Fifty articles and going strong!

I published my fiftieth article on CodeProject today! 

When I wrote my first article, which I find rather embarrasing today, back in February 2003, I never imagined that I would write 49 more.  It took me about five and a half years to reach fifty articles, but that’s OK…it’s not a race!  If you are interested, you can see a listing of all my articles here.

I decided to do something special for my fiftieth article.  I won’t bother explaining it here, but trust me, it’s pretty cool (in my opinion)…

Here’s the link: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WPF/SelectDetailLevels.aspx

My first article in MSDN Magazine

The July 2008 issue of Microsoft’s MSDN Magazine contains an article I wrote about WPF data binding. The article is called “Customize Data Display with Data Binding and WPF“.  It covers a wide range of data binding techniques that real applications use all the time, from working with hierarchical data sources to input validation.  It even has a Virtual Lab, so you can get your hands dirty with source code while reading the article.  I think the article turned out very well, and hope that you agree!

This is the first time I was paid to write about WPF, and, in the words of Lloyd Christmas, “I like it…I like it a lot!” 

Link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc700358.aspx

Catalogue of Artificial Inheritance Context Techniques

I spent my lunch break today publishing an article that I’ve been working on for a couple of days. It explains and shows examples of three techniques I have developed for creating an artificial inheritance context.  This is useful for binding elements that are not in an element tree to the elements in the tree. If you are interested in checking it out, read “Artificial Inheritance Contexts in WPF“.

Enjoy!

Persisting field widths in XamDataGrid

I have been writing a lot about XamDataGrid on my other blog recently.  My most recent post shows how to save and load the widths of columns/fields across runs of the application.  This is just a temporary solution that will eventually be replaced by built-in functionality in the control, but until then, at least we now have a way to do this with ease.  My implementation even supports saving/loading the width of fields when showing hierarchical data (i.e. multiple related tables in the same grid).  Enjoy!

Article about visualizing a binary rule system

I just published a different kind of WPF article than I typically create.  This one is called “Visualizing a Binary Rule System with WPF” and discusses an interesting data visualization app I made over the weekend.  If you want to check it out, here’s the link:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WPF/BinaryRuleSystem.aspx

By the way, the Podder Skinning Competition deadline is July 1st 2008, just one month away! 

Article about using a ViewModel with the WPF TreeView

In a surge of Mahler-inspired geekery, I wrote and published what I consider to be one of my best WPF articles. If you have ever thought that the WPF TreeView is too complicated and doing anything non-trivial with it is difficult, think again! Over the past few days I have been solidifying my TreeView programming techniques, thanks to an invigorating e-mail thread with Sacha Barber, and it all culminated in this article:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WPF/TreeViewWithViewModel.aspx

My favorite paragraph from the article:

WPF is great because it practically requires you to separate an application’s data from the UI. All of the problems listed in the previous section derive from trying to go against the grain and treat the UI as a backing store. Once you stop treating the TreeView as a place to put data, and start treating it as a place to show data, everything starts working smoothly. This is where the idea of a ViewModel comes into play.

Enjoy!

Brennon Williams Sweetens the Pot

The Podder Skinning Competition is at full speed now! The first place winner now stands to also win a copy of the new book Microsoft Expression Blend Unleashed, courtesy of Brennon Williams. Brennon is the author of that book, and also the newest WPF Disciple. Thanks a lot, Brennon!

Gradual Introduction to WPF Data Binding

In my opinion, one of the biggest differences between programming in WinForms and WPF is how much you use data binding.  WPF programs typically make heavy use of data binding, but many WinForms apps do not use it nearly as much.

I just published an article on CodeProject that is intended to help people with WinForms and ASP.NET backgrounds to start thinking in terms of WPF data binding.  It walks you through four iterations of the same simple app: going from all code with no data binding to all XAML with data binding.

If you want to check it out, here’s the URL:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WPF/MovingTowardWpfBinding.aspx

Enjoy!

Article about aggregating WPF commands

I just published yet another article about WPF this weekend on CodeProject.  This one is about my new CommandGroup class, which allows you to create a “composite command.”  The article explains the problem that this class solves, but also explains that the solution has uses outside of just that one problem.  If you are interested in checking it out, here is the link:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WPF/commandgroup.aspx

Article comparing WinForms and WPF

I just published an article on CodeProject called ‘Creating the Same Program in Windows Forms and WPF‘. I think it provides some interesting information on the similarities and differences of WinForms and WPF, by showing how to implement the same simple application using both platforms. It is not a means of parading WPF and shunning WinForms. I tried to be as objective and down-to-earth as possible when discussing the relative merits of the two platforms.