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)
Mastering Practical Animations

WPF offers a wide range of animation possibilities, from the simple to the really quite complex. In this chapter, we will thoroughly explore the WPF property animation system, yet focus primarily on those parts that can be suitably applied to real-world business applications. We'll investigate how to control running animations in real time and predominantly concentrate on XAML-based syntax. We'll then see how we can build animations right into our application framework.

In WPF, animations are created by repeatedly altering individual property values at regular intervals. Animations are comprised of a number of components; we need a timing system, an animation object that is responsible for updating the values of a particular type of object and a suitable property to animate.

In order to be able to animate a property, it must be a Dependency...