Category Archives: themes

Hello, Colors and more

Leading LightSwitch – Hello, Colors

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If you have not taken the time to read through and try the above sample written by Jan in his MSDN Magazine column then you should do so. As Jan says, if you are new to VisualStudio LightSwitch then visit the LightSwitch development center. LightSwitch has shallow learning curve, so you should be following through the ‘Hello, Colors’ article in no time.
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For some reason MSDN Magazine web site refuses to let me post feedback so I decided to publish this blog post. Well done Jan, great article!
Following on, here are my attempts to implement colour-coding inside a sample LightSwitch HTML Client:
OrderMgmt_AddEditProduct
Picture 1: Sample form with colour picker
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OrderMgmt_AddEditProductCategory3
Picture 2: Sample popup dialog with colour picker
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OrderMgmt_BrowseProducts
Picture 3: Colour-coded tiles
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I think that is not too bad at all, however it was not all straightforward. I arrived at this point expecting success provided there were no typo’s:
OrderMgmt_AddEditProductCategory1
Picture 4: Colour picker style at odds with the theme
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So that did not work as expected. The input textbox gets focus and nothing shows. Jan’s examples usually work so I figured I must be missing some tweaks to the UI elements. Firstly, lets style the input textbox to match my JQuery Mobile ThemeRoller theme:
OrderMgmt_AddEditProductCategory2
Picture 6: HTML element does not expand
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To fix the problem I had to adjust the minimum width and height settings in the LightSwitch designer for the colorpicker custom control. I wonder if Jan did that or is there a problem with changes with the latest release of the software?
OrderMgmt_ScreenDesign1
Picture 7: Setting minimum width and height
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For those wishing to alter the style of the input textbox, here is the JavaScript code:
myapp.AddEditProduct.Color_render = function (element, contentItem) {
 setTimeout(function () {
var colorPicker = $("<input class="id-element ui-input-text ui-body-a ui-corner-all 
ui-shadow-inset ui-mini"" +
    " id="cpFocus" type="text" maxlength="255"" +
    " value="" + contentItem.value + "" data-mini="true" />");
colorPicker.appendTo($(element));
 colorPicker.colorpicker({ showOn: 'focus' })
 .on('change.color', function (evt, color) {
 contentItem.value = color;
 });
 contentItem.dataBind("value", function () {
 colorPicker.colorpicker("val", contentItem.value);
 });
 }, 0);
 };
Code 1: The class tag for picking up the JQuery mobile styling
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That is all for now! Many thanks to Jan Van der Haegen and the Visual Studio LightSwitch team.
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Theme rolled courtesy of and at JQuery Mobile ThemeRoller – get rolling!
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Xpert360 Lightning Emerald Theme Pack Released

Lightning Series - Emerald Theme Pack

Another new pack of 8 Lightswitch Themes has been released!

Simple, elegant and unique  themes inspired by shades of green are compatible with all Standard Shells. These 8 Themes add a professional, business flavour to your Lightswitch application.

The theme pack contains the following 8 themes

  • Emerald Dark
  • Emerald Dark Lite
  • Apricot
  • Watermelon
  • Avocado
  • Shamrock
  • Light Green
  • Grape

For more screen shots please go to the Xpert360 Theme Pack Gallery.

It is the third Theme Pack to be released by Xpert360 and can be downloaded here.

The themes in the pack target the LightSwitch Silverlight Client v2+ that comes with Visual Studio 2012. They have been tested against the LightSwitch Cosmopolitan Shell and the LightSwitch Standard Shell.

Preview Emerald

We have an internal application to import, edit and generate LightSwitch themes to make the work a lot easier and faster. The Cosmopolitan theme contains references to more than 500 colors! The Theme Generator application is itself written in LightSwitch.

The theme pack can be obtained from the XPert360 Product page. This is the gallery posting – Xpert360 Lightning - Emerald Theme Pack[V2,V3,SL]

Xpert360 Lightning Office Theme Pack Released

Lightning Series - Office Theme Pack

Another new pack of 8 Lightswitch Themes has been released!

Simple, elegant and unique Office inspired themes which are compatible with all Standard Shells. These 8 Themes add a professional, business flavour to your Lightswitch application.

The theme pack contains the following 8 themes

  • Office Blue
  • Office Silver
  • Light Blue
  • Light Blue (Lite)
  • Office Black
  • Visual Studio 2012
  • Dark Blue
  • Dark Blue (Lite)

For more screen shots please go to the Xpert360 Theme Pack Gallery.

It is the second Theme Pack to be released by Xpert360 and can be downloaded here.

The themes in the pack target the LightSwitch Silverlight Client v2+ that comes with Visual Studio 2012. They have been tested against the LightSwitch Cosmopolitan Shell and the LightSwitch Standard Shell.

