Silverlight 5 RC – Getting started with PivotViewer

[Updated 06-SEP-2011 – NEW SAMPLES]

Lovely jubbly! Silverlight 5 RC is here…

Documentation

Do download the offline help CHM or use the matching online MSDN documentation which is now available – MSDN PivotViewer class

Next step: I need some sort of “Hello world” PivotViewer application, please…

Hello New World!

Look in the “PivotViewer class” help at the bottom, and/or download my sample. I have uploaded this very basic sample for DOWNLOAD as some people seem to be experiencing problems. If this simple sample doesn’t work then likely there is something wrong with your environment. My environment is W7 64-bit Ultimate, VS2010 Sp1, Sl5 Beta (not uninstalled; I know, bad boy, but I was in a rush 😉 and then Sl5 RC. Also quad-core 8GB memory, here is very simple stress test SAMPLE too, feel free to modify it. This simple works when not served from a web server.

It isn’t pretty but that is not the point. If you are having problems then get back to check out why. Happy PivotViewing! I’ll post some better samples in the next few days.

Hello world from SL5 RC PivotViewer!

Hello OLD World!

Here is a sample mixing some legacy CXML collections from Xpert360 with some Silverlight 5 RC PivotViewer and some styling for you to play with. Again feel free to modify.

DOWNLOAD SOURCECODE

And some screen shots…

PivotViewer sample Silverlight 5 RC CXML style

…

PivotViewer sample Silverlight 5 RC CXML style

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PivotViewer Shorts Part 5: Invert Facet Category Selections

Silverlight PivotViewer Invert Facet Category Selections

Introduction

By default the Silverlight PivotViewer control does not support inversion of a facet category’s selections, even though internally the control has the functionality.

Some people have expressed a wish to improve the UX with a custom button to implement ‘invert selection‘.

This short post shows how to locate the UI elements for the facet manager and the view model in order to access this feature.

Locating the UI Elements

The flow of the code goes something like this:

• Locate the “PART_Container” in the tree. This is a Grid control.
• Locate the CollectionViewerView control.
• Locate the CollectionViewContainer control.
• Locate the CollectionViewerViewModel control.

Grid partContainer = (Grid)this.GetTemplateChild("PART_Container");
CollectionViewerView cvv =
    ((CollectionViewerView)(partContainer).Children[0]);
Grid container = cvv.Content as Grid;
Grid viewerGrid = container.Children[1] as Grid;
CollectionViewContainer cvc =
    (CollectionViewContainer)viewerGrid.Children[0];
CollectionViewerViewModel cvvm =
    (CollectionViewerViewModel)ViewBehaviors.GetViewModel(cvv);

The FacetManager contains a method to invert a facet category’s selection:

cvvm.FacetManager.InvertSelectionInCategory(cvc.SortCategory);

FAQ

The easiest way of accessing this feature is with a custom button though no doubt a keyboard shortcut could be conjured up.

You will need some internal Microsoft Pivot references and usings too. Depending upon the extent of your other customizations you will need these:

+

using System.Windows.Pivot;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.Controls;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.Model;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.ViewModels;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.Views;

+

Further things to do

• Xpert360 PivotViewer Blog Article Index
• PivotViewer Control – Public API
• Microsoft Silverlight Forums – PivotViewer Control
• Xpert360 Ltd – who allow time for blogging

Conclusion

This article is a brief guide to locating some visual elements of the Silverlight PivotViewer control in order to access the internal functionality that inverts the selections of a facet category. It targets the developer who has already started customizing the Silverlight PivotViewer control beyond the public API and alter the UX.

Any comments or request for future topics are welcome.

PivotViewer Shorts Part 4: Restyle the ZoomSlider child controls

Introduction

By default the SL4 PivotViewer control displays a custom control for controling the zoom-level of the tile views. A few people have expressed a wish to totally reskin the control and this is a step along that path that hints at the technique needed to dig deeper into the PivotViewer visual tree.

 

This short post shows how to locate the UI element for the control bar, the ZoomSlider, all its visual elements and then alter their background.

 

PivotViewer ZoomSlider Re-Styling

 

Locating the UI Elements

The flow of the code goes something like this:

• Locate the “PART_Container” in the tree. This is a Grid control.
• Or… go direct to the “PART_ControlBar” element.
• Locate the ControlBarView to access the child controls.
• Build a list of child controls using VisualTreeHelper.

