Applications

Share WPF Annotations via WCF AnnotationsStore

Svetlana Simova — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 21:18:02 GMT

WCF Annotation Store sample
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Description
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This sample shows use of WCF service for sharing annotations.
The WCF service is implemented as a self hosting service that stores annotations in XmlStreamStores. The service can handle multiple XmlStreamStores that are identified by name. To each of them can be connected multiple clients. When the annotations in a particular XmlStreamStore change, the service notifies
all the clients connected to this store for the change.
The WCFAnnotationStore implements all the AnnotationStore functions by forwarding the calls to the WCF service. The annotations and resources are serialized with the help of temporary memory stream XmlStreamStore. In order to provide only one copy of each annotation to the application, WCFAnnotationStore caches all locally used annotations.
It notifies the service when the application changes any of the cached annotations. It also listens to any change notifications from the service and reflects them on the cached annotations. That way any changes on annotations can be seen immediately on all the applications using the same store. As a side effect StickyNotes can be used for online chat because there are no restrictions about who can edit the annotations.
One good extension would be restricting editing of the annotation to their author. This can be achieved by appropriate styling of the StickyNotes.

The implementation
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The sample is implemented as VS 2005 solution with 5 projects:

1. WCFAnnotationStoreService - defines the WCF service interface for AnnotationStore
2. WCFAnnotationStoreHost - the WCF service hosting application that also contains service implementation.
3. WCFAnnotationStore - the WCFAnnotationStore implementation that works as a client to the WCFAnnotationStoreService.
   The client-service communication is based on a duplex channel that allows callbacks from the service.
4. Helper - a helper class basically doing annotation serialization.
5. AnnotatedDocuments - a WPF application that allows loading different types of document in different types of viewers
   and making annotations. This sample allows annotating FlowDocument in different types of flow DocumentViewers or
   XPS document in DocumentViewer.

How to build the sample
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Copy all the files and build the solution

How to run the sample
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1. Copy the content of AnnotatedDocuments\bin\debug(release) to as many client machines as you want.
2. Copy cocoa.xps file to the binary location on the client machines
3. Copy the content of WCFAnnotationStoreHost\bin\debug(release) to the service hosting machine
   (can be one of the client machines).
4. If your client and server machines are different you need to release ports 8080 and 80 through the firewall.
   Go to ControlPanel\Security\Allow Program Through Windows Firewall -> Exceptions tab -> Add Port.
   Enter some name(no matter what) and Port number = 8080. Click OK. Repeat the same for port 80. Repeat this on
   all machines you want to use.
5. On the server machine from an elevated command prompt run WCFAnnotationsStoreHost.exe
6. On each client machine from an elevated command prompt run AnnotatedDocuments.exe <server machine name>.
   You can run as many AnnotatedDocuments.exe applications as you want on each machine.
7. Choose menu commands.

Known issues
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Since the annotation changes are serialized on the server in case of simultaneous editing of the same annotation
from many clients, it is possible that some client representations get out of sync with the server store. It is
expected that in real applications there will be some restrictions about who can edit what. A sample of how to
implement such restrictions is coming next.

Woodgrove Finance Application

karstenj — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 22:10:25 GMT

Click Here To Run It

Using The Finance Application

The application provides a 3D visualization into a hypothetical, static porfolio. It is important to note that this application is not bound to live data. To the left is a 2D list of stocks, grouped by Small Cap, Mid Cap and Large Cap stocks. By clicking on a stock in this list, detailed information about the stock can be seen in the far right column. If you hover over the 2D stock chart, it will expand for an easier reading experience.

Hovering over a stock will group it with other stocks of the same sector within that market size. For example, hovering over ArvinMeritor will also highlight Men's Wearhouse, both part of the consumer segment. This becomes interesting in terms of the 3D chart, in the center of the application. You can see how the labels for the X and Y axis update when different stocks are hovered over. The hover action pinpoints that particular grouping of sector and market cap, aggregating the results. So, one can immediately get a sense of how Mid Cap stocks in the consumer sector are doing -- in this case, not well, as can seen from the long red bar.

The application is two way, in that you can also interact with the 3D bar chart and see the corresponding 2D areas become highlighted. If you leave the mouse over a given bar for 1 second, you will get information about that bar as well, letting you know what aggregate of stocks that bar represents as well as the market cap and sector.

If you click on the the Woodgrove logo, the 2D section will animate away, allowing you to focus on the 3D. Holding the right click button down of the mouse will allow you to trackball the graph. In addition, you can compare stocks against the DJIA if you click that button. (The other comparison buttons aren't wired up.) If you then move the slider, you will see an animation between the current data and a date in the past.

Lastly, by switching in the drop down from Day % Change to Dollar change, the bars turn to columns.

Decomposing The Finance Application

While all of the data is static, the application is designed to support databinding to live data and could be done with a nominal amount of effort. Right now, everything is databound to the static asdf.xml file. However, changing the databinding to a webservice would allow for this application to show real data.

You'll notice that the project is factored into multiple components. The WoodgroveFinanceApplication doesn't really do anything but hold the WoodgroveFinanceHost, which sets up the layout and handles the interaction between the 2D and the 3D. The WoodgroveFinanceStockChartFrame then holds the 2D pieces and the WoodgroveFinanceStockChart3D holds the 3D pieces. By doing this componentization, all of the functionality is really contained in controls, such that they can be added to a different project quite easily. If just the 3D section were desired, it is already isolated from the rest of the application.

