Today is the final day for the project and everything has to be handed in. This includes the source of the project and all the documentation created during the semester of Digital Media Technologies.
The project completed successfully on the 29th of October and I'm happy with the result. Follow the link to see the result: http://labs.revusion.com/portfolio
The finalized documentation can be found here:
http://www-student.it.uts.edu.au/~rkoster/
Thank you all for reading my blog. Hope to see you all again in februari/march with the start of the next semester.
Cheers!
Monday, 2 November 2009
Friday, 23 October 2009
Useful information
In this post I list some of the useful information I've used during the project.
The following links where really helpfull:
The following links where really helpfull:
- http://www.silverlight.net/learn/videos/silverlight-videos/navigation-framework/
- http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc296245(VS.95).aspx
The book I used
- Beginning Silverlight 2 From Novice to Professional (Robert Liar)
Thursday, 22 October 2009
Search for a solution
Variable height
Silverlight is a great technique but it also gives me a lot of painfull thoughs. The first big thing I run into was the variable height of the Silverlight canvas. In the design of the homepage the Silverlight canvas can be very small say 200 px height. On the second page (projectdetails) the images are bigger and with the variable textblocks the height can be vary from 500px to 600px. I don't know why, there are 100% height and width options, the content in the canvas moves related to each other but the canvas size doesn't change.
For example: if you set the height of the canvas to auto, the content inside the canvas has a total height of 300px the canvas remain 300px. When you navigate to the next page 'a new frame is loaded', the canvas stays 300px height. There are complicated javascript and silverlight functions available to solve this problem, but these don't work in each browser.
The problem here is not particular the silverlight canvas, but its caused by a combination of the object tag and the silverlighthostcontroller (div where the object is loaded in). There are solutions available to set the silverlight canvas full height and width, but then you have to create your whole page in silverlight. In my case where the silverlight object is hosted in one page within the master design this is not the required solution.
I overcome this problem by using the maximum height I need, so 600px and fill up the white space with some other silverlight design.
Issue (note that this is not only in Firefox but also in IE8):
http://forums.silverlight.net/forums/t/5623.aspx
Load async XML
The next issue to overcome is the location of the xmldata file. The xmldata was part of the silverlight project instead of the webproject. In this way the file will be compiled into the XAP package. Without recompiling there is no way to add new projects to the XML file which is not required. The way to overcome this is to dynamicly add the xmllocation using asycromic download within the code.
http://www.kirupa.com/blend_silverlight/loading_xml_sl2_pg1.htm
Silverlight is a great technique but it also gives me a lot of painfull thoughs. The first big thing I run into was the variable height of the Silverlight canvas. In the design of the homepage the Silverlight canvas can be very small say 200 px height. On the second page (projectdetails) the images are bigger and with the variable textblocks the height can be vary from 500px to 600px. I don't know why, there are 100% height and width options, the content in the canvas moves related to each other but the canvas size doesn't change.
For example: if you set the height of the canvas to auto, the content inside the canvas has a total height of 300px the canvas remain 300px. When you navigate to the next page 'a new frame is loaded', the canvas stays 300px height. There are complicated javascript and silverlight functions available to solve this problem, but these don't work in each browser.
The problem here is not particular the silverlight canvas, but its caused by a combination of the object tag and the silverlighthostcontroller (div where the object is loaded in). There are solutions available to set the silverlight canvas full height and width, but then you have to create your whole page in silverlight. In my case where the silverlight object is hosted in one page within the master design this is not the required solution.
I overcome this problem by using the maximum height I need, so 600px and fill up the white space with some other silverlight design.
Issue (note that this is not only in Firefox but also in IE8):
http://forums.silverlight.net/forums/t/5623.aspx
Load async XML
The next issue to overcome is the location of the xmldata file. The xmldata was part of the silverlight project instead of the webproject. In this way the file will be compiled into the XAP package. Without recompiling there is no way to add new projects to the XML file which is not required. The way to overcome this is to dynamicly add the xmllocation using asycromic download within the code.
http://www.kirupa.com/blend_silverlight/loading_xml_sl2_pg1.htm
On going development
With the system plan finished it was time to actually build the project. With the help of my Silverlight books and some internet pages managed to create the first page. The homepage contains a scrollviewer and some images. From there on I searched through the internet how page navigation works. In Silverlight is this slightly different then normal HTML and it reminded me a lot of html frames back in the old days.
Once the page navigation was finished I create one of the image controls withing the view. The image control contains a canvas, rectangle, image and textblock. The design, my ideas and the Silverlight book helped me to create a storyboard. A storyboard describes a little story and a step by step action:
Example: move rectange from x1 to x8 in 3 keyframes, move rectange from y1 to y8 in 3 keyframes, change color of rectangle from gray to red starting from the 3th keyframe.