// Locate UI Elements
    ControlBarView ControlBar = (ControlBarView)this.GetTemplateChild(“PART_ControlBar”);
    Grid ctrlBarContent = (Grid)ControlBar.Content;
    DockPanel ctrlBarDockPanel = (DockPanel)ctrlBarContent.Children[2];
    ContentControl ZoomSlider = (ContentControl)ctrlBarDockPanel.Children[2];
    ContentControl cc1 = (ContentControl)ZoomSlider.Content;
//
// Build a list of the child controls
    var ctrls = GetChildsRecursive(cc1);
//
// Pick out controls and re-style as you wish 
    foreach (UIElement ctrl in ctrls)
    {
        string s = ctrl.GetType().ToString();
        switch (s)
        {
            case “System.Windows.Controls.Button”:
            Button b = (Button)ctrl;
            b.Background = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Orange);
            break;
        case “Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.Controls.ClickDragSlider”:
            ClickDragSlider cds3 = (ClickDragSlider)ctrl;
            cds3.Background = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Green);
            break;
        default:
            break;
        }
    }
;

// Helper function for child controls
IEnumerable<DependencyObject> GetChildsRecursive(DependencyObject root)
{
    List<DependencyObject> elts = new List<DependencyObject>();
    elts.Add(root);
    for (int i = 0; i < VisualTreeHelper.GetChildrenCount(root); i++)
        elts.AddRange(GetChildsRecursive(VisualTreeHelper.GetChild(root, i)));
    return elts;
}

+

FAQ

If you want to try out the code there are a few things to watch out for.

+

You will need some internal Microsoft Pivot references and usings too. Depending upon the extent of your other customizations you will need these:

+

using System.Windows.Pivot;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.Controls;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.Model;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.ViewModels;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.Views;

+

Further things to do

• Xpert360 PivotViewer Blog Article Index
• The code should be nicely wrapped up and encapsulated in the CustomPivotViewer override class.
• PivotViewer Control – Public API
• Microsoft Silverlight Forums – PivotViewer Control
• Xpert360 Ltd – who allow time for blogging

Conclusion

This article is a brief guide to locating some visual elements of the Silverlight PivotViewer control in order to customize the styling of the ZoomSlider control. It targets the developer who has already started customizing the Silverlight PivotViewer control beyond the public API.

 

Any comments or request for future topics are welcome.

 

PivotViewer Shorts Part 2: Hide View and SortBy Buttons

Introduction

By default the Silverlight PivotViewer control displays two view selection buttons and a sortby dropdown list of facet names.

Some people have expressed a wish to hide these usually because they want to replace them and control the UX with custom elements.

 

This short post shows how to locate the UI element for the control bar and the child elements in order to alter their visibility.

 

Locating the UI Elements

The flow of the code goes something like this:

• Locate the “PART_Container” in the tree. This is a Grid control.
• Locate the CollectionViewerView control.
• Locate the ControlBarView control.
• Locate the DockPanel containing the buttons.

// Locate UI Elements
Grid partContainer = (Grid)this.GetTemplateChild(“PART_Container”);
CollectionViewerView CVV = (CollectionViewerView)(partContainer).Children[0]);
Grid container = CVV.Content as Grid;
//
// For exposing the top control bar (title,views,sortby,slider)
ControlBarView ControlBar = ((UIElement)container.Children[2]) as ControlBarView;
DockPanel barDockPanel = (((Grid)ControlBar.Content).Children[2]) as DockPanel;
//
// Hide the controls
barDockPanel.Children[0].Visibility = Visibility.Collapsed; // sortby list
barDockPanel.Children[1].Visibility = Visibility.Collapsed; // view buttons

+

FAQ

If you want to try out the code there are a few things to watch out for. You will probably want to hide the controls when the collection event CollectionLoadingCompleted fires.

