Visual Basic

Look Mom, no parameters! Relaxed delegates in Visual Basic 2008 (VB9)

Mike McIntyre [MVP Visual Basic] — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:59:00 GMT

Relaxed delegate conversion, introduced in Visual Basic 2008, enables you to assign subs and functions to delegates or handlers even when the signatures are not identical. Therefore, binding to delegates becomes consistent with the binding already allowed in method invocations.

In Visual Basic prior to 2008:

Sub OnClick(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles RunButton.Click
MessageBox.Show("Visual Basic prior to VB 2008")
End Sub

In Visual Basic 2008 (VB9)

Sub OnClick() Handles RunButton.Click
MessageBox.Show("Look Mom, no parameters!")
End Sub

Details: Relaxed Delegate Conversion

Mike McIntyre
www.getdotnetcode.com

Visual Web Gui - ASP.NET web applications built with a .NET Windows Forms project!

Mike McIntyre [MVP Visual Basic] — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:19:00 GMT

Visual Web Gui is an open source product for porting .NET Windows Forms applications to the web.

It is used to create ASP.NET web applications with a very AJAX like experience - without the AJAX programming hassle.

It may be worth it to you to give it a try. Though it's little rough around the edges at this point, this product can be used today to produce web applications from .NET Windows Forms projects. And - the developer is rapidly improving the product each month.

It's easy to get started and it to produce useful web applications. I've been playing around with it for about a week and have already created two small web applications for IT management.

The process is straight-forward:

1. Download and install the free Visual Web Gui Visual Studio project templates.

2. Create a Visual Web Gui project. This is a Visual Studio Windows Forms project.

3. Build out the Windows Froms application.

4. Compile.

5. Run result in web browser.

6. Deploy to web server.

Visual Web Gui web site: http://www.visualwebgui.com/

Visual Web Gui at CodePlex: http://www.codeplex.com/VWGSilverlight

Mike McIntyre

www.getdotnetcode.com

PInvoke Interop Assistant (FREE) - Making PInvoke Easier to Use

Mike McIntyre [MVP Visual Basic] — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 09:29:00 GMT

Jaren Parsons of the Microsoft Visual Basic Team created PInvoke Interop Assistant. In a blog announcing the tool he says: “The motivation behind this tool is writing PInvoke is a hard and often tedious task. There are many rules you must obey and many exceptions that must be taken into account.”

Read about the tool and get a link to download it at: Making PInvoke Easy

XNA Game Development with Visual Basic 2005 - Thank you Alan Phipps

Mike McIntyre [MVP Visual Basic] — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 20:35:00 GMT

I am a professional business application developer, not a game developer.

My programming language of choice is Visual Basic, through I am proficient with and have developed applications with many languages such as C, C++, SmallTalk, Java, and C#.

I recently received a very important project request. Though it a request to develop a game, I couldn't turn it down. My grandson wants me to help him develop a computer game.

As a Microsoft MVP I am painfully aware that Microsoft has yet to port its XNA Game Studio Express to Visual Basic, its currently available only C#. While I did feel my grandson could learn and comprehend enough Visual Basic to build a simple game - in fact he has created a few simple programs with VB already - I didn't feel he would grok C#.

So I did some research.

I found that Alan Phipps has created the free XNA Game Engine for Visual Basic 2005. And he's published 2D and 3D tutorials to go with it.

I downloaded the XNA Game Engine and after a quick look I went back to Alan's site and made a donation.

Now I am well into completing the 2D tutorials and my first game.

If you want to learn to develop games with XNA and Visual Basic 2005, Alan's offering is a great way to get started.

I thank you Alan and so does my grandson.

Mike McIntyre [MVP] http://www.getdotnetcode.com

Free Line and Shape Controls for Visual Basic 2005

Mike McIntyre [MVP Visual Basic] — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 08:40:00 GMT

Do you get frustrated trying to add graphics to you .NET Windows Forms applications? Learning to use the .NET graphics classes is not easy. Managing the graphics you create with the classes increases the amount of code you need to write.

There was a line and shape control for creating graphics in Visual Basic before .NET. It was widely used by developers to easily decorate the Windows Forms they created with graphics. It was easy to use.

The line and shape control was missing-in-action in Visual Basic for .NET 2002 and 2003.

For Visual Basic 2005, Microsoft has provided a Power Pack that adds line and shape controls to Visual Studio 2005. The Power Pack includes controls that enable you to draw lines, ovals, and rectangles on forms and containers at design time.

