Team System: TFS Heat ITSM

TFS Sticky Buddy v2.0

Martin Hinshelwood — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:52:01 GMT

I will be working on some new features to the Sticky Buddy application. Improvements in the interface, along with a more modular structure and more diagram offering are in the mix. I have been working on some of the enhancements and their implementation in my other lesser known project TFS Heat ITSM…

As you can see, a new look and feel for a new version, but this should allow me to implement a better modular design and separate out

the individual bits and pieces.

Head over to Codeplex and vote for your favourite feature, ort add a new one :)

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Technorati Tags: TFS,VSTS,TFS Sticky Buddy,WPF,Team System

Infragistics WPF

Martin Hinshelwood — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:40:40 GMT

I am currently getting to grips with the Infragistics WPF controls that they call NetAdvantage for WPF. So far I have found them easy to use, but the documentation of examples is very lax. Do not mistake me, these components are fantastic and do way more work for me than I would care to do myself, but if you Google a particular piece of their API invariable you will get pure documentation and no samples. If you are lucky someone has asked a specific question about it and you can skim their answers, but the likely hood of finding an answer to your question is negligible in my experience.

I still love the components, it just makes it a little more difficult to develop with them…

An example would maybe get us all on the same page:

I am using their Ribbon components in one of my applications and wanted to dynamically generate (using a binding) the menu options.

   1: <igRibbon:XamRibbon.ApplicationMenu>

2:

   3:             <igRibbon:ApplicationMenu>

   4:                 <igRibbon:MenuTool x:Name="uxTeamServerMenuTool" Caption="Team Server" ItemsSource="{Binding AvailableServers}" 
                                          ItemTemplate="{DynamicResource tAvailableServers}" ButtonType="DropDown" 
                                          LargeImage="\Resources\Images\TeamServerSelectIcon.png">

   5:                 </igRibbon:MenuTool>

   6:                 <igRibbon:MenuTool x:Name="uxTeamProjectMenuTool" Caption="Team Project" ItemsSource="{Binding AvailableProjects}"  
                                           ButtonType="DropDown" SmallImage="\Resources\Images\TeamProjectSelectIcon.png">

   7:                 </igRibbon:MenuTool>

   8:                 <igRibbon:MenuTool x:Name="uxHeatConnectionMenuTool" Caption="Heat Server" ButtonType="DropDown">

   9:                 </igRibbon:MenuTool>

  10:                 <igRibbon:MenuTool x:Name="uxHeatApplicationMenuTool" Caption="Heat App" ButtonType="DropDown" >

  11:                 </igRibbon:MenuTool>

  12:                 <!-- Place a button in the footer of the ApplicationMenu that allows the user to quit the application. -->

  13:                 <igRibbon:ApplicationMenu.FooterToolbar>

  14:                     <igRibbon:ApplicationMenuFooterToolbar>

  15:                         <igRibbon:ButtonTool Caption="Settings" Command="local:Commands.ClearSettingsCommand" />

  16:                         <igRibbon:ButtonTool Caption="Exit" />

  17:                     </igRibbon:ApplicationMenuFooterToolbar>

  18:                 </igRibbon:ApplicationMenu.FooterToolbar>

  19:             </igRibbon:ApplicationMenu>

  20:         </igRibbon:XamRibbon.ApplicationMenu>

As you can see in line 4 there is a binding that does indeed populate the list. But I am having trouble getting the template to take. I want the Items listed as a set of radio buttons (kinda) and so I added a Template:

   1: <DataTemplate x:Key="tAvailableServers" DataType="{x:Type tfs:TeamFoundationServer}">

   2:            <igRibbon:RadioButtonTool

   3:                            Caption="{Binding Name}"

   4:                            Tag="{Binding}"

   5:                            LargeImage="\Resources\Images\TeamServerSelectIcon.png"

   6:                            igRibbon:MenuToolBase.MenuItemDescription="{Binding Url.ToString}"/>

   7:        </DataTemplate>

This should have displayed what I wanted, but it seams to be ignored.

To allow this to work, all I needed to do was remove the x:Key from the template. But why can't I specify a template by name. What if I wanted to have two templates and choose which one was displayed…

Calling an object method in a data trigger

Martin Hinshelwood — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:16:18 GMT

Calling a method on an instance of an object in WPF is not as easy to figure out, but with the help of this Internet thing I managed it.