+

You will need some internal Microsoft Pivot references and usings too. Depending upon the extent of your other customizations you will need these:

+

using System.Windows.Pivot;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.Controls;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.Model;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.ViewModels;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.Views;

+

Further things to do

• Xpert360 PivotViewer Blog Article Index
• The code should be nicely wrapped up and encapsulated in the CustomPivotViewer override class.
• PivotViewer Control – Public API
• Microsoft Silverlight Forums – PivotViewer Control
• Xpert360 Ltd – who allow time for blogging

Conclusion

This article is a brief guide to locating some visual elements of the Silverlight PivotViewer control in order to hide the view buttons and sortby facet list. It targets the developer who has already started customizing the Silverlight PivotViewer control beyond the public API and alter the UX.

 

Any comments or request for future topics are welcome.

 

PivotViewer Shorts Part 1: Hide Filter Pane Search Box

Introduction

By default the Silverlight PivotViewer control automatically adds a search facet and displays a search box at the top of the filter pane. Some people have expressed a wish to modify the UX and remove this to prevent users performing free text search for some collections.

 

This short post shows how to locate the UI element for the search facet and then alter its visibility.

 

Locating the UI Elements

The flow of the code goes something like this:

• Locate the “PART_Container” in the tree. This is a Grid control.
• Locate the CollectionViewerView control.
• Locate the FilterPaneView to access the child controls.

// Locate UI Elements
Grid partContainer = (Grid)this.GetTemplateChild(“PART_Container”);
CollectionViewerView CVV = (CollectionViewerView)(partContainer).Children[0]);
FilterPaneView FPV = (FilterPaneView)CVV.FindName(“PART_FilterPane”);
//
// For exposing the grid containing the search facet UI elements
ContentControl searchFacetGrid = (ContentControl)FPV.FindName(“m_searchFacetGrid”);
//
// Hide search facet
searchFacetGrid.Visibility = Visibility.Collapsed;

+

FAQ

You will need some internal Microsoft Pivot references and using’s too. Depending upon the extent of your other customizations you will need these:

+

using System.Windows.Pivot;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.Controls;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.Model;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.ViewModels;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.Views;

+

Further things to do

• Xpert360 PivotViewer Blog Article Index
• The code should be nicely wrapped up and encapsulated in the CustomPivotViewer override class.
• PivotViewer Control – Public API
• Microsoft Silverlight Forums – PivotViewer Control
• Xpert360 Ltd – who allow time for blogging

Conclusion

This article is a brief guide to locating some visual elements of the Silverlight PivotViewer control in order to hide the automatically generated search facet. It targets the developer who has already started customizing the Silverlight PivotViewer control beyond the public API.

 

Any comments or request for future topics are welcome.

 

PivotViewer Shorts Part 3: Hide Collection path

Introduction

By default the SL4 PivotViewer control displays the path to the collection CXML file whilst it is being loaded. Many people have expressed a wish to hide the path.

 

This short post shows how to locate the UI element for the collection title and then alter its visibility.

 

Locating the UI Elements

The flow of the code goes something like this:

• Locate the “PART_Container” in the tree. This is a Grid control.
• Locate the CollectionViewerView control.
• Locate the ControlBarView to access the child controls.

// Locate UI Elements
Grid partContainer = (Grid)this.GetTemplateChild(“PART_Container”);
CollectionViewerView CVV = (CollectionViewerView)(partContainer).Children[0]);
Grid container = CVV.Content as Grid;
//
// For exposing the top control bar (title,views,sortby,slider)
ControlBarView ControlBar = ((UIElement)container.Children[2]) as ControlBarView;
//
// Hide collection name
((Grid)ControlBar.Content).Children[1].Visibility = Visibility.Collapsed;

+

FAQ

If you want to try out the code there are a few things to watch out for. You will probably want to make the title visible again when the collection event CollectionLoadingCompleted fires.

+

You will need some internal Microsoft Pivot references and usings too. Depending upon the extent of your other customizations you will need these:

+

using System.Windows.Pivot;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.Controls;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.Model;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.ViewModels;
using Microsoft.Pivot.Internal.Views;

+

Further things to do

• Xpert360 PivotViewer Blog Article Index
• The code should be nicely wrapped up and encapsulated in the CustomPivotViewer override class.
• PivotViewer Control – Public API
• Microsoft Silverlight Forums – PivotViewer Control
• Xpert360 Ltd – who allow time for blogging

Conclusion

This article is a brief guide to locating some visual elements of the Silverlight PivotViewer control in order to hide the CXML path during collection loading. It targets the developer who has already started customizing the Silverlight PivotViewer control beyond the public API.

