LINQ to Twitter

LINQ to Twitter is an open source 3rd party LINQ Provider for the Twitter micro-blogging service. It uses standard LINQ syntax for queries and includes method calls for changes via the Twitter API.

Supports .NET 3.5, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4.0, Windows Phone 7.1, Client Profile, and Windows 8.

100% Twitter API coverage.

LINQ to Twitter Samples contains example code for using LINQ to Twitter with various .NET technologies. Downloadable source code also has C# samples in the LinqToTwitterDemo project and VB samples in the LinqToTwitterDemoVB project.

Downalod from here 

Getting started with SQLite in Windows Store / WinRT apps

In this blog post I will expand the blog post by Tim Heuer  to include information on how to include and access a pre-populated SQLite database file, maybe even a file created by migrating from a SQL Server Compact database file.

First, download the "SQLite for Windows Runtime" Extension via Tools/Extensions and Updates/Online. Restart Visual Studio.

Then add references to the SQLite and C++ extensions as described by Tim Heuer. Remember to change the Build Configuration to either x64 or x86 in Configuration Manager.

Now add the sqlite-net nuget package to the project, from the References node, select "Manage NuGet Packages" and search online for "sqlite-net"

Read full article here

First Look at RadNumericBox for Windows 8–HTML

Hello and welcome to the second part of our “Getting Started” with Telerik’s Windows 8 UI Controls. In this post, we are going to specifically target Windows 8 Applications built using HTM5/JS/CSS3 and our new control suite. We are going to look at RadNumericBox and the various ways of adding it to a page, binding the control declarative and even wiring up event handlers. Let’s get started.

Let’s begin by launching Visual Studio 2012 from the Start Screen and selecting “Templates” -> “Other Languages” -> “JavaScript” then “Windows Store”. If you are using the RC, then it located under "Windows Metro Style”. Select “Blank App” then give it a name and select the OK button.

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Download the beta from here

The Unofficial Windows 8 Developer FAQ

Early this week I’ve been talking to a few current and former Microsoft staffers about all things Windows 8. In my discussions I’ve started to gather some gossip in around what happened to Silverlight and lastly the specifics around the DevDiv fall out between Steve Sinofsky and Soma.

It’s an entertaining read should I share the chat logs but what did struck me throughout the conversations was how much positivity Microsoft has been squandering due to petty internal squabbles or “dare not speak of that, for the overlord Sinofsky shall smite thee down for saying the nameless one outloud”.

Today, I’m going to attempt to dos something Microsoft staff should have done long ago or didn’t do correctly or simply were held back from doing so. I’m going to release the Unofficial FAQ on “What Just happened” in Microsoft for developer(s) worldwide.

Read full article here

Updating a Windows 8 JavaScript app from RC to RTM

Now that the Windows 8 RTM version is available to MSDN Subscribers (and a 90-day trial version is available for non-subscribers), it's a good time to update your app to the RTM version of Visual Studio 2012. Updating to RTM is required to submit an app for the Windows Store, and it's a pretty painless process.

Updating WinJS

One significant change between apps built with the Visual Studio 2012 release candidate and those built with RTM is the version of the Windows Library for JavaScript (WinJS) used. WinJS has been updated for RTM, so if you're migrating an app from RC to RTM, you'll need to update WinJS. There are two parts to this process:.

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Develop Windows 8 Apps without Windows 8? Yes, you can!

Windows is the premiere development platform in the world. With Windows 8, developers can leverage their existing skills and code assets to create applications. Step into these virtual labs and learn how to build, share and sell interesting and easy-to-use applications that will make your customers happy. Virtual labs are simple – no complex setup or installation required.

What is a HOLO event? It’s an online event where you listen to a live presentation and work on lab exercises. As you work on your labs, Microsoft experts can assist and provide guidance by chatting with you one-on-one or by virtually taking control of your lab.

BEFORE THE EVENT – Check to make sure the virtual lab works on your computer here

Here’s a link to the self-led labs: http://aka.ms/w8vlabs

Here’s a link to the expert-led labs: http://aka.ms/w8holo

Source : Jerry Nixon

WinJS: Unpacking Promises

Promises are an abstraction for asynchronous programming. If you don’t know anything about them, I recommend that you first read asynchronous programming in JavaScript before you continue.

A promise is an object. It is not a function and it is not the value returned from the async operation. To get to the value, you need to call the then method on the promise object. You pass a callback function as an argument to then. The promise invokes the callback and passes the value you’re interested in into the callback. Clear as mud, right?

Here’s a fictitious example that pretends like calculating a random number requires an async operation:

getRandomNumberAsync().then(function(someNumber) { 
    // do stuff with `someNumber`
});

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Creating a Bar Chart with RadCartesianChart, part of Telerik Windows 8 UI Controls

In an earlier blog post I reviewed how to create a line chart using RadChart for Metro. In this blog post I will review how to create a bar chart, and no doubt you will notice some striking similarities.

All of this is done with the Telerik Windows 8 UI Controls.

We’ll begin with the data.  Our bar chart will compare revenues for five stores.

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DataStateBehavior for Windows 8 XAML Applications

At Xamling we work very hard to maintain strict standards and practices during development – one reason we do this is to maintain the best parallel workflows between design and development as we can.

Something that we’ve used extensively in the past with Silverlight is the ability to create DataStateBehaviors, which allow us to bind values from our view model to our visual states. When those values change a VisualState is automatically selected, meaning that we can separate our XAML and code very nicely.

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Download source from here

Connecting Windows 8 applications with services: Part 2: Working with REST, oData and RSS from Windows 8 applications

Connecting Windows 8 applications with services: Part 1: Using services to get data in our Windows 8 applications

A REST (REpresentational State Transfer) service is based on some basic concepts of the web such as the HTTP protocol and the HTTP verbs (GET, POST…). When using a REST service, we need to send a request to a particular URL and a response will be returned. This response is unique, based on the URL: never should a specific URL return a different schema of the response. The best example of a REST implementation is the web itself: when we send a request to a particular URL, we’ll get back a response. Such a response is generally known as a resource in the REST terminology. The response is plain text, XML or JSON. The schema for this response can be seen as a contract: the service promises that the response will always be of the specified format. This way, we can write parsing code for the schema.

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Download source code form here