DaveDev https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/davedev/feed.xml Turning caffeine into code daily. Wed, 17 Apr 2019 03:21:31 GMT en-US hourly 1 Today is my last day at Microsoft https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/davedev/today-is-my-last-day-at-microsoft Thu, 19 Sep 2013 22:28:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/davedev/2013/09/19/today-is-my-last-day-at-microsoft/ After over six years I have decided to move on from Microsoft.  I joined in May 2007 just one month before the launch of the iPhone.  Our industry has changed so much during that time and I feel honored to have taken some small part in it.  When I sat down to write this post there were many topics I thought about covering but in the end it was the people I met that made the journey so worthwhile.  This post is for you.  In no particular order...

Joe, Joe and Asli - you taught me how I can work hard and still play hard.  I'll never forget MIX, Chicago and AC.

Harry - for helping me remember that little kid from Toms River I was who thought he could change the world.  I had forgotten him.  You taught me that true leaders stand alone.

Ian and Jit - for making me believe again that technical excellence was valued.  I never enjoyed ramping up on new platforms as much as when I had you guys with me. 

Jim - we've known each other for so long you already know how much I admire you.  Hammock up!

Hong - for being the other half of the perfect partner team.  We drove huge wins and it was so much fun together on Xbox Apps. 

Dani - We have a bond that was formed in the trenches of hours on the road together and hardened with faith.  I'm looking forward to many more burrito lunches.

Tara and Lindsay - My sisters in DPE! I'm constantly amazed at your understanding and ability to connect with students.  Keep believing in yourself there is nothing you can't do.  

Andrew, Brian, Chris, Jim, Joe, Peter and Rachel - we grew up as TE's together before people even knew what Twitter was.  No matter how much change came along you guys were the anchors and we always had each other’s backs.  Never let the experiences and lessons we've learned fade away from the team. 

Nora, Viv, Andrea, Rebecca, Niels, Erin, Susan, and Connie - we had so many great ideas, not all of them made it through, but you made the ride worthwhile!  I couldn't have asked for a better marketing team.

Dan, Jim, Bill, Carlos, Bob, Scott and Mark - for creating such a fun place to work and helping me realize how much I love being a technical evangelist.

Brett - for being the best example of what a manager could be.  You helped strengthen my belief in my career and to never stop growing.  Even if that means taking a different path than I thought I would.

Jesse - You’re one of the brightest and charismatic people I know.  You've kept me sane.  It brings a smile to my face to see what a great Evangelist you have turned into. 

Bill and Rob - I've learned a ton about community from you guys.  Thank you for always being there and supporting me. 

Fellow TE's - I was involved in so many of you coming to Microsoft and know how amazing you all are.  Never underestimate the impact of what you do.  You make a difference every day in the lives of developers.

I've almost certainly left others out you know who you are.  Please reach out to me or on my new Blog if you ever want to catch up.

As to what's next?  People leave companies for a variety of reasons and my story is no different.  Microsoft is an amazing company with some of the best people I've ever worked with.  The direction it has set up for itself will only solidify its place in the future.   For me it was time to take the next step in my career, doing the job I love, with an even bigger opportunity for impact.  I want to thank the communities I’ve been a part of, the people I’ve worked side by side with, and the leadership team that’s supported me through my career.  I’m not going to say goodbye because I know we will all run into each other again.

-Dave

]]> New Microsoft DevRadio Episode: World of Warcraft API Starter Kit for Windows Phone https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/davedev/new-microsoft-devradio-episode-world-of-warcraft-api-starter-kit-for-windows-phone Tue, 03 Sep 2013 10:56:01 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/davedev/2013/09/03/new-microsoft-devradio-episode-world-of-warcraft-api-starter-kit-for-windows-phone/  

Via Davedev.net…

 

WP8-Win8-StarterKits

 

There was a slight delay with the DevRadio Episode I recorded back in June but it is now live!  If you been curious about how to share HTML5 code between Windows Phone and Windows Store Apps then this episode is worth checking out.  In this episode I walk through the World of Warcraft API Starter Kit for Windows Phone and show how I was able to share HTML5 code using the XAML based WebControl between both Phone and Windows Store Apps.  I show how I kept most of the JavaScript within in a shared file and then pull up both the Phone and Windows Store development environments  as I walk through the details.

SideBySide

 

Hope you enjoy the episode!

 

Next Steps:
Step #1 – Download the Tools for Windows 8 App Development
Step #2 – Download Visual Studio Express for Windows 8
Step #3 – Start building your own Apps for Windows 8


If you're interested in learning more about the products or solutions discussed in this episode, click on any of the below links for free, in-depth information:

Blogs & Articles:

Videos:

Virtual Labs:

    ]]>         How do I stop Spam with WordPress hosted on Azure Websites? https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/davedev/how-do-i-stop-spam-with-wordpress-hosted-on-azure-websites Tue, 20 Aug 2013 07:06:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/davedev/2013/08/20/how-do-i-stop-spam-with-wordpress-hosted-on-azure-websites/
    Via Davedev.net…


    Overview

    In my recent post on how to Setup Email with WordPress hosted on Azure Websites I mentioned the spam problem that will occur when running WordPress.  As an example here is the amount of spam I have received since moving my MSDN Blog onto WordPress in Azure Websites two months ago.

    Spam 

    By default any new comments on your blog posts will not be visible until you have approved them.  In the past this meant each morning I would go through 10+ comments that all lead to a crazy spam email address outside the United States.  If you’ve been running into the same issue there is a quick an easy fix!