 

Any comments or request for future topics are welcome.

 

Xpert360 PivotViewer Blog Article Index

[Last updated: 2011-06-22]

Introduction

This post is intended to be a landing place to bring together links to our growing collection of PivotViewer articles in one place. We will update this article to reflect new blog posts and other useful links.

If you are not familiar with overriding the Silverlight PivotViewer control’s OnApplyTemplate() method then I recommend taking the time to work through the posts in the ‘Adventures with PivotViewer’ series and build up your portfolio of customization skills.

These articles are based on the version of the control shipped separately from the Silverlight 4 SDK. We will update and extend articles with information relevant to Silverlight 5 SDK as they become available. If you are already customizing your PivotViewer experience then dive right in:

Adventures with PivotViewer

• Part 1: Background work
• Part 2: Themes and Integrated DataGrid
• Part 3: Localization
• Part 4: Augmented PDC10 reality – pivot the agenda
• Part 5: Pimp my PivotViewer
• Part 6: Pimp it sample code
• Part 7: Slider control
• Part 8: Filter pane tooltips
• Part 9: Multi-Layered Trading Cards tooltips
• Part 10: Let’s do the Timelapse Warp

PivotViewer Shorts

• Part 1: Hide Filter Pane Search Box
• Part 2: Hide View and SortBy Buttons
• Part 3: Hide Collection Path
• Part 4 Restyle the ZoomSlider child controls
• Part 5: Invert the Facet Category Selection

PivotViewer Miscellaneous

• Visualization of the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace with PivotViewer
• PivotViewer vNext in Silverlight 5 SDK

Examples on the Internet

• BioPivot – University of Oxford, UK
• Buxton Collection – Bill Buxton’s UX devices
• Classic Cardboard – ProjectVerona
• Cricket Video Vault – Blackcaps
• Flickr Demo – LobsterPot
• Good Coffee Good Code – Chris Arnold
• percollate – social media dashboard
• PhotoPivot – organize your photo collection
• tweetpivot – pivot the twitterverse
• Microsoft BI Customers – BI > Solutions > Customers
• MVPChat – MVP Twitter Threads
• Netflix instant watch movies+ – Windows Azure Team
• PivotViewer Interactive Demos – Official Microsoft Silverlight
• Fourth Coffee
• Endangered Species
• New Cars
• World Leaders
• The TEAM Project – UCSD and Conservation International
• Top SharePoint Internet Sites – WSSDEMO
• Windows Phone 7 Marketplace
• WP7 App Hub

Further things to do and resources

• PivotViewer Home – Microsoft Silverlight
• PivotViewer Control – Public API
• Sample Code for JIT PivotViewer Collections
• Download Pivot Application – Microsoft Research
• Microsoft Silverlight Forums – PivotViewer Control
• MVP Tony Champion tutorials
• Xpert360 Ltd – who allow time for blogging

Conclusion

This article is an anchor page to our blog articles concerning the Silverlight PivotViewer control. There are a range of articles topics and technical levels. Some target the developer who is ready to start customizing the Silverlight PivotViewer control beyond the documented public API, whilst others show examples of what can be achieved.

Any comments or request for future topics are welcome.

Adventures with PivotViewer Part 10: Let’s do the Timelapse Warp

Introduction

Some data sets that have a datetime facet lend themselves nicely to data play back using time lapse. Sometimes playing back data like this can lead to insights that may have been missed through other visualization representations. Finding good examples is hard especially when you can argue that various trends or anomolies would also show up just as easily in more basic graph plots.

 

It would be nice if the PivotViewer filter panel was bound to data so that a timer could fire and animate the selected datetime range so automatically animating the selected PivotViewer items view in a time lapse. For now we can simulate this by manipulating the control’s ViewState and progressing the range for a target datetime facet.

 

Sample Collection Data

We decide to choose a large data set from the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) in association with the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) . The sample collection covers aviation accident data from 2008 and 2009.

 

NTSB 2008 - 2009 Aviation Incidents by Severity

 FAA data for aviation incidents by severity for 2008 and 2009 to give you an overview. Incidents resulting in one or more fatalities are colored red.

