Thursday, December 3, 2015

DevExpress v15.2 Released – What’s is new this version?

 

I have attended DevExpress Webinars consecutively in last few days and there was lots of features they included in the newer version v15.1. All the technology persons Mehul, Don, Julian and Bukcnall described all these features with much clearly and I found that they are much valuable to increase the productivity of the developers. Here are list of webinars related to DevExpress v15.2 build:

Mehul Harry
Don Wibier

v15.2: What's New for DevExtreme & HTML5

03-Dec-2015

Julian M Bucknall
Paul Usher

v15.2: What's New for Reporting and Dashboards

02-Dec-2015

Julian M Bucknall
Paul Usher

v15.2: What's New for Windows Developers

01-Dec-2015

Mehul Harry
Don Wibier

v15.2: What's New for ASP.NET Developers

30-Nov-2015

The amazing thing that I liked most is “Grid-Based Report Generation”. This release ships with a new WinForms Grid-based report generation option. With only a few lines of code, you can invoke the DevExpress WinForms Report Designer from the Grid Control and create reports based on its data.

clip_image002 

Currently I am working with WinForms controls so I found few new control in the WinForms control suite:

  • Diagram Control
  • Date Editor & Calendar Control
  • Excel Data Source
  • Ring/Line Animations
  • Tabbed Form
  • Tabbed Pane Control
  • Toolbox Control
  • Clipboard Management

    the amazing thing they have included is Clipboard management. It was the desired functionality for us because every time we need to write custom code to implement this functionality. Before that it was not easy to copy the Grid Control content to another program including the formatting rules e.g. cell colors. Check this out.
    clip_image003

More interesting controls also included in the ASP.NET WebForms suite also:

Card View Control:

 It is packed with new features like Batch Editing, Conditional Formatting, Export to PDF, XLS, XLSX and RTF Formats, Selected Records Export, Conditional Formatting Export, Header Panel, Total Summary, Endless Paging, Date Range Header Filter, Ellipsis with tooltips in cell texts, Design-Time Card Layout Editor allows you to build a Microsoft Outlook inspired Contacts View with integrated data shaping and editing capabilities.

clip_image005

ASP.NET QueryBuilder Control

Right now this control is available in CTP, but this DevExpress ASP.NET Query Builder allows you to visually construct SQL queries and return a string containing a SELECT statement. It is enriched with cool features.

clip_image007

This control can automatically obtain and display database schema within the QueryBuilder's UI. It has ability to visually edit 'WHERE', 'ORDER BY' and 'GROUP BY' query clauses. Relationship management is required feature for a query builder and they have availed and relationships between tables are automatically resolved based on foreign keys in the control. Along this we can see the Query results preview also.

There are many more features included in ASPxGridView – Responsive Layout, Adaptive layout, export with Format Conditions, Scheduler Control and others. XAF, DevExtreme & HTML5, Reporting, WPF, CodeRush.

The main improvement what DevExpress bring to the Developer community is that they have improved the performance of the control on each platform. Performance is main concern while using the third party controls and within this release they have focused on it also.

Enjoy new Office 2016 style themes also. Smile

The complete features details are available about the DevExpress v15.2 here. Hope this will help you explorer amazing fast DevExpress controls.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

How to use ValueConverter (Decimal Converter) during data binding with control?

Scenario:

While using DevExpress WPF control, sometimes it requires to convert the binding value according to the control’s property. In that case we need use the Value Converters in this case.
Let we require to bind the SpinEdit WPF control edit value property with some object property which require to be converted to decimal value. To do that we need to follow below steps:

  1. Create a custom converter class which implements IValueConverter to convert the value to the decimal.
    namespace DevExWpfApp
    {
    public class DecimalConverter : IValueConverter
    {
    public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
    {
    return System.Convert.ToDecimal(value);
    }

    public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
    {
    throw new NotImplementedException();
    }
    }
    }

  2. Now use it in the XAML by declare it as resources and then call it as below:

    <UserControl.Resources>
    <local:DecimalConverter x:Key="DecimalConverter"/>
    </UserControl.Resources>

    <dxe:SpinEdit EditValue="{Binding Entity.MaxValue, Converter={StaticResource DecimalConverter}" />

Install .NET Framework 3.5 in Windows 8 and 10

Windows 8 and 10 comes with .NET framework 4 or higher pre-installed, but there are lots of applications require the .NET framework v3.5 installed to install on these newer version of operating systems. These applications will not run unless you will install the required version of .NET framework. When you try to run any such sort of applications then Windows 8 and 10 will prompt you to download and install .NET framework 3.5 from the Internet. However, this will take a lot of time.