    Captcha

    Log into your Azure Websites hosted WordPress dashboard, select Plugins, and then Add new.  Do a Search for Captcha and you will get back a list of popular plugins like below.

    CaptchaResults

    After looking at the details and user Ratings I decided to go with Captcha.

    Captcha1

    Once the Plugin is installed open up your Dashboard and select the Installed Plugins Menu.  Verify that the Captcha Plugin has been activated.

    SpamBlock1

    You can modify the settings if you only want certain Arithmetic functions for example, but I kept the defaults as is.

    Captcha2

    Save your changes and you are all set!  The Captcha will appear on your Login forms, comments, and registrations. 

    CaptchaLogin

    Registered users will not be bothered by any Captcha (you can turn this off if you wish) thus making it seamless for your blog commenters and restrictive for Spammers.

    CaptchaComments

    Conclusion

    Since I installed the Captcha plugin a few days ago I have not received a single spam comment on my Blog.  I highly recommend installing a similar plugin if you are running WordPress hosted on Azure Websites.

    -Dave

    ]]>         Looking to get started with Cloud Computing? Check out my new Up and Running with Azure courses! https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/davedev/looking-to-get-started-with-cloud-computing-check-out-my-new-up-and-running-with-azure-courses Mon, 19 Aug 2013 12:08:04 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/davedev/2013/08/19/looking-to-get-started-with-cloud-computing-check-out-my-new-up-and-running-with-azure-courses/
    Via Davedev.net…

    Azure

    I am happy to announce that I have two new courses published today on Lynda.com!  These courses are designed to take you from the very basic concepts of Cloud Computing,  installing the tools and then all the way up to creating a fully functional Cloud Application.  Full source code is included along with chapter by chapter code snippets and Visual Studio solutions.  I hope you enjoy watching them as much as I did creating them.

    Up and Running with Azurelynda_dot_com-150x150

    Windows Azure is an open and flexible cloud platform that enables developers to quickly build, deploy, and manage applications across a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters. If you have been wondering how you can take advantage of "the cloud" and integrate it into your existing IT environment, this course is for you. David Isbitski covers everything from the basics of signing up for a free Azure account to using the free developer tools, and covers each of the six major offerings from Azure: virtual machines; website development; Mobile Services for authenticating users and storing data; the Cloud Services API development and deployment tools; Data Services, which incorporates SQL, Table, and Blob storage; and app services like Service Bus for messaging. At the end, you'll tie it all together in a 5-node cloud service that processes operations through Web and Workers roles, communicates through a Service Bus message queue, and saves data to the cloud.

    Topics include:

    • What is cloud computing?
    • What is Windows Azure?
    • Creating a Windows Azure virtual machine
    • Creating and deploying an Azure website
    • Adding Worker and Web roles to your cloud service
    • Creating a new SQL database
    • Writing and reading from the Service Bus queue
    • Saving queue messages to Table storage

    Up and Running with Azure Mobile Serviceslynda_dot_com-150x150

    Windows Azure Mobile Services accelerate your mobile app development by offering easy-to-use, scalable backend services. Your websites and mobile apps can leverage its structured storage, user authentication, and push notifications in familiar programming languages. In this course, David Isbitski uses Azure Mobile Services to build a new service and connect it to an existing Windows Store game built in HTML and JavaScript. Learn to add gamer profiles with the identity service, pull down basic Facebook profile information for gamers, add high score tables to the database, and create an API that will allow anyone on the web to retrieve and display the current highest score. Dive in now and get started setting up your account, using the developer tools, and diagnosing and scaling your services across the web.

    Topics include:

    • Setting up Visual Studio, Node.js, and the Azure Mobile Services SDK
    • Creating a new Azure Mobile Service instance
    • Connecting an app to a new service
    • Creating and managing storage tables
    • Setting up Facebook authorization
    • Storing app data in the cloud
    • Sending out push notifications
    • Setting up an API service
    • Adding custom logging

    -Dave

    ]]>         How do I send Email with WordPress hosted on Azure Websites? https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/davedev/how-do-i-send-email-with-wordpress-hosted-on-azure-websites Thu, 15 Aug 2013 11:29:49 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/davedev/2013/08/15/how-do-i-send-email-with-wordpress-hosted-on-azure-websites/  

    Via DaveDev.net…

     

    Overview

    Recently I moved my old MSDN Blog to the new DaveDev.net url running hosted WordPress on Azure WebSites.  Setting up the new blog couldn’t have been more simple (hint – Click New – Compute – WebSites – Gallery – WordPress in the Azure Dashboard) and only took about five minutes.

    The stuff that actually took the longest was customizing WordPress itself (themes, plugins, etc) , pointing the new Azure Website to a cname (davedev.azurewebsites.net to davedev.net) and then making sure I was backing up the MySQL Database.  One of the areas that was not obvious to me however was how to send Emails.

    Usually, if you sign up for WordPress from an online hoster or WordPress.com you will have an SMTP server set up for you which enables the  wp_mail() function to automatically send Email on  your behalf.  This is not the case when you are running WordPress on Azure but the good news is there is a free solution via the Azure Marketplace. 

    The intent of this post is to walk you through the steps to get started with Email (it’s a free service too) on your WordPress Azure Website instance.

    Contact Form

    WordPress offers a crazy amount of customizations so the first step you need to do is to decide how you want to enable people to contact me on my Blog.  After sifting through a bunch of contact form plugins I decided on one that would allow me to add a new tab and a clean contact form.

