My HandsOn with Microsoft Pivot ( + Silverlight Viewer )

First of all i would like to thank Twitter because a tweet on twitter about World Cup Pivot inspired and sparked me try my hands on this awesome tool/application from Microsoft - Pivot.

i would like to remind you all of the great saying "a picture speaks a 1000 words .....". My Pivot collection also contains a number of pictures so rather than discussing about what Pivot is all about, i would like you all to visit the Sample Pivot Collection which i created and uploaded to my web server.

My Hands-On ...

You need to have "Pivot Viewer" installed on your computer to view this. The Pivot Viewer is available at http://www.getpivot.com/download/. There is a Silverlight PivotViewer also that is available for download at http://www.silverlight.net/learn/pivotviewer/. To view the Pivot Collection online you just need to have Silverlight Plug-In installed on your machine.

If you have downloaded the normal Pivot Viewer then you can open the "Microsoft Live Labs Pivot" application installed on your machine. After opening the above application you can put the following url to view my Pivot Collection http://pivotapp.aashishnegi.com/Sample.cxml.

If you have Silverlight installed on your machine, you can visit the Silverlight Version of my Pivot Collection at http://slpivot.aashishnegi.com/Default.html.

Now viewing the above links you must have understood that you can view the Pivot Collection by two ways.

1. Using the Pivot Viewer installed on your machine and getting the url of the .cxml file.
2. Using the Silverlight Pivot Viewer. I think this is a more better way as it allows me to view the Collection directly through the Browser making use of Silverlight's capabilities.

How was your experience with the Pivot ???

How you can create this ?

Now i will focus some light onto "Pivot" and then explain the simplest steps to create your own Pivot Collection and host it online as i did it.

You can get the details about Pivot at its Official Site.

now rather than discussing the details and introduction of Pivot, i will take you through the simplest steps you can follow to build up your own Pivot Collection. There are many ways to create the Pivot Collections.

1. Command-Line ( http://www.getpivot.com/developer-info/cmd-line-tools.aspx )
2. Excel Plug-In ( http://www.getpivot.com/developer-info/excel-tools.aspx )
3. Just-In Time Pivot Collections ( http://www.getpivot.com/developer-info/jit-tools.aspx )

Here i will discuss the method of developing your Pivot Collection using the "Pivot Collection Tool for Microsoft Excel". You can download the Excel Plug-In from the following link http://www.getpivot.com/developer-info/download-excel-tools.aspx. You need to be online while installing the tool. Run the setup in the Downloaded Package.

After you have installed with the Excel Tool, you can see one more additional tab in your Microsoft Excel's Ribbon Bar. There is "Pivot Collections" tab that gets added. you can see the following picture which shows the tab.

You can see i have specified the Pivot Collections tab in the above image. Click on "New Collection" button on the upper left corner. U will get a new excel book window.

Click on "Import Images" button to select multiple images which you want to upload to the Pivot Collection. The images get added to your Collection. Now what just modify the cell values "Name", "Href", "Description" and you can even insert some new "Facets" - the columns which get displayed inside the "Facet Catagories" on lower left side of the "Pivot Viewer". I added "Place", "Pic Taken By" and "Date" as you can see in following image.

Now you can see the "Quick Preview" of your Pivot by clicking the "Quick Preview" button in the ribbon bar. You wouldn't get to see the images in the "Quick Preview" but you will get see all other characteristics such as Facet Catagories, Facets, Sort DropDown, Filter Panel, Info Panel, etc as shown in following image.

If you are ok with the preview, you are ready to hit "Publish Collection". The excel tool publishes the collection and you get following screen.

After its done with the publishing, you will see your collection opened in the "Pivot Viewer" ....

I did some more changes in the collection. What if i want to add multiple values to a single column. You can do it easily. Just separate the values with "double pipe" i.e. " || ". You can see in following image i created the column named "People" containing the multiple values.

I published it and you can see in following image the "Multiple Values" shown in the "Information Window".

What happens after we Publish the collection ?

After you publish the collection and select the location many of the files get created.

1. The .cxml file which is an important file which we point and open up in the Pivot Viewer.
2. A folder with the collection of images and some XML files to handle the images.