Source: MSDN article.
Below are the steps to enable .NET framework 3.5:

  1. Go to Settings. Choose Control Panel then choose Programs.

    clip_image002
  2. Click Turn Windows features on or off, and the user will see window as image below.

    clip_image004

    clip_image006

    You can enable this feature by click on .NET Framework 3.5 (include .NET 2.0 and 3.0) select it and click OK. After this step, it will download the entire package from internet and install the .NET Framework 3.5 feature.

You can save your time and install .NET Framework 3.5 from the Windows 8 and 10 installation media respectively. This method is much faster and does not even require an Internet connection.
Follow below steps to install .NET Framework 3.5 in Windows 8 and 10 using DISM:

  1. Bring your installation media to prepare installation either it is DVD or ISO image. If you are using ISO image then mount it using software e.g. Power ISO, DAEMON Tools so then you will be able to access the files for the installation.
    Packages are located in the drive letter: \sources\sxs directory.
  2. Open CMD.EXE with Administrative Privileges. Right click on the start button (or press “Win + X”) to popup the system menu. There you will find a menu item titled “Command Prompt (Admin)”. Click on this to launch the command prompt in admin mode.
    image
  3. Run the following command and hit Enter.
    Dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /All /Source:E:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess

    clip_image009
    Please make sure to change the source path:
    e.g.
    If you have Windows setup at “D:” drive, replace “E:” with “d:”
    If you have Windows setup at “F:\Win10Setup” folder path, replace “x:” with “f:\Win10Setup”
    When run from the command prompt, it will start installing the .NET framework. It will take a while to complete the whole process. Once done, restart your system for the changes to take effect.

Details on command line parameters of DISM:

  • /Online targets the operating system you're running (instead of an offline Windows image).
  • /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:NetFx3 specifies that you want to enable the .NET Framework 3.5.
  • /All enables all parent features of the .NET Framework 3.5.
  • /LimitAccess prevents DISM from contacting Windows Update.
  • /Source specifies the location of the files needed to restore the feature (in this example, the x:\sources\sxs directory).

After completion of this process .NET Framework 3.5 feature enabled. Restart and then you good to go for the installation of your application.

Friday, November 27, 2015

How to enable required field validator in a particular row of GridView?

Scenario:
In some cases editing is enabled on the selected row when you doing batch editing in ASP.NET GridView or DevExpress Grid Control. During edit operation we need to validate only these selected rows editor controls so that it will not block or validated another rows. It require to enable only associated cell validators in the editing rows.
Solution:
Let we have a checkbox in each row to select the editing row to enable the validator controls. Then we have to follow below steps:
First you need to add server event on Check Box control of Change event fire.
<asp:CheckBox ID="chkbox" runat="server" OnCheckedChanged="chkbox_CheckedChanged"    AutoPostBack="true"/>


Then fire of checked event of Checkbox you need to enable/disable RequiredFieldValidator server control.

protected void chkbox_CheckedChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
   CheckBox chkbox= sender as CheckBox;
   GridViewRow currentRow = chkbox.NamingContainer as GridViewRow;
   RequiredFieldValidator rfv = grdCustomer.Rows[currentRow.RowIndex]
                                      .FindControl("ValReqED") as RequiredFieldValidator;
   if (chkCustomer.Checked)
   {
      rfv .Enabled = true;
   }
}

ASPX:

<asp:GridView ID="grdView" AutoGenerateColumns="false" BorderWidth="0" OnRowCommand="grdView_RowCommand" runat="server" CssClass="table">
    <Columns>
        <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Save It">
            <ItemTemplate>
                <asp:CheckBox ID="chkbox" runat="server" AutoPostBack="true" OnCheckedChanged="chkbox_CheckedChanged"/>
            </ItemTemplate>
        </asp:TemplateField>
        <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Expiration Date">
            <ItemTemplate>
                <asp:TextBox ID="txtExpirationDate" style="padding:12px 5px;" placeholder="(mm/dd/yyyy)" CssClass="datepiker" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
                <asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="ValReqExpD" Enabled="false" Display="Dynamic" runat="server" ErrorMessage="Expiry Date cannot be Blank." ControlToValidate="txtExpirationDate"></asp:RequiredFieldValidator>
                <asp:RegularExpressionValidator Display="Dynamic" ID="ValRegExpD" runat="server" ControlToValidate="txtExpirationDate" ErrorMessage="Enter a valid Expiry Date ." ValidationExpression="([1-9]|0[1-9]|1[012])([-/.])([1-9]|0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])([-/.])(19[5-9][0-9]|20[0-4][0-9])">
                    <b>Enter a valid Renewal Date</b>
                </asp:RegularExpressionValidator><br />
                <asp:CompareValidator ID="ValCmpSD" Display="Dynamic" runat="server" ControlToCompare="txtEffectiveDate" ControlToValidate="txtExpirationDate" ErrorMessage="Expiry Date should be greater than Effective date" Operator="GreaterThan" Type="Date"></asp:CompareValidator>
            </ItemTemplate>
        </asp:TemplateField>
    </Columns>
</asp:GridView>



Friday, November 20, 2015

Healthy eye tips for IT professionals to keep their vision correct

Looking at current trend of advancements in technology, spending long hours in front of television, computers & mobile screens is becoming part of life style today. But in IT industry, we have to spend most part of our day in front of the computer screen to do our work. In all of this daily routine we forget about one of the most important parts of our body, the eyes. The ones that itch from sheer exhaustion and burn tirelessly after the end of a really long day. This can lead to eyes and vision related problems in future.

We might not feel the need to exercise your eyes because well, there aren't any immediate symptoms or signs of weak or tired eyes but if we want to guard our self from hazy spots and blurry vision in the future, then we suggest you exercise them as often as possible. And the eye workout is that you can do it at any given time of the day and all we need are a few minutes to avoid future problem with that part which required to do job for the living.

Here are the few EYE care tips

Ø After every 20 to 30 minutes of work, look at a distant object and blink several times. This will help in better focusing and relaxation of eye muscles

Ø Blink frequently. People tend to reduce blink rate while working on computer. This can lead to dry eyes. Avoid staring at screens & objects for long.

Ø Exercise your eyes at frequent intervals. Eye exercise is simple. All you need to do is blink several times, then close your eyes and roll them in clockwise and anti-clockwise direction. While doing this, breathe deeply but slowly and open your eyes slowly after doing this.

Ø Rub your palms against each other till they become warm. Cover your eyes with your warm palms for a minute. You will experience soothing effect in your eyes.

Ø Splashing water on your face during breaks can keep you refreshed. This also helps in cleaning and cooling your eyes.

Ø A few minutes of walk during breaks will refresh your body and mind. It is also good for your eyes as walking increases blood supply to your eyes.

Ø Position the monitor and lights in such a manner that glare from the screen is minimum. 

Few tips are simple Yoga that help to avoid eye problems. We've put together few simple yoga exercises that that will help ease out overused muscles, reduce tension in the face and eyes and help your eyes focus.

Source - Yoga for eyes
here are few yoga exercises that that will help ease out overused muscles, reduce tension in the face and eyes and help your eyes focus.