    Here is what the Contact Tab looks like now on my Blog in a typical desktop browser:

    ContactTab

    Clicking on Contact will take the blog visitor to a clean contact form where they can enter their name, email I can each them at and then their message.

    ContactForm

    Once they click send they will get a response message if their Email has been sent correctly back to me.

    ContactSent

    If you have tried adding a similar contact plugin to your Azure Websites hosted WordPress instance this is where you will first encounter problems.  Any call to send wp_mail() will result in an error as the Azure instance doesn’t know what SMTP server to use.  I will cover that in a bit but first let’s walk through what the generated Email will look like.

     

    ContactEmailReceived

    You can easily apply filters now to the incoming Blog Emails and when you hit Reply to the Email it will be sent to the Email address the Blog visitor filled out in your Contact Form.

    Setting things up

    So how did I go about creating the Contact Form and enable Emails?  The first step was to install the plugin I wanted to use for Blog Feedback Emails.  I chose Contact Form 7 and then activated the Form as seen below.

    PluginContactForm7

    The Contact Form will add a new menu option in your WordPress Dashboard called Contact.  Opening it up will show a new form called “Contact form 1” with some code in it.

    ContactForm7

    I copied the code from the Contact Form 1 and pasted it into a new Page for my Blog called “Contact”.

    ContactFormCode

    This is the Contact page you now see listed in my Blog’s Tab Menu.  Now that I have a Contact Form Up and running the next step was to sign up for an SMTP Service that would send Emails on my behalf.

    Setting Up SendGrid as a SMTP Service

    In order for our Contact Page to send Emails we will need a SMTP Service.  Luckily for us SendGrid offers just that and is part of the Azure Store.

    sendgrid2

    Simply open up the Azure Dashboard, click New, select Store and then choose SendGrid from the App Services Add-ons list.

    sendgridnew

    There is a completely free tier that will enable you to get (or blast out) up to 25,000 emails a month.  That is more than enough for the purposes of a Feedback page on our Blog.

    sendgridnew2

    Like all products in the Azure Store billing is integrated with your Azure monthly Bill as is single sign on.  I get complete status for the Sendgrid Service right from my Azure Dashboard and clicking on the SendGrid Name will take me to the SendGrid portal using my Azure credentials.

    sendgrid

    The only additional step needed is to verify your email address (which will be your Microsoft ID assigned to your Azure account).  Once that is done be sure to copy over your SendGrid username and password right from the AppBar by clicking Connection Info.

    You will also receive an Email from the Azure Store confirming your purchase of the SendGrid service using the free tier.

    SendgridFree

     

    Setting Up WordPress to use a custom SMTP Service

    Now that we have a Contact Form set up, and the SendGrid SMTP Service enabled we need to update our WordPress Blog so that any calls to the wp_mail() function will be routed to our new SMTP Service.

    There are a bunch of free WordPress plugins that will allow you to do this I chose to go with WP-Mail-SMTP.

    MailSMTP

    This plugin will add a new Email option in the Settings menu for your WordPress Dashboard.  This is where you can set up your From and Name for the Email.  Make sure you select SMTP for Wordpress emails, and then enter your SendGird information as seen below.  Make sure you use the smtp.sendgrid.net SMTP Host name and specify a port.  I used 587 based on the SendGrid recommendations.

    EmailSettings

     

    Conclusion

    That’s it!  You can now send a Test message to yourself using the same settings page or go back to your Contact Form and send one from there.  The only remaining recommendation I would have is to turn off new comment notifications inside your WordPress Dashboard.  This is enabled by default but since my WordPress Azure Website instance could not send emails before I wasn’t getting spammed.  Once the SMTP Host was set up I started to get notified every time a spam comment came in and oh my there are a lot of those with WordPress. 

    -Dave

    ]]>         World of Warcraft Realm Status available in the Windows Phone Store https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/davedev/world-of-warcraft-realm-status-available-in-the-windows-phone-store Mon, 08 Jul 2013 07:33:45 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/davedev/2013/07/08/world-of-warcraft-realm-status-available-in-the-windows-phone-store/  

    Via DaveDev.net…

     

    allsettingssingle

     

    Overview

    In my previous posts I walked you through my free WOW API Starter Kit for Windows and Windows Phone.  To show how easy it is to submit an app with one of these kits I just published a WoW Realm Status app to the Windows Phone Store.  The only change I made from the code in the Starter Kit is the wording the About page much like you would do in your own app.

    The API’s I chose to use in the app will show the current online status for the US World of Warcraft Realms.  You should use the World of Warcraft Windows Phone API Kit as an example of how to incorporate additional World of Warcraft APIs into your own apps and there are a ton of them!  Everything from item stats, pvp status, to complete armory and character information.

    Many thanks to Blizzard Entertainment® for the excellent API’s they’ve created around the game!

     

    Download

    You can grab the Windows Phone version of the app here.  You can download the World of Warcraft API Starter Kit for Windows Phone here and for Windows here.

    ]]>         Windows 8.1 Preview and other Build Conference Announcements https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/davedev/windows-8-1-preview-and-other-build-conference-announcements Fri, 28 Jun 2013 06:54:29 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/davedev/2013/06/28/windows-8-1-preview-and-other-build-conference-announcements/
    Via Davedev.net…

     

    The past 48 hours of Build have held a slew of Microsoft Device and Services announcements.  I’ve been live tweeting the keynotes,official announcements and links to get the new bits. 

    image

    If you’re a developer go grab the 8.1 preview and Visual Studio 2013 preview bits!

