Vladimir Enchev's blog

New Feature: RadGridView for Silverlight and WPF now can export totals to Excel, ExcelML, Word and CSV

Vladimir Enchev — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 07:15:59 GMT

I’m happy to inform you that with our latest internal build you will be able to export the grid totals in all supported formats:

Check the attached demo application & enjoy!

Download

How To: Serialize your DataTable to Silverlight using WCF service

Vladimir Enchev — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:01:10 GMT

Did you know that you can serialize any DataTable to Silverlight easily from your custom WCF service in very few lines of code?

[OperationContract]
public IEnumerable<Dictionary<string, object>> GetData()
{
    var table = YourDataTable;

    var columns = table.Columns.Cast<DataColumn>();

    return table.AsEnumerable().Select(r => columns.Select(c =>
                         new { Column = c.ColumnName, Value = r[c] })
                     .ToDictionary(i => i.Column, i => i.Value != DBNull.Value ? i.Value : null));
}

I’ve made small update for my lightweight DataTable for Silverlight and now you can create the table directly from IEnumerable<Dictionary<string, object>>:

namespace Telerik.Data
{
    public class DataTable : IEnumerable
    {
        public DataTable(IEnumerable<Dictionary<string, object>> source)
        {
            ...
        }

Now you can use all these to serialize any DataTable with unknown number of columns and types to the Silverlight client and bind desired control:

XAML

<UserControl x:Class="SilverlightApplication1.MainPage"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" 
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" 
    mc:Ignorable="d" d:DesignWidth="640" d:DesignHeight="480"
    xmlns:telerik="clr-namespace:Telerik.Windows.Controls;assembly=Telerik.Windows.Controls.GridView">
    <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot">
        <telerik:RadGridView x:Name="RadGridView1" />
    </Grid>
</UserControl>

using System.Windows.Controls;
using SilverlightApplication1.ServiceReference1;
using Telerik.Data;

namespace SilverlightApplication1
{
    public partial class MainPage : UserControl
    {
        public MainPage()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            var client = new MyServiceClient();
            client.GetDataCompleted += (s,e) => 
            {
                RadGridView1.ItemsSource = new DataTable(e.Result);
            };

            client.GetDataAsync("SELECT CustomerID, CompanyName, ContactName, City, Country, Address, Fax FROM Customers");
        }
    }
}

The result - fully functional dynamic DataGrid and DataTable:

Enjoy!

Download

How To: Print your DataGrid (or any UIElement) on multiple pages with Silverlight 4

Vladimir Enchev — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:44:25 GMT

In Silverlight 4 you can use PrintDocument to print easily any UIElement:
…

var doc = new PrintDocument();
doc.DocumentName = YourDocumentName;

   doc.PrintPage += (s, e) =>
   {
        e.PageVisual = YouUIElement;
   };
   doc.Print();
…

and I’ve made an extension method that can be used to print any UIElement on multiple pages:

public static void Print(this UIElement source, string documentName)
{
var doc = new PrintDocument();
doc.DocumentName = documentName;

var offsetY = 0d;
var totalHeight = 0d;

var canvas = new Canvas();
canvas.Children.Add(source);

    doc.PrintPage += (s, e) =>
    {
        e.PageVisual = canvas;

        if (totalHeight == 0)
        {
            totalHeight = source.DesiredSize.Height;
        }

Canvas.SetTop(source, -offsetY);

        offsetY += e.PrintableArea.Height;

        e.HasMorePages = offsetY <= totalHeight;
    };

    doc.Print();
}

You can download the attached application (Visual Studio 2010) to check how easily you can print RadGridView for Silverlight on multiple pages.

Enjoy!

Download

How To: Server sorting, filtering, grouping and paging with RadGridView for Silverlight without WCF RIA services

Vladimir Enchev — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 08:13:34 GMT

With our upcoming service pack (Q3 SP2) of RadGridView for Silverlight all operation like sorting, grouping and paging on the server can be achieved completely codeless when the grid is bound to DomainDataSource and in my previous post I’ve showed how to do the same for filtering with minimum code. You can even force the grid vertical scrollbar to page on the server instead DataPager.

