PackageExplorer, not only great for OpenXML…

The last few days, I've been working with Wouter to discuss some new features and ideas for his PackageExplorer. PE is an editor for OpenXML packages, enabling you to view the contents and relations of different parts in a package, to validate XML against OpenXML schemes, ...

One of the cool things we discussed was a HTML start page. Since Visual Studio has one, we decided PE should have one too. After creating a simple mock for this, Wouter was first to Google for a way to embed images and HTML in a resource file, and display it in a fancy start page (second price, for slow Google searchers: I designed the page [<:o)]). You can see the code and build steps required over at Wouter's.

Next cool thing: a new splash screen model. Always wanted to do things right with threads? No more white gaps in your screen due to a blocked UI thread? I suggest you read the eventing and threading explanation at (again) Wouter's blog.

Next suggestion: download PE, even if you don't know a thing about OpenXML. Want to learn how to use OO patterns? Always wanted to provide add-in functionality for your own application? PE's code gives a lot of answers on those questions!

This is an imported post. It was imported from my old blog using an automated tool and may contain formatting errors and/or broken images.