    Then if you’ve missed my Twitter stream you can catch up below (sorted by newest).  Enjoy!

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev53m

    Xbox Announces Landmark Deal with Time Warner Cable to Bring More Live TV to Xbox 360 https://news.xbox.com/2013/06/ent-time-warner … #msft #xbox

    Expand

    Microsoft Channel 9 ‏@ch911h

    Day 2 Keynote up for on-demand viewing (well, it was always available, but now you can download) https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2013/1-002 … ... enjoy! #bldwin

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    Expand

    Microsoft Channel 9 ‏@ch915h

    Build Day 1: The Hackathon has begun! https://dlvr.it/3ZhN4t

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    Expand

    Scott Guthrie ‏@scottgu15h

    Will be live on channel9 with @shanselman in about a minute

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

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    WindowsAzure ‏@WindowsAzure18h

    Join the #AzureDev community & help giveaway $100k to 5 technology education #nonprofits: https://msft.it/6017Z6EW #bldwin

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev18h

    What happened at the Build conference? https://blogs.unity3d.com/2013/06/27/build-conference/ … #Unity #gamedev #bldwin #win8dev #wpdev #xbox

    Expand

    Chris Bannon ‏@b4nn0n19h

    Debug in multiple browsers and refreshing browsers from VS looks slick. Nice text-editor enhancements too. #bldwin

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    Expand

    JeffWeber ‏@JeffWeber18h

    Good to hear Unity Pro for Windows Store will be free for current Unity Pro owners. Nice! Would have paid with no hesitation!

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    Expand

    Steven Guggenheimer ‏@StevenGuggs18h

    Keynotes are officially over. Catch you on @redditiAmA in a few minutes at noon. Stop by and Ask Me Anything cc/@johnshew @microsoft @bldwin

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev18h

    Babylon.js: a complete JavaScript framework for building 3D games with HTML 5 and WebGL : https://blogs.msdn.com/b/eternalcoding/archive/2013/06/27/babylon-js-a-complete-javascript-framework-for-building-3d-games-with-html-5-and-webgl.aspx … #html5 #webgl #js #gamedev

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev18h

    More popular apps coming to the Windows Store announced at Build 2013 https://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2013/06/27/more-popular-apps-coming-to-the-windows-store-announced-at-build-2013.aspx … via @windowsblog #win8 #bldwin

    Expand

    WindowsAzure ‏@WindowsAzure20h

    As announced by @ScottGu: Autoscale is now built directly into #WindowsAzure for Cloud Services #VirtualMachines and #WebSites!!I #bldwin

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev20h

    Autoscaling feature in Azure now is pure win. #bldwin

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev21h

    Announcing General Availability of Azure Mobile Services, Web Sites & continued Service innovation! https://bit.ly/13aqynl #azure #bldwin

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev21h

    Voxer, Walgreens, ABC News and more major apps for Windows Phone 8 are here https://blogs.windows.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/archive/2013/06/27/voxer-walgreens-abc-news-and-more-major-apps-for-windows-phone-8.aspx … via @windowsblog #wpdev #msft

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev21h

    Nice vendor prefix support for css tags by hovering over elements built right into visual studio! #bldwin

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev21h

    Nice! Peak Definition ftw! #buildwin

    Expand

    Brent Schooley ‏@brentschooley21h

    Gotta love that SignalR integration for live reload in VS. #bldwin

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    from Columbus, OH

    VisualStudio ‏@VisualStudio21h

    Nice. SignalR Inside of #vs2013 @shanselman demoing #vs2013 and https://ASP.net @ #bldwin #dotnet pic.twitter.com/0s3C9vexEn

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    View photo

    WindowsAzure ‏@WindowsAzure21h

    Curious about what that intro video was all about at #bldwin keynote...Check it out: https://msft.it/6013khUN #AzureDev

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev21h

    Build Day 2 Keynote starting in 10 mins! Watch it live on @ch9 https://channel9.msdn.com #bldwin #win8 @WindowsAzure #msft

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev27 Jun

    The Netflix Tech Blog: HTML5 Video in IE 11 on Windows 8.1 https://techblog.netflix.com/2013/06/html5-video-in-ie-11-on-windows-81.html … #ie11 #html5 #win8

    Expand

    Build ‏@bldwin26 Jun

    The Day 1 Build keynote video is now available on demand at https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2013/1-001 …

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    Expand

    Scott Hanselman ‏@shanselman26 Jun

    Great getting started tutorial for https://ASP.NET MVC 5 and VS2013: https://www.asp.net/mvc/tutorials/mvc-5/introduction/getting-started … @aspnet #bookmarked

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    Expand

    Laurent Bugnion ‏@LBugnion26 Jun

    Amazing how behaviors went from small experiment by the wpf disciples to super powerful components that are just plain awesome #bldwin

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    Expand

    Adam Kinney ‏@adkinn26 Jun

    WebGL, like 2D canvas, but low-level, steeper learning curve but more performance potential. Not just 3D, but power to manage GPU. #bldwin

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    I Bing, you Bing? Time to take the No. 2 search engine seriously https://www.nbcnews.com/technology/i-bing-you-bing-time-take-no-2-search-engine-6C10457031 … via @NBCNewsTech #msft #cloud

    Expand

    Tim Heuer ‏@timheuer26 Jun

    RenderTargetBitmap!!!! pic.twitter.com/OSDqZkLElq

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    View photo

    Adam Kinney ‏@adkinn26 Jun

    WinJS 2.0 - Built for speed, even more ux patterns, greater flexibility to differentiate, enhanced for end user efficiency #bldwin

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    XAML devs be sure to tune into @ch9 now for an overview of what's new in Windows 8.1! https://channel9.msdn.com #bldwin #xaml

    Expand

    Tim Heuer ‏@timheuer26 Jun

    About to start my #bldwin session. Tune in on @ch9 or come to South 102-103 ballroom! #xaml

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    Hands-on with Windows 8.1 Preview: Windows 8 done right https://ars.to/14a7cLE #win8

    View summary

    Damien Guard ‏@damienguard26 Jun

    If you go to https://Netflix.com in IE11 you can watch video with no silverlight or other plugins. HTML 5 adaptive streaming!

