Using the Documents Library as a database in Windows 8 Store apps 13 May 2013 Diederik-Krols Many Windows 8 Store apps require some amount of structured storage on the client. But in WinRT, local and roaming storage is limited in size, and a client-side relational database does not come out of the box yet. This article describes how to use a folder in the user’s Documents library to s... [More]
A convention-based data template selector for Windows 8 XAML Store apps 22 April 2013 Diederik-Krols This article describes how you can use naming conventions to hook a XAML Data Template to a ViewModel or a Model in a Windows 8 Store app. The last couple of years, convention-based coding became more and more popular in the .NET world. The MVC framework was one of the first managed environments whe... [More]
Creating touch-based rotation in Windows 8 XAML Store apps 28 March 2013 Diederik-Krols WinRT This article illustrates two ways of using touch or mouse input to rotate a UI element in a XAML-based Windows 8 Store app. I’m sharing this code because I believe that the corresponding official MSDN sample is too complex. Don't get me wrong: the Windows 8 gestures sample looks nice and ... [More]
The Slider’s Guide to the MVVM Galaxy 19 March 2013 Diederik-Krols This article describes two behaviors of the native XAML Slider control that reduce the joy of using it in MVVM Windows 8 Store apps. We all agree that XAML is one of the nicest technologies to develop Windows 8 Store apps, right? We all agree that you should use MVVM to build XAML apps, right? No, w... [More]
Semantic Zoom and LINQ: Better Together 05 March 2013 Diederik-Krols Metro, WinRT With this short article, I want to show you the easy way to provide data to a semantic zoom in a Windows 8 Store app. I’ve seen too many developers trying to massage their business data to make it consumable for a semantic zoom, by pulling it through custom implementations of IS... [More]
Avoiding hard times with the soft keyboard 05 February 2013 Diederik-Krols WinRT Developers who submit a Windows 8 XAML-based Store app that involves data entry, should always test their app on a real touch device. Otherwise they might see their app rejected because of the soft keyboard blocking the screen. This article illustrates some of my personal experiences and issues rega... [More]
The whole world in a SQL Server database 29 January 2013 Nico-Jacobs SQL Server, Integration Services Some people have the whole world in their hand, but last weekend I tried something slightly less ambitious: Getting (part of) the whole world in a SQL Server database. Loads of spatial data from OpenStreetMap I’m always looking for interesting datasets. I was still lacking a large dataset with spa... [More]
Validation sets in SQL Server Data Mining 22 January 2013 Nico-Jacobs Analysis Services, SQL Server BI, Data Mining What are validation sets? Data Mining Data mining analyses historical data to find patterns that might help us better understand how our business works, or might help predict how the business might evolve in the future: Instead of doing ‘traditional BI’, where we pick some attributes and ask for a... [More]
Printing from MVVM XAML Windows 8 Store apps - the final frontier 21 January 2013 Diederik-Krols WinRT This article describes a reusable way of implementing print support in a Windows 8 MVVM-and-XAML based Store app. I noticed on the MSDN forum that many developers have a problem with the XAML version of the official printing sample app. They find it too complex. So I originally wanted to create... [More]
Using Dynamic XAML in Windows 8 Store Apps 08 January 2013 Diederik-Krols WinRT This article describes a couple of techniques that you can apply to dynamically change the look-and-feel of data-bound XAML controls in a Windows 8 Store App. You’ll be introduced to value converters, style selectors, template selectors, and the XamlReader class. I created a light-weight MVVM ... [More]