If you open the images folder, you will get to see the same architecture and structure as shown by the "Microsoft DeepZoom files" as it works the same way using the "Tile collection" of the images.

The Endnote.

So friends this was my cool experience with "Microsoft Pivot". The "Pivot Collection" i have mentioned in the above example and in the images contained images of size approx "1.5 MB" each. The folder of Images which i added to the collection is about "985 MB". This size of the Images in collection was shrinked to "221 MB". But that was also big n vast in size, so i didn't uploaded this collection to my Web Server.

I created another Pivot Collection to my Web Server which you have viewed through the above links.

I would soon blog about how integrating your Pivot Collection to the Silverlight Application and deploying it to your Local IIS or the WebServer.

Thank You for visiting the Blog.

Please leave your comments to help me improve my blog.

Aashish Singh Negi
aashish.negi@sitgeeks.com

Silverlight 4 Beta - Playing with WebCam, Printing Support

First of all i should thank a bunch of people who helped me in creating this application.

• Vikram Pendse ( Vikram's Blog )
  
• JohnPapa.net to provide blog on to save a picture to disk using .NET Image Tool
  
• .NET Image Tools to provide the .NET Image Tools which i used in the project
  
• Silverlight 4 Beta Documentation available at Silverlight Official Page.
  

You can view the Silverlight 4 application i created at http://testing.aashishnegi.com/Default.html. You should have a WebCam on your machine and the machine should be installed with Silverlight 4 Developer Runtime. It will not work in silverlight3 plug-in nor the plug-in will get updated through the popup it displays. You should manually download and install the SL4 Runtime from Silverlight.net.
Now i will briefly discuss about the project and how you can have a little modifications and try out various new things.
Lets start with a preview of how the screen looks and the controls i placed on the screen.

• WebCam & Mic Support: Lets start and see how we can add the webcam support to the application.

CaptureSource provides us with the methods that work with specific audio or video capture from the associated capture device.

After the CaptureSource is initialized, VideoCaptureDevice can be used to to get the default device configuration. CaptureDeviceConfiguration.GetDefaultVideoCaptureDevice() provides it with the default configures video device. If you right click on Silverlight App and select the Silverlight Plug-in then under the WebCam/Mic tab, we can select and set the default device.

After this the CaptureSource we created above can be used to control the camera. The CaptureSource.Start() and CaptureSource.Stop() will start and stop the cam. As the use of Cam requires user intervention the methods CaptureDeviceConfiguration.AllowedDeviceAccess  and the function CaptureDeviceConfiguration.RequestDeviceAccess() provides user with following dialog box for access request.

In above code the “viewer” is a rectangle that is filled with the brush “VideoBrush” to display the captured input of device.

Clicking Of Pic is something i felt a bit difficult and i referred Vikram’s Blog for understanding this. Following is the code bit for it.

AsyncCaptureImage() can be used to click a snap from the CaptureSource. The Image img is used to add the image to the list box after it is clicked.

• Saving the image as PNG: This section will tell how to save the image we clicked. For this you can refer the following bit of code. .NET Image Tools Library is used in following code lines. .NET Image Tools made it very easy.

• Printing Support: Lets see how we can print something using Silverlight 4 printing support.

Here we can see that PrintDocument class provides printing capabilities for a Silverlight application. As in above code we can see i initialized the PrintDocument and initiated a EventHandler which checks for when the PrintingPage event occurs. Print() can be used to show a Print dialog box.

The PageVisual property is used to choose what elements or rather UIElements we need to print.The PrintableArea defines the area to be printed. HasMorePages represents whether there are more pages to print. Its a bool that returns true if there are more pages to print.

StartPrint can be used if we need to perform some special handling or set up before beginning the printing. The EndPrint event can be used to perform cleanup operations after printing is complete or to detect errors that occured during the printing process. EndPrintEventArgs.Error property will give out the error occured.

• I am currently working with the other new features of Silverlight 4 Beta like Out-of-browser Network Support, Drag and Drop + ClipBoard support, WCF RIA, RightClick support, etc. I will soon blog about these too.

• Thank You all for visiting my blog.