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

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    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    Bing at Build 2013: Weaving an Intelligent Fabric https://www.bing.com/blogs/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2013/06/26/bingbuild.aspx … via @bing

    Expand

    Lance McCarthy ‏@lancewmccarthy26 Jun

    Totally awesome wall of @windowsphone goodness #3sec #vine #wpdev https://vine.co/v/hzDdr2pwOvj

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    View media

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    Introducing IE11: The Best Way to Experience the Web on Modern Touch Devices : https://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2013/06/26/introducing-ie11-the-best-way-to-experience-the-web-on-modern-touch-devices.aspx … #ie11 #html5 #js

    Expand

    Rey Bango ‏@reybango26 Jun

    IE11 supports adaptive streaming in HTML5. Youtube takes advantage of it! #ie11

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    $19 “Summer Break” limited time offer - start publishing apps for Windows Phone today https://blogs.windows.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/2013/06/26/19-summer-break-limited-time-offer-start-publishing-apps-for-windows-phone-today.aspx … via @windowsblog

    Expand

    Dave Shea ‏@mezzoblue26 Jun

    Credit where it's due, the IE11 dev tools make me want to actually use them. https://twitter.com/thebeebs/status/349949313473998848 …

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    View tweet

    VisualStudio ‏@VisualStudio26 Jun

    Guggs! Ask your question now on Channel 9 (@ch9) live - https://bit.ly/12muscb pic.twitter.com/OOJz1NCimz

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    View photo

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    Ton of awesome stuff coming out of Build today! More cowbell!! #bldwin #usdpe https://sdrv.ms/16zZJ8W

    View photo

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    Overview of WebGL in IE11 Preview https://bit.ly/1aff03A #html5 #js #gamedev

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    Internet Explorer 11 Preview guide for developers https://bit.ly/1afabr9 #ie11 #js #html5

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    Build 2013 and Visual Studio 2013 Preview - Somasegar's blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs https://blogs.msdn.com/b/somasegar/archive/2013/06/26/visual-studio-2013-preview.aspx … #msft #vstudio

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    Windows Phone Developer Registration now $19! https://dev.windowsphone.com #wp8dev

    Expand

    Ben Lower ‏@benlower26 Jun

    Developers: want to get your hands on the new Kinect for Windows early? Apply for our new developer kit program. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindowsdev/newdevkit.aspx …

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    Expand

    Flipboard ‏@Flipboard26 Jun

    Flipboard is coming to @Windows https://flip.it/kTh0o

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    View summary

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    The Windows 8.1 Preview is here! https://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2013/06/26/the-windows-8-1-preview-is-here.aspx … #msft #win8

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    Windows 8.1 Preview: New APIs and features for developers https://bit.ly/11NI9ee #win8 #msft

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    Windows 8.1 Preview: Migration guide for app builders https://bit.ly/11NIeyF #msft #win8

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    Windows 8.1 Preview Product Guide for Developers https://bit.ly/19u50UH #msft #win8

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    Get the Visual Studio 2013 Preview here: https://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/2013-preview … #msft #bldwin #vstudio

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    Sprint plans summer launch of new Windows Phone 8 models from HTC, Samsung https://blogs.windows.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/archive/2013/06/26/sprint-plans-summer-launch-of-new-windows-phone-8-models-from-htc-samsung.aspx … via @windowsblog #wp8 #msft

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    Excel Web App Updated - What's New as of June 2013? https://bit.ly/15FUyCd #cloud #msft #o365

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    Windows 8.1 Preview can be downloaded now at https://preview.windows.com #msft #win8

    View summary

    Frank X. Shaw ‏@fxshaw26 Jun

    sort of a big deal: Microsoft Adds 3D Printing Support To Windows 8.1 For App Developers https://tcrn.ch/1aePv2r by @drizzled

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    View photo

    Paul Thurrott ‏@thurrott26 Jun

    Windows 8.1 Hands-on article explosion on the SuperSite. Enjoy. https://winsupersite.com

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    Definitely will miss hanging with my fellow TE's and community peops at //Build this year. Have fun everyone! Represent! #bldwin #philly

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    Build keynote begins in 10 mins! Watch it LIVE here on @ch9 https://channel9.msdn.com #bldwin #msft

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    Visual Studio 2012.3 is released - Brian Harry's blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs https://blogs.msdn.com/b/bharry/archive/2013/06/26/visual-studio-2012-3-is-released.aspx … #msft #vstudio

    Expand

    Scott Heffield ‏@scottheffield26 Jun

    HUGE line for BUILD day 1 keynote #bldwin #veracitygeeks https://twitpic.com/czb24h

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    View photo

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    Was Yammer worth $1.2 billion? https://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/06/25/was-yammer-worth-1-2-billion/ … via @FortuneMagazine #msft

