I am a huge fan of WPF and more specifically Silverlight so when my wife took the opportunity to incorporate Expression Blend into a recent project I was eager for her to give the new Sketch Flow pattern a whirl. The Sketch Flow concept came across as the ability to mock up a complete application or website and transform that into a working production model. Effectively narrowing the gap between the client, designer and the developer. After working with my wife over the last couple of months it is clear that this particular idea was misrepresented.

My wife had created a prototype using the Sketch Flow concept and put together a very compelling, and partially functional, application. Unfortunately that fact that project was in fact Sketch Flow means that you just cannot simply open this application up in Visual Studio and start doing the complex software engineering work. In fact there a bunch of hoops (albeit well documented in Blends User Guide) that need to be followed in order to make this happen:

It is just clear to me that the role of the Devigner (Designer and Developer amalgam) is not a cohesive as advertised.

I was getting the following error when trying to run visual studio 2003 project…

…this can be resolved as follows:

1. In the Internet Explorer, select the "Tools" Menu, then select "Internet Options".
2. Select the "Security" Tab in the new window.
3. Select the "Internet" globe icon.
4. Click the "Custom Level..." button at the bottom.
5. Locate the "User Authentication" section (it is at the bottom in IE7).
6. Select "Automatic logon with current username and password".
7. Click "Ok" twice to complete.

I was happily creating my application when I realized that I need to start thinking (at least in theory) about the installation package that would be needed. After a disappointing search within the Visual Studio 2008 Express templates, I remembered about the ClickOnce concept I had heard about many moons ago. This particular method of deployment allows for rapid deployment of applications via a simple url.

Code access security is a mechanism in the .NET Framework that helps limit the access that code has to sensitive or protected resources. It makes a lot of sense to configure the code access security permissions for your ClickOnce application to include the permissions that your application needs. This type of security conscious programming allows people using your software to know precisely what it can and cannot access.

Got this wacky error when trying to complete a build.

Delete VSWebCache! This answers about 80% of the issues for opening ASP.NET.

The VSWebCache folder is created automatically by Visual Studio when you open/create a web project and can be found in <root>\Documents and Settings\<user>\VSWebCache\<machinename>.

Visual Studio .NET cannot create or open the application. The likeliest problem is that required components are not installed on the local web server. Run Visual Studio .NET setup and add the Web Development component.

As I read more about Silverlight from Mix 07 I must admit that I am totally confused as to what this will now mean for AJAX. I thought AJAX was supposed to be the rich GUI that we have been waiting for with baited breath. Am I missing something or does Silverlight spell the end for AJAX?

I have just finished downloading the ASP.NET futures which seems to plug the gap between AJAX and Silverlight but I am wondering why we need AJAX in the middle at all. I guess I will have to wait and see what the fall out for Mix 07 truly reveals!

I finally got around to reviewing this Orcas demo Don sent me. This serves as a short and gentle introduction to the concepts of JavaScript intellisense and debugging.

Intellisense is basically my primary means of writing code. I never, ever write code in notepad! This will certainly encourage me to do a little more programming in JavaScript ... but not whole bunch ;)

The need for an IDE to be strapped around JavaScript is clear when you try to navigate the web with the "Display a notification about every script error" enabled. You will be trapped in a sea of modal dialogue boxes never to return.

Hopefully this innovation will help everyone!

"Love is like the measles; we all have to go through it." - Jerome K. Jerome

This generally has happened for me subsequent to a command-line initiated build. Upon opening the IDE I have no intellisense support for the simplest of types.

To fix this issue consider deleting the .projdata file, this is a hidden file found in the \Debug folder of the project:
          TestApp\Debug\TestApp.projdata.

Also note for ASP.NET applications this file is found in:
         C:\documents and settings\[user]\VSWebCache\TestApp\obj\Debug\TestApp.projdata

"You see things; and you say 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?' " - George Bernard Shaw