Mythical Man Moth

A while ago I stumbled on a very interesting article by Yuval Naveh on CodeProject about Locus Effects

At the time I thought it was a pretty nifty tool but couldn’t really see where I would be able to use it.

I’m currently on-site at a client implementing a Work in progress manufacturing system.Bearing in mind that the users of the system have been using a Unix based system for more than 10 years, it is a rather daunting task to get them onto windows.One of the processes in the system requires a number of steps to be completed, while testing we found that it can get a bit confusing on what to do next. So we decided to put something in place to indicate to the users which steps to follow etc.

At first we thought a simple 1,2,3 list would work, but I weren’t happy with the solution, so I had a look around and tried a few things before I remembered Locus Effects. I am happy to report that it works like a charm, we’ve added a "What Now" button, so whenever the user is lost in the process they can simply click the button, and an arrow will indicate the next step/option available for them. Pretty cool stuff.

My company, Coalition Software, has released its latest product. It’s a Helpdesk Add-in for Outlook 2007.

It’s a small tool for use by in-house support teams. The users they support can submit tickets quickly and easily directly from Outlook. It can be run in online as well as offline mode. In online mode the applications and priorities gets read from a SQL server database and in offline mode (when the user has no access to the database) it can submit the ticket via email, with pre set applications and priorities.

We’ve decided to create it as an add-in for Outlook due to the fact that most Outlook users have it open the better part of the day, this way they do not need to switch between different applications or learn any radically new interfaces.

You can download the videos on using it in here.

You’re welcome to let me know what you think and suggestions are always welcome.

I was recently asked how to use the BindingNavigator to scroll through a list of objects. It is actually a very simple process, and here’s how:

I’m using the same Northwind BO Library as with the previous posts. We have a Customer object, and the table design looks something like this:

Right, next create a new class called Customers. This class will inherit from EditableRootListBase . You can paste the following into the class:

 _
Public Class Customers
Inherits EditableRootListBase(Of Customer)
#Region " Business Methods "
Protected Overrides Function AddNewCore() As Object
Dim item As Customer = Customer.NewCustomer
Add(item)
Return item
End Function
#End Region
#Region " Factory Methods "
Public Shared Function GetList() As Customers
Return DataPortal.Fetch(Of Customers)()
End Function
Private Sub New()
Me.AllowEdit = True
Me.AllowNew = True
Me.AllowRemove = True
End Sub
#End Region
#Region " Data Access "
Private Overloads Sub DataPortal_Fetch()
Me.RaiseListChangedEvents = False
Using sqlconn As New SqlConnection(Database.NorthwindConnection)
sqlconn.Open()
Using cm As SqlCommand = sqlconn.CreateCommand
cm.CommandType = CommandType.Text
cm.CommandText = "SELECT * FROM Customers WITH (NOLOCK)"
Using dr As New SafeDataReader(cm.ExecuteReader())
While dr.Read
Add(Customer.GetCustomer(dr.GetInt32("CustomerID")))
End While
dr.Close()
End Using
End Using
sqlconn.Close()
End Using
Me.RaiseListChangedEvents = True
End Sub
#End Region
End Class 

Compile your project and add a new form. Drag the Customers object from the Data Sources window to your newly created form. It should automatically add a BindingNavigator and a Datagridview to your form. Go ahead and delete the grid.

Next, drag the CustomerTextID, CompanyName, ContactName fields onto your form. Your form should look something like this:

Select the Save button on the BindingNavigator and set it’s Enabled property to True. Switch to Code view and add the following declaration:

Dim _cust As Customer

Next, add the following code to your form’s Load Event:

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
CustomersBindingSource.DataSource = Customers.GetList
End Sub 

Private Sub CustomersBindingSource_PositionChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
Handles CustomersBindingSource.PositionChanged
_cust = CType(CustomersBindingSource.Current, Customer)
End Sub 

Private Sub CustomersBindingNavigatorSaveItem_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
Handles CustomersBindingNavigatorSaveItem.Click
_cust.ApplyEdit()
_cust.Save(True)
End Sub