    View summary

    Microsoft Channel 9 ‏@ch926 Jun

    BUILD 2013 https://dlvr.it/3ZJpy0

    Retweeted by David Isbitski

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    Welcome to //BUILD : https://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2013/06/25/welcome-to-build.aspx … #ie

    Expand

    David Isbitski ‏@thedavedev26 Jun

    The Build Keynote will be streamed live on @ch9 today at Noon EST! https://bit.ly/QSeNba #bldwin #win8dev #wpdev #azure

    Expand

    –Dave

    ]]>         World of Warcraft API Starter Kit for Windows Phone https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/davedev/world-of-warcraft-api-starter-kit-for-windows-phone Tue, 25 Jun 2013 12:52:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/davedev/2013/06/25/world-of-warcraft-api-starter-kit-for-windows-phone/  

    Via DaveDev.net…

     

    AllRealms[1]SingleRealmAndMenu[1]settings[1]

    Overview

    In my previous post I gave you an overview of my teams Starter Kits for Windows Store Apps.  I recently took the World of Warcraft Starter Kit I did for Windows, which was written in WinJS (Windows Library for JavaScript), and ported it to Windows Phone.

    Since there is currently no WinJS available for Windows Phone I chose to write a XAML/C#  native Windows Phone app and then make my network calls using the Web Browser Control.  This is the same common approach that is used in the Windows Phone HTML5 App template and other popular tools such as Intel’s XDK.

    In case you missed the previous post my reasons for choosing Blizzard’s World of WarCraft APIs was to create an understandable sample app to display Realm Status (these are the game servers for World of Warcraft).  For those not in the know World of Warcraft is a very successful online game from Blizzard Entertainment® and offers an excellent open api to get game statistics.  The full API documentation can be found at https://blizzard.github.io/api-wow-docs/.

    You can grab the Phone version of the Starter Kit here on Github and I have also added it to my Starter Kits section on this blog.

    Currently I have implemented the WOW API into two core pieces of functionality in the Windows Phone version.

    • Realm Status (individual)
    • Realm Status (all)

    Just like the Windows Store App I wanted the Windows Phone version to serve as a workable app template for helping your own apps pass certification.  Taken what I’ve learned from my own apps I’ve implemented several pieces of functionality I’ve seen developers fail certification on or get tripped up with during development.  This sample app includes workable functionality for all of the following:

      • Application Bar
      • Settings Page
      • About Page
      • Web Browser Control
      • Web Tasks
      • Calling HTML5/JS from C#
      • Small and Medium Tiles
    Requirements
    • Windows 8
    • Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows Phone or higher
    Setup

    Customization

    Step 1. All of the Blizzard World of Warcraft API's do not require a developer key to use. However, if you plan on creating an application with heavy api usage Blizzard requests you contact them at api-support@blizzard.com to register your application.

    Step 2. Currently only Realm Status is implemented. Adding additional functionality such as character or pvp info is as easy as calling the appropriate wow api (found in https://blizzard.github.io/api-wow-docs/) and then wrapping it in a function the same way realm status was done in /html/js/wowapi.js and /html/js/getRealmStatus.

    Wowapi.js file contains the function call to get all of the realm statuses and then generated a bunch of div tags inside of a div in /html/index.html called divStatus.  In the Windows Store version we used WinJS data convertors to change the value of the colors in the listview columns.  For this version we are using simple CSS to color the background of each div.

     1: "use strict";
     2:  
     3: function getRealmStatusAll() {
     4:  
     5:     $.getJSON("https://us.battle.net/api/wow/realm/status?jsonp=?", function (data) {
     6:         $.each(data.realms, function (i, item) {
     7:  
     8:             //Add some padding between the server name cells
     9:             var bgPadding = 'padding-top: 30px;padding-bottom: 30px;';
     10:  
     11:             //Check status of realm and convert background to green for online and red for offline
     12:             var bgStyle = item.status === true ? 'background-color: green;' : 'background-color: red;';
     13:  
     14:             //Set up div style and show server text
     15:             var divText = "<div style='' + bgPadding + bgStyle + "'><p>" + item.name + "<p></div><p>";
     16:  
     17:             //Add new div to main divStatus div
     18:             $(divText).appendTo("#divStatus");
     19:         });
     20:     });
     21: }
     22:  
     23: function onLoad() {
     24:     //tmp until buttons included
     25:     getRealmStatusAll();
     26: }

    GetRealmStatus.js follows similar convention to wowapi.js but with the exception that we will now accept an argument for a single server.  This argument will actually be passed to the JavaScript function from the C# code the Web Browser Control is hosted in.

     1: "use strict";
     2:  
     3: function getRealmStatus(realm) {
     4:      $.getJSON("https://us.battle.net/api/wow/realm/status?realm=" + realm + "&jsonp=?", function (data) {
     5:         $.each(data.realms, function (i, item) {
     6:  
     7:             //Add some padding between the server name cells
     8:             var bgPadding = 'padding-top: 30px;padding-bottom: 30px;';
     9:  
     10:             //Check status of realm and convert background to green for online and red for offline
     11:             var bgStyle = item.status === true ? 'background-color: green;' : 'background-color: red;';
     12:  
     13:             //Set up div style and show server text
     14:             var divText = "<div style='' + bgPadding + bgStyle + "'><p>" + item.name + "<p></div><p>";
     15:  
     16:             //Add new div to main divStatus div
     17:             $(divText).appendTo("#divStatus");
     18:         });
     19:     }); 
     20:  
     21:     //alert(realm); //To Test args
     22: }
     23:  
     24: 

    Step 3. Now that we have the networking calls setup (with minimal change from our WinJS Windows Store version) we need some way to display the HTML that we are generating.

