Windows Media Center Sandbox

Issue With Visual Studio 2008 Template in SDK Version 5.3

Charlie Owen — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 15:33:24 GMT

We put the template support in for Visual Studio 2008 towards the very end of the 5.3 development cycle as a 'bonus' to fulfill community requests -- you'll notice we don't even mention it in the What's New section of the SDK documentation at all since we didn't know the street date for Visual Studio 2008.

There are three templates which ship in the 5.3 version:

Windows Media Center Application
A project for creating a Windows Media Center Application containing a page with four buttons which invoke a Media Center dialog box.

Windows Media Center Application - Background
A project for creating a Windows Media Center Background Application.

Windows Media Center Application - Fundamental
A project for creating a Windows Media Center Application containing the minimum code and markup required.

It just so happens that Visual Studio 2008 released to the general public a day or two before we released, so I've been scrambling to test out the SDK install on all sorts of permutations of Visual Studio installations -- the surface area for this testing is quite large when you look at the fact all of them can peacefully coexist with side by side installs. Last night we found an issue where one of the templates (the first one in the list above) isn't available in Visual Studio 2008 if the only development tool you have installed is a Visual Studio 2008 SKU.

Select one of the following to resolve...

Make sure you have a Visual Studio 2005 SKU installed (including any Express Edition) in addition to Visual Studio 2008 prior to installing the SDK.
Run a repair of the Windows Media Center SDK 5.3 if you've already got it and a Visual Studio 2008 SKU installed and are installing a Visual Studio 2005 SKU second.

Development Environment For Windows Media Center Applications

Charlie Owen — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 23:38:23 GMT

Working through the last revision of the SDK I found it was really hard to discern the development environment for successfully developing a Windows Media Center application -- mainly because you can't read what we write before installing the SDK...! :-)

So, let me take a moment to give you what I consider the bare minimum install set for a development machine in the order they should be installed.

Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate

Visual C# 2005 Express Edition
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=51411

Visual C# 2005 Express Edition SP1
http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/7/3/7737290f-98e8-45bf-9075-85cc6ae34bf1/VS80sp1-KB926749-X86-INTL.exe

Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista
http://download.microsoft.com/download/c/7/d/c7d9b927-f4e6-4ab2-8399-79a2d5cdfac9/VS80sp1-KB932232-X86-ENU.exe

Visual C# 2008 Express Edition
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7729278

Windows Media Center Software Development Kit 5.3
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=a43ea0b7-b85f-4612-aa08-3bf128c5873e

I've put these links over on the navigation bar at http://blog.mediacentersandbox.com as well for future reference.

Charlie

Windows Media Center SDK 5.3 Now Available

Charlie Owen — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 23:52:28 GMT

An updated version of the Windows Media Center Software Development Kit is now available for download from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=a43ea0b7-b85f-4612-aa08-3bf128c5873e&displaylang=en. This is the same link as before so no need to change your bookmarks. These links also persist in the navigation section at http://blog.mediacentersandbox.com/.

Here is a list of what's new or changed with this release...

MCML Preview Tool Automation Model
An improved automation model allows a tools developer to load an MCML file, refresh the current view, and close or get the position and size of the current instance. New command-line switches specify a folder to watch and automatically refresh when any resource in the folder changes.

Changes to the MCML Preview Tool Launcher
The improved MCML Preview Tool Launcher takes advantage of the new MCML Preview Tool automation model and command-line switches.

Additional Documentation on Animations in MCML

Check out the new or improved documentation on these topics:

Working with Animations in MCML
Using Keyframes in Animation
Applying Interpolations to Keyframes
Setting the Weight on Interpolations
Playing Different Types of Animations in Response to Events

MCML Animation Explorer
MCML Animation Explorer is a new tool that helps developers learn animation in MCML. Instead of writing XML you can work with a bunch of knobs and switches in a graphical user interface and see the resulting MCML as well as the visuals in the MCML Preview Tool.

New Visual Studio Templates
The following templates have been added for C#:

The Windows Media Center Application – Background template creates a project for a Windows Media Center background application.
The Windows Media Center Application – Fundamental template creates a project that provides a basic framework for creating a Windows Media Center application.

Visual Studio 2008 Support
The application templates now work with Visual Studio 2008.

Deprecated Features
The following platform features have been deprecated with this release:

Hosting for Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) browser applications (XBAPs).
The Triple-tap / Soft-keyboard ActiveX control for hosted HTML applications.
Support for using alternative shells to run and host HTML applications.

Combining An ArrayListDataSet.Move Method and Animations

Charlie Owen — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 05:49:34 GMT

This sample would be classified in the 'fun' category of neat things you can do with MCML and animations. Enjoy...!