Since WCF RIA services is still in beta I’ve made small example how to achieve sorting, grouping, paging and filtering using custom web service:

XAML

<UserControl x:Class="SilverlightApplication1.MainPage"
 xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" 
 xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
 xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" 
 mc:Ignorable="d" d:DesignWidth="640" d:DesignHeight="480"
 xmlns:data="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Data"
 xmlns:telerik="clr-namespace:Telerik.Windows.Controls;assembly=Telerik.Windows.Controls.GridView">
    <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot">
        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
            <RowDefinition />
            <RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>
        <telerik:RadGridView AutoExpandGroups="True" ItemsSource="{Binding Data}"
 DistinctValuesLoading="RadGridView1_DistinctValuesLoading" />
        <data:DataPager Source="{Binding Data}" Grid.Row="1" />
    </Grid>
</UserControl>

using System.Windows.Controls;
using Telerik.Windows.Controls.GridView;
using Telerik.Windows.Data;

namespace SilverlightApplication1
{
    public partial class MainPage : UserControl
 {
        public MainPage()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            DataContext = new MyDataContext();
        }

        void RadGridView1_DistinctValuesLoading(object sender, GridViewDistinctValuesLoadingEventArgs e)
        {
            var client = ((MyDataContext)DataContext).Client;
            var collection = new RadObservableCollection<object>();

            e.ItemsSource = collection;

            client.GetDistinctValuesCompleted += (s, args) => 
            { 
                collection.Clear(); 
                collection.AddRange(args.Result); 
            };

            client.GetDistinctValuesAsync(e.Column.UniqueName);
        }
    }
}

The result:

The grid expressions are transferred as strings (I’ve made several extension methods available in DescriptorsExtensions.cs) and on the server-side these string expressions are used in a custom LinqDataSource in order to handle all operations on the data-base server.

You can check also MyDataContext.cs to know more about how to create your own QueryableCollectionView to handle such advanced custom scenario where you need to handle paging, grouping, sorting and filtering by yourself.

Enjoy!

Download

How To: Populate RadGridView for Silverlight distinct filters asynchronously using WCF RIA Services

Vladimir Enchev — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:30:26 GMT

With our upcoming service pack (Q3 2009 SP2) you will be able to populate distinct values asynchronously using the DistinctValuesLoading event. To achieve this you can assign any INotifyCollectionChanged collection for distinct values ItemsSource and RadGridView will update the UI immediately on any change.

I’ve made small demo on how to achieve this using WCF RIA Services and RadGridView bound to DomainDataSource with DataPager – in this case the grid distinct values are populated from the entire collection server-side not only from the current downloaded page:

server-side:

public List<DistinctValue> GetDistinctValues(string propertyName)
{
    var list = new List<DistinctValue>();
    var values = this.DataContext.Customers.Select(propertyName).OfType<string>().Distinct().ToList();

    for (var i = 0; i < values.Count; i++)
    {
        list.Add(new DistinctValue() { ID = i, Value = values[i] });
    }

    return list;
}
...

public class DistinctValue
{
    [Key]
    public int ID { get; set; }
    public string Value { get; set; }
}

...

client-side:

private void RadGridView1_DistinctValuesLoading(object sender, Telerik.Windows.Controls.GridView.GridViewDistinctValuesLoadingEventArgs e)
{
    var collection = new RadObservableCollection<string>();
    e.ItemsSource = collection;

    var context = (NorthwindDomainContext)DomainDataSource1.DomainContext;
    context.DistinctValues.Clear();
    context.Load(context.GetDistinctValuesQuery(e.Column.UniqueName)).Completed += (s, args) => 
    {
        collection.AddRange(context.DistinctValues.OfType<DistinctValue>().Select(dv => dv.Value));
    };
}

Download

How To: Easy print and print preview with RadGridView for WPF

Vladimir Enchev — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 09:02:44 GMT

Using FixedDocument, DocumentViewer and PrintDialog you can easily create your own print and/or print preview for RadGridView for WPF.

