Lightswitch: ComponentOne OLAP Control

February 17, 2012 5:08 pm Leave a Comment

c1_logo_vertical_black_128A couple days ago I received the Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) control from ComponentOne (C1) that I won in the Lightswitch Star Contest with my Job Hunter application. So like all new toys you need to take it for a test ride!

Preface: This tutorial assumes you have used Lightswitch, that you have the ComponentOne OLAP control installed, and a sample database to work against. I am using the AdventureWorks sample database from Microsoft. I am also assuming you know what OLAP is… If not, go read about it on Wikipedia (OLAP).

Opinion

Overall, I really like the control. There is a known bug in printing – see bottom of the post for my conclusion.

Using the OLAP Control

Using the control is really simple, just

  • Add the extension to the project
    c1-6
  • Use the ComponentOne OLAP screen and select the table or query you want to work against
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  • Select which data should be viewable. In this case I don’t want the ProductID, LocationID, and Rowguid to be shown.
    c1-7
  • Run program

Use of the OLAP control

So let us setup a scenario: We need to find out what is the quantity and locations of products for a specific date.

This is a preview of Lightswitch: ComponentOne OLAP Control. Read the full post (897 words, 10 images, estimated 3:35 mins reading time)
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Unemployed: Other Things…

February 15, 2012 1:51 am Leave a Comment

helping-handI was looking through my sites statistics today and one of the search terms was “how to handle being unemployed on LinkedIn”. This got me thinking about all the uncertainty and questions I have had and still have about being unemployed. It is a huge shock to the system and there is simply no manual for this experience.

So here are a few tips and thoughts.

  1. Don’t hide from being laid off, fired, or let go. Talk about it with friends and family. You have to deal with the reality of the situation.
  2. Apply for your unemployment benefits immediately. It takes three weeks to get them going.
  3. Don’t expect the world to “help” you. Take a couple days, get over the anger, disappointment, and sadness of your loss. The sooner you accept that change has happened, the sooner you can make a serious effort at getting back to work.
  4. Focus – LinkedIn and other issues can wait until later. If you are unemployed for a long time (3 or more months) and it is important to keep up with business contacts then update LinkedIn or other sites. Otherwise, just reach out to those who might be able to help you.
This is a preview of Unemployed: Other Things…. Read the full post (1251 words, 1 image, estimated 5:00 mins reading time)
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Lightswitch Errors: Silverlight 5

February 13, 2012 9:01 pm Leave a Comment

Sl_v_c_mdDid you get prompted to install Silverlight 5 runtime on your developer machine and it broke Lightswitch?

Solution:

Download the Silverlight 5 Toolkit from Silverlight.net (click here).

Reportedly, this does not affect the end-user installation (confirmation needed).

Sources:

LightswitchHelpSite.com – Answer by Michael Washington and MSDN forum Lightswitch – Steve Hoag (Microsoft)

Why:

Lightswitch uses the Silverlight 4 SDK and was installed with Lightswitch. The Silverlight 5 runtime prompts Visual Studio to require the Silverlight 5 SDK to run Lightswitch.

Note:

If you have additional information or correction, please provide it in the comments below. I’ll update the post to reflect the best information.

Permanent link to this post (105 words, 1 image, estimated 25 secs reading time)
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Lightswitch: Other things for absolute beginners to know

February 12, 2012 11:20 pm 15 Comments

JH-13Preface: This is intended for someone completely new to development (aka – a newbie).

So you found Microsoft’s Visual Studio Lightswitch and went “wow”! Tried it, bought it, and starting building your first master piece app…. If you are new to development, then there are a few things you’ll want to know and think about as you start moving forward.

Version Control – This is pretty important and you want to start this as soon as possible.

Version control is iterative versions of your program… Or in English multiple copies, but not just a “copy”. Every single change you’ve made in your program. This does two things: 1) allow you to roll back if you toast your program or a design change simply did not work and 2) prevents you from losing your work (make sure you protect you data via RAID or offsite hosting).

Using a version control system is important to the developers life. Being able to roll back or make a branch to test out ideas is critical. If you have a production (in use) application, you cannot interrupt the business because you have an interesting idea. Or simply what if your you change breaks the running system? Most companies view this as a catastrophe and you can lose your job over it.

This is a preview of Lightswitch: Other things for absolute beginners to know. Read the full post (1394 words, 1 image, estimated 5:35 mins reading time)
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Unemployed: I got new cheese (aka a job)

February 12, 2012 9:02 pm Leave a Comment

VictoryMy trip through the life of being unemployed has ended. After three months I’ve gotten a new job and is a good step forward in my career – plus it is intellectually challenging and I will get to see some cool stuff – yeah the pay is pretty good too!

I was told by many people that we would be ok and I would get a “better” job and be happier in the end. I didn’t believe that and was pretty worried about what the future was going to hold. I knew I would get a job, but I was hoping to move forward and not backward. Well they were right…

During the first two months I applied to several of my former employers competitors, though I had interest from them, they moved slow and really only wanted me to be a sales rep. I wanted to move more towards product management and not the pseudo-product management my former employer gave me; continually “upsizing” my job, but never increasing my pay or giving me created for what I did.