    This is where we will take the Web Browser Control and tell it to load the appropriate content.  We are also using a flag here for what type of data we need to display (All or Single realms).  These flags are set in the Application scope and available from all the app’s pages.  So when a user sets a new server to track we will see those changes reflected immediately.

     1: // Url of Home page
     2:         private string uriRealmsAll = "/Html/index.html";
     3:         private string uriRealmsSingle = "/Html/realmStatus.html";
     4:      
     5:         // Constructor
     6:         public MainPage()
     7:         {
     8:             InitializeComponent();
     9:             InitSettings();
     10:  
     11:             Browser.IsScriptEnabled = true;
     12:         }
     13:  
     14:         //Get server settings
     15:         private void InitSettings() 
     16:         {
     17:             if (App.appSettings.Contains("realm"))
     18:             {
     19:                 App.userRealm = (string)App.appSettings["realm"];
     20:             }
     21:             else
     22:             {
     23:                 App.userRealm = App.defaultRealm;
     24:                 App.appSettings.Add("realm", App.defaultRealm);
     25:             }
     26:         }
     27:  
     28:         private void Browser_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
     29:         {
     30:             if (App.allRealms) 
     31:             {
     32:                 Browser.Navigate(new Uri(uriRealmsAll, UriKind.Relative));
     33:             }
     34:             else
     35:             {
     36:                 Browser.Navigate(new Uri(uriRealmsSingle, UriKind.Relative));
     37:             }
     38:  
     39:         }
     40:  
     41:      
     42:         private void btnAbout_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
     43:         {
     44:             NavigationService.Navigate(new Uri("/About.xaml", UriKind.Relative));
     45:         }
     46:  
     47:         private void btnSettings_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
     48:         {
     49:             NavigationService.Navigate(new Uri("/RealmSettings.xaml", UriKind.Relative));
     50:         }
     51:  
     52:         private void btnRealm_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
     53:         {
     54:             App.allRealms = false;
     55:             Browser.Navigate(new Uri(uriRealmsSingle, UriKind.Relative));
     56:           }
     57:  
     58:         private void btnAllRealms_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
     59:         {
     60:             App.allRealms = true;
     61:             Browser.Navigate(new Uri(uriRealmsAll, UriKind.Relative));
     62:         }
     63:  
     64:         private void Browser_LoadCompleted(object sender, NavigationEventArgs e)
     65:         {
     66:             if (!App.allRealms)
     67:             {
     68:                 Browser.IsScriptEnabled = true;
     69:                 String[] realm = new String[1];
     70:                 realm[0] = HttpUtility.UrlEncode(App.userRealm);
     71:                 Browser.InvokeScript("getRealmStatus", realm[0]);
     72:  
     73:             }
     74:         }

    You will notice that we are passing in the server name flag to the Web Browser Control itself through the InvokeScript method.  This allows us to generate user interaction in our native XAML based UI and then pass arguments to the JavaScript functions we load into the Web Browser Control.

    Two things to point out here the first is that you must have scripting enabled on the control through the IsScriptEnabled flag and the second is that you’ll need to wait to call the JavaScript function once all the content has been loaded into the DOM.  I chose to do this through the control’s LoadCompleted Event.

    Step 4. As you add more functionality to your own app you will want to include an About and Settings page.  Both of these are set up using native XAML controls.

    The About page will hand of processing to the WebBrowserTask if a user decides to get more information.

    XAML:

     1: <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="Transparent">
     2:        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
     3:            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
     4:            <RowDefinition Height="*"/>
     5:        </Grid.RowDefinitions>
     6:  
     7:        <!--TitlePanel contains the name of the application and page title-->
     8:        <StackPanel Grid.Row="0" Margin="12,17,0,28">
     9:            <TextBlock Text="{StaticResource app_title}" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextNormalStyle}"/>
     10:            <TextBlock Text="about" Margin="9,-7,0,0" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextTitle1Style}"/>
     11:        </StackPanel>
     12:        <StackPanel x:Name="ContentPanel" Grid.Row="1" Margin="12,0,12,0">
     13:            <TextBlock x:Name="txtAbout" HorizontalAlignment="Center" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="The World of Warcraft Windows Phone 8 API Starter Kit is a completely free app for educational and entertainment purposes only. The code for this app is open source and available on Github. " VerticalAlignment="Top" Height="108" Width="446" />
     14:            <Button x:Name="btnGithub" Content="Download Source Code" Margin="0,40" Click="btnGithub_Click"/>
     15:            <TextBlock x:Name="txtAbout2" HorizontalAlignment="Center" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="For more information aout my other free apps, developer starter kits, and online training courses check out my blog DaveDev.net." VerticalAlignment="Top" Height="108" Width="446" />
     16:            <Button x:Name="btnBlog" Content="Visit DaveDev.net" Margin="0,0,0,40" Click="btnBlog_Click"/>
     17:  
     18:        </StackPanel>

    C#:

     1: private void btnGithub_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
     2:        {
     3:            WebBrowserTask webBrowserTask = new WebBrowserTask();
     4:            webBrowserTask.Uri = new Uri("https://github.com/apimash", UriKind.Absolute);
     5:            webBrowserTask.Show();
     6:        }
     7:  
     8:        private void btnBlog_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
     9:        {
     10:            WebBrowserTask webBrowserTask = new WebBrowserTask();
     11:            webBrowserTask.Uri = new Uri("https://davedev.net", UriKind.Absolute);
     12:            webBrowserTask.Show();
     13:        }

