SVS technology web site has a new look

Upgraded SVS Technology site with the following features:

1. ASP.net MVC 2.0
2. Microsoft Server 2008
3. .net 4.0
4. Discountasp is a very good host. The upgrade and web deploy from Visual Studio 2010 went very smoothly.
5. Had to  set System.Web.MVC  reference properties copy local to true to make it work.
6. Added a redirect to Prizewheel demo so that it will work with the new controller/ view architecture of the site so that old links will not break

Json Data Visualizer (for Google, Yahoo, Bing and Twitter) using JQuery, JavaScript, Asp.net MVC 2.0

I have been working for the past few weeks on the code project article

Json Data Visualizer (for Google, Yahoo, Bing and Twitter) using JQuery, JavaScript, Asp.net MVC 2.0

this was fun and I had to use following references

1. “prettyPrint” for JavaScript by James Podesly for table data visualization
2. Javascript unpacker and beautifier by Einar Lielmanis for Beautify format.
3. Show Object Properties by Matt Holthe for understanding recursive scanning of Javascript objects.
4. http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-Search-API-Method%3A-search for Twitter search.
5. http://developer.yahoo.com/common/json.html#overview about Yahoo Json
6. http://developer.yahoo.com/search/local/V3/localSearch.html for yahoo search
7. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd251056.aspx about bing
8. http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxfeeds/documentation/ for google.

Rest, Web services, Javascript, JQuery

Read interesting articles on REST and web services.

1. A Brief Introduction to REST by Stefan Tilkov Very informative article. I enjoyed not only the technical content but also the prose. He talks in this about Roy Fielding (given in links below) inventor of REST.
2. Roy T. Fielding inventor of REST.
3. Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures Html version of Roy’s Thesis on REST.
4. Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures PDF version of Roy’s Thesis on REST.

Good tutorials and articles on Javascript, REST and JQuery

1. Tutorials:Live Examples of jQuery
2. JQuery Tutorials
3. Tutorials:jQuery For Designers
4. W3 Schools Beginner Tutorials on Javascript, JQuery
5. JSON for the masses
6. Partial Rendering with ASP.NET MVC and jQuery
7. Make Yahoo! Web Service REST Calls With C#

Yahoo services, Json, JQuery and Javascript Object browser

Looking at Yahoo web services and working  with Javascript, MVC and JQuery.

Yahoo is making several APIs available

1. Yahoo Developer Network
2. Yahoo APIs and Web Services

Yahoo can provide data back as XML or Json. Interesting links for using Yahoo services.

1. Interesting Link by Matt Holthe on a Javascript Object Browser. Helped me to debug the Yahoo Json data.
   Show Object Properties
2. How to use  returned XML from Yahoo Services with Silverlight
   Silverlight: Using Returned XML
3. Interesting article on parsing Json safely
   Safely parsing JSON in JavaScript
4. Excellent Json validator. Not only validates, nicely formats the stream which comes from Yahoo (Json data) so that you can copy the input to a word document to understand the data structure.
   JSONLint The JSON Validator
5. Introduction to Json and Javascript JSON in JavaScript
6. JSON Primer

Silverlight Buttons

Recently I submitted a Silverlight article on CodeProject. One of the readers commented on my buttons not Silvelight like! I agree with the comment and started looking at good button  designs and came across these:

1. A Glass Orb Button in Silverlight by Timmy Kokke a very good collection of buttons.
2. 10 Cool Buttons for Download in Expression Blend & Silverlight by Alan Beasley
3. Building Better Buttons in Expression Blend & Silverlight by Alan Beasley
4. Creating a Glass Button: The Complete Tutorial by Martin Grayson
5. Silverlight Buttons and Pushbutton Discussion by Wynapse

Silverlight Datagrid pager issues and PageCollectionView wrapper

Tried Datagrid pager by

<data:DataPager x:Name="TempDataGridPager"
               Source="{Binding Path=Source,ElementName=DataGrid1}"
                   PageSize="2" >
           </data:DataPager>

and then

DataGrid1.ItemsSource = ListPictures;

It did not work. Then looked at the following article

DataPager Class 

had to use PagedCollectionView, which provides paging functionality .to make it work

PagedCollectionView itemListView = new PagedCollectionView(ListPictures);
            TempDataGridPager.Source = itemListView;
               DataGrid1.ItemsSource = itemListView;

Silverlight InitializeError- Invalid or malformed application: Check manifest Changing Namespace

I recently changed the namespace in a Silverlight project and ran into lot of problems! Visual Studio was smart to change the namespace in many files, but I ran into this bug and the page will not render

InitializeError- Invalid or malformed application: Check manifest.

I researched this and came across this forum posting:

InitializeError- Invalid or malformed application: Check manifest

First I learnt an easy way to  look at the XAP file. Just change the extension to .zip and you can unzip it and look in the App.Manifest file. No problem there. Then going through the thread I found the solution as recommended by R. Wiltschek. Quoting him

“In human-readable words, this is what fixed it for me: 1. Open the properties of your project. 2. On the first page, open the drop down list of "Startup object". 3. Select the page your project starts with. In my case, changing the name of the namespace broke the startup object.”

It worked for me!