Office Theme in Gallery

We have an internal application to import, edit and generate LightSwitch themes to make the work a lot easier and faster. The Cosmopolitan theme contains references to more than 500 colors! The Theme Generator application is itself written in LightSwitch.

The theme pack can be obtained from the Xpert360 Product Page. This is the gallery posting – Xpert360 Lightning - Office Theme Pack[V2,V3,SL]

Chocolate Theme Pack Sample – Mint Choc Chip

Lightning Series - Mint Choc Chip Theme

To celebrate the release of the  Xpert360 Chocolate theme pack Xpert360 have released this free theme based around mint choc chip and shades of green and chocolate with an added chocolate image. It is the third free chocolate theme and the fifth in a collection of free holiday and festive themes to be released by Xpert360 and can be downloaded from here.

Mint Choc Chip

Mint Choc Chip Theme

Mint Choc Chip Validation error

Mint Choc Chip Validation error

Mint Choc Chip Calendar

Mint Choc Chip Calendar

The theme targets the LightSwitch Silverlight Client v2+ that comes with Visual Studio 2012. It has been tested against the LightSwitch Cosmopolitan Shell and the LightSwitch Standard Shell.

install

We have an internal application to import, edit and generate LightSwitch themes to make the work a lot easier and faster. The Cosmopolitan theme contains references to more than 500 colors! The Theme Generator application is itself written in LightSwitch. The theme is free and can be obtained from the Visual Studio Extensions gallery. This is the gallery posting – Xpert360Lightning -Mint Choc Chip Theme[V2,V3,SL] We hope you like it!

Xpert360 Lightning Chocolate Theme Pack Released

Lightning Series - Chocolate Theme Pack

A pack of 8 Lightswitch Themes has been released!

Simple, elegant and unique Shades of Chocolate and compatible with all Standard Shells. These 8 Themes  add a professional, business flavour to your application.

The theme pack contains the following 8 themes

  • Easter Egg
  • Dark Chocolate
  • Chocolate Orange
  • Mint Chocolate
  • Milk Chocolate
  • Chilli Chocolate
  • Chocolate Lite
  • Dark Chocolate Lite
Easter Egg Theme

Easter Egg Theme

Dark Chocolate Theme

Dark Chocolate Theme

Chocolate Orange Theme

Chocolate Orange Theme

Mint chocolate theme

Mint chocolate theme

Milk Chocolate Theme

Milk Chocolate Theme

Chilli Chocolate Theme

Chilli Chocolate Theme

Chocolate Lite Theme

Chocolate Lite Theme

Dark Chocolate Lite theme

Dark Chocolate Lite theme

For more screen shots please go to the Xpert360 Theme Pack Gallery.

It is the first Theme Pack to be released by Xpert360 and can be downloaded from here.

The themes in the pack target the LightSwitch Silverlight Client v2+ that comes with Visual Studio 2012. They have been tested against the LightSwitch Cosmopolitan Shell and the LightSwitch Standard Shell.

theme Installation

We have an internal application to import, edit and generate LightSwitch themes to make the work a lot easier and faster. The Cosmopolitan theme contains references to more than 500 colors! The Theme Generator application is itself written in LightSwitch.

The theme pack can be obtained from the Xpert360 Product Page. This is the gallery posting – Xpert360Lightning – Chocolate Theme Pack[V2,V3,SL]

Spring Time Flowers Theme

Lightning Series - Spring Time Theme

This theme is based around  spring time flowers with vibrant shades of spring. It is the fifth in a collection of free holiday and festive themes to be released by Xpert360 and can be downloaded from here.

spring flowers theme

Spring Flowers Theme

Sprint flowers date picker

spring flowers validation

Validation error

The theme targets the LightSwitch Silverlight Client v2+ that comes with Visual Studio 2012. It has been tested against the LightSwitch Cosmopolitan Shell and the LightSwitch Standard Shell.

preview

We have an internal application to import, edit and generate LightSwitch themes to make the work a lot easier and faster. The Cosmopolitan theme contains references to more than 500 colors! The Theme Generator application is itself written in LightSwitch. The theme is free and can be obtained from the Visual Studio Extensions gallery. This is the gallery posting – Xpert360Lightning – Spring Flowers Theme [V2,V3,SL] We hope you like it!

Chocolate Theme ready for Easter

Lightning Series - Easter Theme

This theme is based around Easter eggs and shades of chocolate, ready for Easter. It is the first of two Easter themes and the second in a collection of free holiday and festive themes to be released by Xpert360 and can be downloaded from here.

Easter Theme

Easter Theme Validation

Easter Theme with Validation error

Easter Theme Calendar

Easter Theme calendar

The theme targets the LightSwitch Silverlight Client v2+ that comes with Visual Studio 2012. It has been tested against the LightSwitch Cosmopolitan Shell and the LightSwitch Standard Shell.

Easter Theme Extension

We have an internal application to import, edit and generate LightSwitch themes to make the work a lot easier and faster. The Cosmopolitan theme contains references to more than 500 colors! The Theme Generator application is itself written in LightSwitch.