  • Blink - Open your eyes wide and then quickly blink about 10 times. Now, close your eyes for about 20 seconds and repeat this exercise four more times. The human eye should blink about 25 times in one minute. However, many of us don't, especially when we're focusing on something on our computer or smartphone. This exercise helps your eye nourish itself, relaxes the eye muscles and prevent dry eyes.
  • Palming - If you've gone for yoga classes at any point in time you'll be familiar with this one. Rub your palms together till they feel warm. Then place them on your eyes and hold the position till your palm feels warm. Concentrate on something and relax. This exercise is another form of relaxation which is something your eyes could use, especially after a long day at work.
  • Sideways & Rotation - So now you want to stretch your eye muscles. Move your eyes slowly from side to side and then all the way around in a circle. If you find that difficult, then use your finger and move it in a circle, and let your eyes follow. Make sure your neck doesn't move and repeat both those exercises about 20 times.
  • Sarvangna Asanaor the shoulder stand - This exercise doesn't just help your eyes but your brain as well. Lie down on a mat and using your arms, life your body waist downwards in the air so that your legs are straight and toes point outwards. This pose stimulates blood circulation in brain and optic nerve. You can also lay on your back and life your legs upward, as high as you can go. This exercise increases blood circulation to the eyes, brain, ears and nose, thereby improving their functioning. This pose also helps you detoxify and maximize the performance of all the other organs.

          clip_image001

  • Bhramari Pranayama - Also known as the humble bee breath, this exercise is really calming and can drown down the unnecessary noise in your head, making you feel relaxed with just a few breaths. Sit on the floor cross-legged or however you feel comfortable. Now place your fingers over your eyes horizontally. Exhale and when you inhale make a bee like buzzing sound. Make sure you apply very little pressure on the eyeball and keep your lips sealed.

Some more helpful exercises: Yoga for Eyes: Improve Eyesight Naturally

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Free Programming Books

There was thread on Stackoverflow which contribute the list of free programming books. The Original Source for these free books as below:
 List of freely available programming books
Further I found a nice maintained list on GitHub – Free programming books and subset of the list is here:

Parallel Programming
Partial Evaluation
Professional Development
Programming Paradigms
Regular Expressions
Reverse Engineering
Security
Software Architecture
Standards
Theoretical Computer Science
Web Performance

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Slogans of Technology Companies

A slogan is a statement of such merit about a product or service that is worthy of continuous repetitive advertising; is worthwhile for the public to remember; and is phrased in such a way that the public is likely to remember it. It makes impact on customers about your brand name. It is an advertising tag-line or phrase that advertisers create to visually expresses the importance and benefits of their product.

 

Here is list of slogans with the company name which have their brand name in Technology market.

Company Name

Slogan

3M

Innovation

3PARdata Inc.

Serving Information. Simply.

Accenture

High Performance. Delivered.

Acorn Computers

No slogan

Adobe

Better by Adobe.

Affiliated Computer Services

People Making Technology Work

Agere Systems

How Communication Happens

Aluria Software

Security Made Simple

Amazon.com

… and You’re Done

Ameritech

In a World of Technology, People Make the Difference.

Apple Computer

Think different.

Apple Computer

The power to be your best.

Apple Computer

Think outside the box.

Astaro

Network Assurance

AT&T

Reach out and touch someone.

AT&T

The world’s networking company.

AT&T

Your World. Delivered

ATG Design Services

Circuit Design for the RF Impaired

ATI Technologies

Get In the Game

BAE Systems

Innovation for a Safer World

Ball Corporation

The Leader in Small Space and Rocket Systems

BellSouth

Listening, Answering

Blackhawk

Powering DSP Development

BMW

The Ultimate Driving Machine

Bose Corporation

Better Sound Through Research

BP Microsystems

Setting the Standard in Device Programming

Buy.com

The Internet Superstore

Cadence

How Big Can You Dream?

Cingular Wireless

Raising the Bar

Cirrus Logic

Leading the Digital Entertainment Revolution

Cisco Systems

Empowering the Internet generation.

Cisco Systems

This is the Power of the Network. Now.

CNET

The source for computing and technology.

Compaq (HP)

Inspiration Technology

Cypress Semiconductor

Driving the Communication Revolution

Datel (C&D Tech)

Innovation and Excellence

Dell Computer

Easy as Dell.