Say you have a DataTemplate that renders a WorkItemType as a button that is selectable:

   1: <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type tfswitc:WorkItemType}">

   2:     <DockPanel>

   3:         <Image DockPanel.Dock="Left"

   4:                x:Name="wiImage"

   5:                Width="16"

   6:                Height="16"

   7:                Source="pack://application:,,/Resources/Images/WorkItems/unknown.gif">

   8:         </Image>

   9:         <Button x:Name="wiButton"

  10:                 Content="{Binding Name}"

  11:                 Style="{DynamicResource WelcomeButtonStyle}"

  12:                 CommandParameter="{Binding}"

  13:                 Command="Controlers:TeamSystemCommands.ChangeWorkItemTypeCommand">

  14:         </Button>

  15:     </DockPanel>

  16: </DataTemplate>

Now, if I wanted to call a method on an instance of that WorkItemType and perform some action, then I would need a DataTrigger:

   1: <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type tfswitc:WorkItemType}">

   2:     <DockPanel>

   3:         <Image DockPanel.Dock="Left"

   4:                x:Name="wiImage"

   5:                Width="16"

   6:                Height="16"

   7:                Source="pack://application:,,/Resources/Images/WorkItems/unknown.gif">

   8:         </Image>

   9:         <Button x:Name="wiButton"

  10:                 Content="{Binding Name}"

  11:                 Style="{DynamicResource WelcomeButtonStyle}"

  12:                 CommandParameter="{Binding}"

  13:                 Command="Controlers:TeamSystemCommands.ChangeWorkItemTypeCommand">

  14:         </Button>

  15:     </DockPanel>

  16:     <DataTemplate.Triggers>

  17:         <DataTrigger Value="False">

  18:             <DataTrigger.Binding>

  19:                 <Binding>

  20:                     <Binding.Source>

  21:                         <ObjectDataProvider ObjectType="{x:Type tfswitc:WorkItemType}"

  22:                                             MethodName="SupportedByHeat" />

  23:                     </Binding.Source>

  24:                 </Binding>

  25:             </DataTrigger.Binding>

  26:             <Setter TargetName="wiButton"

  27:                     Property="IsEnabled"

  28:                     Value="False" />

  29:             <Setter TargetName="wiButton"

  30:                     Property="ToolTip"

  31:                     Value="You will need to add the 'HeatITSM.Ref' field to use this work item." />

  32:         </DataTrigger>

  33:     </DataTemplate.Triggers>

  34: </DataTemplate>

This will Call the method and if it returns false, it will disable the button and set a tooltip.

Now, this should work, but my SupportedByHeat method is an Extension method defined as:

   1: Imports Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Client

2:

   3: Namespace TeamFoundationExtensions

4:

5:

   6:     Module WorkItemTypeExtensions

7:

   8:         <System.Runtime.CompilerServices.Extension()> _

   9:       Public Function SupportedByHeat(ByVal wit As WorkItemType) As Boolean

  10:             Dim c As Controlers.TeamSystemControler(Of MainWindow)

  11:             c = Application.ControlerFactory.GetControler(Of Controlers.TeamSystemControler(Of MainWindow))()

  12:             Return c.CheckWorkItemField(wit)

  13:         End Function

14:

  15:     End Module

16:

  17: End Namespace

And this does not seam to work even if I import the namespace in the XAML:

   1: <UserControl x:Class="SelectWorkItemType"

   2:   xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"

   3:   xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"

   4:   xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2006"

   5:   xmlns:tfs="clr-namespace:Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client;assembly=Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client"

   6:   xmlns:tfswitc="clr-namespace:Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Client;assembly=Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Client"

   7:   xmlns:tfse="clr-namespace:Hinshelwood.TFSHeatITSM.TeamFoundationExtensions"

   8:   xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Hinshelwood.TFSHeatITSM"

   9:   xmlns:Controlers="clr-namespace:Hinshelwood.TFSHeatITSM.Controlers"

  10:   xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"

  11:   mc:Ignorable="d">

The error message that is received is:

System.Windows.Data Error: 34 : ObjectDataProvider: Failure trying to invoke method on type; Method='SupportedByHeat'; Type='WorkItemType'; Error='No method was found with matching parameter signature.' MissingMethodException:'System.MissingMethodException: Method 'Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Client.WorkItemType.SupportedByHeat' not found.
   at System.RuntimeType.InvokeMember(String name, BindingFlags bindingFlags, Binder binder, Object target, Object[] providedArgs, ParameterModifier[] modifiers, CultureInfo culture, String[] namedParams)
   at System.Type.InvokeMember(String name, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object target, Object[] args, CultureInfo culture)
   at System.Windows.Data.ObjectDataProvider.InvokeMethodOnInstance(Exception& e)'

As you can see, during the binding the extension method is not evaluated.

During my investigation I came across WPFix Part 3 (Extension Methods) that intoned that there is indeed some solution, but it is complicated requiring the use of Lambda expressions.

I am looking for an easy solution :)