NTSB 2008 - 2009 Aviation Incidents by Month

FAA data for aviation incidents by month for 2008 and 2009 which shows the seasonal variation that peaks in August. Be careful not to misinterpret this as the overall volume of flights is not represented.

NTSB 2008 - 2009 Aviation Incidents by Day-of-Week

FAA data for aviation incidents by day-of-week for 2008 and 2009 which shows a modest peak on saturdays.

NTSB 2008 - 2009 Aviation Incidents for top States

FAA data for aviation incidents by state for 2008 and 2009 which shows the states with most incidents: California, Texas, Florida, Arkansas, …

Timelapse of Incidents by State

I don’t know the real reasons for the observed trends though some are likely to be seasonal and others definitely related to holiday periods and holiday destinations resulting in increased traffic.

 

NTSB Aviation Incidents by State - Jan 1, 2008

Starting in January 2008 the incidents are relatively light with the most in California and Florida.

NTSB Aviation Incidents by State - Jan 15, 2008

For whatever reason the number of incidents pick up sharply for Texas as we move into early February 2008.

NTSB Aviation Incidents by State - Feb 5, 2008

Throughout February 2008, the number of incidents increases overall but most markedly in Florida. Meanwhile the incident rate reduced in California.

NTSB Aviation Incidents by State – April 1, 2008

Moving forward to April 2008 the distribution of incidents changes again with Texas ahead and Arkansas suffering more.

NTSB Aviation Incidents by State – Jun 24, 2008

Moving forward to June 2008 the number of incidents across the states builds up and California is tops again but now followed by a peak in Illinois for what reason I do not know.

Here is a short video screen capture of a segment of the timelapsed playback.

Click to play clip of PivotViewer Timelapse

 There are a lot of additional facets to the full collections of FAA / NTSB data and many more trends and interesting visualization opportunities. Stay tuned to our blog…

 

Links 

• PivotViewer Control – Public API
• Microsoft Silverlight Forums – PivotViewer Control
• Xpert360 Ltd – who allow time for blogging

Conclusion

This article is just a brief introduction to the possibility of playing PivotViewer collection data back as a timelapsed visualization opportunity. It is arguable whether or not this somewhat fashionable approach to visualization really gives a better insight than more traditional visualization paradigms. It all depends on whether there is really any trends in your data sets that are obscured when viewed as simple charts and graphs. Any comments or request for future topics are welcome.

Adventures with PivotViewer Part 9: Multi-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.

• Adventures with PivotViewer Part 1: Background work
• Adventures with PivotViewer Part 2: Themes and Integrated DataGrid
• Adventures with PivotViewer Part 3: Localization
• Adventures with PivotViewer Part 4: Augmented PDC10 reality – pivot the agenda
• Adventures with PivotViewer Part 5: Pimp my PivotViewer
• Adventures with PivotViewer Part 6: Pimp it sample code
• Adventures with PivotViewer Part 7: Slider control
• Adventures with PivotViewer Part 8: Filter pane tooltips
• Adventures with PivotViewer Part 9: Multi-Layered Trading Cards tooltips 
• Visualization of the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace with PivotViewer
• PivotViewer vNext in Silverlight 5 SDK

Deep Zoom Collections and Images

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 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 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 Hi-Res from XAML

 

Further things to do

• PivotViewer Control – Public API
• Microsoft Silverlight Forums – PivotViewer Control
• MVP Tony Champion tutorials
• Xpert360 Ltd – who allow time for blogging

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.

PivotViewer vNext in Silverlight 5 SDK

Original post is here: xpert360.wordpress.com
Only view on original blog to avoid malicious sites

[Last updated: 2011-05-19]

MIX11 Agenda - Advanced Features in Silverlight 5

The Las Vegas MIX11 conference has come and gone. Windows Phone 7 “Mango”, Internet Explorer 10 platform preview, HTML 5, Silverlight 5 beta and Kinect SDK.

 

If you were interested in the next version of the Silverlight PivotViewer control you would be forgiven if you missed it as the MIX11 site had the “New Technologies for Immersive Content Creation” tagged as PivotViewer on April 14th 2011. The actual session of interest for the vNext PivotViewer was Nick Kramer giving a presentation entitled “Advanced Features in Silveright 5” in the same session slot. The RN Studio (Alpha) session included using a PivotViewer collection asset, the 2009 IUCN Red List Species. This was interesting but nothing new as far as PivotViewer version.