You can open the project in Expression Blend, which is very cool. One could customize the look and feel from within Blend. It also demonstrates how Expression Blend supports opening .sln files and working with multiple projects.

Lastly, it is worth commenting that the 3D graph is based on work done by Robert Hogue (http://www.therhogue.com/WinFX/). Some of the explanation in his download pack is germaine to the code in the 3D part of the application.

Enjoy!

A WPF-powered 3D graphing library

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 05:20:21 GMT

Create interactive 3D bar charts and pie graphs using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and .NET Framework 3.0.

[Courtesy of Dustin Metzgar]

Healthcare Prototype

karstenj — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 18:43:06 GMT

Prototype of next generation healthcare application using WPF. A large codebase provided here with many interesting data visualization techniques.

Poor's Man Media Center

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 20:28:39 GMT

This application is a little Media Center, the idea of this sample is show how implement the most commons elements of WPF like DataBinding, Styles, Triggers, DataTemplates, Resource Dictionary, Bitmap Effects and Media.

More information: http://paulosay.spaces.live.com

Esta es un ejemplo de un pequeño Media Center, la idea de esta demo es mostrar el uso de los elementos más comunes de WPF tales como DataBinding, Styles, Triggers, DataTemplates, Resource Dictionary, Bitmap Effects y Media.

Más información: http://paulosay.spaces.live.com

Inking Over Video

MikeR — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 22:25:22 GMT

Inking Over Video sample

Sample application that shows how to:

Ink-enable a MediaElement.
Add custom rendering to an InkCanvas to give ink an outline.
Record and Playback ink over video.

PostIt Board Flickr Image Viewer RC1

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 21:55:59 GMT

View Flickr images with this unique UI with gesture support!

A newly update PostIt Board Flickr Image Viewer for .NET 3.0 RC1 has been released! This includes all source code for the FlickrNet and WinFX assemblies. For more info, see the xamlXaml.com blog entry.

Cheers!

Michael G. Emmons

ASP.NET + Windows Presentation Foundation = WebXaml

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 18:44:36 GMT

WebXaml is a framework allowing you to use Windows Presentation Foundation into ASP.NET.
WebXaml aim to create images in different formats using XAML so you can exploit the WPF power, easier than GDI+, for elaborated images such as 3D, charts and so on.

WebXaml library contains:

A Dispatcher pool (default 10 threads), one for Window. Each thread satisfies one request in the ASP.NET context;
A build provider compiling .wxaml files and code file (if needed), and transforming XAML code into BAML persisted into assembly resources;
An HTTP Handler factory (XamlPageHandlerFactory) to give the appropriate IHttpHandler for any path;
An async HTTP Handler that inherits by XamlPage to process the request.

To use it you have to create a .wxaml file containing a new directive followed by XAML code:

1
2
3

<%@ XamlPage ImageType="Png" Width="700" Height="600" %>

<!-- Xaml code -->

If you call the path using a browser you will receive an image as answer like this:

Documentation and samples here.

[WebXaml comes courtesy of Cristian "Ricciolo" Civera]

PostIt Board WPF User Interface Experiment

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 02:46:49 GMT

I’ve been working on an application which attempts to make good use of a non-standard interface. This application takes a keyword(s), grabs images off of Flickr.com which match those keywords and displays the photos on the cork board. The images can be moved around the cork board and additional layers of images can be added/removed. As you move your mouse over an image, information on that photo is displayed on the post-it note.

One aspect I focused on for this app is to minimize my input interface while maximizing functionality. To this end, I integrated gesture recognition into the app.

For more complete details, please see my blog entry on xamlXaml.com.

Tech.ED Session Picker

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 02:33:47 GMT

A sample WPF application that helps you choose your sessions for this years Australian Tech.ED. Uses styles and resources, converters, nested item controls and lots and lots of data binding.

Sudoku

nerddawg — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 18:33:47 GMT

This sample shows how you can use the Windows Communication Foundation, the Windows Workflow Foundation and the Windows Presentation Foundation to build a P2P version of Sudoku, the popular number logic game. WCF enables the P2P feature of the game, WF drives the game generation logic and WPF provides the stunning user experience. Both an installed and a Web-based (XBAP) version of this game are provided.

Via Shy Cohen on the WCF community site.

TextBox with OpenType menu

chrishan — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 00:17:05 GMT

Textbox with opentype menu where you can choose different alternate forms for text using the Pericles font. See this blog post for more details.

http://blogs.msdn.com/text/archive/2006/05/07/545859.aspx

WPF Dashboard

chrishan — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 00:15:04 GMT

Demo shown in Boston 2006 TechEd's DEV326: Building Rich Context Experiences in WPF.

See http://blogs.msdn.com/text/archive/2006/06/14/631136.aspx
for more details.

2D Cell Animation - Ink-A-Mator

ErnieBooth — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 19:40:04 GMT

2D cell animation tool

Features:

24 FPS 2D animation creation and playback
Onion Layer (Adjustable history)
Gradient Palette
Cell duplication
Save, Load
Adjustable brush shape

WPF features:

InkCanvas and InkPresenter
Color Palette
Open Packaging Format save and load of custom file type

Sandbox3D

karstenj — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 21:10:13 GMT

Shows loading simple primitives into 3D space in Avalon and then manipulating the mesh's transforms with sliders. All sliders databound to the transforms in XAML. Allows mapping of both video and images on the 3D primitives. Shows use of Daniel Lehenbauer's ScreenSpaceLines3D from his 3D Tools project for visualizing X, Y and Z axes.