This document discusses developing Windows and web applications using Visual Studio .NET. It covers topics like C# versions, LINQ, data access with LINQ, user experience best practices, Windows Forms capabilities and demos. The agenda includes sessions on business applications, user experience, who applications need to please, and Windows Forms best practices. It also discusses prototypes, choosing between rich client and browser-based solutions, and testing.

1. Developing Windows and Web Applications using Visual Studio.NET Peter Gfader Senior Software Architect

2. Homework?

3. „Add New“ disabled Problems with Lab / homework?

4. Unused methods, after removing UI controls Tip

5. C# 3.0, C# 4.0, C# 5 LINQ Data with LINQ Session 2: Last week?

6. User Experience (UX) Tips and Techniques, Best practices Windows Forms Capabilities and Demo’s Tools to better UX & code UX Resources Agenda

9. Business applications

10. Enter data Find data Show data Every business app does

11. Professional Feel Enter data Validation Find data Filter data Rich data query Show data Different Views Reports (nice printing) Authorization? Every business app

12. User Experience

13. User experience 3 pillars

14. UX - Look

15. UX - Usability

16. Make site feel alive React fast Interact with user “Joy of use” UX - Feel

17. How can we improve UX

18. Developers Need a UI to test their software as they build UI increases in complexity as software is built Application grows but the UI isn’t consistent Know how the controls work (or they should!!) Designers May design the UI but not realize WHAT is possible May understand a Visual Consistency but not how its built Who designs the UI?

19. The user Who uses the UI?

20. „User driven“ Do testing with the user Prototyping Usability testing Let user solve a task and see (measure) what he does User

21. Why choose Windows Forms?

22. Bandwidth – Presentation layer Cache / persistent state Faster Server Because of less requests and less work… thanks to processing power being used on client Richer interface No buggy DHTML/JavaScript More responsive Faster to develop No cross-browser issues Build complex controls quickly Why Windows Forms?

23. Not allowed in Standard Operating Environment Cross-platform requirements (Linux, PC, Mac) Deployment of the Application is harder / Centralised logic Requires an always-connected data service Why NOT Windows Forms?

24. Network Admins Developers End Users Accounts Who Do I Please? Browser Based Solution Rich Client Solution        

25. Who uses prototypes? Sketchflow Balsamiq Do you design a mockup UI first?

26. Avoid the thought of a “throw away” prototype. Use as the first step to start a project (or get a project) - WYSIWYG Get great initial feedback Better than 100 page document Get designer involved if need be (Developers can’t design) Tip: Always add client logo + colours. They are easily impressed! Designing a Mockup UI

27. Would you design Database first or UI? Database schema should be designed before the UI is started If you are doing fixed price work, signed-off mockups serve as a great way to stop goal posts moving. Any changes to the mockups thereafter will result in additional work. Designing a Mockup UI

28. Windows Forms – Best practices

29. Visual Inheritance Composition and Containment (Panels, Usercontrols) Databinding ToolTips Error Provider and Validators Appsettings Winform Architecture

30. The constructor of each form/control class contains a call of a private method "InitializeComponent()". If B is derived from A, then the constructor of A is called first A() A.InitializedComponent() B() B.InitialzeComponent() Visual Inheritance

31. Controls on the Base Form are BY DEFAULT “private” and cannot be edited in the inherited form Solution: Change the modifer to “Protected” Visual Inheritance

32. Common Behaviour Company Icon Remembering its size and location Adding itself to a global forms collection (to find forms that are already open, or to close all open forms) ** Application.OpenForms Logging usage frequency and performance of forms (load time) No Controls! Inherited Forms – For Every Form

33. CenterParent only for modal dialogs (to prevent multi-monitor confusion) CenterScreen only for the main form (MainForm), or a splash screen WindowsDefaultLocation for everything else (99% of forms) - prevents windows from appearing on top of one another StartPosition

34. FixedDialog only for modal dialog boxes FixedSingle only for the the main form (MainForm) - FixedSingle has an icon whereas FixedDialog doesn't None for splash screen Sizable for any form that has multi-line textbox, grid, listbox or such FormBorderStyle

35. Base Data Entry Form 3 4 1 2

36. Do you encapsulate (aka lock) values of forms?

37. Hiding Values

38. Developers fiddle! Browsable: whether a property or event should be displayed in a Properties window. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.componentmodel.browsableattribute.aspx EditorBrowsable: whether a property or method is viewable in an editor.http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.componentmodel.editorbrowsableattribute.aspx Hiding Values

39. Hiding Values using System.ComponentModel; [Browsable(false), EditorBrowsable(false)] public new Font Font { get { return base.Font; } set { base.Font = value; } } Imports System.ComponentModel<Browsable(False), EditorBrowsable(false)> _ Public Shadows Property Font() As Font Get Return MyBase.Font End Get Set(ByVal Value As Font) 'MyBase.Font = Value 'normal property syntaxMyBase.Font = New Font(Me.Font.FontFamily, 20) End SetEnd Property

