What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Started , presents setting up a suitable IDE, creating a project, adding pages to the application, designing a user interface, and handling navigation. You will learn how to run the application in an emulator and on a real device as well as how to debug it and measure performance.

Chapter 2, Designing a User Interface , shows how to design pages using various controls, such as textboxes and buttons, as well as how to arrange them in various variants, either vertically, horizontally, or in a grid. You will also get to know how to prepare user controls, apply styles, localize the project, and prepare dedicated versions of pages for various device families.

Chapter 3, MVVM and Data Binding , covers the application of the MVVM design pattern, which divides the project into three parts, namely, model, view, and view model. The topic of the data binding mechanism, together with commands, is also taken into account. You will see how to display a collection of items and how to use value converters.

Chapter 4, Data Storage , deals with managing directories and files along with writing and reading a few types of files, such as with plain text, XML, and JSON-formatted content, as well as binary files with content in the user-defined format. You will also learn how to use a SQLite database in your application.

Chapter 5, Animations and Graphics , explains how to improve the user interface by introducing animations. They can be applied to display a control as well as change its size, position, or even rotation. This chapter also shows how to handle a few touch events and introduces the topic of rendering 3D graphics using DirectX, XAML, and C++ language.

Chapter 6, Multimedia , describes how to support multimedia content in an application, such as by playing a movie clip, listening to an audio file, and presenting a collection of photos. The subject of modifying images in a programmatic way is also taken into account. You will see how to take an image or record a movie using a camera, scan QR codes, and synthesize and recognize speech.

Chapter 7, Built-in Sensors , presents how to use various sensors to obtain a set of data, such as G-force values using an accelerometer, a heading of magnetic north using a compass, a current value of ambient light using a light sensor, as well as a current orientation of a device. To add to this, you will learn how to control vibrations of a phone and how to obtain the current GPS location.

Chapter 8, Internet-based Scenarios , covers various scenarios related to the Internet, such as opening a website, composing an e-mail message, as well as opening a map in the external tool and directly in your application. You will also see how to get and send some data to an API, as well as how to download files from the Internet.

Chapter 9, Testing and Submission , introduces unit testing and the process of configuring and submitting the project to the Windows Store. You will get to know how to adjust the configuration, prepare the necessary files, submit and update the application, as well as browse reviews and ratings regarding the published application.