VW302-Integrating WPF And WCF Into Your Office Business Applications

1. VW302-Integrating WPF And WCF Into Your Office Business Applications Tim Huckaby InterKnowlogy, CEO Microsoft RD & MVP

3. About… • InterKnowlogy (www.InterKnowlogy.com) • Tim Huckaby, CEO – (TimHuck@InterKnowlogy.com) • Custom App Dev/Consulting/Software & Systems Engineering Firm headquartered in Carlsbad, CA • Microsoft Gold Partner managed in SoCal and Redmond • Design, Architect, Build and Deploy enterprise class applications • Industry Experts • 90% of the company is published • Microsoft .NET Application development since 2000! • Microsoft .NET Smart Client pioneers/industry leaders • Information Worker Solutions • Integration/Messaging, B2B/B2C, Wireless/Mobility • Microsoft BizTalk Web Services, Microsoft Active Directory, Security, SSO, Authorization, Authentication • Solutions on the emerging Microsoft servers • Largest Client: Microsoft

4. Session Objectives And Agenda Designing, Building and Deploying OBAs that leverage WPF and WCF Demos: Document Solutions for Excel and Word Add-in Solutions in Outlook Guidance on how to get immediately effective in VSTO, WPF and WCF VSTO, WPF and WCF…Why? Guidance on Where to Go Next…

5. Makes Office a valuable, first-class project type in Visual Studio Enables developers to create & extend Office Business Applications Enables developers to leverage key Office UI features and support collaboration and workflow Provides Office developers with the benefits and advantages of the Visual Studio professional development environment Enables developers to leverage existing programming skills Developers can leverage their company’s current investment inOffice 2003 Pro and new investment in 2007 Office system • VSTO is the Tool for Building OBAs • VSTO enables developers to leverage Visual Studio and the Microsoft Office platform to build scalable line-of-business solutions in .NET based on Microsoft Office

6. The Actions Pane • Document Actions task pane • Specific task pane available to document customizations (new in Word and Excel 2003+) • Actions Pane • Programmable object exposed by VSTO 2005 from Excel Workbook and Word Document classes • Fully encapsulates an implementation of Ismart Document • Provides a Windows Forms-based programming model for accessing the Document Actions task pane

7. demo VSTO Excel And WPF Tim Huckaby InterKnowlogy CEO Microsoft RD & MVP

8. OM OM Office Client Development With VSTO2 Common Application Models Document-Centric Solutions MyCode MyTaskPane Office Application Solutions (Add-In) MyMenu MyCode

9. What the heck is XAML? • Separates the front-end from the back-end • Simple declarative programming language suitable for constructing and initializing .NET Objects • Usually the most concise way to represent user interfaces (or other hierarchies of objects) • Doesn’t need a compile to render • The language that almost all WPF related tools emit

10. What the Heck is WPF?…and why do we need it? • It’s .NET! • All the goodness of Developer Productivity • Built on Top of Direct 3D • Converted to 3D triangles, textures and other Direct3D objects & then rendered by hardware • Benefits of hardware acceleration & perf due to work being off-loaded to GPUs (unlike GDI based systems) • Ensures the maximum benefit of new hardware and drivers • Software rendering pipeline as fallback • Declarative programming • Bringing designers directly into application development • Ease of deployment • Allowing administrators to deploy and manage applications securely

11. demo VSTO Excel And WPFAdventureWorks VSTO excel with wpf user control demo Tim Huckaby InterKnowlogy CEO Microsoft RD & MVP

12. What the Heck is WCF? • Framework for connecting distributed applications • Part of .NET 3.0 • Enables building SOA applications • Implements WS-* standards • Single API that supports the capabilities of: • .NET Remoting • ASP.NET Web Services • Enterprise Services (COM+) • MSMQ • Messaging subsystem at its core • SOAP messages • Does not necessarily mean XML/Text! • Interoperability with: • Enterprise Services • ASMX / Web Services 1.0 services • Any WS-* compliant web service • MSMQ applications

