standard.

  1. On the main Form Add a DataGrid and name it grdProduct.

  2. In the Main Menu:  

    • Add a Menu Item Close (mnuClose). Double-click and add the following code to close the application.
      1: [code:c#;ln=on]
      2: private void mnuClose_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
      3: {
      4: this.close();
      5: }
      6: [/code]
    • Add a menuItem Fill mnuFill and double click on it to add the handler.

Now you should have something like this.

 

Add the Database

Now we need a database. I use the Northwind database. You will found it in the SDK folder (\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SmartDevices\SDK\SQL Server\Mobile - Northwind.sdf). Right-click on the project and add existing item.

When the dataset dialogue will prompt select the in the Product table the column: [Product ID], [Product Name] and [Unit Price].

 

Fill the datagrid with the “normal” method

Before we add the code in the mnuTest click Handler we need to know the connectionstrng of our database. In NetCF this is the full path and name of the database. The relative path seem not be supported. So in our case we put the database in the same folder that the application, so we could hard coded or use something more generic (and reusable like:

1: [code:c#;ln=on]
2:

3:

"margin-bottom: 0cm">

4: string
5: runAppFolder =
6: System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().CodeBase);
7:

8:

"margin-bottom: 0cm">

9: [/code]


So now we can use it in the click function. Everything else now is like any “regular” .Net application. But instead of using SQL object were using SqlCe.

1: [code:c#;ln=on]
2: private void mnuTest1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
3:
4:     try
5:     {
6:         SqlCeDataAdapter oAdap = new SqlCeDataAdapter();
7:         SqlCeConnection oConn = new SqlCeConnection(@"Data Source = " + runAppFolder + @"\Northwind.sdf");
8:         SqlCeCommand GetProduct = new SqlCeCommand(“SELECT [Product ID], [ProductName], [Unit Price] FROM Products”);
9:  
10:         oAdap.SelectCommand= GetProduct;
11:         oAdap.Fill(tblProduct);
12:         grdProduct.DataSource= tblProduct;
13:      }
14:     catch(Exception ex)
15:     {
16:         MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
17:     }
18: }
19: [/code]

 

Now everything is in place the application should works. So Select youre emulator and run it.

 

Use the manage store procedure

Now it's time to use the “new” that the NetCF Team call:Manage Store Procedure. In fact this is not realty a new, because it was available in VS2005.


Add a Resource call StoreProc to the project.

Add a file to the project ProductGet.sql.

From the resource add an existing text file... select the ProductGet.sql. You should have something like this:

 

 Double-click on the ProductGet icon, the file will open with the SQL syntax hi-lighter. So now we will move the SQL query there in the file you should have:


To use this we will get back in the code where we were building the sqlcqcommand and replace the string by the ProguctGet. So the new code will be

1: [code:c#;ln=on]
2:

3:

4: ...
5:

6:

7: SqlCeCommand GetProduct = new
8: SqlCeCommand(StoreProc.ProductGet,oConn);
9:

10:

11: oAdap.SelectCommand =
12: GetProduct;
13:

14:

15: oAdap.Fill(tblProduct);
16:

17:

"margin-bottom: 0cm">

18: ...
19:

20:

"margin-bottom: 0cm">

21: [/code]


Conclusion

Now you can test again the application. It's works like before but this time you can edit the sql code without re-compiling.

 

To add some parameter just add some ? in you re query and add the parameter(s) to the SqlCeCommand, like usual.

 
I hope this simple tutorial help you, feel free to ask any question or let me know you're comment.

Thanks

Franky


Posted by: franky
Posted on: 4/24/2008 at 4:13 PM
Tags: , ,
Categories: .Net | Mobile
Actions: E-mail | Kick it! | DZone it! | del.icio.us
Post Information: Permalink | Comments (0) | Post RSSRSS comment feed