October 2003

Tablet PC: Achieve the Illusion of Handwriting on Paper When Using the Managed INK API

Creating the illusion of a pen writing on paper is no easy software task. Fortunately, the .NET Framework hosts Tablet PC extensions, which lets you create ink-aware applications for the Tablet PC. This API allows applications to draw strokes on the screen and perform a variety of tasks including document markup, storage, and transmission.This article shows you how to handle a couple of inking events as used in the InkClipboard sample. Later, it discusses how to avoid common pitfalls including too frequent redrawing, which causes the ink flow to lag behind the pen movements, diminishing the illusion of ink on paper. Carlos C. Tapang

OLAP: Build an OLAP Reporting App in ASP.NET Using SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services and Office XP

Many organizations analyze their business-critical data using Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) technology. OLAP-based data mining provides a way to query multidimensional data sets and drill down into the data to find patterns. ASP.NET and the Microsoft Office Web Components (OWC) enable Web-based OLAP reporting. The OWC controls include PivotTable and Chart components that can be embedded in a Web page and scripted by programmers. In this article, the authors build a Web-based OLAP reporting app using ASP.NET, OWC, and SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services to illustrate the process. Jeffrey Hasan and Kenneth Tu

Blogging: Design Your Own Weblog Application from Scratch Using ASP.NET, JavaScript, and OLE DB

The ASP.NET advanced templated controls, such as the DataList and DataGrid, are perfect for many data representation situations. However, when you need the flexibility to render a variety of layouts, the Repeater control is what you need. In this article the author builds a full-featured blog application to illustrate the use of the Repeater and DataList controls that render nested data in a master-detail relationship. He then discusses how to override the default implementations of these controls by adding some client-side JavaScript code that makes the blog more responsive and enhances its usability. Marco Bellinaso

Plug-Ins: Let Users Add Functionality to Your .NET Applications with Macros and Plug-Ins

Most user applications benefit from the ability to be extended by other developers. It's often easier and more efficient to extend an existing application that users are already familiar with and trained on than it is to develop one from scratch. Thus, extensibility makes your application more attractive. You can build extensibility into your application by supporting features like plug-ins or macros. This is easily accomplished using the .NET Framework even if the core application isn't a .NET Framework app. In this article, the author describes extensibility features of the .NET Framework including late binding and reflection and how to use them, along with plug-in security considerations. Jason Clark

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