Book Image

Blend for Visual Studio 2012 by Example: Beginner's Guide

By : Abhishek Shukla
Book Image

Blend for Visual Studio 2012 by Example: Beginner's Guide

By: Abhishek Shukla

Overview of this book

<p>Creating applications with compelling graphics has been one of the main goals of client applications, and with the arrival of WPF, Silverlight, and HTML5 it is much easier than ever before to create interactive and rich user interfaces.</p> <p>Blend for Visual Studio 2012 by Example Beginner's Guide will give you a good grounding in creating Windows, Web, and Windows Phone applications. You will also look at the various layouts and controls available in Blend and how we can create animations and behaviors in Blend.</p> <p>Towards the end, you will be aware of the various capabilities that are available in Blend out of the box.</p>

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Blend for Visual Studio 2012 by Example: Beginner's Guide
Abhishek Shukla
Jul, 2015 | 226 pages
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Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Blend for Visual Studio 2012 by Example Beginner's Guide
Blend for Visual Studio 2012 by Example Beginner's Guide
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Getting Started with Blend
Getting Started with Blend
Blend for Visual Studio 2012
Downloading Blend
Time for action – installing Microsoft Blend
Creating your first application in Blend
Time for action – creating a project in Blend using an existing template
The fundamental pieces of the Blend IDE
Time for action – adding TextBlock
Time for action – adding text to TextBlock
Brushes
Time for action – changing the color of the text
Time for action – changing the background color of the grid
Time for action – changing the background of the grid
Time for action – running the application
Time for action – integrating the project into Visual Studio
Using help and documentation
Summary
2
Layout Panels
Layout Panels
Grid
Time for action – creating a Run window using grid
Canvas
Time for action – using canvas
StackPanel
Time for action – using StackPanel
Other layout containers
Building user interfaces
Summary
3
Working with XAML
Working with XAML
The basics of XAML
Time for action – taking a look at XAML code
Time for action – adding other namespaces in XAML
Naming elements
The code-behind class
Time for action – using a named element in a code-behind class
Time for action – adding elements in XAML by hand-coding
Time for action – defining the gradient for the grid
Comments in XAML
Styles in XAML
Time for action – defining a style in XAML
Time for action – using a style in XAML
Where to go from here
Summary
4
Styles and Templates
Styles and Templates
Creating and using styles
An introduction to styles
Time for action – creating a resource
The resource dictionary
Simple styles
Style specification
Application skinning
Time for action – creating resource dictionaries
Templates
Editing the template
Time for action – editing the template
Summary
5
Behaviors and States in Blend
Behaviors and States in Blend
An introduction to behavior objects
Adding built-in behaviors
Time for action – adding a storyboard
Visual states
Visual State Manager
Time for action – modifying with visual states
Summary
6
Understanding Animation and Storyboards
Understanding Animation and Storyboards
Understanding the animation service
Storyboards
Time for action – adding the storyboard
Time for action – switching workspaces
Time for action – using keyframes
Time for action – using transforms
XAML for the storyboard
Time for action – using easing functions
Summary
7
Understanding DataBinding
Understanding DataBinding
Understanding dependency properties
Understanding the attached property
An introduction to DataBinding
Time for action - DataBinding to one's own property
Time for action – DataBinding to properties of a different control
Time for action – DataBinding to DataSource as a collection
Time for action – DataBinding the background with SelectedValue
Summary
8
Vector Graphics
Vector Graphics
An introduction to vector graphics
Time for action – zooming in to a WPF control
Shapes
Time for action – adding a shape
Importing graphics
Time for action – importing graphics
The Line, Pen, and Pencil tools
Time for action – creating a shape using Pen
Paths
Time for action – modifying a Path
BitmapScalingMode
DPI awareness
Summary
9
User Controls and Custom Controls
User Controls and Custom Controls
User control or custom control – which to use and when
Understanding and creating a user control
Time for action – creating a user control that selects the background color
Time for action – adding event handlers
Time for action – adding a user control in a window
Understanding and creating custom controls
Time for action – creating a custom control
Summary
10
Creating Windows Phone Apps
Creating Windows Phone Apps
Installing Windows Phone SDK
An introduction to Windows Phone
Guidelines for Windows Phone applications
Understanding Windows Phone Emulator
Time for action – Windows Phone Emulator
Creating a Windows Phone application
Time for action – creating a Windows Phone application
Exploring the Device panel
Testing the application before submitting to the store
Time for action – testing our application
Submitting our application to the store
Time for action – submitting the application
Summary
11
Creating Windows 8 Store Apps
Creating Windows 8 Store Apps
Templates
Creating Windows Store apps with XAML and C#
Time for action – creating a Windows 8 Store app
Submitting your app to Windows Store
Time for action – submitting the app to Windows Store
Summary
Pop Quiz Answers
Pop Quiz Answers
Chapter 1, Getting Started with Blend
Chapter 2, Layout Panels
Chapter 3, Working with XAML
Chapter 4, Styles and Templates
Chapter 5, Behaviors and States in Blend
Chapter 6, Understanding Animationand Storyboards
Chapter 7, Understanding DataBinding
Chapter 8, Vector Graphics
Chapter 9, User Controls and Custom Controls
Chapter 10, Creating Windows Phone Apps
Chapter 11, Creating Windows 8 Store Apps
Chapter 12, Prototyping Using SketchFlow
Index
Index

Installing Windows Phone SDK

To develop Windows Phone 8 applications, we need to install the Windows Phone 8 SDK. The following are the system requirements to run Windows Phone 8 SDK:

Operating System

Windows 8 64-bit (x64) client versions

Hardware

8 GB of free disk space

4 GB of RAM

64-bit (x64) motherboard

Windows Phone Emulator

Windows 8 Pro or higher (for Hyper-V) and Second Level Address Translation (SLAT)

The SDK is freely available at http://dev.windowsphone.com/en-us/downloadsdk. Download SDK 8.0 because, using that, we can develop an application for both Windows Phone 7.5 and Windows Phone 8 devices. If you already have a paid version of Visual Studio 2012, then the SDK will download and install the tools required for Windows Phone development. If you do not have Visual Studio 2012 installed, then the SDK will install Visual Studio 2012 Express for Window Phone.

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