Matt Goebel

I apologize for the lengthy delay since my last post.  The past few weeks have been very busy and exciting.

I have made a major decision in my life; to leave my employer, Crowe Horwath, and venture out on my own.  My 4 years with Crowe have provided me with a tremendous amount of opportunities, training and great relationships.  I wish the best to my co-workers and plan on staying in touch.

I am now pursuing my career as an entrepreneur in the IT industry.  I appreciate all those who have helped support me to this point and those that I know will be there as new opportunities and challenges emerge.  Your support, encouragement and guidance have helped me bring a dream into reality and to chase my ambitions.  Thank you.

What I will be doing is very similar to the many roles I played at Crowe.  I will continue to pursue my passion for people and IT by focusing heavily on adding value to projects and clients through bridging the gap between business needs and IT capabilities.  This will be served by playing roles as a business analyst, architect, project manager or any of the numerous variations of those roles.  I don’t plan on shying away from my technical background, as it gives me the unique ability to play in that business-IT bridge role.  I will continue to write technical articles focused on the Smart Client space, blog about various technical and non-technical matters and participate in public speaking engagements.

AP Innovation (www.apinnovation.com) will be my new home.  The goal with AP Innovation will be to deliver results and value to clients at reasonable rates… sensible for today’s new economy.  From a structural standpoint, I will be working independently.  I have formed partnerships with other small businesses and contractors to deliver services that I do not specialize in.  For details on services or if you (or someone you know) could use BA, PM or other technical services please check out the website and get in touch with me… and feel free to forward the link my company’s website if you would like.  : )

I have been getting some feedback on a recent article published on Developer.com.  The article, Reporting – Combining ReportViewer and MS Charts, uses an object data source to bind to the MS Chart control and .rdlc of the report viewer.  The feedback and questions have been “why did we use object data sources” and “how do I create the data sources”.  They are both quick to answer, but since they generated a little more activity than usual I figured I would create an entry to address it.

The reason behind the object data sources was due to repeatability and exposure.  NorthWind is the common data source example, but even then you have to have the database setup or ability to set it up.  Object data sources can be created nearly instantly, by anyone, anywhere and don’t require any database interaction.  The second reason was to give some exposure to the fact that you can create data sources from your objects in the first place.  While it is all built into VS it isn’t a widely known feature.

For the “How” here is quick and dirty list of steps…

1. In the menu, click: Data -> Add New Data Source…

2. Select the “Object” type, click Next

3. Expand the tree under the project name to find your class that has the data. In the article it was called “ReportData”.

4. Select the class you want to create the data source for and click Next. Then click Finish.

You will then be able to open or create a new .rdlc file for the report and drag and drop the data source properties from the Data Sources window to the report. (If the Data Sources window is not showing or docked in view, you can open it by clicking Data -> Show Data Sources.)

Hope that helps!

If you’re looking to spice up your charts and add a little ‘wow’ factor to your application a simple and easy way to do this is by using 3D effects and transparency. 

The 3D effect can be enabled in the ChartArea either in the designer or in code. 

chart1.ChartAreas["chartarea1"].Area3DStyle.Enable3D = true;

The transparency effect is created by adding the Alpha value to the color property of the Series instance.  Again this can be done in either the designer or in code.

chart1.Series["Series1"].Color = Color.FromArgb(220, 150, 20, 250);

Rachel and I just published an article that shows you how to increase the reusability of your charts and graphs on reports.  Even though ReportViewer Reports already has a Charts element, I find it is much easier to design, bind and manipulate charts using the MSCharts control.  This also saves in time when it comes to development and changes later on since you only have one spot to change the chart, not two.  If you work with charts and reporting in your application check it out.

Article Link: Reporting – Combining ReportViewer and MSCharts

The last week or so has been quite hectic.  Besides a half dozen person things going on, including purchasing a home, I was out for a week on vacation in Florida.  I was able to get one night sleep in my own bed on Sunday before flying out to Houston Monday morning.  I flew Southwest for the first time and have to say I was pleasantly surprised.  (It was also my first time through the new Indianapolis airport…and if you haven’t been through it yet all I can say is ‘awesome’.  Great design through and through.)  But back to my Southwest experience.  I had a connecting flight in Midway to get to Houston, so 4 flights in total.  For what I think is the first time ever in my traveling life, ALL of my flights left on time and even more amazing 3 of them landed ahead of schedule….the 4th taking last place because it just landed on time.  Kudos to Southwest!

The only thing I will have to say to those that have not flown Southwest before, is “Online Check-In”.  Since they don’t assign seats you only get a good seat if you get a good boarding number…preferably in the A’s.  (The first group that boards)  I was unfortunate enough on my flights down to check in when I got to the airport and it resulted in a middle seat between 2 large guys.  But if you get on their website 24 hours in advance of your flight, and I do mean 24 hours, at 23.5 hours you’ve already missed the boat, you can get excellent seating to go along with your on-time departure.

As for other things, I’m working on a new MSChart article which is targeted to give the beginner an overview with some tips and tricks.  I will also have some blog entries about the chart control coming soon as well.