Load a Xap file from Binary

Recently I was faced with a situation where I needed to load a .xap file from a database and preview the file using Silverlight. Typically, to display a Silverlight app hosted in a web site, one would use the

Silverlight Templates

Well, it's finally here. I am proud to announce the launch of a new site: SilverlightTemplates.com. This site is a portal for designers/developers to show off their stuff and give them a place to sell their wares. It's a place for people looking for web site templates using Silverlight to hook up with talent from around the world to get some of the hottest site templates money can buy. Are there free Silverlight tempates available. Absolutely. And, you get what you pay for. With SilverlightTemplates.com, you not only get top-quality web site templates using Silverlight, but also a portal to the vast resources in the world of Silverlight and .NET development in general. Check it out and register: SilverlightTemplates.com

The Chronicles of George

If you have some time to fall off your chair in tears laughing, this is a must read.

http://chroniclesofgeorge.nanc.com/

Generate A Schema from a SQL Server Table

Xml Serialization can help if you have to save some very complex data from the web. This is the process:

1. Post an xml document representing the business object(s) of what you want to save. This should conform to a valid schema (which I'll show you how to generate in just a second).
2. Deserialize (unmarshall) the xml document on the server.
3. Save the data to the database
4. Return something (depends on your specific requirements).

So, to start with, you'll need a valid schema for the tables(s) to which you want to save data. Here's the code (in the form of a console application) to generate those schemas (unless you have some sick affinity with writing these by hand):

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using System.Data.SqlClient;

using System.Data;

namespace GenSchema

{

class Program

{

static void Main(string[] args)

{

string constr = @"Data Source=YOURSERVER\;Initial Catalog=YOURDB;Integrated Security=True";

string table = "yourTable";

SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(constr);

using (conn)

{

SqlDataAdapter sql = new SqlDataAdapter("SELECT * FROM " + table, conn);

sql.TableMappings.Add("Table", table);

DataSet ds = new DataSet("NewDataset");

sql.FillSchema(ds, SchemaType.Mapped);

ds.WriteXmlSchema(table + ".xsd");

}

}

}

}

Of course, you would fill in the information for your connection string and the table with which you want to work.

Next, to deserialize the data, you must pass in an xml document that conforms to the schema you just generated. That may require some testing, but once you get it right you're golden. If you haven't already, use the xsd.exe utility to generate the C# class from your schema. You'll notice that there are various xml attributes assigned to each property. These will be used in the deserialization process. If you already have the classes (if you're using LINQ to SQL, for example) then simply rename this new class to something else. It's only purpose is to hold the deserialized information temporarily anyway. Here's the code to deserialize your data:

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using System.Data.SqlClient;

using System.Data;

using System.Xml;

using System.Xml.Serialization;

using System.Text;

namespace GenSchema

{

class Program

{

static void DeSerialize(string xDoc)

{

XmlSerializer ser = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyObject));

XmlTextReader reader = new XmlTextReader(xDoc);

MyObject obj = (MyObject)ser.Deserialize(reader);

reader.Close();

// Save using whatever method you choose.

}

}

Certainly, your situation will require some modifications to the above code, but this should at least get you started in the right direction. Hope it helps.