Windows App Developer Links - 2012-10-15

Windows 8 App Development

• Building a custom control using the Windows Library for JavaScript (WinJS) (Windows 8 app developer blog)

  • "If you have developed Windows Store apps using JavaScript, you most likely have encountered the Windows Library for JavaScript (WinJS). This library provides you with a set of CSS styles, JavaScript controls and utilities to help you quickly build apps that meet the UX guidelines for the Windows Store. Among the utilities provided by WinJS are a set of functions you can use to create custom controls in your app...."

• 10 things you should know about designing for Windows 8 (Brent Schooley)

  • "The launch of Windows 8 on 26 October will provide an exciting new platform for designers and developers. Brent Schooley introduces the key things you need to know to start creating Windows 8 applications..."

• Layout and Formatting with Windows 8 XAML Development (Safari Books Online)

  • "When designing a user experience, one of the first things you need to figure out is where to position things on the screen, how they should flow when the content changes, and what shape or color they should be. This article is about the tools you have at your disposal with Windows 8 XAML to control layout and formatting on this exciting new platform..."

• How to call WinRT APIs in Windows 8 from C# Desktop Applications - WinRT Diagram (Scott Hanselman)

  • "... This got me thinking about WinRT and what it means. I did a podcast a few months ago that really cleared things up but I've always found all the various diagrams that attempted to explain how things fit together to be WAY TOO COMPLEX. ... I figure it can't be as complicated as all these diagrams. I drew this to help myself understand..."

• File Manipulation in Windows 8 Store Apps (Sumit Maitra)

  • "The IO Subsystem in WinRT has been written ground up to be completely async.In this article, we see how we can manage (Create and Update) binary data in Files using the Windows 8 runtime..."

• XAML Binding Basics 101 (Jerry Nixon)

  • "Hello Windows 8 XAML developer. XAML is a declarative UI language; it's most powerful feature is surely data binding. But, I admit, with such power comes a lot of things to know. Let's take a minute to step back, smell the roses, and build out some simple bindings. Read to learn?..."

• Walkthrough: The Windows 8 AppBar, you might as well have the coolest! (feat. Expression Design) (Jerry Nixon)

  • "Windows 8 apps don't have a ribbon. Windows 8 apps don't have a top menu. Instead, Windows 8 apps have AppBars. An AppBar on the bottom of your app is where you place command buttons. An AppBar on the top of your app is where you place navigation elements..."

• How to invoke javascript functions in a WebView in Windows Store Apps (Iris Classon)

  • "Did you know that you can invoke javascript functions in a WebView? I've made here a very basic example of invoking two functions, one with parameters and one without, each changing the style of html document. I have a feeling that invoking javascript functions in the WebView can come in handy- feel free to add comments on good usage areas..."

• Windows Store app Development Snack: Feedback links in your app (Robert MacLean)

  • "Something I have started to do with my applications is to make it easy for the people who use the applications to send feedback - since that is the best way to improve it is based on the feedback of those who use it. The question then becomes, how to I collect this feedback?..."

• Windows 8 ViewModel Property Code Snippet (Ben Willi)

  • "Visual Studio provides a bunch of good code snippets for creating boilerplate code. ... I use these constantly but hit an issue when building my Windows 8 apps. For ViewModels in Windows 8, the default templates take advantage of a wonderful attribute CallerMemberName in the OnPropertyChanged method of the ViewModel base class. ... But that pattern doesn't have code snippet. That's easy to fix though. I created my own snippet to generate that type of property and named it proprt..."

• Poor man's two-way binding in Windows 8 (WinJS) (Jayway Blog)

  • "If you're a web developer with prior experience from MVVM/MV* frameworks like Knockout or Batman going into Windows 8 development, one thing you quickly notice is the lack of two-way binding when using the WinJS template control. In this blog post we´re going to show you a starting point to roll your own two-way binding without going to another lib, when binding a simple view model to a view with a WinJS template..."

• Microsoft DevRadio: (Part 2) Using Blend to Help Design Your Windows 8 Apps-Designing for Devices (Channel 9)

  • "In Part 2 of our Using Blend for Windows 8 apps series, Andrew Duthie and Kirupa Chinnathambi take a deep dive into how you can use Blend to easily design your Windows 8 apps for various devices. In this episode they'll show you how to use the device panel and how to react to views and view states..."

Apps & Code to Look At

• Turn any UserControl into a pleasing Dialog/Flyout in Windows 8 (Social Ebola Developer Blog)

  • "Windows 8 comes with a somewhat extended Message box functionality - you can control the text on the message box and the content of the buttons. However, for Flyouts and arbitrary content, there's no easy mechanism to use. WinRT does, however, provide a Popup class that can be used to easily overlay information on your page. This is where the PopupHelper library comes to the rescue..."

Other

• Improvements in .NET Framework Setup for Developers, IT Pros, and Users (.NET Framework Blog)

  • "The only experience most Microsoft customers have with the .NET Framework is the deployment and installation experience, which is why we spend so much time analyzing opportunities to improve it. ... In the following article, Nithya Chandrasekaran and Richard Lander, program managers from the .NET setup and CLR teams respectively, describe some of the deployment improvements..."