Silverlight - Lync Application nested in a table - silverlight-4.0

I'm very new in Silverlight and the Lync-SDK. So sorry for the question from a beginner.
Long time ago, i wrote al little web application, based on php for reading out contacts from a sql database.
Now the customer expand his envoirement and place Lync. Now he want the little Lync-Status-Square in the webapplication for click to call features.
I playing a little bit with the SDK of lync.
The following problem comes up. The square of Lync is nested in a td of my table. But the Lync-Silverlight-Applet need dynamical space for hover effects or single clicks. But in my table, i have no space, specially dynamic space.
So i switch off all hover and click functionality and place the follwing buttons in the StackPanel separate.
PresenceIndicator
StartInstanceMessagingButton
StartAudiCallButton
SendEmailButton
Two of them are fine.
Clicking on the IM-Button, The Lync Client opens the right Contact in IM-Mode and i can directly type a message. Perfect!
Clicking on the Mail-Icon, an Mail-Client will open, perfect.
The PresenceIndicator just display the color, not the exactly state, thats a problem, when the color is yellow. I can display the state in a TextBlock, but i prefer a label appears while hovering over the icon.
But my mainproblem is the StartAudioCallButton. This Icon is an dropDown-Icon. And i have no space for dropdowns. I would be so nice if this icon has the same behavoior like the IM-Button. The Lync Client will open in Call Modus and i can select, which callernumber i will use. Is that possible?
Thank you for Your time!
Frank

If you're having trouble with the layout of the standard Lync SilverLight controls, then the best thing to do is implement your own SilverLight controls for the function you're having difficulty with.
User Controls are really simple to create, there are plenty of tutorials on how to get started if you're not familiar with the process.
The Lync SDK has some great walkthroughs to get you up and running with signing in to Lync and placing an audio call
I don't know of any way to get Lync to open in a Call Mode as you suggested, but if you're limited with screen space, maybe you could have your custom StartAudioCallButton open a popup with the phone numbers in?

Related

Changing application layout via buttons in VB .NET

Currently I would like to program an application gathering forms that are callable with buttons on the side. For this, I am using the latest build of Visual Studio Community. One way I thought of would be to literally put all the form elements (textboxes, lists, etc.) in the application window and only enable them whenever the according button is clicked on. However, if this is the way to do it, I find it quite messy and unpractical, and I'm pretty sure there's another way around.
After some research, I have learned about the MDI layouts, but they don't suit my taste. I would like to keep everything in one single frame.
Could you give me a hand?

adding animation to an access form - front end

I am Learning how to create dynamic Access Databases using VBA code and SQL. One of my big "pet peaves" is that the user interface is slick and very professional looking.
I am looking for some tecniques in cosmetic touch ups to make the user interface more professional looking. For example, i would like it so that when the user clicks on a button to activate a sub form which is hidden, that the form appears with a bit of "smoothed animation" such as and exploding transition-type effect instead of the standard hard visual appearance of the form which is the standard.
Any advice on what may be available will be very appreciated.
Thank you,
Andrew
This can not be done within Access, it's not designed for that. Access is a database application that comes packaged with Office. It's not going to provide any crazy out-of-the-box animation, it's just not meant for that. It's meant to be a very simple, stripped down database application.
It is somewhat feasable that you could create animations in a 3rd party app (such as Adobe AfterEffects) and have those animations run prior to the form opening, similar to how one would create motion menus for DVDs.
You could put a bunch of small animated graphics (like lights on a Christmas tree or tiny arrows) all around the sub-form and time it to display for a short while.

