Mat Velloso's Blog https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/velloso/feed.xml Microsoft dev, Azure, identity, bots, machine learning and stuff Tue, 16 Apr 2019 05:34:40 GMT en-US hourly 1 Cloud Identity 201: Identity concepts for developers https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/velloso/cloud-identity-201-identity-concepts-for-developers Wed, 25 Feb 2015 14:47:59 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/velloso/2015/02/25/cloud-identity-201-identity-concepts-for-developers/ Yesterday I've published a new Channel 9 video: https://channel9.msdn.com/Series/Explain/Identity-201-Cloud-Identity-for-Developers

It talks about basic OAuth concepts and how Azure Active Directory plays a role in your application authentication/authorization scenarios.

 

]]> Two more videos on O365 APIs and SharePoint https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/velloso/two-more-videos-on-o365-apis-and-sharepoint Fri, 07 Nov 2014 12:11:04 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/velloso/2014/11/07/two-more-videos-on-o365-apis-and-sharepoint/ If you only have 20 minutes and you want to have an overview of SharePoint online and O365 REST APIs, please check these:

 

https://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Azure-Friday/Azure-Office-365-and-SharePoint-Online-has-REST-endpoints-with-Mat-Velloso

https://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Azure-Friday/Assembling-Azure-Office-365-and-Web-Services-into-a-real-app

 

 

]]> New Channel 9 Series: Explain that to me https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/velloso/new-channel-9-series-explain-that-to-me Tue, 22 Jul 2014 18:31:35 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/velloso/2014/07/22/new-channel-9-series-explain-that-to-me/ I have started a new Channel 9 series called Explain that to me.

 

The idea is to explain often difficult concepts in the easiest possible way. To start, we have a video talking about how Identity plays a role putting up Office 365 and Azure together. Let's call it Identity 101. Enjoy:

 

https://channel9.msdn.com/Series/Explain/Identity101

]]> A detailed guide about creating the ADAL Xamarin binding for Android https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/velloso/a-detailed-guide-about-creating-the-adal-xamarin-binding-for-android Wed, 02 Jul 2014 15:34:38 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/velloso/2014/07/02/a-detailed-guide-about-creating-the-adal-xamarin-binding-for-android/ Today I just put together a step by step guidance to get Azure Active Directory Authentication Library to work on a Xamarin Android project: https://www.matvelloso.com/2014/07/02/adal-bindings-xamarin-android-applications-ultimate-guide/

]]> A detailed guide about creating the ADAL Xamarin binding for iOS https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/velloso/a-detailed-guide-about-creating-the-adal-xamarin-binding-for-ios Mon, 30 Jun 2014 17:50:29 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/velloso/2014/06/30/a-detailed-guide-about-creating-the-adal-xamarin-binding-for-ios/ Just posted it today with screenshots and code samples: https://www.matvelloso.com/2014/07/01/adal-bindings-xamarin-ios-applications-ultimate-guide/

Will work on an Android version next.

 

]]> Simple guide for enabling authentication to Azure Active Directory from an application https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/velloso/simple-guide-for-enabling-authentication-to-azure-active-directory-from-an-application Thu, 05 Jun 2014 13:44:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/velloso/2014/06/05/simple-guide-for-enabling-authentication-to-azure-active-directory-from-an-application/ Many people ask how to get started with authentication on their mobile app, web app, web service, Xamarin, etc. Usually this first step can be confusing as there are lots of options available with different weaknesses and strengths.

 

I wrote a simple guide to help you get started with making those decisions and moving forward:

 

https://www.matvelloso.com/2014/06/05/authentication-library-choose/

]]> Setting up a subscription to work with Azure Active Directory and o365 https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/velloso/setting-up-a-subscription-to-work-with-azure-active-directory-and-o365 Mon, 05 May 2014 11:48:20 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/velloso/2014/05/05/setting-up-a-subscription-to-work-with-azure-active-directory-and-o365/ I've posted a little step by step guide in order to show how to get both an o365 and Azure subscription to work with the same Azure Active Directory (so you can authenticate users seamlessly on both platforms): https://www.matvelloso.com/2014/05/05/setting-azure-o365-subscription/

This is the step 1 of a more extensible guidance around creating apps that leverage Azure and o365 together. Stay tuned!

