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Windows Application Development Cookbook

By : Marcin Jamro

Windows Application Development Cookbook

By: Marcin Jamro

Overview of this book

Need to ensure you can always create the best Windows apps regardless of platform? What you need are solutions to the biggest issues you can face, so you can always ensure you’re making the right choices and creating the best apps you can. The book starts with recipes that will help you set up the integrated development environment before you go ahead and design the user interface. You will learn how to use the MVVM design pattern together with data binding, as well as how to work with data in different file formats. Moving on, you will explore techniques to add animations and graphics to your application, and enable your solution to work with multimedia content. You will also see how to use sensors, such as an accelerometer and a compass, as well as obtain the current GPS location. You will make your application ready to work with Internet-based scenarios, such as composing e-mails or downloading files, before finally testing the project and submitting it to the Windows Store. By the end of the book, you will have a market-ready application compatible across different Windows devices, including smartphones, tablets, and desktops.

Preface

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Sections

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Free Chapter

1. Getting Started

1. Getting Started

Introduction

Setting up the IDE

Arranging windows

Creating a new project

Running the application

Adding a new page

Placing a control

Handling events

Navigating between pages

Passing data between pages

Handling the back button

Changing a default page

Modifying the back stack

Utilizing additional features of the emulator

Breakpoints-based debugging

Step-by-step debugging

Executing code while debugging

Logging information while debugging

Monitoring the CPU and memory usage

2. Designing a User Interface

2. Designing a User Interface

Introduction

Adding a button

Adding a text block

Adding a textbox

Adding a password box

Adding a checkbox

Adding a combobox

Adding a listbox

Adding an image

Adding controls programmatically

Arranging controls vertically

Arranging controls horizontally

Arranging controls in a scrollable view

Defining a page-limited style

Defining a global style

Applying styles programmatically

Arranging controls in a grid

Arranging controls in absolute positions

Choosing date and time

Adding icons to app bars

Creating and using a user control

Presenting a message dialog

Adjusting design based on the device type

Localizing content in XAML

Localizing content programmatically

Forcing the current language

3. MVVM and Data Binding

3. MVVM and Data Binding

Introduction

Creating the view model for a page

Introducing bindings and commands

Binding a value to a textbox

Binding with a value converter

Using value converters with parameters

Showing a progress bar during calculations

Binding a collection to a list view

Binding a collection to a grid view

Binding a collection to a combobox

Binding a collection to a hub

4. Data Storage

4. Data Storage

Introduction

Creating a directory

Reading a structure of directories

Creating a file

Iterating through files

Renaming a directory

Renaming a file

Removing a directory

Removing a file

Writing a text file

Reading a text file

Writing an XML file

Reading an XML file

Writing a JSON file

Reading a JSON file

Writing a binary file

Reading a binary file

Creating a SQLite database and tables

Storing data in a SQLite database

Selecting data from a SQLite database

Updating data in a SQLite database

Removing data from a SQLite database

5. Animations and Graphics

5. Animations and Graphics

Introduction

Animating the showing of controls

Using animation to hide controls

Adding animation to show the collection of items

Animating the repositioning of items' collection

Animating the color of an element

Animating the size of an element

Animating the position of an element

Animating the rotation of an element

Animating the font size of an element

Drawing shapes programmatically

Handling the tap touch event

Handling the pinch touch event

Handling the rotate touch event

Handling the pinch and rotate touch events

Rendering 3D graphics

6. Multimedia

6. Multimedia

Introduction

Playing a movie clip

Playing an audio file

Presenting a collection of photos

Preparing a photo album with captions

Modifying an image

Converting an image into grayscale

Recoloring an image

Choosing a file to open

Choosing a file to save

Taking an image from a camera

Recording a movie from a camera

Scanning a QR code

Synthesizing speech

Recognizing speech

7. Built-in Sensors

7. Built-in Sensors

Introduction

Detecting motion using an accelerometer

Reading data from a compass

Obtaining the orientation of a device

Reading data from a light sensor

Launching vibrations

Reading NFC tags

Obtaining the current GPS location

Disabling switching off the screen

8. Internet-based Scenarios

8. Internet-based Scenarios

Introduction

Opening a website in a default browser

Presenting a website within a page

Composing an e-mail message

Starting a phone call

Launching a Skype call

Opening a map in an external application

Showing a map within a page

Drawing icons, polylines, and polygons on a map

Adding a custom marker to a map

Getting the coordinates of a clicked point on a map

Launching GPS-based navigation

Calling API methods

Downloading a file from the Internet

9. Testing and Submission

9. Testing and Submission

Introduction

Creating a unit test

Running a set of tests

Adding a project to the Windows Dev Center

Associating an application with the store

Adjusting the manifest file

Obtaining a map token

Receiving push notifications

Preparing files for submission

Submitting the application

Updating the application

Generating promotional codes

Browsing reviews and ratings

Analyzing acquisitions

A. Useful Resources

A. Useful Resources

Getting started

Designing a User Interface

MVVM and data binding

Data storage

Animations and graphics

Multimedia

Built-in sensors

Internet-based scenarios

Testing and submission

Customer Reviews

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Changing a default page

By default, the automatically added page is shown after you launch the application. However, you may want to start with another page. Of course, such a change is possible and does not require significant modifications. You will learn how to do it in this recipe.

Getting ready

To step through this recipe, you need a project with two pages, represented by the MainPage and DefaultPage classes. Of course, you should manually add the second one.

How to do it...

To change a default page, shown when the application is launched, you need to perform the following steps:

Open the App.xaml.cs file by expanding the App.xaml node in the Solution Explorer window and double-clicking on App.xaml.cs.

Take the line in the OnLaunched method (line #75):

        rootFrame.Navigate(typeof(MainPage), e.Arguments);

Change this line to the following:

        rootFrame.Navigate(typeof(DefaultPage), e.Arguments);

How it works...

Changing the default page requires a small modification in the App.xaml.cs file, in the part related to the launching of the application. As you can see, such a part also uses the Navigate method (on the Frame instance), so changing the default page requires just a modification of its first parameter.

There's more...

It is also possible to conditionally change the default page, for instance, depending on a value that indicates whether the user is currently logged in. The exemplary line of code is shown as follows:

    rootFrame.Navigate(isLogged ? typeof(UserPage) :  
       typeof(AnonymousPage), e.Arguments);

In this example, if the user is logged in (isLogged equals to true), the user will be navigated to UserPage. Otherwise, AnonymousPage is used instead.

See also

The Navigating between pages recipe
The Passing data between pages recipe
The Handling the back button recipe
The Modifying the back stack recipe

Visually different images

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Programming languages

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