Forms open and load very slow. Sometimes they won't open

I have a relatively small VB winforms project.
It is currently used to launch numbers hyperlinks and some apps on a server.
There are a couple functions that do all the work, but the it really boils down to:
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("iexplore.exe", urlVar)
or if it is an app sitting on the server, the variable passed into the function appLinkVar will contain the need file path to launch the application.
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(appLinkVar)
The "items" are stored on a SQL Local Database (.mdf)
Id, appName, appLink, appClickCount, appFavList,anddecision, which tells the function if it is calling a website or opening an executable.
Currently, there are forty rows in the database and I project 150+ in the end that need to be updated centrally and often (weekly). But that's a different question for later. The reason I added in it in this question was for insight as to why I am using a database instead of a Setting or XML file for some links. (better suggestions welcome)
My admin main form loads Visible = False and loads the icon in the system try. So you can't actually see the first form that opens. It is a hidden admin window and it's main purpose is to put the icon in the system tray. The green RJ icon - http://snag.gy/VBa6c.jpg
Then all of the app interaction is around the notify icon. Example: the app loads on hover. right-click for settings and options etc.
Once the primary form loads, on mouse over the "Primary Label" for example and the white form to the left appears and so on. Not much to it. http://snag.gy/excKr.jpg
The Frequently Accessed items is currently stored on the database called appClickCount, this will be coming off of the database and to another recommended way of storing the data. But when I initially added the database, I noticed some lag in the main form loading. It would take it 5-7 seconds to populate the Frequently Accessed Items List and so on. So I changed the code from mainWindow.show() to mainWindow.visible(). Worked great for me. opened and closed very quickly. But after some use today by a tester, the application became almost unresponsive. He clicked on the notification icon numerous times and the app failed to load. Then threw a SQL time out error. It was the end of the day and I couldn't grab a screenshot.
I need to make this more reliable.
After some discussion the other day on SO, I was talking to someone that recommended I re-write the app in C# WPF, and that is definitely the plan. But I need this thing to past testing as is in VB this week. Where can I start troubleshooting the delay in opening? What other suggestions do you have to improve the application? Do I need to have an invisible form load first so I have access to a system tray icon or is there a better way?
I have talked to quite a few people on here lately and got some really good advice, I figured I would lay it all out here and see what input you guys can give a new guy... I'm also gonna go hang in the C# room for a little bit if you have any further questions.

VB.Net form as part of desktop

I've spent a while searching around and I can't find a solution to this:
I have a transparent, borderless form that displays a clock. I can load this just fine, but I want the clock to be part of the desktop, so it cannot take focus, is behind other applications, and is not hidden with Win+D (similar to applications like RainMeter).
I need the solution to work with VB.Net (I'm using 2010)
Thanks in anticipation
Take a look at the following codeproject article:
Application Desktop Toolbars
It seems to do what you require.
This article is about Application Desktop Toolbars, which are
applications that can align to the screen much like the taskbar. The
article will develop a base class for developing such apps.

UI components for touch screen winforms applications?

I have seen this question:
Are there any decent UI components for touch screen web applications? and have allmost exact the same question but Im focused on winforms.
I working on an application that is not primary made for using with a touch screen, but now I see more and more customers using touch screen and want the application to support it better.
I want to "add" to the UI so that for example a rightclick on a combobox (or click a button at the side of the combobox) opens up a dialogbox that handles the showing and selecting of the items easier on a touch screen.
Controls I want to enhance or replace are listboxes, comboboxes and textboxes.
I know its easy to create those controls myself, but I think there must be some standards and allready tested UIs that works good in that environment. I dont want to reinvent the wheel and make a bad one if it allready exists good ones.
To sum it up:
Are there guide-lines for controls regarding touch screens, then where?
Are there any allready made controls I can byu (or free ones) out there?
Thanks!
Found some information:
Interaction Design Guide for Touchscreen Applications
http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/TSDesignGL/INDEX.HTM
pdf-version:
http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/TSDesignGL/TSDesignGL.pdf
The interface between humans and interactive kiosks
http://www.visi.com/~keefner/pdfs/focus1.pdf
Keys to a Successful Kiosk Application Some tips can be used generally:
http://www.visi.com/~keefner/pdfs/Kiosk-Tips.ppt