Draw a dot on HTML canvas

A helpful way to debug HTML canvas while doing a lot of translations, transformations, and so on.

      context.fillRect(0, 0, 2, 2);

This line prints a tiny rectangle at the point of zero coordinates.

Note to self: Change Foreground in WPF using C#

myTextBox.Foreground = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.White);

MVVM Controls inside ListBox (ItemsControl) not firing

Scenario: you built an app using something that more or less closely resembles the MVVM approach that I described earlier, and you have a data control with a nested control that must execute some command. Here is how it might look:

//YourViewModel.cs:
private DelegateCommand yourCommand;

public YourPageConstructor()
{
  yourCommand = new DelegateCommand(this.YourMethod);
  ...
}

private void YourMethod(object obj)
{
  ...//do something here
}

public ICommand YourCommand { get { return yourCommand; } }

//yourPage.xaml.cs:
public yourPage()
{
  InitializeComponent();
  this.DataContext = new YourViewModel();
}

//yourPage.xaml:
<ListBox x:Name="yourDataControl" ...>
  <ListBox.ItemTemplate>
    <DataTemplate>
      <StackPanel>
        <Button Command="{Binding YourCommand}" Content="YourItems" ... />
      </StackPanel>
    </DataTemplate>
  </ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>

You go to test your page, but your command is not firing. When you set a breakpoint at the "public ICommand YourCommand ..." line, you see that it is not being hit when the page loads. What's happening?

The thing is, your command should be a part of the collection that the ListBox is bound to for the ListBox to see (and execute it). Your command lives in your ViewModel, while the ListBox is bound to a collection. What to do? Bind your command in the following way:

//yourPage.xaml, add an x:Name attribute to the content of the opening PhoneApplicationPage tag:
<phone:PhoneApplicationPage
    x:Class="YourProjectName.Views.yourPage"
    x:Name="nameYourXAMLPageName"
    ...>

//and then change the Button's binding:
<ListBox x:Name="yourDataControl" ...>
  <ListBox.ItemTemplate>
    <DataTemplate>
      <StackPanel>
        <Button Command="{Binding ElementName=nameYourXAMLPageName, Path=DataContext.YourCommand}"
                   Content="{Binding YourItems}" ... />
     </StackPanel>
    </DataTemplate>
  </ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>
...

This way, we are not embedding the command into the collection bound to ListBox, but rather, let the ListBox know where to find the command by providing the "address" of the current page's DataContext.


As usual, leave your thoughts in comments.

Today I learned: Unit testing using Visual Studio Express for Windows Phone

Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Phone has built-in support for Unit Testing. Here is the article on MSDN. Here is how to set it up (quickly). VS has to have at least update 2, and all you need to do is to add another project to your solution, choose "Windows Phone Unit Test App". Then write your unit tests and run them using the "TEST" menu on the top bar.

Now if only they allowed access to visualstudio.com for Windows Phone projects or made VS 2013 for Windows Phone available for download.