I created a small utility to help solve Le Mot (source), a game using the same concept as Wordle, but in French, created by @louanben.

The utility allows filtering a list of words through exact letters, potential letters, and non-present letters. Find Le mot: Solveur directly on my site.

In my previous article (In French only), I discussed how to create a C# plugin for Stream Deck. Here I present a plugin for Stream Deck for Mattermost developed in C# and .Net 6.

The project is separated in two parts:

1. A client for Mattermost: Allows connection to Mattermost server and provides objects for interaction with it.
2. A Stream Deck plugin: Actions for Stream Deck, deployed in the Elgato store.

• Latest release on Github
• Source code on Github
• Plugin page in the Elgato Store

Currently, the plugin only contains one action:

Here’s a tutorial for creating a plugin for Elgato Stream Deck.

Required Materials

• Elgato Stream Deck: No matter which version you use, they all use the same software.

Creating the Plugin for the Stream Deck

To assist us with our Stream Deck plugin, we use tools developed by BarRaider that allow us to quickly start our plugin and also deploy it locally on our Stream Deck. I freely follow the BarRaider documentation as well as Elgato’s, but I will still try to give you a bit more information.

If you need to use data formatted with the JSON standard, here is a simple trick to get started (but you can complicate it as you wish ;)). I use the Web Essentials extension and the NuGet package Json.NET. The JSON data file I use is this one: Example JSON File (source).

Here are the steps to take the JSON data, generate the necessary classes, download the data, and populate these new classes:

• Install the Web Essentials extension
• Create a new class file
• Put a snippet or the entire JSON data into the clipboard (Copy or CTRL-C)
• Right-click in the editor or go to the EDIT menu/Special Paste and select “Paste JSON as Classes”

It is very easy to create your first Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 or iOS application with Azure Mobile Services tools. In this post, I will demonstrate how to create a sample “ToDo” application. In fact, it will take you longer to read this post than to execute the steps in it!

Log in to your Windows Azure portal and go to the Mobile Services section. Click on the Create a mobile service link.

One of the new features of Visual Studio 11 and the .NET Framework 4.5 are the Caller attributes:

• CallerMemberName: allows you to obtain the method or property name of the caller to the method.
• CallerFilePath: allows you to obtain the full path of the source file that contains the caller. This is the file path at compile time.
• CallerLineNumber: allows you to obtain the line number in the source file at which the method is called.

These attributes help to simplify the code in certain scenarios, such as logging or when using the INotifyPropertyChanged interface (as in MVVM) and you need to pass the name of the calling property.

For a fifth year in a row I’ve been renew as a Microsoft MVP Visual C#!
Even if I do not have a ring on my award to prove it…

Happy new year!

At the end of last year, I had published that Microsoft Research was working on a prototype electronic platform running on NETMF named Gadgeteer. Well, it now seems that it has moved out of the research phase to “commercialize” this platform: Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer.

GHI Electronics has released the first Gadgeteer kit named GHI FEZ Spider Starter Kit. This kit allows you to code your own electronic module using your favorite language (and I am talking about C# ;) ) without knowing the basics of electronics. In fact, it is a hardware abstraction to allow budding hobbyists to start without learning how to solder or connect various electronic components.

For the fourth consecutive year, I have received the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Award in the Visual C# category.

I congratulate all the MVPs who have also been renewed for 2011 and the new MVPs!

For those who are not aware, you can download the Visual Studio Async CTP to get a preview of what is coming in the asynchronous world! This is just the CTP version, so there may be changes between this version and the official release.

Also, visit Eric Lippert’s blog to learn more about the topic.