Book Image

Mastering Windows Presentation Foundation - Second Edition

By : Sheridan Yuen
Book Image

Mastering Windows Presentation Foundation - Second Edition

By: Sheridan Yuen

Overview of this book

Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) provides a rich set of libraries and APIs for developers to create engaging user experiences. This book features a wide range of examples, from simple to complex, to demonstrate how to develop enterprise-grade applications with WPF. This updated second edition of Mastering Windows Presentation Foundation starts by introducing the benefits of using the Model-View-View Model (MVVM) software architectural pattern with WPF, then moves on, to explain how best to debug our WPF applications. It explores application architecture, and we learn how to build the foundation layer of our applications. It then demonstrates data binding in detail, and examines the various built-in WPF controls and a variety of ways in which we can customize them to suit our requirements. We then investigate how to create custom controls, for when the built-in functionality in WPF cannot be adapted for our needs. The latter half of the book deals with polishing our applications, using practical animations, stunning visuals and responsive data validation. It then moves on, to look at improving application performance, and ends with tutorials on several methods of deploying our applications.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
Becoming Proficient with Data Binding

In this chapter, we'll investigate the data binding syntax that is used to connect our data sources to our UI controls. We'll examine how to declare Dependency Properties, along with all of the various options that we have when doing that. And we'll find out about the scope of declared bindings and unravel the finer details of data templates.

It is the data binding in WPF that enables it to work so well with the MVVM pattern. It provides the connection for two-way communication between the View and the View Models components. Yet this abstraction can often lead to confusion and make tracking down problems more difficult than when using traditional methods of UI to business logic communication.

As data binding is such an important part of the MVVM pattern, we'll cover this topic thoroughly, from the basics to advanced concepts...