This is a preview of Unemployed: I got new cheese (aka a job). Read the full post (903 words, 2 images, estimated 3:37 mins reading time)
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Unemployed: Part 6

January 17, 2012 4:16 pm Leave a Comment

unemployed-happyIt has been a few weeks since I last posted about being unemployed. Frankly, I was fairly depressed and just didn’t want to post anything. Though I enjoyed the holidays, it was also depressing… I knew that there would not be much in the way of contact from potential employers starting a week before Christmas till the second week of January. That is 3 + weeks of “empty”. I thought I was prepared for it, but like all things, reality can really suck.

But there is good news, I currently have four companies that are interested in me. One of them is seems like they want to move the pace quickly and hire me… Well as long as I don’t flunk the in-person interview. So hopefully I will be employed in February. I was hoping to have a job by the end of January, but frankly my fear is June… or even later. That would result in a complete remake of our life if it goes that long… Interestingly, one of the jobs would move us to Ireland… Which has been my dream since I was a kid.

This is a preview of Unemployed: Part 6. Read the full post (394 words, 1 image, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)
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LightSwitch: Job Hunter App–Source Code

January 17, 2012 3:12 pm Leave a Comment

January 2012 Winner for Most Effective Business Application
 Lightswitch Star Contest – You can view my entry here.

JH-1It took me longer than expected to publish the source code, but here is my Job Hunter Lightswitch applications source code. You can download it and use it how ever you choose…Please leave feedback in the comments and if you make some improvements or find some flaws, please leave a comment.

The whole purpose of this is to help someone track and follow-up on job applications…. Actually, I built it so I could track my job applications.

So what do you need to do to use it?

1. Download the source code here (Job Hunter (source code) - Lightswitch (259)). Unzip and open in Lightswitch.For safety, never open an unknown executable (.exe). If you do not have Visual Studio Lightswitch, you can download a trial copy here.

2. You will need a Bing Maps key. You can get one here (it will open a new window). Copy the key, you’ll need to enter it several times.

JH-7A.) Find the “Bing Map Query” or “Bing Map Address” on the following screens: Home, CompaniesListDetail, and CompanyDetail.

This is a preview of LightSwitch: Job Hunter App–Source Code. Read the full post (399 words, 5 images, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)
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Lightswitch–Building a Query

December 20, 2011 10:09 pm Leave a Comment

While building the Job Hunter Lightswitch app, I have two interesting issues to resolve. 1) I want to make it is easier to install and 2) I want to make sure that the user gets prompted to follow-up on active job applications every seven (7) days. The first issue is much harder to resolve, but I am working on it. The query, well that is a lot easier than I expected.

Building a Lightswitch query is can be found here on the MSDN Lightswitch Developer Center.JH-9

Originally, I built the query to the right (see image). The only part I could not figure out was how to set my parameter of “DatePlus” to “DateOfApplication + 7 days”.

As a note: Yann of Lightswitch Central, posted a link on how to use Global Values in a query. That would work just as well…

My solution was a little more old school (you know – code) for a Lightswitch application…. I deleted the filter, sort and parameter for the query and used LINQ.

This is a preview of Lightswitch–Building a Query. Read the full post (684 words, 2 images, estimated 2:44 mins reading time)
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Unemployed…. Part 5

December 14, 2011 8:24 pm Leave a Comment

unemployed5Welcome to part 5 of my life being unemployed. Since losing my job, I’ve written a few posts on what I’m doing (job hunting and programming) and a little of how I feel. I am not a very touchy-feely type of guy, so don’t expect me to cry on-line….

This weeks tips first:

  • Keep positive…
  • Keep working at it…
  • Make sure you have applied for the aide you can receive…
  • Find something to do – both when at home (most of life now) and a reason to get outside the house and socialize…
  • Watch out for depression or feeling depressed…

With that said, this week and the end of last week entered a bit of a new phase. I believe(d) that the reason I was not getting much in the way of inquiries from applications in mid-November was from Thanksgiving. The week before and the week after tend to be busy. So I got a bit nervous when I was not getting calls at the beginning of last week. Around mid-week (last week), I got a really good opportunity to talk with a former competitor. I am still waiting to see if I am going to get a second interview. I “think I will” and followed-up this morning to see about prodding the GM for a second interview. I also had a phone interview with another company today that is a good prospect, but it is a sibling industry; so I am less confident on getting the second interview.

This is a preview of Unemployed…. Part 5. Read the full post (548 words, 1 image, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)
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Job Hunter App–Version 1.0

December 9, 2011 9:04 pm Leave a Comment
JH-1

JH-1So I was laid off a month ago and as soon as I started applying for jobs I realized that Microsoft Excel (no matter how cool) was simply not up to the task. So I decided that Lightswitch would be a great way to build an app to handle job applications and follow-ups. This has to give me (a sales guy working on an MBA) some serious geek cred…

Come on I built an app to do job searches!

Ok, back to the post…  Functionally it is fairly simple: Create a company, job application, and then a follow-up. You can download the program here. It is free to use… There is no support at this point or documentation on how to install, I’ll work on that and update this post at some point. So at this point use at your own risk and there is no warranty, express or implied.

The main screen is “Companies List Detail”. This is where you create a job application by adding a company and the job you are applying to.

JH-2JH-3

I love how easy it is to use Bing Maps with Lightswitch and it would be good to map where you are applying.

This is a preview of Job Hunter App–Version 1.0. Read the full post (285 words, 7 images, estimated 1:08 mins reading time)
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