 

New Technologies for Immersive Content CreationDate: April 14, 2011 from 3:00PM to 4:00PM | Day 3 | RES06 | Speakers: Eric Stollnitz, Joseph Joy

 

Advanced Features in Silverlight 5Date: April 14, 2011 from 3:00PM to 4:00PM | Day 3 | MED12 | Speakers: Nick Kramer

 

PivotViewer is flagged as coming soon post-beta as it did not make the cut for the Silverlight 5 SDK beta release. To live up to this status the PivotViewer control crashed with an access violation mid-demo as Nick looks on and adlibs.

 

PivotViewer vNext crashes at MIX11

 

“PivotViewer V1 was shipped in June 2010 separately from Silverlight, the V1 came in its own SDK download”. There was then a maintenance release in September 2010. “There was a lot of good feedback to Microsoft about the control but a lot of people said they wanted to take it to the next level”.

Nick said “We want to take that Pivot experience that lets you analyze large datasets in a very rich visual way, create interactive graphs, filter on the fly, figure out which part of the data is interesting to you.”

 

“We want to bring that to more scenarios make it easier to plug in your data”

• Ships as part of the SL5 SDK
• Dynamic client-based collections (ItemSource, binding)
• XAML-based visuals (trading card templates)
• Customizability (fonts, colors, sizes)

 

PivotViewer XAML templated tiles at MIX11

 

We first had a glimpse of the vNext control during the Silverlight Firestarter keynote in December 2010. Since then the sample demonstration has moved on to show more of the XAML template driven trading cards. Nick’s demonstration showed building trading cards with standard Silverlight DataTemplates and data binding to the Pivot collection. You can define one or more layouts which are automatically faded in/out by PivotViewer based on user-defined tile size thresholds (in pixels). So you see different trading card visuals based on the zoom level which was previously harder work to achieve with deep zoom image collections.

 

PivotViewer XAML data templates at MIX11

 

The newly exposed client side collection feature is implemented using the usual ItemsSource property of the control. This brings generation and manipulation of your Pivot collections in line with other Silverlight controls.

 

Where does this leave us?

 

Ships as part of the SL5 SDK

• So the PivotViewer vNext control now joins the SDK family of controls.
• When will we get to download and use it? We just don’t know, officially just later in 2011.
• Without a clear roadmap or detailed feature list this does leave existing development users in somewhat of an uncertain position.
• In many ways there are far more questions than answers raised so far from the brief glimpses afforded to us.

 

Dynamic client-based collections

• Dynamic data in SL5 will be available the same as any other data context, on the client, and is to be welcomed.
• This has been interpreted by some as the end of CXML-based collections. It has not yet been said that the new dynamic data will replace CXML.
• So will both old and new methods of supplying collections be available?
• Will existing collections have an easy upgrade path?
• We saw add-to-collection, are item data updates and item removal working too?
• The answer appears to be yes to all these questions. The collection building has been separated from the visuals and existing CXML collections can be loaded as is. There are some issues with the visuals to be resolved.

 

XAML-based visuals

• The new method, whilst highly applicable to line-of-business applications, is it suitable for photography collections?
• Are Deep Zoom based CXML collection still supported?
  Define multiple visuals in XAML for different zoom levels, with this new structure how well does it scale?
• How well does it perform with the image processing on the client?
• Collection size was advised as up to 3,000 items, we squeezed acceptable performance with 10,000 items. with all the UI structures and memory use how well does this scale now on the client?
• XAML DataTemplate trading cards, are they still ‘dumb’ bitmaps or allow UI interaction?
• Do we still have support for PivotViewer ‘CustomActions’?

 

Customizability

• New access to fonts, colors, sizes.
• Any access to Backgrounds and Borders – filter panel, info panel, collection views?
• Header customizations – hide collection path, filter criteria?
• Customization of filter panels beyond fonts?
• We have not yet seen custom info panel limits, how does this work?
• Support for user-supplied XAML custom views? – view menu buttons, location for geolocation, maps, other graphical visualizations

 

Links

• The Future of Microsoft Silverlight
• Silverlight Team Blog
• Silverlight.net
• Silverlight Forum – PivotViewer Control
• MIX11 Sessions Pivot Collection