 

]]> RichEditBox, Store apps and the challenges with advanced text formatting https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/velloso/richeditbox-store-apps-and-the-challenges-with-advanced-text-formatting Wed, 23 Apr 2014 10:34:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/velloso/2014/04/23/richeditbox-store-apps-and-the-challenges-with-advanced-text-formatting/ This has become a common topic people ask me about so I decided to write it down for future reference.

 

If you are using RichEditBox on a store app, you might have realized by now that coding specific format changes in parts of the content is not trivial. Different than RichTextBlock which has a very extensible, c# friendly way of defining paragraphs and custom formatting inside of it (but is not an user editable control), RichTextBlock will allow you to reach some basic properties in order to format the entire content as a single unit, but no c# specific classes and methods for, let's say, format a specific subset of the content with a different font color.

So how do you do that if you need to?

 

I typically suggest two options:

 

1-Rely on RTF:

RichEditBox understands RTF well. So you can either load an entirely RTF formatted document or update parts of a content with RTF tags. For example, imagine the user selects part of the text and you want to format that part only with a different font color. You can do that in a relatively simple way doing this:

 

string text;
richText1.Document.Selection.GetText(Windows.UI.Text.TextGetOptions.None, out text);
richText1.Document.Selection.SetText(Windows.UI.Text.TextSetOptions.FormatRtf, 
                   "{\\rtf1\\ansi\\deff0" +
                   "{\\colortbl;\\red0\\green0\\blue0;\\red255\\green255\\blue0;}" +
                   "\\cf2" + text + "}");

What we are doing here is getting the selected text on screen, keeping it in a variable, then overwriting it with a RTF content that enforces a specific color definition. In other words, for anything the RichEditBox can't do with it's properties and methods, RTF can.

 I have published this sample here.

2-Use a HTML based rich text editor.

 

Another approach to this problem is to just use a WebView control and load it with a HTML/JS based rich text editor. That way you now have control over the entire HTML content, which will let you do as much as HTML can. There are many sample rich text editors in HTML you can rely on for this.

]]> Xamarin iOS and Android bindings for ADAL (Active Directory Authentication Library) https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/velloso/xamarin-ios-and-android-bindings-for-adal-active-directory-authentication-library Tue, 22 Apr 2014 12:03:05 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/velloso/2014/04/22/xamarin-ios-and-android-bindings-for-adal-active-directory-authentication-library/ If you're diving into building cross platform apps using Xamarin and you need to use Active Directory Authentication Library, you will need to create bindings so you can call the native iOS and Android libraries from C#. Xamarin describes the process of creating bindings libraries in details here (Objective -C) and here (Java). But if that feels like too much work, the AD folks have published sample codes that will get you going:

Sample binding project for Xamarin iOS

Sample bindings for Xamarin Android

I will blog more about getting these things to work later on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

]]> So you did what with PowerPoint?? https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/velloso/so-you-did-what-with-powerpoint Thu, 21 Nov 2013 11:54:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/velloso/2013/11/21/so-you-did-what-with-powerpoint/ I was volunteering in a robotics class when one of the boys started playing with Microsoft PowerPoint in a way that was completely novel to me: He was creating an actual playable computer game in PowerPoint.

No kidding, I had to record this as a proof, the video below says all.

What Aaron did got me to think about a couple of things:

 

First, what is programming? From my perspective, Aaron figured how to "program" PowerPoint, even if not using an actual programming language. He managed to control decision points and actions without any problems.

 

And second: How much more could we do with the tools and technologies we already have, but what's stopping us is just our lack of imagination and different perspectives?

I don't have much else to say so I will let Aaron run the show. Enjoy:

 

 

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