40. Do you know when to use User Controls?

41. You lose the AcceptButton and CancelButton properties from the Designer e.g. OK, Cancel, Apply Therefore the OK, Cancel and Apply buttons cannot be on User Controls. User Controls

42. You can use a user control more than once on the same form e.g. Mailing Address, Billing Address You can reuse logic in the code behind the controls e.g. Search control User controls are less prone to visual inheritance errors User Controls

43. User Controls Controls only used once Bad! »

44. User Controls Only for reuse Good! »

45. User Controls – TabPages Exception! »

46. Possible Exception: When a form has multiple tabs, and each tab has numerous controls – it can be easier to use User Control in this case Smaller designer generated code More than one person can be working on a different ‘tab’ User Controls – TabPages

47. Code intensive Must manually handle the Validating event of each control you want to validate Must be manually running the validation methods when the OK or Apply button is clicked Error Provider

48. Controls that “attach” themselves to existing Do you use validator controls?

49. Validator Controls Good No code, all in the designer (integrates with the ErrorProvider)

50. Windows Forms – Validation

51. Validation logic is in the Model Validation with Entity Framework public partial class Employee { partial void OnLastNameChanging(string value) { if (string.Compare(value, "Gfader", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase) == 0) { throw new ArgumentException("No GFADER allowed"); } } }

52. Validation logic is in the Model Validation with Entity Framework publicpartialclass Employee { partialvoidOnLastNameChanging(string value) { if (string.Compare(value, "Gfader", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase) == 0) { thrownewArgumentException("No GFADERallowed"); } } }

53. Partial class holds validation logic Partial class

54. Hook up ErrorProvider

56. Happens in model Different UI layers can react to validation differently Web page Windows Form Silverlight WPF ... Validation

57. Monitor Performance better Good user feedback Easy to do AdamE thinks“general user’s don’t care about technical details, a progress bar is better” Do you use a status bar to show load time?

58. Don't use splash screens for branding. Avoid using splash screens because they may cause users to associate your program with poor performance. Use them only to give feedback and reduce the perception of time for programs that have unusually long load times. Don't use animated splash screens. Users often assume that the animated splash screen is the reason for a long load time. Too often, that assumption is correct. Splash Screens

59. Two-way binding means that the object/data structure is bound to the UI Element/Control The setting/getting and the positioning of elements in a collection is handled by the databindingmechansisms Databinding is VASTLY superior in WPF Do you always use the Visual Studio designer for data binding where possible?

60. Bad – write your own boring code Private Sub OnLoad() OrderDetailsService.Instance.GetAll(Me.OrderDetailsDataSet1) Dim row As OrderDetailsDataSet.OrderDetailsRow = Me.OrderDetailsDataSet1.OrderDetails(0) Me.TextBox1.Text = row.UnitPrice.ToString("c") End Sub Private Sub Save() Dim row As OrderDetailsDataSet.OrderDetailsRow = Me.OrderDetailsDataSet1.OrderDetails(0) row.UnitPrice = Decimal.Parse(Me.TextBox1.Text, System.Globalization.NumberStyles.Currency) End Sub

61. Using the Designer SimpleBinding to a single property ComplexBinding to a list

62. MDI Forms

63. MDI Forms Hangover from Access 2.0 and Windows 3.1 Clutter the application Only one window on the taskbar No multiple monitor support

64. Do you make common control with certain width?

65. Bad/Good Example #1

66. Bad/Good Example #2

67. Testing Don‘t trust anyone

68. Part of Visual Studio 2010 "Ultimate" edition Microsoft Test Manager

69. Microsoft Test Manager

71. Generate Coded UI test

72. Use existing recording

73. Generated coded UI test [TestMethod] publicvoid CodedUITestMethod1() { this.UIMap.StartApplication(); this.UIMap.LoginToApplication(); this.UIMap.SeeDetailsform(); this.UIMap.ClickOnnextRecord(); this.UIMap.SeetheNextRecord(); }

74. Automated recording IntelliTrace (drill through to Visual Studio) Bug in TFS Video.wmv Detailed steps Lots of details (you don’t need if you get intelliTrace) Stack trace System info Microsoft Test Manager

76. Book "User Interface Design for Programmers“ Blog http://www.joelonsoftware.com/ UX patterns http://quince.infragistics.com/ Resources

77. http://www.windowforms.net http://www.ssw.com.au/ssw/Standards/Rules/RulesToBetterInterfaces.aspx Windows UX Guidelines http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511258.aspx Designing Interfaces http://designinginterfaces.com/ Automate UI - VS2010 Test Manager Resources

78. Covers Windows UI reference guidelines This should be your main ‘Bible’ when designing Windows Forms (not Web) if you’re not a designer as it provides a consistent standard Windows UX Guidelines

79. What's next?

80. Thank You! Gateway Court Suite 10 81 - 91 Military Road Neutral Bay, Sydney NSW 2089 AUSTRALIA ABN: 21 069 371 900 Phone: + 61 2 9953 3000 Fax: + 61 2 9953 3105 info@ssw.com.auwww.ssw.com.au