Julie Lerman on Entity Framework 2… err 4.0 – .NET Rocks!

From the picture Julie painted it sounds like the Entity Framework is finally coming together. While I’m sure it’s far from perfect the latest version would seem to have addressed MANY of the issues I ran into the first time I used it. With EF being such a strong contender, it would seem my decision has come down to nHibernate and EF. Microsoft safety versus the guys that have been doing it right for a lot longer… tough call!

Julie Lerman on Entity Framework 4.0Julie is back to talk about the improvements to the Entity Framework in version 4.0.

via .NET Rocks!.

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Binding to Nested Properties

Ugh, grids. Seems like no matter what I want to do it ends up being more complicated than I’d like. Same goes for binding to nested properties…

My workmate Vijay is playing with WCF with a small project, and was asking me how to display a “nested” property of his business object in a DataGridView. I'll walk through an example here, changing the class names to protect the innocent.

via Binding to Nested Properties : Mad Props! – Matt Hamilton.

also DataGridView: How to ind Nested Objects.

And while I’m at it here’s a good overview of binding combo boxes to your grid. (Yes, I’m too lazy to make another post.) Exploring DataGridViewComboBoxColumn Databinding.

For proof that I’m cleaning out Firefox tabs, here’s  a decent post about binding a grid to a binding source. BindingSource and BindingList Of T – DataBinding Made Simple! And an MSDN link that you’ve probably already found via Google.

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Binding Grids to Hierarchical Data Using the ITypedList Interface

This looks to be the solution to my current struggle with binding a collection of multiple types of related objects to a grid. (Or a Devexpress XtraGrid!)

Let’s start with an overview of the problem. If you want to create a grid-like user interface in an application, the easiest solution is to use the Microsoft DataGrid class or an off-the-shelf third party grid control such as the Infragistics UltraGrid, and assign the grid’s DataSource property to the data of interest.

This is simple if the data of interest is a DataSet object or other collection designed for easy integration with grids. But it’s not so easy if you want to connect the grid to a collection of application-specific objects. Most grids are designed such that if you assign the DataSource property to an arbitrary list of objects, something reasonable happens. The grid will typically use reflection to get the names and datatypes of the object’s members. But if you want to control which columns are displayed, how the values are formatted, and so on, then this solution is inadequate. And if the objects contain lists of other objects and you want the grid to be able to display the sublists, the problem is even more difficult.

Microsoft’s ITypedList interface provides a solution. It’s even rather elegant and minimal, although you wouldn’t think so from reading the documentation and examples. Underlying this solution is the PropertyDescriptor class, which provides all of the information required to deal with a particular table column, i.e. its datatype, display name, how to get its value given a row-level object, and so on. Specifically this class’s PropertyType property returns the column’s datatype as a Type object, it’s DisplayName property returns the column’s display name as a string, it’s GetValue method takes a row-level object and returns the column’s value, and so on. This is a great building block. All we need to do is provide the grid with a suitable list of property descriptors whenever the grid needs to know how to display a row. That’s where the ITypedList interface comes in. It provides a method called GetItemProperties which returns a list of PropertyDescriptor objects providing the grid with the information it needs.

via Tips for binding grids to hierarchical data using the ITypedList interface » Lab49 Blog.

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Data Visualization for Business Intelligence | Tableau Desktop

Apparently this is old hat to everyone else in the department but I hadn’t heard of it before and it looks quite impressive. If I wasn’t so swamped I’d give the trial a try. Hopefully I’ll have the chance sometime soon!

Tableau’s data visualization software makes it easy to show your brilliance.

Tableau Desktop is a software application that lets anyone graphically analyze virtually any type of structured data and produce beautiful charts, graphs and reports in just minutes.

Connect to virtually any data source and display information in multiple graphic perspectives. Based on a software breakthrough from Stanford University, you’ll work faster than ever before. Your colleagues will wonder how you figured out so much so fast. Management will think you’re a genius for your clever insights. And you will love your new-found freedom.

And now Tableau 5.0 offers over 60 new features that bring dashboards to life, let you create guided analytic workflows, and more. Check it out.

Why you’ll love Tableau Desktop

Makes data analysis a breeze. An effortless drag and drop interface.

Fits into your world. Works with a variety of data files and databases.

Scales to large data sets. Work with an enormous amount of data.

Offers free training. Get Live or On-Demand training.

Downloads in minutes. Get started right away.

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ADO.NET Data Services Viewer Tool

Haven’t given this a try yet but I definitely plan to soon.

I build this tool to help me build ADO.NET Data Services URL query ( for example http://e4d.com/Courses.svc/Courses?$orderby=Date/ )

and to see the result. this is first version, please send feedback…

Key Features:

1. URL IntelliSense

2. URL Tooltip

3. Data Grid View

4. XML Atom View

5. Data Service Metadata View

via ADO.NET Data Services Viewer Tool – Home.

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