Book Image

Modernizing Your Windows Applications with the Windows App SDK and WinUI

By : Matteo Pagani, Marc Plogas
5 (1)
Book Image

Modernizing Your Windows Applications with the Windows App SDK and WinUI

5 (1)
By: Matteo Pagani, Marc Plogas

Overview of this book

If you're a developer looking to improve and modernize your existing LOB applications to leverage modern Windows features without having to rewrite the entire application from scratch, this book is for you. You’ll learn how to modernize your existing Windows Forms, WPF, and UWP applications and enrich them with the latest Windows features. Starting with sample LOB applications that cover common scenarios, you'll learn the differences between various components and then focus on design features for improved visual aspects like accessibility and responsive layouts. The book shows you how to enhance your existing applications using Windows App SDK components and various Windows APIs, resulting in deeper integration with the operating system. You’ll be taking a closer look at WinML, which enables Windows applications to evaluate machine learning models offline and leverage the power of your machine, or notifications, to engage with your users in a more effective way. You’ll also learn how to make your application deployment-ready by distributing it using various platforms like the Microsoft Store or websites. By the end of this Windows book, you'll be able to create a migration plan for your existing Windows applications and put your knowledge to work by enhancing your application with new features and integrating them with the Windows ecosystem.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
1
Section 1: Basic Concepts
3
Section 2: Modernization Journey
9
Section 3: Integrating Your App with the Windows Ecosystem
14
Section 4: Distributing Your Application

Implementing push notifications

All the scenarios we have seen so far are based on local notifications, which are generated directly by your application when a specific event happens. However, there are scenarios where the event isn't generated locally, but remotely. A new message, a new mail, a new goal scored by your favorite football team are just a few examples. Sure, your application could continuously send messages to your backend to check if there are updates, but it wouldn't be very efficient. This approach would have a huge impact on the battery and the resources of your computer.

Therefore, the industry has introduced the concept of push notifications. Instead of the device continuously checking with the backend if there are updates, it's the backend itself that sends a message to the device whenever there's something new. This scenario is made possible thanks to the introduction of a cloud service, which is provided by the owner of the platform and...