Robert Green - Demo of Visual Basic/Whidbey's data features

The Discussion

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  Sensational!  5 Stars!  My Access Programming days are numbered!  Could you show how to build a flash filter like Access has on this data bound form?  Example, I click on a particular bound text box and click a button and now I am only looking at records that contain the same value in that field... or a button that will automatically sort based on the field that last had the focus... I think this could be a bit tricky since the focus will move to the button when the user clicks it.  How can I tell where the focus used to be?
  
  Further, I know that you can create a data-adapter that binds to an object, but I haven't seen any good examples.  Could someone make a video that binds say to the Facade or Data Layer or whatever in Duwamish?  I would love to see it work in an application that isn't really designed to make it easy.
  
  Blessings on you at Microsoft who have developed this easy binding that is so Access like.  I've used Access for years to do this type of work, and this type of form control is the only real reason I continue to develop some of the apps in Access (well, ok, the quick and easy reporting, the MS Office integration, the easy of coding and the speed of the apps all play in as well).  Ok, Access is a great tool, but maybe with this data binding easiness you have developed in .Net, I will develop desktop apps using .Net as well as web apps and services!
  
  Best... g

• 

  Funkin Phenominal. Visual Studio and the .Net Framework get better and better all the time.
  

• 

  Wow,
  
  Databinding comes of age!  That is too cool.  I like how the video pointed out that there is still "code" to write, and your not done, but the basic gunk we need to write, like Bindings, are done for us.  That is just too cool.  And the smart IDE helps so much.
  
  THANK YOU!!!!
  
  Chris.
  

• 

  Great---and What About Code Gen'?
  
  Very much like the old Access stuff which is great! Would like to have seen a few seconds of the code behind the form to peek at any changes made in code generation for the Whidbey timeframe.

• 

  I have tried what you did in the video. I got an error, while testing the connection it works fine, but when I click the OK button it does not..
  
  
    Could Not Connect to the database
  This function is not enabled in Visual Basic.NET Express
  
  
  ^^ Something like that...
    My express project had something to do with a database.. And now its' being coded days are over!

• 

  Very nice, this basically appears to be what Infopath 2003 does except you can add functionality.  Also VS2005 has features Infopath 2k3 lacks like the text/control line-up anchors.
  
  It's features like these that make me want to sleep for 1.5yrs so I can wake up and use a better VS.
  
  PS: Be carefull what you wish for!

• 

  Okay, I read all the posts here going "okay, whatever, developers getting excited about nothing again".
  
  Then I got into when he dragged the Details on the form and literally fell off my chair and yelled out loud!!!
  
  I love this. Totally blogged. I also love the snapping in the Express products. Forgot to blog that. GREAT reminder

• 

  Want more demos. I enjoy falling off my chair in astonishment. 
  
  Would like to see this intergrated with Offline Application Block.
  
  

• 

  Is there a way of downloading the videos for offline watching? I am asking this because of bandwidth restrictions I have here.

• 

  WoW! WoW! WoW!
  
  This is fantastic! This is such a great time saver!
  
  I have just tried this in the VB 2005 Express Beta 1, and my mouth opened wide in awe....
  
  They only thing that was diffient is that I couldn't connect to a SQL Server database, I had to open the Northwind.mdf file.
   
  so does that mean connections to SQL won't be supported in VBE? (Visual Basic Express)
  
  Keep up the good work!
  
  More demos!
  
  Wayne Taylor
  www.kryptos.co.uk/blog
  

• 

  It is very good. But do you give step-by-step to learn VB 2005 examples somewhere.
  
  Do you fix the problem:"The data adapter cannot be configured for tables that have more than 100
  columns".
  
  Thanks,
  /CC.

• 

  in VB 2005,let's say I already had a form that links with the Northwind. In 3 three months, I might add more columns or change the format of somes columns from text to number. Do I need to rebuild the form from the scratch?
  
  Thanks,
  /CC.

• 

  Jeremy W. wrote:

  Okay, I read all the posts here going "okay, whatever, developers getting excited about nothing again".

  
  
  Anything that gives me more time reading Dilbert and more money at the same time gets me exited. This reminds me very much of Access. Without the bad parts.
  

• 

  Tsk tsk tsk, history is repeating itself again. What seems cool to a lot of developers is common use in Visual FoxPro for years already. So what's really new? However, I might consider starting to use .NET now. We will see how it works.
  
  One more thing I would like to see automated.
  The very first thing I learned to love in OOP developing was the rule NEVER to use the base controls as made available in the tool. Always use the subclassed versions for bigger control and programming flexibility.
  For this we have the fieldmapping in VFP where we can map one fieldtype to a certain control. After dragging a field from a table on a form the control is automagically adjusted to use the right class. Is something similar also possible in VB.Net?
  

• 

  Hi Boudewijn,
  
  You can set default form controls for each data type in the Tools > Options > Windows Form Designer > Data UI Customization dialog.
  
  If you subclass your basic form controls and add them to the ToolBox, they will appear in the list of choices in that dialog.
  

• 

  Oh, I see. But I do NOT want them to appear in a dialog. I want them to be selected automatically, or is that too much a wish here.
  Well, here's another one then. I want every control to be self-contained.
  When I edit the click event of a button I want that code to be in the button itself, not in the form (where it never should be in the first place. one basic OOP rule.)
  I guess VFP developers are a spoiled bunch hey. They already have for years what the VB community is now cheering about.