    The Settings page will store any server name that a user enters and then use that for 

    XAML:

     1: <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="Transparent">
     2:         <Grid.RowDefinitions>
     3:             <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
     4:             <RowDefinition Height="*"/>
     5:         </Grid.RowDefinitions>
     6:  
     7:         <!--TitlePanel contains the name of the application and page title-->
     8:         <StackPanel Grid.Row="0" Margin="12,17,0,28">
     9:             <TextBlock Text="{StaticResource app_title}" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextNormalStyle}"/>
     10:             <TextBlock Text="settings" Margin="9,-7,0,0" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextTitle1Style}"/>
     11:         </StackPanel>
     12:  
     13:         <!--ContentPanel - place additional content here-->
     14:         <Grid x:Name="ContentPanel" Grid.Row="1" Margin="12,0,12,0">
     15:             <StackPanel Margin="10,58,-10,339" Orientation="Vertical">
     16:                 <TextBlock HorizontalAlignment="Left" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="My Realm" Margin="10,0,0,0" FontSize="24"  />
     17:                 <TextBox x:Name="txtRealm" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="72"  TextWrapping="Wrap"  Width="406"/>
     18:  
     19:                 <Button x:Name="btnSave" Content="Save" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Width="152" Height="91" Click="btnSave_Click"  />
     20:             </StackPanel>
     21:         </Grid>
     22:     </Grid>

    C#:

     1: public partial class RealmSettings : PhoneApplicationPage
     2:     {
     3:         public RealmSettings()
     4:         {
     5:             InitializeComponent();
     6:             InitUserSettings();
     7:         }
     8:  
     9:         private void InitUserSettings()
     10:         {
     11:             if (App.appSettings.Contains("realm"))
     12:             {
     13:                 txtRealm.Text = (string)App.appSettings["realm"];
     14:             }
     15:         }
     16:  
     17:         private void btnSave_Click(object sender, System.Windows.RoutedEventArgs e)
     18:         {
     19:             if (App.appSettings.Contains("realm"))
     20:             {
     21:                 App.appSettings["realm"] = txtRealm.Text;
     22:             }
     23:             else
     24:             {
     25:                 App.appSettings.Add("realm", txtRealm.Text);
     26:             }
     27:  
     28:             var result = MessageBox.Show("Your Realm has been updated to '" + txtRealm.Text + "'.", "Changes Saved", MessageBoxButton.OK);
     29:  
     30:             App.allRealms = false;
     31:             NavigationService.Navigate(new Uri("/MainPage.xaml", UriKind.Relative));
     32:         }
     33:     }

    Conclusion

    Hopefully this Starter Kits will help aid you in your own Windows Phone app development. Be sure to check out the rest of my Starter Kits as well as the full APIMASH project here.

    -Dave

    ]]>         New Microsoft DevRadio Episode: World of Warcraft API Starter Kit for Windows Store Apps https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/davedev/new-microsoft-devradio-episode-world-of-warcraft-api-starter-kit-for-windows-store-apps Fri, 21 Jun 2013 05:48:18 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/davedev/2013/06/21/new-microsoft-devradio-episode-world-of-warcraft-api-starter-kit-for-windows-store-apps/  

    Via Davedev.net…

     

    DevRadio5

    If you have a spare twenty minutes you can watch me walk through the World of Warcraft API Starter Kit in the latest DevRadio episode.  This Starter Kit is designed to give you a fully functional Windows Store app in minutes using HTML and JavaScript. 

    All the building blocks of an app are there including Application Bar, Settings Panel, Icons, ViewBox Control, Privacy statement, Flyout Controls, Roaming Settings, Page Navigation Controls and a ListView.

    We wrap all of that around a reusable WinJS Namespace for World of Warcraft Realm Status network calls and show you how to bind to the ListView along with some data convertors.

    Hope you enjoy the episode!

     

      

     

    You can get the full WOW API Starter Kit here along with many others.

    Next Steps:

    Step #1 – Download the Tools for Windows 8 App Development
    Step #2 – Download Visual Studio Express for Windows 8
    Step #3 – Start building your own Apps for Windows 8

    Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes, Windows Phone Marketplace,  or RSS

    If you're interested in learning more about the products or solutions discussed in this episode, click on any of the below links for free, in-depth information:

    Blogs & Articles:

    Videos:

    Virtual Labs:

    ]]>         I have a new Blog– davedev.net https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/davedev/i-have-a-new-blog-davedev-net Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:21:39 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/davedev/2013/06/12/i-have-a-new-blog-davedev-net/ It had been six years this past May since I first set up this blog on Microsoft’s MSDN blog engine.  I’ve been meaning to move to WordPress for a while now for numerous reasons as well as getting an easier to remember url.

    Now that Azure Web Sites support WordPress out of the box it seemed like the time had come.  So without further ado I give you my new website DaveDev.net.

    DaveDev.net

     

    I will continue to keep this blog up since there are over six years of posts in case anyone needs anything.  I moved over most of the posts from the past year to the new blog and will be posting there moving forward.  The new blog also offers sections that will make a lot of the content you care about easier to find I think.

    This includes both a section dedicated entirely to my Starter Kits and Courses

    Starter KitsMy Courses

    as well as all of the online content I’ve been recording via my Netcasts section.

    Netcasts

    Enjoy!

    -Dave

    ]]>