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)

Summary

In this chapter, we investigated a number of techniques that we can use to improve the look of our applications, from simply adding shadows to implementing far more complicated layered visuals. We saw the importance of remaining consistent throughout our application and how to get that professional look.

We then looked at more advanced techniques for making our application stand out from the crowd and saw further examples of how to create a variety of custom controls. We finished with a look at how we can incorporate animations into our everyday controls, in order to bring about a sense of exclusivity to our applications.

In the following chapter, we're going to investigate a number of ways that we can validate the data in our applications. We'll examine the various validation interfaces that are available to us in WPF and work on extending our application framework with a complete validation system using data annotations.

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