Extensions Made Easy: v1.12: Deep linking entities

I’ve been somewhat quiet on my blog lately (but have good excuses, as always), but tonight I’ll try to make it up with a little blogging spree…  Part one: what’s new in EME 1.12

Hooray, EME 1.12 is finally released…  It’s been a while since I worked on EME because I’ve been so busy.  Actually, EME 1.12 was released 2 weeks ago, but didn’t have the time at that point to show the goodies included!  A miniature “what’s included”…

Goody nr1: LS 11 (beta) support.

EME has been tested with VS LS 11 and works: commands, shell & theme exporting, the hole bunch.  I updated the manifest so you can actually install EME to target VS LS 11 beta!  Hooray!

Goody nr2: deep linking on entities.

For those of you that missed it, EME already allows deep linking on screens since a much earlier version.  I posted this in a sample (http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/silverlight/NavigationDemo-having-some-f2629c9c), but never gave it much attention.  

Deep linking is a technique in Silverlight where a user can interact with your application through the URL.  Basically, by passing parameters (the screen name) in the URL, the LightSwitch application opens up and navigates to the correct screen when fully loaded, for example:

LightSwitch doesn’t support deep linking out-of-the box, but if you install & activate Extensions Made Easy, it does!  That’s right, the only setup you need to do is to download Extensions Made Easy, and activate it.

Possible navigation commands:

* screens:  http://localhost:30325/default.htm?NavigateTo=StudentsListDetail

* entities: http://localhost:30325/default.htm?NavigateToEntity=Students&Id=1

* entities in the non-default datasource (or: you renamed the “ApplicationData”: http://localhost:30325/default.htm?NavigateToEntity=Students&Id=1&DataSourceName=ApplicationData

The funny thing about this “deep linking to entities” gimmick,  is that I was porting it to EME from a client specific project, at the very same time Chad77 was asking for this feature in the LightSwitch MSDN forums.  Funny, because that almost never happens.  Heck, that never happens!  Anyways, Chad77 was happy with the result, and I got a free beta tester! Double tap!

Goody nr3: Fuzzy searching

The third gimmick in EME is another functionality that I needed in a client specific LightSwitch project, and happily ported to EME for your convenience: fuzzy searching.  This one though, deserves a separate blog post, just because of it’s coolness… 🙂