- Aashish Singh Negi
Twitter @aashishnegi
Phone: +919970141082

Exploring Silverlight 4 Beta ........

Hello Friends,

Recently Microsoft announced the next version of Silverlight to be released very soon. Currently in its beta Silverlight 4 has come up with very cool new features.

For writing this article i took the help of the recent Silverligt 4 Beta Documentation available online. You can also download the same and get started.

Those who are new to Silverlight, lets see what this documentation says about it .....

What is Silverlight ?

Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform implementation of the .NET Framework for building and delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIA) for the Web. Silverlight unifies the capabilities of the server, the Web, and the desktop, of managed code and dynamic languages, of declarative and traditional programming, and the power of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).

Silverlight enables you to create a state-of-the-art application that has the following features:

- It is a cross-browser, cross-platform technology. It runs in all popular Web browsers, including Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari, and on Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X. You can design and develop your application without having to worry about which browser or platform your users have.

- It is supported by a very small download that installs in seconds.

- It streams video and audio. It scales video quality to everything from mobile devices to desktop browsers to 720p HDTV video modes.

- It includes compelling graphics that users can manipulate—drag, turn, and zoom—directly in the browser.

- It reads data and updates the display, but it doesn't interrupt the user by refreshing the whole page.

Other Features Of Silverlight ....

- WPF and XAML. XAML. Silverlight includes a subset of the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) technology, which greatly extends the elements in the browser for creating UI. WPF lets you create immersive graphics, animation, media, and other rich client features, extending browser-based UI beyond what is available with HTML alone. Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) provides a declarative markup syntax for creating elements.

- Extensions to JavaScript. Silverlight provides extensions to the universal browser scripting language that provide control over the browser UI, including the ability to work with WPF elements.

- Networking support. Silverlight includes support for HTTP over TCP. You can connect to WCF, SOAP, or ASP.NET AJAX services and receive XML, JSON, or RSS data.

- LINQ. Silverlight includes language-integrated query (LINQ), which enables you to program data access using intuitive native syntax and strongly typed objects in .NET Framework languages.

Whats new in Silverlight 4 (Beta) .....

- New Out-of-Browser Features

- Elevated Trust

- Support for Late Binding

- DRM for Offline Scenarios

- Right to Left Flow Direction

- RichTextArea Control

- WebBrowser and HtmlBrush Controls

- ViewBox Control

- Implicit Styles

- Applying Multiple Transforms is Simplified

- Networking with Multicast

- Printing

- Data Binding Improvements

- Navigation Extensibility

- Collection Sets

- Parsing and Formatting Time Intervals

- Drag-and-Drop and Clipboard Scenarios

- Right-click Mouse Events

- Webcam and Microphone Support

- ADO.NET Data Services

- WCF RIA Services

- Silverlight Designer Improvements

- Dynamic Language Runtime

I will be discussing all of above features in my coming blogs .... so keep pinging me on http://blog.aashishnegi.com/

- Aashish Singh Negi

Mail : aashish.negi@sitgeeks.com

Twitter @aashishnegi

Phone : +919970141082

Introduction to Expression Studio 3 ...............

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All of you must have heard or read about the new Software Suite from Microsoft .... "Expression Studio 3" ...................

today i will introduce you all to the new Expression Studio and tell you the tools it provides .............

You can follow the above links to download the whole suite ...... students can get the full version Expression Studio using their DreamSpark accounts ..................

After you install the Expression Studio Pack ... you can get following tools or application in your start menu under Microsoft Expression.

As you can see the list of following applications in the Microsoft Expression Folder ............

• Expression Blend 3
• Expression Web 3
• Expression Design 3
• Expression Encoder 3
• Expression Encoder 3 Screen Capture
• Expression Web 3 SuperPreview
• Deep Zoom Composer.

Out of above aplications, DeepZoom Composer needs to be downloaded from Download Centre.

I am placing the screenshots of all these applications ... and brief overview of all of these.

I will soon provide an overview of each and every product ......

Silverlight Tutorials .... A new initiative to spread the LIGHT !!!

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Hey guys i am now uploading some of the tutorials - the pdf onto my SkyDrive so that everyone would be able to download it from the web and learn Silverlight and other technologies .....


