And we hit it...
I stated in an earlier post that one of the biggest issues with a lot of Microsoft solutions and other graphical development tools was that they abstracted too much away and also that a big problem with a lot of online tutorials is that they don't show you enough to get you to something functional. Well I hit it. The story so far...
I went through some online videos and tutorials on Silverlight and started building a little test application. I wanted to use my DevTracker database and get just a demo application running that would:
- Launch in a browser.
- Connect to a SQLite datasource.
- Get the UI elements communicating with the datasource.
- Build a multi-screen UI that can View, Add, Modify and Delete objects from the database.
Once I have those things, I know I can do at least enough to build a full scale application. Well, the tutorial used the graphical designer wherever possible, and got me through the first 3 bullet points without a single a single line of code. The problem is the second and third bullet points... there was nothing in the tutorial discussing how to communicate with the datasource in code. I can plug existing data into the UI, but I don't see code references anywhere, I have no clue HOW it is even doing it. What instance it is using, or even what type of class it is using. The UI has abstracted EVERYTHING relevant to what I'm doing out of the code. So I can view and modify because the UI bindings allow me to send updates back to the datasource, but I don't know how to add or delete an entity. Also, if I need anything complex I don't know how to control it for modifying. I know how to control the searches however (the tutorial DID cover that though).
If one or the other of the problems weren't there I would be fine. If the code wasn't completely hidden from me I would be able to debug, or have a place to start from with some trial and error. Alternatively, if the tutorial had covered this, obviously I would have known how to do it. To be honest, I would rather have it in the code so I could plug away and learn on my own, but either would have sufficed for now.
I may need to go back and do it in another fashion. Strangely enough, the tutorial was done by a Microsoft developer, but it wasn't done using the MVVM pattern despite it being a design pattern Microsoft wanted to push. I think I can make it work using a MVVM pattern. Before I throw in the towel I will of course do some more homework and try and make it work with the approach I took. Not having the View Model classes makes the code cleaner and simpler and designing with the UI is quick and somewhat fun... just need to learn HOW it is accomplishing this (explicitly) so that I can expand upon it.
I went through some online videos and tutorials on Silverlight and started building a little test application. I wanted to use my DevTracker database and get just a demo application running that would:
- Launch in a browser.
- Connect to a SQLite datasource.
- Get the UI elements communicating with the datasource.
- Build a multi-screen UI that can View, Add, Modify and Delete objects from the database.
Once I have those things, I know I can do at least enough to build a full scale application. Well, the tutorial used the graphical designer wherever possible, and got me through the first 3 bullet points without a single a single line of code. The problem is the second and third bullet points... there was nothing in the tutorial discussing how to communicate with the datasource in code. I can plug existing data into the UI, but I don't see code references anywhere, I have no clue HOW it is even doing it. What instance it is using, or even what type of class it is using. The UI has abstracted EVERYTHING relevant to what I'm doing out of the code. So I can view and modify because the UI bindings allow me to send updates back to the datasource, but I don't know how to add or delete an entity. Also, if I need anything complex I don't know how to control it for modifying. I know how to control the searches however (the tutorial DID cover that though).
If one or the other of the problems weren't there I would be fine. If the code wasn't completely hidden from me I would be able to debug, or have a place to start from with some trial and error. Alternatively, if the tutorial had covered this, obviously I would have known how to do it. To be honest, I would rather have it in the code so I could plug away and learn on my own, but either would have sufficed for now.
I may need to go back and do it in another fashion. Strangely enough, the tutorial was done by a Microsoft developer, but it wasn't done using the MVVM pattern despite it being a design pattern Microsoft wanted to push. I think I can make it work using a MVVM pattern. Before I throw in the towel I will of course do some more homework and try and make it work with the approach I took. Not having the View Model classes makes the code cleaner and simpler and designing with the UI is quick and somewhat fun... just need to learn HOW it is accomplishing this (explicitly) so that I can expand upon it.
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