Transcript Spring 2006 Connections Conference Template

VW302-Integrating WPF And WCF
Into Your Office Business
Applications
Tim Huckaby
InterKnowlogy, CEO
Microsoft RD & MVP
About…
• InterKnowlogy (www.InterKnowlogy.com)
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Tim Huckaby, CEO – ([email protected])
Custom App Dev/Consulting/Software & Systems
Engineering Firm headquartered in Carlsbad, CA
Microsoft Gold Partner managed in SoCal and Redmond
Design, Architect, Build and Deploy enterprise class applications
Industry Experts
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90% of the company is published
Microsoft .NET Application development since 2000!
Microsoft .NET Smart Client pioneers/industry leaders
Information Worker Solutions
Integration/Messaging, B2B/B2C, Wireless/Mobility
Microsoft BizTalk Web Services, Microsoft Active Directory,
Security, SSO, Authorization, Authentication
• Solutions on the emerging Microsoft servers
• Largest Client: Microsoft
Session Objectives And Agenda
Designing, Building and Deploying OBAs
that leverage WPF and WCF
Demos: Document Solutions for Excel and Word
Add-in Solutions in Outlook
Guidance on how to get immediately
effective in VSTO, WPF and WCF
VSTO, WPF and WCF…Why?
Guidance on Where to Go Next…
VSTO is the Tool for Building OBAs
VSTO enables developers to leverage Visual Studio and the
Microsoft Office platform to build scalable line-of-business
solutions in .NET based on Microsoft Office
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Makes Office a valuable, first-class project type in Visual Studio
Enables developers to create & extend Office Business Applications
Enables developers to leverage key Office UI features and support
collaboration and workflow
Provides Office developers with the benefits and advantages of the
Visual Studio professional development environment
Enables developers to leverage existing programming skills
Developers can leverage their company’s current investment in
Office 2003 Pro and new investment in 2007 Office system
The Actions Pane
• Document Actions task pane
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Specific task pane available to document
customizations (new in Word and Excel 2003+)
• Actions Pane
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Programmable object exposed by VSTO 2005
from Excel Workbook and Word Document classes
Fully encapsulates an implementation
of Ismart Document
Provides a Windows Forms-based programming
model for accessing the Document Actions task pane
VSTO Excel And WPF
Tim Huckaby
InterKnowlogy CEO
Microsoft RD & MVP
Office Client Development With VSTO
2 Common Application Models
Document-Centric Solutions
MyTaskPane
MyCode
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Office Application Solutions (Add-In)
MyMenu
MyCode
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What the heck is XAML?
• Separates the front-end from the back-end
• Simple declarative programming language
suitable for constructing and
initializing .NET Objects
• Usually the most concise way to represent
user interfaces (or other hierarchies of
objects)
• Doesn’t need a compile to render
• The language that almost all WPF related
tools emit
What the Heck is WPF?
…and why do we need it?
• It’s .NET!
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All the goodness of Developer Productivity
• Built on Top of Direct 3D
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Converted to 3D triangles, textures and other Direct3D objects &
then rendered by hardware
Benefits of hardware acceleration & perf due to work being offloaded to GPUs (unlike GDI based systems)
Ensures the maximum benefit of new hardware
and drivers
Software rendering pipeline as fallback
• Declarative programming
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Bringing designers directly into application development
• Ease of deployment
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Allowing administrators to deploy and manage applications
securely
VSTO Excel And WPF
AdventureWorks VSTO excel with wpf user control demo
Tim Huckaby
InterKnowlogy CEO
Microsoft RD & MVP
What the Heck is WCF?
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Framework for connecting distributed applications
Part of .NET 3.0
Enables building SOA applications
Implements WS-* standards
Single API that supports the capabilities of:
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.NET Remoting
ASP.NET Web Services
Enterprise Services (COM+)
MSMQ
• Messaging subsystem at its core
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SOAP messages
• Does not necessarily mean XML/Text!
• Interoperability with:
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Enterprise Services
ASMX / Web Services 1.0 services
Any WS-* compliant web service
MSMQ applications
VSTO Word, WCF and WPF
Tim Huckaby
InterKnowlogy CEO
Microsoft RD & MVP
Why WCF?
