If you have .Net Framework 4.5, uninstall it along with VS.Net 2011 Developer Preview. This prevents this update from being delivered (possibly fools Microsoft Update to think no .Net Framework 4.0 installed).
After I did the above, KB2656351 started showing up on Windows Update as an “important update”.
I’ve tried to capture what I feel are the important traits to put “Design” First, to have a design driven development.
Upload the certificate to Management Certificate section in the management portal
Well, this why you shouldn’t be buying a book relying on title alone. 
I figured if you navigate to a URL from Windows Phone browser, I should be able to see the SL app right away. Silly me!
It brought me to the Silverlight download page! Isn’t SL supposed to be the ‘Default’ for Windows phone app development?
Should I be “installing” my app as opposed to running directly from the browser? More on this once I figure this out.
I came across an interesting problem recently: How do you assign AutomationIds automatically for Items in an ItemsControl?
<UserControl
x:Class="ThinkFarAhead.AutoAutomationId.MainPage"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:ThinkFarAhead.AutoAutomationId"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
mc:Ignorable="d" d:DesignHeight="300" d:DesignWidth="400">
<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">
<StackPanel>
<ItemsControl x:Name="ItemsControl">
<ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<TextBlock
local:AutomationHelper.Parent=
"{Binding ElementName=ItemsControl}"
local:AutomationHelper.CurrentItem=
"{Binding Path=DataContext,
RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent}}"
local:AutomationHelper.IndexedId="Message{0}"
AutomationProperties.AutomationId=
"{Binding (local:AutomationHelper.IndexedId),
RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}}"
Text="{Binding (AutomationProperties.AutomationId),
RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}}" />
</DataTemplate>
</ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
</UserControl>
namespace ThinkFarAhead.AutoAutomationId{ using System.Windows; using System.Windows.Controls;public static class AutomationHelper
{ #region Constants and Fieldspublic static DependencyProperty CurrentItemProperty =
DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached( "CurrentItem",typeof(object),
typeof(AutomationHelper),
new PropertyMetadata(null)
);
public static DependencyProperty IndexedIdProperty =
DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached( "IndexedId",typeof(string),
typeof(AutomationHelper),
new PropertyMetadata(null)
);
public static DependencyProperty ParentProperty =
DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached( "Parent",typeof(ItemsControl),
typeof(AutomationHelper),
new PropertyMetadata(null)
);
#endregion #region Public Methodspublic static object GetCurrentItem(DependencyObject element)
{ return element.GetValue(CurrentItemProperty);}
public static string GetIndexedId(DependencyObject element)
{return element.GetValue(IndexedIdProperty) as string;
}
public static ItemsControl GetParent(DependencyObject element)
{return element.GetValue(ParentProperty) as ItemsControl;
}
public static void SetCurrentItem
(
DependencyObject element, object value
)
{element.SetValue(CurrentItemProperty, value);
}
public static void SetIndexedId
(
DependencyObject element, string value
)
{ value = string.Format(value, GetParent(element)
.Items
.IndexOf(GetCurrentItem(element)));
element.SetValue(IndexedIdProperty, value);
}
public static void SetParent
(
DependencyObject element, ItemsControl value
)
{element.SetValue(ParentProperty, value);
}
#endregion}
}
namespace ThinkFarAhead.AutoAutomationId{ using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Windows.Controls;public partial class MainPage : UserControl
{ #region Constructors and Destructors public MainPage() { this.InitializeComponent();var list = new List<string>();
list.Add("Zero"); list.Add("One"); list.Add("Two"); list.Add("Three"); list.Add("Four"); list.Add("Five"); list.Add("Six"); list.Add("Seven"); list.Add("Eight"); list.Add("Nine"); list.Add("Ten"); this.ItemsControl.ItemsSource = list;}
#endregion}
}
Hope it helps somebody!
I’ve been very busy lately earning my living. Not able to get time to blog! But hey, I wanted to hack together something - the DynamicMvvM framework which I had hinted about earlier - over this weekend. This got me working with the beauty that is DynamicObject (and ExpandoObject) in C# 4.0.
The first error I had hit was probably the one every one working with DynamicObject for the first time encounters:
Error 2 Predefined type 'Microsoft.CSharp.RuntimeBinder.Binder' is not defined or imported TestApp
Error 3 One or more types required to compile a dynamic expression cannot be found. Are you missing references to Microsoft.CSharp.dll and System.Core.dll?
True enough when I did add Microsoft.CSharp.dll and System.Core.dll, the errors went away.
Using a keyword in C# requires me to add some assemblies? Oops… Adding these two assemblies to Visual Studio project templates for Silverlight, by default, would be high on my wish list! Thankfully, these are added by default to WPF projects (the only one I checked) and hopefully other project types.
Another interesting thing about DynamicObject is that when it’s assigned to a dynamic, it’s not able to find ExtensionMethods. This is reasonable considering all the calls to the methods and properties are resolved at runtime and the ExtensionMethods are not part of the object’s interface per se.
Just one one more piece of info you need to file away for future use.
Well, I left out something that was very close to my heart having been developing UI based applications for such a long time. That’s testability: How do you Unit Test your UI with standard / Open Source tools (Project White – now rechristened White - is one I experimented with couple of years ago). Though, Microsoft has made it easier than ever before to automate UI for testing with Automation APIs, if your UI is clearly separated, you could just use MSTest/XUnit frameworks to Unit test.