<Timer Name="Timer" Interval="100" AutoRepeat="true" Enabled="true"/>

<sys:Int32 Name="OldIndex" Int32="0"/>
   <sys:Int32 Name="NewIndex" Int32="0"/>

<sys:Random Name="RandomGenerator"/>
  </Locals>

<Invoke Target="[MyList.Move]" oldIndex="[OldIndex]" newIndex="[NewIndex]"/>

<DebugTrace Message="Moving from from {0} to {1}">
      <Params>
       <ObjectPath ObjectPath="[OldIndex]"/>
       <ObjectPath ObjectPath="[NewIndex]"/>
      </Params>
     </DebugTrace>
    </Actions>
   </Changed>
  </Rules>

</UI>

</Mcml>

PowerPlaylist Sample Application Now Available on CodePlex.com

Charlie Owen — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 03:42:19 GMT

PowerPlaylist adds a custom Start Menu strip with up to five tiles to Windows Media Center in Windows Vista. Each tile represents an audio, slideshow and / or visualization combination which will start when the tile is selected. PowerPlaylist is very customizable by the consumer using the PowerPlaylist Editor, including the title of the custom Start Menu strip and the name, image, audio source, slideshow folder and visualization for each tile. It's over on CodePlex.com so has full source code available with the Microsoft Permissive License.

Check it out at http://www.codeplex.com/powerplaylist.

Hanselminutes 82: Development for Media Center

Charlie Owen — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 03:39:28 GMT

The day after the geek dinner Scott Hanselman and I sat down to chat about developing for Windows Media Center for Hanselminutes 82. The result is a pretty nice introduction to what you need for development, the tools included in the SDK, some of the samples which are included in the SDK and some basic beginner concepts. Here is a detailed list of links which corresponds to the various topics we covered during the podcast.

Enjoy...!

2:15 Software Development Kit http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=a43ea0b7-b85f-4612-aa08-3bf128c5873e&displaylang=en
2:29 Visual C# 2005 Express Edition http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/express/aa975050.aspx
2:38 Media Center Markup Language http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb189823.aspx
3:40 MCML Preview Tool http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb189325.aspx
6:30 Z Sample Application http://blog.mediacentersandbox.com/IntroducingTheZSampleApplication.aspx
11:46 Remoting of the User Interface http://blog.mediacentersandbox.com/AQuickPeekUnderTheHoodPartOneOfFour.aspx and http://blog.mediacentersandbox.com/AQuickPeekUnderTheHoodPartTwoOfFour.aspx (we never got around to parts 3 and 4 -- they would have been much deeper than we really needed to go).
12:15 Remote Control and Input Handlers http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb189195.aspx
18:08 Managed Code Object Model http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms816271.aspx
19:00 Application Types Which Leverage MCML: Local and Web http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms816272.aspx
21:00 Installation and Registration of Applications http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms815407.aspx
23:10 Q Sample Application (Screenshot) http://play.mediacentersandbox.com/sample/5/q/screencap.png
24:14 MCML Sampler (Screenshot) http://play.mediacentersandbox.com/sample/5/mcmlsampler/screencap.png
25:01 Databinding in MCML http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb188939.aspx
26:28 Defining a <UI> http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb189704.aspx
27:37 <UI> Properties http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb189635.aspx
28:04 Media Center Sandbox http://blog.mediacentersandbox.com
28:30 Visual Studio 2008 'Orcas' Templates from Aaron Stebner http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2007/09/11/4873223.aspx
28:45 Using the Visual Studio Templates http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb189732.aspx

Welcome Our Latest Community Dev Expert: Steven Harding

Charlie Owen — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 06:32:20 GMT

I'm pleased to announce the addition of Steven Harding to our Community Dev Expert team joining Niall and Andrew.

Steven is the author of Yougle, MoreWithMyMusic and EMUCenter for Windows Media Center in Windows Vista and several other experiences built for prior versions of Windows Media Center. He also has created a poker game timer which tells you the current blinds, the current ante and how long until they next go up -- all with text-to-speech announcements of blind increases and warnings when they are getting near.

In addition, he is a contributor to the The Digital Lifestyle Developer Blog (part of the excellent group of resources made available by Ian Dixon over at http://thedigitallifestyle.com/cs/).

Steven has contributed over 400 posts to our developer forums over at http://discuss.mediacentersandbox.com making him one of the most prolific and helpful individuals in the community. His passion for Windows Media Center and the platform shine through in his postings and advocacy on behalf of other developers.

You can identify Steven in the forums by his rather esoteric alias of IgnoranceIsBliss in the forums (perhaps he'll comment here on how he decided on that moniker) as well as a new banner in his postings that looks like this:

Congratulations, Steven -- certainly well deserved.

Using The PlaySound Element With A Timer

Charlie Owen — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 23:46:07 GMT

This sample demonstrates how to use the PlaySound Element with the Timer Class to create a playback loop which does not use the PlayMedia Method and therefore is not reflected in the Windows Media Center user experience.

</UI>

</Mcml>
P

Adding the Z Sample Button To The Application Template

Charlie Owen — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 03:39:47 GMT

Use this guide to replace the button in the application template with the one from the Z sample application. This is a good example of separation of logic/data from the visuals enabling development of each to remain separate in a distributed development environment.

1. Start a new application with the Windows Media Center Application template and complete the application as outlined in the readme.htm file.