These controls provide an easy way to decorate a Windows Forms with graphics just like the VB6 line and shape control.

And, the Power Pack controls introduce powerful new features to the shapes such as events. With events you can change the appearance of graphics at runtime based on events occurring in the application. This adds a whole new dimension to line and shape controls. For example, add click and double-click events allow developers to respond and interact with end users.

The new Line and Shape controls included in this version of the Visual Basic 2005 Power Packs are a set of three graphical controls that enable you to draw lines, ovals, and rectangles on forms and containers at design time.

Line and Shape controls encapsulate many of the graphics methods that are contained in the System.Drawing namespace. This enables you to draw lines and shapes in a single step without having to create graphics objects, pens, and brushes. Complex graphics techniques such as gradient fills can be accomplished by just setting some properties.

Download and Try the Visual Basic Power Pack Line and Shape Controls

Download an installer at:

Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Power Packs 2.0

During installation line and shape control Help is installed installed. To learn how to use the line and shape controls search Visual Studio help for this topic:

Introduction to the Line and Shape Controls

Also during installation, a Visual Studio PowerPacks v2.0 Toolbox Tab is added to Visual Studio 2005:

With it you can drag a line, and oval shape, or a rectangle shape onto the design surface of a Windows form.

Select a shape and use the 'Properties' pane to manipulate the shape.

The possibilities are nearly endless.

Mike McIntyre http://www.getdotnetcode.com

Silverlight

Mike McIntyre [MVP Visual Basic] — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 09:20:00 GMT

Below are some of the links I have found useful for learning about, and developing with, the Microsoft Silverlight technologies.

As a Visual Basic programmer you may want to start learning what Silverlight development is all about. Because Visual Basic in .NET can be used as a static or dynamic language, there are some unique opportunities emerging in Silverlight development for Visual Basic programmers.

Microsoft Silverlight (WikiPedia)
Abstract:	Microsoft Silverlight (code-named Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere or WPF/E) is a proprietary runtime for browser-based Rich Internet Applications, providing a subset of the animation, vector graphics, and video playback capabilities of Windows Presentation Foundation.
Title:	Microsoft Silverlight - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
URL:	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Silverlight

Microsoft Silverlight (Microsoft)
Abstract:	Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. Silverlight offers a flexible programming model that supports AJAX, VB, C#, Python, and Ruby, and integrates with existing Web applications. Silverlight supports fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality video to all major browsers running on the Mac OS or Windows.
Title:	Silverlight
URL:	http://silverlight.net/

Getting Started

1 Getting Started Video.htm
Title:	Silverlight: Get Started
URL:	http://silverlight.net/GetStarted/

2 Download the Runtime and Tools.htm
Title:	Silverlight: Get Started
URL:	http://silverlight.net/GetStarted/

3 Learn from Samples and Documentation.htm
Title:	Silverlight: Get Started
URL:	http://silverlight.net/GetStarted/

Other Starlight Videos

How Do I with Silverlight 1 0.htm
Title:	Silverlight: Videos
URL:	http://silverlight.net/learn/learnvideos.aspx#cat2

How Do I with Silverlight 1 1.htm
Title:	Silverlight: Videos
URL:	http://silverlight.net/learn/learnvideos.aspx#cat2

MIX 2007 Key Note.htm
Comments:	This is a long video but really worth watching to understand where Silverlight fits into the application development framework. Ray Ozzie introduces the high level vision. Scott Guthrie gives the 'hands on' demos.
Date Accessed:	26 Sep. 2007
URL:	http://sessions.visitmix.com/view_07.asp?pid=KYN001

MIX 2007 Silverlight Sessions.htm
Title:	Silverlight: Videos
URL:	http://silverlight.net/learn/learnvideos.aspx#cat4

Using Blend with Silverlight 1 0.htm
Title:	Silverlight: Videos
URL:	http://silverlight.net/learn/learnvideos.aspx#cat3

Mike McIntyre http://www.getdotnetcode.com

OPTION STRICT WARN

Mike McIntyre [MVP Visual Basic] — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 08:11:00 GMT

What's the middle ground between OPTION STRICT ON and OPTION STRICT OFF?

