Our version of Microsoft Expression Blend Preview for Silverlight 5 has expired on 30th June and there are NO online license purchase options available.
The following link states that Blend is now an integral part of Visual Studio 2012, but with our current constrained development and release cycle we do not have the option to upgrade our entire enterprise class application to VS 2012. So, my questions are:
Can Blend (Preview for SL 5) licenses be purchased online? If yes, where?
If not, then how can we continue our Blend based development without upgrading to VS 2012?
Unfortunately, Microsoft left us down.
The only option is to go with Visual Studio 2012, as it includes Blend with it, but bear in mind, it is not smooth, buggy and crashes more than the Preview version for Silverlight 5.
I've even created a bug report on Microsoft connect, which was deleted strangely by microsoft.
PS : I tested the Update 1, Update 2 and Update 3, all of these on solution containing work done in silverlight 5 and telerik controls. It takes 15 minutes to open, and then crashes, this issues was not detected on Preview Version
For Now, We are changing the system date to a date before June 30, Open Blend Preview, and then fix again the system date (because if you don't, you will have nightmare with Skype and outlook :) )
Related
I want to create an app with Material Design using Xamarin and Visual Studio. I want to achieve this using the v7 AppCompat library, so my app runs well on older devices.
I have an activity with a toolbar and a button.
But in the Visual Studio Designer the layout isn't as it's supposed to be(No Material theme and no Toolbar):
But the strange thing is that it runs properly on my phone(without any changes made):
How can I fix this?
This functionality is slated to be released in our Cycle 8 release(XVS 4.2.0.378 at the time of writing) to support AAR / Custom Views. You can find a link about this here:
https://developer.xamarin.com/releases/vs/xamarin.vs_4/xamarin.vs_4.2/#Android_Designer
It should be released to Stable shortly. For a non-beta/alpha workaround, I would highly recommend using this VS plugin for the time being which combines using Android Studio and Visual Studio to be the most productive when designing:
https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/9f5a516a-f4d0-4228-9d25-d0273abebf33
For a more accurate timeline of these changes, you can view the latest blog article on the Beta channel:
https://releases.xamarin.com/beta-preview-1-cycle-8/
Upcoming Release Dates
Alpha – April 27th, 2016 (Evolve Conference)
Alpha 2 – July 13th, 2016
Alpha 3 – July 27th, 2016
Alpha 4 – Aug 2nd, 2016
Alpha 5– Aug 9th, 2016
Alpha 6 – August 12, 2016
Beta 1 – This Release!
Stable – Fall 2016
Thus if you wanted this functionality in your IDE, you will need to use XVS 4.2.X + in either the Alpha/Beta channels as of the time of writing.
Currently the Visual Studio Designer doesn't show Support Library elements.
You can use Xamarin Studio, which lately improved there Designer very much, and is easier to integrate with Visual Studio than Android Studio.
To download it go to http://download.xamarin.com/studio/Windows/XamarinStudio-6.0.2.73-0.msi (also available through your dashboard in www.xamarin.com under downloads, different versions).
EDIT: Currently you need to change the Cycle to beta (Help -> Check for Updates)
I have installed VS 2012 some days ago.After activation there are some strange lines in the UI
that appear on menu and code editor area.I don't know how to get rid of them.
http://mojoimage.com/free-image-hosting-11/4739vs2012.png
another example while repairing VS : Picture
VS2010 and 2012 use WPF for their UIs - it's likely this issue is with your graphics card or driver. Please ensure you're running the latest graphics driver versions. If the issue continues then I suggest you try running other WPF applications and seeing if they render things okay.
When I try to install the new phone tool application, it requires me to remove the previous beta version in order starting with phone developer tools beta. so go to control panel uninstalll I click on tit it gives me an error. "a problem has been encountered while loading the set up components. canceling set up" Anyone help please. thank
This happened with my VS 2010 Beta. I used Revo Uninstaller and removed all file/registry entries and then installed the latest version of VS 2010.
Sometimes things get a bit messed up when installing and uninstalling lots of ctps. Try this uninstall/reinstall sequence for anything that might be getting in the way.
Known Good March -> April CTP Un/Install Sequence
I went to the Microsoft web site download page for development (maybe there is a seperate page for design) and I could not find a place to download Expression Blend. Does this mean it is being phased out? Is Visual Studio 2010 somehow replacing Expression Blend?
What if I needed to use an earlier version of Experssion Blend because a customer's hand held devie is customized for it? How would I get it?
It's not being phased out. Expression 4 has been released a few weeks ago: http://www.microsoft.com/expression/
Considering using an earlier version, I'm not sure if you can buy it anymore (it has never been free) on Microsoft website (contact them, they'll know more about it) but you can try not to use new features if you're developing for Silverlight and targeting an older version, for example.
Just out of curiosity, how would the handheld device be customized for a particular version of Blend?
Blend 4 supports projects that target WPF 3.5 and 4, and Silverlight 3.0 and 4.0. In other words, if you could use Blend 3, you should be able to use Blend 4.
I am not aware of any way to download older versions of Blend or Expression Studio. It is definitely not being phased out. And as 0xA3 mentioned, it is not free. I have a post about Expression availability and pricing that may be helpful.
The unfortunate news is that you need Expression Studio Premium to get Blend and Ultimate to get SketchFlow, and it's not cheap. The good news is that there a lot of products that will qualify you for Upgrade price. The great news is that if you have Expression Studio 3, then Studio 4 is a free upgrade, but whether or not Blend is included will depend on what version you had previously.
I didn't find out about this until I already upgraded VS2010, but according to Visual Studio Magazine :
In VS2010 Beta 2, many developers
reported issues when working with XAML
and Windows Presentation Foundation
and Silverlight. The VS2010 RC
supports Silverlight 3.0 apps.
Silverlight 4.0, still in beta, is not
supported in this release.
"We will be adding VS 2010 RC support
for SL4 with the next public
Silverlight 4 drop," explained
Guthrie. "If you are doing active
Silverlight 4 development today we
recommend staying with the VS10 Beta 2
build for now."
Being a developer, the paranoia set in....
Anyone know of any red flags or known issues to watch for?
Some of our developers have reported a high incidence of crashes working with Silverlight 4 in VS 2010 beta2.
One thing that helped was to view XAML in XAML mode not Design mode.
We also have seen issues using Blend in conjunction with VS 2010 beta2 as it can't handle solution folders.
FYI, the app crashes at least twice a day for me. Not all occurrences have been consistent. Those that were have been reported or previously identified. The main two that tends to crash it is switching between the XAML/Design view or attempting to deal with/switch back and forth between two instances of VS2010 open on the desktop at once.
Suggestion: Save and save often.