Dell Computer

Get More out of Now

D-Link

Building Networks for People

Dow Corning

We Help You Invent the Future

DuPont

The Miracles of Science

EM Research

The ultimate source for miniature frequency synthesizers

Emerson Electric Company

Consider It Solved

Ericsson

Taking You Forward

ExxonMobil

Taking on the world’s toughest energy challenges

Fiber-Span, LLC

RF On Fiber

Fujitsu

The Possibilities are Infinite

General Dynamics

Strength On Your Side

General Electric

Imagination at Work

GigaLane

Innovation and Excellence in RF & Microwave

Globe Telecom

Making great things possible

Hewlett-Packard

Invent

Hitachi

Inspire the Next

Honeywell

We are Honeywell

I.F. Engineering Corp

Your challenge is our progress

IBM

We Make IT Happen

IDT

Powering What’s Next

IFI

The Power of Choice

Infineon

Keep on Thinking

Infosys

Powered by Intellect Driven by Values

Intel

Intel Inside

Intersil

Technology at the Speed of Life

IRobot

Business Mechanisms to Accelerate Change

ITT

Engineered for Life

JRC

You Don’t Need Wires to Communicate

Keithley

A Greater Measure of Confidence

Kodak

A Virtual World of Live Pictures

Konica Minolta

The Essentials of Imaging

Linksys

At Linksys – We are making connectivity easier

Linx Technologies

Wireless Made Simple

Lockheed Martin

We Never Forget Who We’re Working For

Lucent Technologies

Creating value through true convergence.

MegaPhase

Our Customers Connect With Us™

Micrel

The Infinite Bandwidth Company

Micron

The Future of Memory

Microsoft

Your potential. Our passion.

Microsoft

Where do you want to go today?

Mitsubishi Semiconductor

Changes for the Better

Motorola

Hello. Moto

muRata

Innovator in Electronics

mWAVE Industries, LLC

Your Partner In Antenna Technology

MySQL

To Make Superior Data Management Available and Affordable for All

National Semiconductor

The Sight & Sound of Information

NEC Corporation

Empowered by Innovation

Nintendo

Born to play

Nokia

Connecting People

Nortel Networks

Business Without Boundaries

Novell

Software for the Open Enterprise

NVIDIA

The way it’s meant to be played

Olympus Corporation

Your Vision, Our Future

Optus1

Yes

Oracle

Information Driven:

Orbital Sciences Corporation

The Leader in Small Space and Rocket Systems

Panasonic

Ideas for Life

Peregrine Systems

Evolve Wisely

PerkinElmer

Precisely

Philips

Sense and Simplicity

Pioneer Rocketplane

Permitting Travel to Space, Travel in Space, and Travel Through Space

Plantronics

Sound Innovation

PMC-Sierra

Accelerating The Broadband Revolution

Pragma

Operate at Your Optimum

RCAT Systems

You push the limits. We measure it.

RF Bites

Helping RF Designers one Bite at a time

RF Cafe

Now that’s Progressive

RF Cafe

A Disruptive Web Presence

RF Cafe

Your Onramp to the Information Superhighway

RF Cafe

Specialty Materials That Make Our World

Rohde & Schwarz

Pushing Limits

Samsung Electronics

Imagine

Sprint Nextel Corporation

Yes you can

ST Microelectronics

More Intelligence Solutions

Sun Microsystems

The Network Is The Computer

Symbol Technologies

The Enterprise Mobility Company

Texas Instruments

Technology for Innovators

Thor Labs

Photonics in the Fast Lane

Toshiba

Committed to People, Committed to the Future.

Unisys

We Make It Happen

United Technologies Corporation

This is Momentum

Verizon Wireless

Can You Hear Me Now? Good.

vidaRF

Simple Solutions for Complex Connections

Vodafone

How Are You?

Vodafone

Make the Most of Now

Wyse

Global Leader in Thin Computing

Xerox

The Document Company

Xilinx

The Programmable Logic Company

XMA Corporation

When Performance Matters

Digital Global Information Systems

Our Focus - Your Growth!