After my storyboard was finished I created my control in a usercontrol so I could specify some properties and multiply them easily.
Next was the projectdata, the projectdata will be listed in a xmlfile and needs to be loaded. I created some functionality to approve this and using databinding I was able to combine the data with the properties of the usercontrol.
page navigation tutorial
http://blogs.msdn.com/dphill/archive/2008/10/07/silverlight-navigation-part-1.aspx
Once the page navigation was finished I create one of the image controls withing the view. The image control contains a canvas, rectangle, image and textblock. The design, my ideas and the Silverlight book helped me to create a storyboard. A storyboard describes a little story and a step by step action:
Example: move rectange from x1 to x8 in 3 keyframes, move rectange from y1 to y8 in 3 keyframes, change color of rectangle from gray to red starting from the 3th keyframe.
After my storyboard was finished I created my control in a usercontrol so I could specify some properties and multiply them easily.
Next was the projectdata, the projectdata will be listed in a xmlfile and needs to be loaded. I created some functionality to approve this and using databinding I was able to combine the data with the properties of the usercontrol.
page navigation tutorial
http://blogs.msdn.com/dphill/archive/2008/10/07/silverlight-navigation-part-1.aspx
Monday, 12 October 2009
System Plan
In the last periode I worked on my System Plan. The System Plan describes the system by the use of diagrams, visual sketches and desciptive texts. You can find the following information: use case diagrams and scenarios, screen designs, wireframes, sketches, personas, architecture diagram and the sitemap.
To develop the System Plan I used Microsoft Word, Adobe PDF, Microsoft Visio and Adobe Photoshop.
The document is still in draft version and can be found here: http://www-student.it.uts.edu.au/~rkoster/system-plan.html
To develop the System Plan I used Microsoft Word, Adobe PDF, Microsoft Visio and Adobe Photoshop.
The document is still in draft version and can be found here: http://www-student.it.uts.edu.au/~rkoster/system-plan.html
Monday, 7 September 2009
Macro and Micro Analysis
I created a Macro and Micro Analysis for the technologies I'm using in my project. The particular technology focused in the report is Silverlight. The macro analysis describes what the Silverlight technology is and the global understanding. While the micro analysis shows how and why this technology fits into my particular project.
The full analysis can be found here: http://www-student.it.uts.edu.au/~rkoster/macro-micro.html
The full analysis can be found here: http://www-student.it.uts.edu.au/~rkoster/macro-micro.html
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Getting familiar with Silverlight
Hello everyone,
Here is an quick overview from the things I did last week for the DMT subject. I started on 26aug with a research what I need to develop my Silverlight project. I ended up on the Silverlight website with a lot of usefull information on how to adopt this wonderfull technology.
Although I noticed a small issue, to use all the Silverlight functionality you need to install the Silverlight component for your browser. Just like Flash you get a notification that the Silverlight plugin in nessecary. When you don't want to install the plugin you cannot use the website. To overcome this the Silverlight website has alternative version so you not need the plugin. But the web-experience is not as rich as with the Silverlight plugin.
When I installed the plugin and downloaded the nessecary tools for my development environment (Windows Vista + SP2 and Visual Studio 2008 + SP1) I could get started. But where to start and how to do?
I followed the tutorials 'building a digg search client' on the blog website of ScottGu. The tutorial of 8 parts runs through the basic concepts of building a Silverlight application. Because the tutorials where based on the 2th version of Silverlight there where some issues of things that where obsolute in Silverlight 3. I overcome all problems and it took me about 3 hours to complete all the parts.
The result of my tutorial can be found here: http://labs.revusion.com/digg
References:
http://www.silverlight.net/
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu
Here is an quick overview from the things I did last week for the DMT subject. I started on 26aug with a research what I need to develop my Silverlight project. I ended up on the Silverlight website with a lot of usefull information on how to adopt this wonderfull technology.
Although I noticed a small issue, to use all the Silverlight functionality you need to install the Silverlight component for your browser. Just like Flash you get a notification that the Silverlight plugin in nessecary. When you don't want to install the plugin you cannot use the website. To overcome this the Silverlight website has alternative version so you not need the plugin. But the web-experience is not as rich as with the Silverlight plugin.
When I installed the plugin and downloaded the nessecary tools for my development environment (Windows Vista + SP2 and Visual Studio 2008 + SP1) I could get started. But where to start and how to do?
I followed the tutorials 'building a digg search client' on the blog website of ScottGu. The tutorial of 8 parts runs through the basic concepts of building a Silverlight application. Because the tutorials where based on the 2th version of Silverlight there where some issues of things that where obsolute in Silverlight 3. I overcome all problems and it took me about 3 hours to complete all the parts.
The result of my tutorial can be found here: http://labs.revusion.com/digg
References:
http://www.silverlight.net/
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu
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