I’ve made two extension methods Print() and PrintPreview() to illustrate how to turn the grid into a print friendly document in few lines of code:
…

public static void PrintPreview(this GridViewDataControl source)
{
    var window = new Window()
    {
        Title = "Print Preview",
        Content = new DocumentViewer()
        {
            Document = ToFixedDocument(ToPrintFriendlyGrid(source), new PrintDialog())
        }
    };

    window.ShowDialog();
}

public static void Print(this GridViewDataControl source, bool showDialog)
{
    var dialog = new PrintDialog();
    var dialogResult = showDialog ? dialog.ShowDialog() : true;

    if (dialogResult == true)
    {
        var viewer = new DocumentViewer();
        viewer.Document = ToFixedDocument(ToPrintFriendlyGrid(source), dialog);
        dialog.PrintDocument(viewer.Document.DocumentPaginator, "");
    }
}
…

Download

How To: Custom scrolling with RadGridView for Silverlight and WCF RIA Services

Vladimir Enchev — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 06:05:07 GMT

I’m pleased to announce that with our upcoming service pack (Q3 SP2 – middle of January 2010) you will be able to plug your own scrolling logic for RadGridView for Silverlight. I’ve made small demo on how to page DomainDataSource using the grid vertical scrollbar with minimal coding effort:

…

<riaControls:DomainDataSource x:Name="DomainDataSource1" QueryName="GetOrder_Details">
    <riaControls:DomainDataSource.DomainContext>
        <web:NorthwindDomainContext />
    </riaControls:DomainDataSource.DomainContext>
</riaControls:DomainDataSource>
<telerikGridView:RadGridView telerik:Theming.Theme="Summer" 
 scrolling:CustomScrolling.DomainDataSource="{Binding ElementName=DomainDataSource1}"
 ItemsSource="{Binding Data, ElementName=DomainDataSource1}" 
 IsBusy="{Binding IsLoadingData, ElementName=DomainDataSource1}" />

…

Download

New Feature: Silverlight RIA services compression with Telerik RadControls Q3 2009

Vladimir Enchev — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:48:27 GMT

With our upcoming Q3 2009 release you can use RadCompression (part of Telerik.Web.UI.dll) to compress your RIA services:

Without compression:

With compression:

Check the numbers :)

Enjoy!

[Download]

How To: Silverlight grid hierarchy load on demand using MVVM and RIA services

Vladimir Enchev — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:57:39 GMT

I’ve made small example on how to load on demand RadGridView hierarchy child data using MVVM and RIA service:

Using partial classes you can extend very easily generated code with desired load on demand logic:

    public partial class Customer
    {
        bool ordersLoaded = false;
        public IEnumerable<Order> CustomerOrders
        {
            get
            {
                if (!ordersLoaded)
                {
                    var query = from o in MyDataContext.DomainContext.GetOrdersQuery()
                                where o.CustomerID == CustomerID
                                select o;

 MyDataContext.DomainContext.Load(query);

                    ordersLoaded = true;
                }

                return Orders;
            }
        }
    }

and if you create your own data context you can bind all these completely codeless:

<telerik:RadGridView Name="RadGridView1" IsReadOnly="True" AutoGenerateColumns="False" ItemsSource="{Binding Customers}">
    <telerik:RadGridView.ChildTableDefinitions>
        <telerik:GridViewTableDefinition />
    </telerik:RadGridView.ChildTableDefinitions>
    <telerik:RadGridView.Columns>
        <telerik:GridViewDataColumn Header="Customer ID" DataMemberBinding="{Binding CustomerID}" />
        <telerik:GridViewDataColumn Header="Company Name" DataMemberBinding="{Binding CompanyName}" />
        <telerik:GridViewDataColumn Header="Contact Name" DataMemberBinding="{Binding ContactName}" />
        <telerik:GridViewDataColumn Header="City" DataMemberBinding="{Binding City}" />
        <telerik:GridViewDataColumn Header="Country" DataMemberBinding="{Binding Country}" />
    </telerik:RadGridView.Columns>
    <telerik:RadGridView.HierarchyChildTemplate>
        <DataTemplate>
            <telerik:RadGridView IsReadOnly="True" AutoGenerateColumns="False" ItemsSource="{Binding CustomerOrders}">
                <telerik:RadGridView.ChildTableDefinitions>
                    <telerik:GridViewTableDefinition />
                </telerik:RadGridView.ChildTableDefinitions>
                <telerik:RadGridView.Columns>
                    <telerik:GridViewDataColumn Header="Order ID" DataMemberBinding="{Binding OrderID}" />
                    <telerik:GridViewDataColumn Header="Order Date" DataMemberBinding="{Binding OrderDate}" />
                </telerik:RadGridView.Columns>
                <telerik:RadGridView.HierarchyChildTemplate>
                    <DataTemplate>
                        <telerik:RadGridView IsReadOnly="True" AutoGenerateColumns="False" ItemsSource="{Binding Details}">
                            <telerik:RadGridView.Columns>
                                <telerik:GridViewDataColumn Header="Unit Price" DataMemberBinding="{Binding UnitPrice}" />
                                <telerik:GridViewDataColumn Header="Quantity" DataMemberBinding="{Binding Quantity}" />
                                <telerik:GridViewDataColumn Header="Discount" DataMemberBinding="{Binding Discount}" />
                            </telerik:RadGridView.Columns>
                        </telerik:RadGridView>
                    </DataTemplate>
                </telerik:RadGridView.HierarchyChildTemplate>
            </telerik:RadGridView>
        </DataTemplate>
    </telerik:RadGridView.HierarchyChildTemplate>
</telerik:RadGridView>

Enjoy!

[Download]

How To: Easy printing with Telerik RadGridView for Silverlight

Vladimir Enchev — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:48:34 GMT

Using export to HTML feature you can print the grid very easily just by adding following JavaScript to the export output:

<script type=""text/javascript"">print();</script>

You can use WebClient to save the output as file on the server:

Silverlight client side:

Uri uri = new Uri(HtmlPage.Document.DocumentUri, String.Format("PrintHandler.aspx?FileName={0}", fileName));
WebClient client = new WebClient();
client.UploadStringCompleted += new UploadStringCompletedEventHandler(client_UploadStringCompleted);
client.UploadStringAsync(uri, String.Format("{0}{1}", RadGridView1.ToHtml(), printScript));

ASP.NET server side:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (Request.QueryString["FileName"] != null)
    {
        File.WriteAllText(Server.MapPath(Request.QueryString["FileName"]),
            new StreamReader(Request.InputStream).ReadToEnd(), Encoding.UTF8);
    }
}

and request this file when upload is finished:

void client_UploadStringCompleted(object sender, UploadStringCompletedEventArgs e)
{
    HtmlPage.Window.Navigate(new Uri(HtmlPage.Document.DocumentUri, fileName), "_blank", "menubar=0;toolbar=0;fullscreen=1;");
}

… and that’s it! :)

The result:
- RadGridView bound to RIA service completely codeless using DomainDataSource:

- Print preview with immediate print dialog:

If you have “Microsoft XPS Document Writer” you can save the grid output as XPS and using “Microsoft Office Document Image Writer” you can save the output as pageable TIFF!

There are many free PDF printers also and if you have some of them (I’m using this one) you can get the grid output immediately in PDF!

Enjoy!

[Source Code] | [PDF Output] | [XPS Output] | [TIFF Output]

Today is the day - see the light? SIlverlight 3 is finally out!

Vladimir Enchev — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 07:47:02 GMT

In fact you can download almost everything even now!

Despite all breaking changes between the beta and RTW (System.Windows.Controls.Data => System.ComponentModel = > System.Windows.Data) as always Telerik will follow the good traditions and next week we will release RadControls for Silverlight 3.

Stay tuned – more will come!