Jonathan Aneja of the Microsoft Visual Basic team explains in his recent blog: Option Strict [On|Off|SortOf]

Visual Basic Pack for Visual Studio 2005 SDK

Mike McIntyre [MVP Visual Basic] — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 12:13:00 GMT

If you are a Visual Basic for .NET programmer who has tried to extend Visual Studio in the past, here's some really good news:

The Visual Basic Pack for Visual Studio 2005 SDK download provides the SDK samples converted in the Visual Basic language and a new wizard that is used for generating Visual Basic based integration Packages for Microsoft Visual Studio. This download is an add-on to version 4.0 of the Visual Studio 2005 SDK. While VB support for the VS 2005 SDK is in the form of an independent add-on install, VB support for the upcoming VS 2008 SDK will be included (integrated in along with C++ and C# support).

This is the Visual Basic Pack for VS SDK 2005 V4 targeting VS 2005. It contains Visual Basic samples and wizards for creating VSIP packages using VB. These samples are the migrated CSharp samples that were shipped with VS SDK 2005 4.0. A new wizard has been added for the creation of VSIP package in Visual Basic.

For more information and news about VSX (Visual Studio Extensibility), visit the VSX Developer center at http://msdn.com/vsx and the VSX Team Blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/vsxteam.

How to Create Microsoft Access DataSource for Win Forms App Visual Basic 2005

Mike McIntyre [MVP Visual Basic] — Sat, 26 May 2007 14:44:00 GMT

Source Code: How to Create Microsoft Access DataSource for Win Forms App Visual Basic 2005

How to Create Microsoft Access DataSource for Win Forms App Visual Basic 2005

Visual Studio 2005 provides a feature, the 'Data Source Configuration Wizard', for creating a DataSource for a Windows Forms 2.0 application. This article provides step-by-step instructions and a sample Visual Basic 2005 application you can use to learn how make a Microsoft Access database the data source for a Visual Basic Windows Forms application.

The 'Data Source Configuration Wizard' creates a DataSource component that can be used to bind controls on a Windows form to database objects such as tables, stored procedures, and views.

This article will serve as 'step one' for future articles that will explain how to use a DataSource in a Windows Forms application. It is a generic introduction for creating a Windows Forms DataSource using options and practices that are known to work in the majority of development scenarios. Once you understand the basics you should explore the different options you can take during some of the steps, to understand when and why you may want to deviate from the steps presented below.

Data Source Configuration Wizard

Step-By-Step Instructions for Creating a DataSource

1. Create a Visual Basic 2005 Windows Forms application solution.

2. Add a Microsoft Access database file (.mdb), for example the Microsoft Northwind.mdb file, to the solution's 'Bin' folder.

3. From the Visual Studio menu select: Data -> Add New Data Source...

4. The 'Data Source Configuration Wizard' will open. Select 'Database' and then click the 'Next>' button.

5. The 'Choose Your Data Source' step of the wizard will open. Click the 'New Connection..' button.

6. The 'Add Connection' dialog will open.

Make sure the data source box reads: 'Microsoft Access Database File (OLE DB)'. If it does not, use the 'Change...' button to change the data source.

Next, click the 'Browse..'. button. Use the 'Add Connection' dialog that opens to navigate to, and select, the Microsoft Access database you placed in your application's 'Bin' folder.

7. The path to your database should now be shown in the database file name box. Click the 'Test Connection' button to make sure the connection works and then click the 'OK' button.

8. You will be returned to the 'Choose Your Data Source' step of the wizard. Click the 'Next>' button.

9. The 'Microsoft Visual Studio' dialog will open. This dialog asks if you would like to copy the file (database file) to your project. Click the 'Yes' button.

10. The 'Save the Connection String the Application Configuration File' step of the wizard opens. Change the name of the connection string if desired. Click the 'Next>' button.

11. The 'Choose Your Database Objects' step of the wizard will open. Navigate the objects in your database using the tree view. Click checkbox(es) to select the database objects you desire to use in your Windows Forms application. After you have selected all the objects you desire to bind, click the 'Finish' button.

12. The rest of the steps in these instructions are not part of the wizard.

In this step you will set a property to control how Visual Studio uses the Microsoft Access database file each time you build your project.

View the 'Solution Explorer' panel in your solution. Right-click the Microsoft Access database you added to the project and select: Properties

The example below shows how to select the database properties for a database named 'Northwind'.

13. The 'Properties' panel will open. In it set the 'Copy to Output Directory' property to: Copy if newer.

Search and Navigation Improvements on MSDN

Mike McIntyre [MVP Visual Basic] — Sat, 26 May 2007 08:03:00 GMT

MSDN has had a face lift.

Visual Basic Development Center

For an explanation of the search and navigation imporovements visit:

Search and Navigation Improvements on MSDN