13. demo VSTO Word, WCF and WPF Tim Huckaby InterKnowlogy CEO Microsoft RD & MVP

14. Why WCF? • Flexibility • You can change your mind about wire level communication protocols, security model, and many other facets without changing your source code • Maintainability • One API for all forms of remote communication, don’t need to learn multiple technology stacks • Power • All the capabilities of other remoting APIs rolled into one • Interoperability and SOA enabled in ways the other technologies never considered • Simplicity • On par with other remoting technologies if you just need simple remote calls • Incrementally more complex as you start to take advantage of more complex features • Features which the other technologies may not have

15. New technology in Outlook 2007 for enhancing and replacing Outlook’s built-in forms Adjoining and Separate regions for both custom and built-in forms Replacement and Replace-all regions for custom forms Forms Designer in Outlook Many new controls allow duplication of built-in forms; they are themed and support databinding Code behind form regions is implemented via COM add-in Outlook 2007 Form Regions

16. demo VSTO Outlook And WPF Tim Huckaby InterKnowlogy CEO Microsoft RD & MVP

17. Gotchas, Tips & Tricks • Tip: You are going to need more tools than just Visual Studio .NET when building WPF solutions: • Microsoft Expression Blend • XAML Pad or XAML Cruncher • Gotcha: when building a VSTO application DO NOT COMPILE IN BLEND. VSTO apps won’t run from Blend anyway… • Tip: If you don’t have artistic talent, then don’t try to create WPF styles….there are plenty of WPF Style samples on the web • Gotcha: if you are going to build outlook Add-Ins then use a VPC…or else you’ll be cleaning the registry of every compile you’ve done.

18. Product Team Blogs • Eric Carter: .NET4Office http://blogs.msdn.com/eric_carter/ • Peter Torr: Office Development, Security, Randomness… http://weblogs.asp.net/ptorr/ • Eric Lippert: Fabulous Adventures in Coding http://blogs.msdn.com/EricLippert • Paul Stubbs: Office Development with .NET http://weblogs.asp.net/pstubbs • VSTO 2005 Team Blog http://weblogs.asp.net/vsto2

19. Newsgroups • VSTO 2005 microsoft.private.whidbey.vsto • VSTO 2003/2008 microsoft.public.vsnet.vstools.office MSDN Forums: VSTO http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=16&SiteID=1. 

20. Additional Information • MSDN Developer Centers • VS.NET and Office Development http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/office/ • Office Development http://msdn.microsoft.com/office • Hands-on Labs for VSTO 2005 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f2323aaf-fe87-4203-9ed8-72466566e105&displaylang=en • VSTO 2005 Web casts http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/understanding/vsto/multimedia/default.aspx

21. Resources • VSTO Forum • http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=16 • VSTO-related blogs • VSTO-related Blog Search – http://search.live.com/macros/pstubbs/vsto • Office Zealot Site – http://www.officezealot.com/VSTO/bloghome.aspx

22. For More Information • Visit the VSTO Developer Center • http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/tool/vsto/default.aspx • Visit the VSTO 2005 SE web page • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=5E86CAB3-6FD6-4955-B979-E1676DB6B3CB • VSTO Help documentation on MSDN • http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/d2tx7z6d(en-us,vs.80).aspx

23. Summary • VSTO is the key enabler for the .NET stack to build Office Business Applications • Connect documents to live business data • Provide structure using XML Schemas • Provide deeper UI integration using the Document Actions task pane • Integrated design-time experience • Developer productivity through programming model enhancements • All the power of Visual Studio and the .NET Framework • WPF and WCF are natural additions to your Enterprise Office Business Applications • Custom, Integrated, Professional-looking Uis within the Office Client applications • Distributed Office Applications that are Flexible, Powerful, Simple & Maintainable

24. Tim Huckaby, InterKnowlogy • More info on InterKnowlogy: • www.InterKnowlogy.com • Contact me: Tim Huckaby • E-mail: TimHuck@InterKnowlogy.comor v-TimHu@Microsoft.com • Phone:760-444-8640 • Blog: http://blogs.InterKnowlogy.com/TimHuckaby • About Tim Huckaby • CEO, InterKnowlogy • Microsoft® Regional Director – Southern California • Microsoft® .NET Partner Advisory Council Founder / Member • Microsoft® MVP - .NET • Microsoft® Surface Partner Advisory Council • INETA Speaker – International .NET Users Group Association • Windows and .NET Magazine Advisory Board Member • .NET Developers Journal Magazine Advisory Board Member • Author / Speaker

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