Visualising Data in Silverlight and WPF Ivan Towlson

Visualising Data in Silverlight and WPF Ivan Towlson Mindscape Session Code: WUX 305

Agenda Data visualisation and Silverlight/WPF Visualising objects Visualising data sets Toolkits and controls

The Business Problem Data != Information

The Business Problem It’s easy to miss important information in a sea of purely textual data Trends and correlations Special or different cases Trouble spots It’s often quicker to take in information with a graphical assist Quick way to get a “big picture” overview

The Business Problem

The Business Problem

The Technical Problem GUI programming stalled in 1991 Low level graphics primitives Procedural drawing code Presenting data in a new UI required a whole new control

The Technical Problem Technical consequences Custom visualisations required extensive custom code Expensive to develop Third party controls Expensive to buy because expensive for vendor to develop Specific in purpose Cost of learning complex new control APIs Hard to justify the cost unless visualisation was a core requirement

The Technical Problem Business consequences Encouraged anaemic presentation of data Displaying data, not information “Battleship grey” and data grids Onus on users to detect patterns and anomalies

Silverlight and WPF Replace the appearance of a control without having to rewrite its entire behaviour Declarative, higher-level graphics API Flexible data binding mechanisms

Silverlight and WPF Writing simple visualisations is a matter of hours rather than days It is now affordable to be able to visualise your data your way Data visualisation is the killer application for Silverlight and WPF

Single Data Item Visualisation Binding IValue. Converter IMulti. Value. Converter (WPF only) Data. Template INotify. Property. Changed

demo Visualising Single Data Items

Visualising a Collection of Data Toolkits and controls Custom visualisations

Visualisation Toolkits and Controls Silverlight Toolkit http: //www. codeplex. com/Silverlight Charting controls (beta) WPF Toolkit http: //wpf. codeplex. com Charting controls (beta) Third party controls (commercial and free) Charting, diagramming

demo Silverlight Charting Controls

Building Custom Visualisations Items. Control Selector List. Box Multi. Selector Item. Template / Item. Template. Selector Items. Panel / Item. Container. Style INotify. Collection. Changed Bindable LINQ

demo Visualising a Collection of Data

Summary Silverlight and WPF data binding is completely different to VB or Windows Forms Bind sizes, colours, positions, transforms, visibilities IValue. Converter Data. Template Content. Template. Selector / Item. Template. Selector Use panels to perform layout Items. Control > Items. Panel / Item. Container. Style

Call to Action A meaningful visual display is a great way to put information in front of users Display information, not just data It is now affordable to be able to visualise your data your way Writing simple visualisations is a matter of hours rather than days But be realistic – embrace “good enough” Data visualisation is the killer application for Silverlight and WPF

question & answer ivan@hestia. cc ivan@mindscape. co. nz http: //hestia. typepad. com/flatlander/ http: //www. mindscape. co. nz/

Resources www. microsoft. com/teched www. microsoft. com/learning Sessions On-Demand & Community Microsoft Certification & Training Resources http: //microsoft. com/technet http: //microsoft. com/msdn Resources for IT Professionals Resources for Developers

© 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U. S. and/or other countries. The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

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Resources www. microsoft. com/teched www. microsoft. com/learning Sessions On-Demand & Community Microsoft Certification & Training Resources http: //microsoft. com/technet http: //microsoft. com/msdn Resources for IT Professionals Resources for Developers

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© 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U. S. and/or other countries. The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.