Furious minorities

We're all guilty of it, let's not deny it. We know that it's not an uncommon practice in our industry to use the online world as a shield of quasi-anonymity as we raise merry hell with characters or organizations that don't meet our, sometimes lofty, requirements.

But what happens when we find ourselves striving for wants and needs that place us firmly in a minority?

Language lawyers, linguistics and americanisms are the subject of this week's Message from the CTO.

DevExpress Launch Microsoft LightSwitch Reporting Extension

Technical Evangelist, Seth Juarez, and the team behind XtraReports are proud to announce the full release of the DevExpress Reporting Extension for Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch.

Those of you developing professional LOB applications with eXpress Application Framework will already be well-versed in the potential that lies in the future of LightSwitch. This brand new addition to the Visual Studio line of tools is designed with rapid application development in mind. It allows you as a developer, or your technically-minded users, more time to create business applications for the desktop, web, or cloud, quickly and easily.

The DevExpress Reporting Extension for LightSwitch offers native reporting functionality through our award-winning reporting suite. Creating compelling custom reports couldn’t be easier. For new users the extension is $99.99 but is free to all XtraReports subscribers.

Download Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch today, and sample native reporting functionality with the DevExpress extensions.

Download DevExpress LightSwitch Reporting Extension

MVVM Enhancements in the WPF and Silverlight Data Grids

The MVVM pattern was designed with modern UI platforms in mind – WPF and Silverlight for example.

Emil and the DevExpress XPF team have been working on improved support for MVVM in the WPF and Silverlight data grids, which allow for a deeper MVVM implementation. In this blog post, Emil highlights how you can use the data grids to bind out columns and summary items to the definition placed within the ViewModel.

Is this good news for you? Take a look and leave your feedback for the team in the comments.

WPF and Silverlight Data Grid – MVVM Enhancements

New ASP.NET MVC 3 Razor Demos Available Online

Earlier this year, Mehul announced that support for ASP.NET MVC 3 and the Razor View Engine had been added to all of the DevExpress ASP.NET MVC extensions.

For those of you who were waiting for demo materials and samples, the wait is over – all of our online demos have been updated to utilise the Razor View Engine code.

Check out Mehul’s blog and the newly updated online demos, and let us know what you think.

Now Available - ASP.NET MVC 3 Razor Demos Online

End-to-end Training with DXperience ASP.NET

DevExpress is working with expert trainer and consultant, Oliver Sturm, to bring you holistic, hands-on courses covering the entire spectrum of ASP.NET controls from DevExpress.

DevExpress users are invited to join Oliver on his upcoming courses scheduled in Las Vegas, NV and Bad Ems, Germany.

Registration information and course outlines are available via the links below. Space is limited for these face-to-face courses so we encourage you to act fast to register your space.

DevExpress ASP.NET Training in Las Vegas Expert DevExpress DXperience ASP.NET in Germany

Getting Started with LightSwitch Reports

To accompany the full release of the DevExpress Reporting Extension for Microsoft LightSwitch, the team have been working hard to develop introductory training materials to help you get started.

These informative articles work through examples and link to pertinent points in the DevExpress documentation allowing you to get up and running as quickly as possible.

Are you interested in diving into a particular area of LightSwitch reporting? Drop a note to the blogs and let the team know the areas in which you are interested.

How to Install XtraReports for LightSwitch LightSwitch Reporting - Showing your Reports in a Separate Screen Filtering Report Data using LightSwitch Query Parameters Accessing the Report Preview Model in LightSwitch

Killer New CodeRush Plug-ins

The CodeRush Feature Workshop is a weekly meetup that sees Mark Miller and Rory Becker create CodeRush plug-ins from ideas that entirely user-driven.

The latest workshops have spawned two great new plug-ins: CR_PrimitiveTab and CR_StringFormatter.

Check out Rory’s posts and download the latest plug-ins from the community site.

Tab Through Primitives for CodeRush New Plugin: CR_StringFormatter

Upcoming Webinars: Expand Your Skills with DevExpress Controls

The DevExpress Webinar Series continues with some creative sessions on pivot grid customizations and making the most of your data.

You can expect some top tips from our technical evangelists on how to get the most out of your DevExpress controls.

Places are limited so register for your spot now and join us live!

Webinar: Pivot Grid User Customizations Webinar: Charts Data Binding Approaches - Taking Advantage of your Data Webinar: Working with Report Parameters

Julian on JavaScript: Using jQuery with the ASP.NET Grid

After the roaring success of Julian and Mehul’s introductory webinar focused on using jQuery in conjunction with the DevExpress ASP.NET controls, the duo return with a deeper dive into the depths of jQuery.

Join the pair live for what they promise will be an "immersive client-side experience for your end-users".

Since his Julian on JavaScript series has catapulted him to the dizzy heights of stardom, places for this webinar with our CTO will be as sought after as J. K. Rowlings’ autograph at the latest Harry Potter premiere. Don’t miss out on your chance to join us live for this juicy, jQuery jam session.

Don't delay - register for you place today.

Webinar: Julian on JavaScript: Using jQuery with DevExpress ASP.NET Controls (Part 2)