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Topics covered till now :

• Creating a SketchFlow Application
• Element to Element Binding in SL3 Application
• Database Connectivity using RIA
• Silverlight Business Application
• Silverlight Navigation Application
• DeepZoom and Silverlight
• Making Your Application run Out-of-Browser

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I will be covering some more topics in my future blogs and tutorials like

• Using DataForms in Silverlight Applications
• Using Actions and Behaviours
• More About SketchFlow Projects
• Integrating Your Silverlight page with Windows AZURE
• and some other features of Silverligt.

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How can u get the tutorials ?

Its very simple ..... just visit My Live Space. There is a folder by name "Silverlight Tutorials".

Open the folder and download the required PDF.

I have also uploaded the Projects which i show in the Tutorials. you can download them also.

Waiting for suggestions and replies from all of you ....

- Aashish Singh Negi

aashish.negi@sitgeeks.com

Twitter @aashishnegi

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Visit my Cloud Application at http://aashishsingh.cloudapp.net/ . I will soon blog about how to create a Windows Azure Cloud Application and how to deploy it to the Cloud.

DeepZoomPix - A New & Interactive Way to SHARE & EXPLORE Photos ...

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Hello Friends ..... All of u have must seen the old DeepZoom Online Composer - "PhotoZoom".

Now the old service of Photozoom has been replaced by a newer one - "DeepZoomPix"

• Go and visit DeepZoomPix WebSite to experience the new technology ....
• You will get a Welcome Screen on this site ... Click On "Get Started"
• SignIn with your Windows LiveID. If you have used the PhotoZoom service just signin with the same ID to get the previous albums you have uploaded.
• Now you get a screen where you can see all your previous albums, add photos, etc
• Click on any of the album or Click on "Add Photos" to add new photos.
• After adding the photos just click on the Album you want to start with .
• You will get a new screen "Deep Zoom View" . Just hover your mouse over the area where the Photos are shown and you will get a new window to customize the view of your photos.
• You get an option of putting Tags to photos, Change the Layout, etc.
• Click on "Share" to get a code you can add to your blog or your web page to embedd a DeepZoomPix control onto your site, blog, etc.

What are the key user experience features of DeepZoomPix?

Seamless navigation:
DZP enables the seamless exploration of albums of photographs. Users can navigate the photographs using mouse or keyboard and zoom into them to see them at their highest resolution. Users never wait to reload a page – the entire experience is fluid.

Layout options:
Arrange images in different ways including by in a calendar style view by date.

Dynamic filtering:
Tagged images can be filtered interactively with live updates to the displayed set of images and you can add your own tags to images.

Interactive slideshow:
Users can zoom into and pan around images while they are playing a slideshow. Slide timings are customizable and navigation can be controlled using the keyboard.

Import photos from the web:
DZP can access images stored in other services on the web. If you are a Facebook user, the DeepZoomPix Facebook application enables you import your public Facebook galleries into DZP. If you are a Flickr user, DZP can use the Flickr API to import your Flickr photos. Finally, if your photo service provides RSS feeds containing JPEGs, DZP can use those too.

Shareable mini-viewer:
Embed your slideshow in your blog or website, or send to a friend using the DZP mini-viewer.

What are the key architecture components of DeepZoomPix?

There are four main architectural components:

Image Ingestion:
Import images from the user’s local file system, Facebook, Flickr API or RSS feed. This takes place on the server.

Tile Processing:
Imported images are sliced into tiles for use by the Silverlight Deep Zoom technology.

Image Storage and Retrieval:
Tiles are stored as blobs using the Windows Azure Services Platform, specifically Windows Azure Storage.

Client Viewer:
Silverlight application for managing and viewing images.

Which technologies does DeepZoomPix use?

DeepZoomPix is a technology demonstration designed to show three technologies: use of Microsoft Silverlight to create a rich interactive UX for exploring images, the Silverlight Deep Zoom technology and Windows Azure Services Platform.

Goto DeepZoomPix FAQ to checkout more queries on DeepZoomPix.

*** DeepZoomPix is a technology demonstration that will be available until December 31st, 2009.

Get started by importing your own photos and prepare to be amazed!