The theme is free and can be obtained from the Visual Studio Extensions gallery. This is the gallery posting – Xpert360Lightning – Easter Theme[V2,V3,SL]

We hope you like it!

Shamrock Theme ready for St Patrick’s Day

Lightning Series – Shamrock Theme

This theme is based around shamrocks and shades of green, ready for St  Patrick’s day. It is the first of a collection of free holiday and festive themes to be released by Xpert360 and can be downloaded from here.

Shamrock Theme

Shamrock theme

The theme targets the LightSwitch Silverlight Client v2+ that comes with Visual Studio 2012. It has been tested against the LightSwitch Cosmopolitan Shell and the LightSwitch Standard Shell.

Shamrock Theme Extension

Shamrock Theme Extension

We have an internal application to import, edit and generate LightSwitch themes to make the work a lot easier and faster. The Cosmopolitan theme contains references to more than 500 colors! The Theme Generator application is itself written in LightSwitch.

LightSwitch Theme Generator

LightSwitch Theme Generator

The theme is free and can be obtained from the Visual Studio Extensions gallery. This is the gallery posting – Xpert360Lightning – Shamrock Theme [V2,V3,SL]

We hope you like it!

Adventures with PivotViewer Part 9: Multi-Layered Trading Cards

Silverlight PivotViewer Layered Trading Cards

Silverlight PivotViewer Layered Trading Cards - click to view video

Introduction
Adding multi-layered trading cards is a feature enabled by the XAML data template trading card support for the version of the Silverlight PivotViewer control that will be distributed in the Silverlight 5 SDK. This article shows you how to implement a similar effect in the previous version of the control.

If you are new to our blog then you may care to take the time to work through the other posts in this series and build up you portfolio of PivotViewer customization skills.

Deep Zoom Collections and Images

Silverlight PivotViewer Product Catalogue collection

Silverlight PivotViewer Product Catalogue basic collection images

The easiest way to achieve this effect is to generate a full set of deep zoom collection imagery for each desired layer. Also generate full sets of deep zoom images for the desired layers of the trading cards.
 
Simply merge together the folders of the image layers according to your trading cards layer designs. By default the layers 0 to 7, equating to deep zoom folders 0 to 7, are used for the deep zoom collection imagery for the lower resolutions. Only the layers 8 and above are used at runtime by PivotViewer for the individual deep zoom images: folders 7 and below can be deleted and do not need deploying.
 
PivotViewer Low-Res Trading Card Images

PivotViewer Low-Res Trading Card Image transition

 
It is important that all source images for a trading card are the same height and width. The PivotViewer Excel tool is useful for trying this as you can simply copy the Excel spreadsheet and replace the trading card images.
 
I would suggest that you use common low resolution images for the zoomed out top layers of the deep zoom pyramid. For the primary theme choose a facet category with fewest values that can be represented by color. Choose images that represent a secondary attribute such as a category-type facet. By following this approach the users can quickly and easily work with the collection trading cards at low resolutions by visual association of color and category icon.
 

PivotViewer Hi-Res Trading Card Images

PivotViewer Hi-Res Trading Card Image Transitions

 
At the other end of the scale with the highest resolution images you probably will want more information, mini-graphs, etc. These images can be captured from a simple custom tool that uses a XAML data template bound to the collection data. If you do this you ought to be able to reuse your code with the vNext version of PivotViewer.
 
PivotViewer Trading Card

PivotViewer Trading Card Hi-Res from XAML

 
Further things to do
Conclusion
This article is just a brief run through that introduces multi-layered visualization of Silverlight PivotViewer control trading cards. It targets the developer who has already started customizing the Silverlight PivotViewer control in preparation for the next version scheduled to be distributed with the Silverlight 5 SDK. Any comments or request for future topics are welcome.

Adventures with PivotViewer Part 7: Slider control

 

In this post we continue to extend the PivotViewer control by taking programmatic control of the Zoom Slider…

PivotViewer Zoom Slider

Programmatic control of Zoom

We need to use the CustomPivotViewer class code to locate the internal StepLogSliderViewModel control. This slider control has the properties that we are interested in:

PivotViewer Zoom Slider Code 1

PivotViewer Zoom Slider Code 1

Here are some click handlers for buttons to zoom in and out:

PivotViewer Zoom Slider Code 2

PivotViewer Zoom Slider Code 2

You can try out the sample Silverlight application here:
PivotViewer Zoom Slider.

Here is the source code for you to play with, if you find it useful, let us know. We have extended the PivotViewer control in other ways too.

Adventures with PivotViewer Parts 6 – 8 source code ZIP.

This sample project is based upon the PivotViewerSample code that shipped with the control, by default it is here for the August 2010 release:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Silverlight\v4.0\PivotViewer\Aug10\Source\PivotViewerSampleXapCode.zip