2. Using Windows Explorer copy the following files from the Z sample application source folder into the corresponding new application folders, overwriting existing files if present:

a. \Markup\Button.mcml

b. \markup\Styles.mcml

c. \images\ButtonFocus.png

d. \images\ButtonNonFocus.png

3. Select the Images folder in Solution Explorer.

4. Select Project > Add Existing Item from the menu.

5. In the Add Existing Item dialog:

a. Select Image Files in the Files of type drop down list.

b. Navigate to the \Images folder for the project and multi-select ButtonFocus.png and ButtonNonFocus.png by clicking on them with the mouse while holding down the Control key on the keyboard.

c. Click the Add button.

6. Open Resources.resx for editing.

7. In Resources.resx:

a. Press Control+2 on the keyboard to switch to images.

b. Drag and drop ButtonFocus.png, ButtonNonFocus.png and ButtonNonFocus.png from the Solution Explorer into Resource.resx to embed these files in the assembly.

8. Double click \Markup\Button.mcml in Solution Explorer for to open for editing.

9. Find and replace every instance of "resx://Z/Z" with "resx://[ApplicationName]/[ApplicationName]" where [ApplicationName] is the name of your project. For example: "resx://Z/Z.Resources/Styles" would read "resx://Application1/Application1.Resources/Styles"

10. Double click \Markup\Styles.mcml in Solution Explorer for to open for editing.

11. In Styles.mcml:

a. Delete the following MCML: <Image Name="ContainerImage" Source="resx://Z/Z.Resources/Container" NineGrid="40,40,40,40"/>

b. Add the following MCML: <Color Name="BackgroundColor" Color="Black"/>

c. Find and replace every instance of "resx://Z/Z" with "resx://[ApplicationName]/[ApplicationName]" where [ApplicationName] is the name of your project.

12. Select Compile and test using DevInstall.cmd or create the MSI as outlined in readme.htm to install and test.

Creating A Background Application From The Template

Charlie Owen — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 22:45:22 GMT

Follow these steps to transform the C# Windows Media Center Application Template in the 5.2 version of the SDK into a background application.

1. Create a new project using the Windows Media Center Application template in versions 5.2 or later of the Windows Media Center Software Development Kit.

2. Finalize the project using the instructions outlined in the Readme.htm document included with the template.

3. Double click Resources.rex in Solution Explorer to open for editing.

4. In Resources.resx…

a. Press Control+1 to select strings.

b. Modify the DialogCaption string to read “Dialog Caption”.

c. Press Control+5 to select files.

d. Delete the 5 MCML files (Button, Controls, Menu, RepeatItem and Styles).

e. Select File > Save from the menu.

5. Delete the Markup folder in Solution Explorer.

6. Double click Application.cs in Solution Explorer to open for editing.

7. In Application.cs…

a. Delete: private HistoryOrientedPageSession session;

b. Delete: public Application() : this(null, null){}.

c. Delete: public string[] MyData{…}

d. Modify public Application(HistoryOrientedPageSession session, AddInHost host) to read as follows:

public Application(AddInHost host)

{

this.host = host;

singleApplicationInstance = this;

}

e. Modify public void GoToMenu() to read as follows:

public void Start()

{

string temp = "Background applications do something here.";

DialogTest(temp);

}

f. Modify public void DialogTest(string strClickedText) to read as follows:

public void DialogTest(string strClickedText)

{

int timeout = 5;

bool modal = true;

string caption = Resources.DialogCaption;

if (host != null)

{

MediaCenterEnvironment.Dialog(strClickedText,

caption,

new object[] { DialogButtons.Ok },

timeout,

modal,

null,

delegate(DialogResult dialogResult) { });

}

else

{

Debug.WriteLine("DialogTest");

}

g. Select File > Save from the menu.

8. Double click Launch.cs in Solution Explorer to open for editing.

9. In Launch.cs…

a. Delete private static HistoryOrientedPageSession s_session;.

b. Modify public void Launch(AddInHost host) as follows:

public void Launch(AddInHost host)

{

Application app = new Application(host);

app.Start();

}

c. Select File > Save from the menu.

10. Double click Registration.xml in Solution Explorer to open for editing.

11. In Registration.xml modify <category category="More Programs"/> to read as follows:

12. Select File > Save from the menu.

13. In Solution Explorer select the [ApplicationName] project.

14. Select Project > [ApplicationName] Properties from the menu.

15. Delete the MCMLVerifier post-build event command line items in the Build Events tab of the properties (this line begins with “%windir%\eHome\McmlVerifier.exe…”).

16. Select Build > Rebuild Solution from the menu.

17. Run “DevInstall.cmd” from a command prompt with Administrator privileges to perform a development install or follow the instructions to generate an MSI and install.

18. Launch Windows Media Center – the application should display a dialog shortly after Windows Media Center launches.

19. Run “DevInstall.cmd /u” from a command prompt with Administrator privileges to perform a development install or uninstall using the MSI. Otherwise you will get a dialog box each time you launch Windows Media Center. >