Silverlight 3 to launch July 10

Vladimir Enchev — Fri, 29 May 2009 04:47:04 GMT

More info @ http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=2912

Enjoy! :)

How To: Twitter search with RadGridView for Silverlight and Twitter REST API

Vladimir Enchev — Mon, 18 May 2009 01:23:10 GMT

I’ve made small demo application on how to search Twitter using Twitter REST API and RadGridView for Silverlight:

To download Twitter ATOM response you can use simple WebClient:

if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(TextBox1.Text))
{
    WebClient client = new WebClient();
    client.DownloadStringCompleted += newDownloadStringCompletedEventHandler(client_DownloadStringCompleted);
    if(!client.IsBusy)
        client.DownloadStringAsync(new Uri(String.Format(urlFormat, TextBox1.Text, pageSize, currentPageIndex)));
}

and you can parse the response using XDocument.Parse() method:

XNamespace atomNamespace = "http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom";
RadGridView1.ItemsSource = from item in XDocument.Parse(e.Result).Descendants(atomNamespace + "entry")
                          select new TwitterEntry
                          {
                               ID = item.Element(atomNamespace + "id").Value,
                               Published = DateTime.Parse(item.Element(atomNamespace + "published").Value),
                               Url = item.Element(atomNamespace + "link").Attribute("href").Value,
                               Title = item.Element(atomNamespace + "title").Value,
                               Content = item.Element(atomNamespace + "content").Value,
                               Updated = DateTime.Parse(item.Element(atomNamespace + "updated").Value),
                               ImageUrl = item.Descendants(atomNamespace + "link").Last().LastAttribute.Value,
                               Author = new TwitterAuthor()
                               {
                                   Name = ((XElement) item.Element(atomNamespace + "author").FirstNode).Value,
                                   Url = ((XElement) item.Element(atomNamespace + "author").LastNode).Value
                               }
                           };

Enjoy!

[Download]

Lightweight DataTable for your Silverlight applications

Vladimir Enchev — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 07:58:43 GMT

UPDATE: Latest version (without Dynamic LINQ) with INotifyCollectionChanged and INotifyPropertyChanged support!!!

(kudos to Stefan)

Since there is no DataTable in Silverlight I’ve created small class that can be used to generate columns and rows in runtime in similar to the real DataTable way:

DataTable table = new DataTable();

table.Columns.Add(new DataColumn() { ColumnName = "ID", DataType = typeof(int) });
table.Columns.Add(new DataColumn() { ColumnName = "Name", DataType = typeof(string) });
table.Columns.Add(new DataColumn() { ColumnName = "UnitPrice", DataType = typeof(decimal) });
table.Columns.Add(new DataColumn() { ColumnName = "Date", DataType = typeof(DateTime) });
table.Columns.Add(new DataColumn() { ColumnName = "Discontinued", DataType = typeof(bool) });

for(var i = 0; i < 1000; i++)
{
 DataRow row = new DataRow();
    row["ID"] = i;
    row["Name"] = names[rnd.Next(9)];
    row["UnitPrice"] = prizes[rnd.Next(9)];
    row["Date"] = DateTime.Now.AddDays(i);
    row["Discontinued"] = bools[rnd.Next(9)];

    table.Rows.Add(row);
}

Dynamic LINQ made all these possible!

Enjoy!

[Download]

Full support for DomainDataSource with RadGridView for Silverlight 3

Vladimir Enchev — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 05:43:13 GMT

I'm happy to announce that with our next service pack you will be able to bind RadGridView completely codeless to DomainDataSource in Silverlight 3:

<Grid>
  <Grid.RowDefinitions>
    <RowDefinition />
    <RowDefinition Height="30" />
  </Grid.RowDefinitions>
  <riaControls:DomainDataSource x:Name="DomainDataSource1" AutoLoad="True" LoadMethodName="LoadCustomers">
    <riaControls:DomainDataSource.DomainContext>
      <localWeb:NorthwindDomainContext />
    </riaControls:DomainDataSource.DomainContext>
  </riaControls:DomainDataSource>
  <telerik:RadGridView x:Name="RadGridView1" ItemsSource="{Binding Data, ElementName=DomainDataSource1}" />
  <df:DataPager x:Name="DataPager1" Grid.Row="1" PageSize="10" Source="{Binding Data, ElementName=DomainDataSource1}" />
</Grid>

All operations like paging, sorting and grouping are applied to the REST query with minimal JSON response:

Enjoy!