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Flexibility
● You can change your mind about wire level communication protocols,
security model, and many other facets without changing your source code
Maintainability
● One API for all forms of remote communication, don’t need to learn
multiple technology stacks
Power
● All the capabilities of other remoting APIs rolled into one
● Interoperability and SOA enabled in ways the other technologies never
considered
Simplicity
● On par with other remoting technologies if you just need simple remote
calls
● Incrementally more complex as you start to take advantage of more
complex features
• Features which the other technologies may not have
Outlook 2007 Form Regions
• New technology in Outlook 2007 for enhancing
and replacing Outlook’s built-in forms
• Adjoining and Separate regions for both custom
and built-in forms
• Replacement and Replace-all regions for custom
forms
• Forms Designer in Outlook
• Many new controls allow duplication of built-in
forms; they are themed and support databinding
• Code behind form regions is implemented via
COM add-in
VSTO Outlook And WPF
Tim Huckaby
InterKnowlogy CEO
Microsoft RD & MVP
Gotchas, Tips & Tricks
• Tip: You are going to need more tools than just Visual Studio
.NET when building WPF solutions:
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Microsoft Expression Blend
XAML Pad or XAML Cruncher
• Gotcha: when building a VSTO application DO NOT
COMPILE IN BLEND. VSTO apps won’t run from Blend
anyway…
• Tip: If you don’t have artistic talent, then don’t try to create
WPF styles….there are plenty of WPF Style samples on the
web
• Gotcha: if you are going to build outlook Add-Ins then use a
VPC…or else you’ll be cleaning the registry of every compile
you’ve done.
Product Team Blogs
• Eric Carter: .NET4Office
http://blogs.msdn.com/eric_carter/
• Peter Torr: Office Development, Security, Randomness…
http://weblogs.asp.net/ptorr/
• Eric Lippert: Fabulous Adventures in Coding
http://blogs.msdn.com/EricLippert
• Paul Stubbs: Office Development with .NET
http://weblogs.asp.net/pstubbs
• VSTO 2005 Team Blog
http://weblogs.asp.net/vsto2
Newsgroups
• VSTO 2005
microsoft.private.whidbey.vsto
• VSTO 2003/2008
microsoft.public.vsnet.vstools.office
MSDN Forums: VSTO
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForu
m.aspx?ForumID=16&SiteID=1.
Additional Information
• MSDN Developer Centers
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VS.NET and Office Development
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/office/
Office Development
http://msdn.microsoft.com/office
• Hands-on Labs for VSTO 2005
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f2323aaf
-fe87-4203-9ed8-72466566e105&displaylang=en
• VSTO 2005 Web casts
http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/understanding/vsto/multimedia/defaul
t.aspx
Resources
• VSTO Forum
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http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/ShowForum.aspx
?ForumID=16
• VSTO-related blogs
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VSTO-related Blog Search –
http://search.live.com/macros/pstubbs/vsto
Office Zealot Site –
http://www.officezealot.com/VSTO/bloghome.aspx
For More Information
• Visit the VSTO Developer Center
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http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/tool/vsto/default.aspx
• Visit the VSTO 2005 SE web page
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http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?Fam
ilyId=5E86CAB3-6FD6-4955-B979-E1676DB6B3CB
• VSTO Help documentation on MSDN
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http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/d2tx7z6d(enus,vs.80).aspx
Summary
• VSTO is the key enabler for the .NET stack to
build Office Business Applications
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Connect documents to live business data
Provide structure using XML Schemas
Provide deeper UI integration using the
Document Actions task pane
Integrated design-time experience
Developer productivity through
programming model enhancements
All the power of Visual Studio and the .NET Framework
• WPF and WCF are natural additions to your Enterprise
Office Business Applications
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Custom, Integrated, Professional-looking Uis within the Office
Client applications
Distributed Office Applications that are Flexible, Powerful, Simple
& Maintainable
Tim Huckaby, InterKnowlogy
• More info on InterKnowlogy:
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www.InterKnowlogy.com
• Contact me: Tim Huckaby
● E-mail: [email protected]
or [email protected]
● Phone: 760-444-8640
● Blog: http://blogs.InterKnowlogy.com/TimHuckaby
• About Tim Huckaby
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CEO, InterKnowlogy
Microsoft® Regional Director – Southern California
Microsoft® .NET Partner Advisory Council Founder / Member
Microsoft® MVP - .NET
Microsoft® Surface Partner Advisory Council
INETA Speaker – International .NET Users Group Association
Windows and .NET Magazine Advisory Board Member
.NET Developers Journal Magazine Advisory Board Member
Author / Speaker
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