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

Summary

In this chapter, we have explored the key differences between WPF and WinUI when it comes to building the UI of our applications. Compared to a Windows Forms developer, we have a significant advantage, since many of the basic concepts behind WinUI are the same ones as WPF because they are both based on XAML as a markup language. However, WinUI is a newer and more modern UI framework, and as such, we can enjoy some new powerful features, such as the new x:Bind expression to enable compiled bindings and the new localization approach.

Thanks to the skills acquired in this chapter, you now have a path forward to modernize your existing WPF applications by creating a new and modern UI experience, thanks to the new WinUI features.

However, when you start building an application based on WinUI, you will find other differences compared to WPF. For example, the way you enable navigation is different, there are many new controls that you can leverage to build the UI, and WinUI...