topic Re: Visual studio 2010 and expression blend 4 in ArcGIS API for Silverlight Questions

Visual studio 2010 and expression blend 4

ChrisBradberry — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:52:31 GMT

Hey,

Does VS 2010 include expression blend, or are they separate products. I thought that I saw somewhere that you no longer needed expression blend because visual studio 2010 had a visual interface for xaml. Any insight on this?

Chris

Re: Visual studio 2010 and expression blend 4

dotMorten_esri — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:27:12 GMT

They are two different products. While it's true that VS2010 now have a much improved visual designer, it's no where near what Blend has to offer. It's kinda like comparing MS Paint to PhotoShop.

Re: Visual studio 2010 and expression blend 4

BruceDodson — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 01:36:15 GMT

Blend is not part of Visual Studio; Expression Studio is a separate suite. VS2010 does include a basic design canvas for WPF / Silverlight, which might be adequate for some business-style applications (e.g. conservative look and feel, simple layout), but it's pretty limiting if you want to make a visually compelling RIA.

Likewise, Visual Studio is a far superior coding / debugging environment, although Blend does have a rudimentary source code editor for VB / C#. If you have both products, they are loosely integrated via "Open in [product]" options on the context menus. Blend can also leverage other editors through a generic "Edit Externally" right-click option (based on Windows file associations).

Right now I am trying out the free Visual Studio Express together with the 60-day trial of Expression Studio 4 Ultimate (which includes Blend) on a new system. After I installed Blend, I reran the Silverlight API setup and got two new options to install the Esri templates in both Expression Blend and Visual Web Developer. (As for whether the templates work in both environments - well, on the VS side I am still plugging away, trying to sort out some broken dependencies. Meanwhile, on the Blend side everything just worked.)

Re: Visual studio 2010 and expression blend 4

MelissaJohnson — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:14:58 GMT

I am trying to use VS 2010 Express with the Expression Blend trial also and am having trouble with using the templates.
Did you ever figure out what the problem was? I downloaded FrostedTabs and Glass templates and neither one will work. It keeps saying that I am missing an assembly reference and many other errors. I also get "The name 'QueryDetailsDataGrid' does not exist in the current context". I am going by the instructions on this link
http://help.arcgis.com/en/webapi/silverlight/samples/TemplateGalleryWeb/start.htm
Thanks...
Melissa

Re: Visual studio 2010 and expression blend 4

RichardSyme — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 03:40:01 GMT

Melissa,
Did you find a solution to your problem? I am getting the same symptoms.
Rich S

Re: Visual studio 2010 and expression blend 4

MelissaJohnson — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 11:54:28 GMT

I actually ended up giving up on it and going with the Flex Viewer for now.

Re: Visual studio 2010 and expression blend 4

JenniferNery — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 16:22:52 GMT

Please follow the installation http://help.arcgis.com/en/webapi/silverlight/help/index.html#/Installation/016600000005000000/ and getting started guide http://help.arcgis.com/en/webapi/silverlight/help/index.html#/Getting_Started/016600000004000000/.

You may also want to start with Interactive SDK samples http://help.arcgis.com/en/webapi/silverlight/samples/start.htm

Full download is found here: http://help.arcgis.com/en/webapi/silverlight/help/index.html#/Sample_Interactive_SDK/01660000000v000000/

Re: Visual studio 2010 and expression blend 4

DarinaTchountcheva — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 16:46:00 GMT

I have actually used both FrostedTabs and the Glass template, and after a little bit of troubleshooting they worked fine in both VS and Expression Blend.

It has been a while, and I forgot what I did, but here is a link to a thread that might help you resolve some of the problems that you have:

http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/11131-Using-Templates-from-the-Template-Gallery?highlight=frosted+tabs

Good Luck!

Re: Visual studio 2010 and expression blend 4

JMcNeil — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 21:49:54 GMT

Melissa and Rich S.

All you should have to do is open any template in VS or Blend.

Under the Build pull down menu Select "Clean Solution".

Then under the Debug pull down menu select "Start Debugging".

That is it. That is all you need to do. The templates give errors when you first open them because there are a bunch of assemblies and stuff that are not built yet but the clean and then debug will build them and take care of it....your application will launch and you are on your way.