Smart Client

Understanding Composite Application Block Series

dbottjer — Tue, 15 May 2007 06:55:00 GMT

We've been using the Composite Application Block (CAB) and Smart Client Software Factory (SCSF) since they first emerged. Most of my focus has been on the middle tier and service layer which our smart client front ends consume. However, recently we have needed more manpower building smartparts. As result I've been refreshing my knowledge of the CAB and SCSF. I found found a great blog series http://geekswithblogs.net/kobush/category/3702.aspx on understanding the cab. The series does a great job defining the CAB terminology and explaining the basic architecture.

WPF Views for CAB

dbottjer — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 09:39:00 GMT

Found this project http://www.codeplex.com/wpfcab on codeplex. It strives to add WPF Views to the CAB. This solution doesn't use crossbow and isn't using interop with WinForms.

Visual Log Parser On Code Plex

dbottjer — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 11:11:00 GMT

Microsoft has a nifty command line utility known as Log Parser which can parse many common log file formats such as IIS, SMTP, and FTP logs. I found this http://www.codeplex.com/visuallogparser project on Code Plex which is a Smart Client front end to the Log Parser. Visual Log Parser is a great way to query event logs, IIS Logs, etc.

South Florida Code Camp 2007

dbottjer — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 08:32:00 GMT

On Feb 10, 2007 I presented at the 3rd Annual South Florida Code Camp on "Hacking Report Viewer". I didn't present to a large group but we had great conversation. http://drowningintechnicaldebt.com/blogs/dennisbottjer/archive/2006/10/16/Hacking-Report-Viewer-Redistributable.aspx - This link is to my previous blog post detailing how to hack the report viewer control. The Power Point 2007 slides from my presentation are available for download at http://drowningintechnicaldebt.com/files/folders/dennis/entry191.aspx.

ClickOnce Resource Kit

dbottjer — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 09:17:00 GMT

Brian Noyes, author of Smart Client Deployment with ClickOnce has authored the [ClickOnceResourceKit]. The resource kit download includes a 70 page how-to with best practices for implementing ClickOnce. The resource kit also provides utilities to help reduce the amount of manual procedures needed to create a Manifest. Brian Noyes' book addresses some advanced topics such as On Demand Updates (Click Once API). The sample code is available on his site http://www.softinsight.com/clickoncebook/

We have been working with the CAB and ClickOnce and are investigating On Demand Updates. These two resources may make our smart client deployments much easier.

Hacking the Report Viewer Redistributable

dbottjer — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 08:25:00 GMT

Click Once is the most recent and most successful Microsoft web deployment strategy for Smart Client Applications. The technology is a great way to deploy and/or update .NET 2.0 applications on client machines without the need for an installer.

I have used the Report Viewer Control included in Visual Studio 2005 to embed reports within our Smart Client. The control allows me to create professional reports without the use of a third party tools. Plus I can always scale up to Reporting Services should the need arrise.

There is a Report Viewer Redistributable available for download. However, the Redistributable is an MSI and installs all components in the GAC. This action requires administrator permissions which is frowned upon by our network security team. The MSI is 1.83 MB and contains several extra files besides the core DLL's.

We can solve this problem by "hacking" the MSI Redistributable. The following steps were performed by co-worker John Arcidiacono and myself to successfully solve the challenge described above.

[ReportViewerRedistributable]
Use favorite Zip Utility to extract the MSI.exe to a folder of your choice
Find the file ReportV1.cab in extract folder from step #2
Use favorite Zip Utility to extract ReportV1.cab to a folder of your choice
Open the new folder from step 4 and find 4 files
Rename: FL_Microsoft_ReportViewer_Common_dll_117718_____X86.3643236F_FC70_11D3_A536_0090278A1BB8 To Microsoft.ReportViewer.Common.dll
Rename: FL_Microsoft_ReportViewer_ProcessingObject_125592_____X86.3643236F_FC70_11D3_A536_0090278A1BB8 To Microsoft.ReportViewer.ProcessingObjectModel.dll
Rename: FL_Microsoft_ReportViewer_WebForms_dll_117720_____X86.3643236F_FC70_11D3_A536_0090278A1BB8 To Microsoft.ReportViewer.WebForms.dll
Rename: FL_Microsoft_ReportViewer_WinForms_dll_117722_____X86.3643236F_FC70_11D3_A536_0090278A1BB8 To Microsoft.ReportViewer.WinForms.dll
Copy these dlls to your smart client project and reference them
Now they will be part of the Smart Client's Build Output and Click Once Deployment

Report Viewer Control

dbottjer — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 08:18:00 GMT

The Report Viewer Control available with Visual Studio 2005 is perhaps one of the most powerful and most over looked control. This control is new to Visual Studio 2005, comes in both Win Forms and ASP.NET versions, and is freely redistributable. Essentially, the report viewer control allows developers to embed and distribute reports with applications.

[ReportViewerRedistributable]

Additional Resources: http://www.gotreportviewer.com/

Defining Smart Clients

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 12:24:00 GMT

There has been much buzz around "Smart Clients" lately. Large companies are building Smart Client Line of Business Applications. But how are "Smart Clients" different from traditional Thick/Rich Client Applications?

[MSSmartClientReference]

Smart client isn't a technology, and it isn't any specific architecture. It is a style of application that combines the best of both Windows applications and web applications. What are best aspects of each of these worlds?

Four Smart Client Characteristics

It uses local resources and provides a rich user experience
It's a connected application that exchanges data on the Internet or an enterprise network
Even though it's a connected application, it is offline capable so that it can be used whether or not it is currently connected
It has an intelligent deployment and update story, maintaining relatively the same ease of deployment and management as web applications

DevDays Smart Client Web Casts

dbottjer — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 06:07:00 GMT

http://msdn.microsoft.com/events/devdays/sessions/ is a series of four web casts on the smart client sample app, Issue Vission. The web casts include a general into about smart clients, securtity, data access, and deployment. I especially liked the Data Access and Deploment Web Casts. Issue Vision can be downloaded at www.windowsforms.net

RSS Feeder .NET

dbottjer — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 06:29:00 GMT

I ran across this http://www.codeproject.com/smartclient/rssfeeder.asp very nice Open Source RSS aggregator. All source code for the project is available. Furthermore, the application can be run as a stand alone smart client or within Outlook. Nice! The app also has posting capabilities.