Building Windows 8 Apps with C# and XAML: (Microsoft Windows Development Series)

“Jeremy builds real apps for real customers. That’s why I can heartily recommend this book. Go out and write some great apps…and keep this book handy.” —From the Foreword by Jeff Prosise Build Exceptionally Immersive and Responsive Touch-Based Windows Store Apps for Windows 8 with C# and XAML This is the first practical guide to building breakthrough applications for Windows 8 from project templates through publication to the new Windows Store. Microsoft “MVP of the Year” Jeremy Likness helps you combine your existing developer skills with new Visual Studio 2012 tools and best practices to create apps that are intuitive and innovative. His guidance and insight will help you dive into Windows 8 development—and gain a powerful competitive advantage for years to come. Likness illuminates the entire apps lifecycle, from planning and Model-View-View Model (MVVM) based design through coding, testing, packaging, and deployment. He covers both business and consumer apps, showing how Windows 8/WinRT development builds upon and contrasts with older WPF and Silverlight approaches. Using carefully crafted downloadable code examples and sample projects, Likness shows how to make the most of new platform features, including integrated social networking, search, contracts, charms, and tiles. Throughout, he addresses crucial development challenges that have only been discussed on MSDN, blog posts, and Twitter feeds—and never with this depth and clarity before. Coverage includes • Mastering real-world Windows 8 development for all devices and form factors • Understanding the new WinRT framework and the unique characteristics of Windows 8 apps • Designing apps that are faster, more responsive, do more with less, and maximize battery life • Creating exceptionally fluid interfaces with VS 2012 templates, built-in animations, and XAML • Building apps that respond consistently to multiple forms of input, including complex touch manipulations • Using contracts and charms to expose services or enable users to do so • Providing information to users through Live Tiles even when your app isn’t running • Connecting your app seamlessly to multiple data sources, including social networks and cloud storage • Syndicating rich, network-based content • Using Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) • Securing Windows 8 apps through authentication and authorization • Efficiently testing, debugging, packaging, and deploying apps

Table of Contents:
   Foreword     xv    Preface     xix Chapter 1  The New Windows Runtime     1 Looking Back: Win32 and .NET     2 Looking Forward: Rise of the NUI     8 Introducing the Windows Store Application     12    Windows 8 Design     14    Fast and Fluid     15    Snap and Scale     15    Use of Right Contracts     16    Great Tiles     17    Connected and Alive     19    Embrace Windows 8 Design Principles     19 Windows 8 Tools of the Trade     19    Blend for Visual Studio     20    HTML5 and JavaScript     21    C++ and XAML     23    VB/C# and XAML     24 Behind the Scenes of WinRT     25 WPF, Silverlight, and the Blue Stack     26 Summary     28 Chapter 2  Getting Started     29 Setting Up Your Environment     30    Windows 8     30    Visual Studio 2012     35    Blend     36 Hello, Windows 8     37    Creating Your First Windows 8 Application     37    Templates     37 The ImageHelper Application     42    Under the Covers     53 Summary     60 Chapter 3  Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML)     61 Declaring the UI     62    The Visual Tree     64    Dependency Properties     67    Attached Properties     70 Data-Binding     73    Value Converters     78 Storyboards     80 Styles and Resources     85 Layout     88    Canvas     88    Grid     89    StackPanel     91    VirtualizingPanel and VirtualizingStackPanel     93    WrapGrid     94    VariableSizedWrapGrid     96    ContentControl     97    ItemsControl     99    ScrollViewer     99    ViewBox     100    GridView     102    ListView     105    FlipView     106    ListBox     106 Common Controls     107 Summary     109 Chapter 4  Windows 8 Applications     111 Layouts and Views     111    The Simulator     112    The Visual State Manager     115    Semantic Zoom     119 Handling User Input     122    Pointer Events     124    Manipulation Events     126    Mouse Support     128    Keyboard Support     129    Visual Feedback     131    Targeting     132    Context Menus     134 The Application Bar     136 Icons and Splash Screens     143 About Page     145 Sensors     148    Accelerometer     149    Compass     149    Geolocation     150    Gyrometer     151    Inclinometer     151    Light Sensor     152    Orientation Sensor     153 Summary     154 Chapter 5  Application Lifecycle     157 Process Lifetime Management     160    Activation     161    Suspension     163    Termination     166    Resume     166    Navigation     168    Application Data API     172 Connected and Alive     176 Custom Splash Screen     177 Summary     179 Chapter 6  Data     181 Application Settings     181 Accessing and Saving Data     183    The Need for Speed and Threading     189    Understanding async and await     191    Lambda Expressions     194    IO Helpers     195    Embedded Resources     196 Collections     199    Language Integrated Query (LINQ)     200 Web Content     203 Syndicated Content     205 Streams, Buffers, and Byte Arrays     207 Compressing Data     208 Encrypting and Signing Data     211 Web Services     214    OData Support     217 Summary     219 Chapter 7  Tiles and Toasts     221 Basic Tiles     221 Live Tiles     222 Badges     229 Secondary Tiles     231 Toast Notifications     236 Windows Notification Service     242 Summary     250 Chapter 8  Giving Your Application Charm     253 Searching     256 Sharing     266    Sourcing Content for Sharing     267    Receiving Content as a Share Target     274 Settings     280 Summary     283 Chapter 9  MVVM and Testing     285 UI Design Patterns     286    The Model     292    The View     293    The View Model     295 The Portable Class Library     296 Why Test?     301    Testing Eliminates Assumptions     302    Testing Kills Bugs at the Source     302    Testing Helps Document Code     303    Testing Makes Extending and Maintaining Applications Easier     304    Testing Improves Architecture and Design     305    Testing Makes Better Developers     305    Conclusion: Write Those Unit Tests!     306 Unit Tests     306    Windows Store Unit Testing Framework     307    Mocks and Stubs     311 Summary     315 Chapter 10  Packaging and Deploying     317 The Windows Store     317    Discovery     318    Reach     322    Business Models     323    Advertising     328    Preparing Your App for the Store     329    The Process     331    The App Certification Kit     332    What to Expect     335 Side-Loading     337 Summary     339 Index     341  

About the Author :
Jeremy Likness is a principal consultant at Wintellect, LLC. He has worked with enterprise applications for more than 20 years, 15 of those focused on web-based applications using the Microsoft stack. An early adopter of Silverlight 3.0, he worked on countless enterprise Silverlight solutions, including the back-end health monitoring system for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and Microsoft’s own social network monitoring product called “Looking Glass.” He is both a consultant and project manager at Wintellect and works closely with Fortune 500 companies, including Microsoft. He is a three-year Microsoft MVP and was declared MVP of the Year in 2010. He has also received Microsoft’s Community Contributor award for his work with Silverlight. Jeremy is the author of Designing Silverlight Business Applications: Best Practices for Using Silverlight Effectively in the Enterprise (Addison-Wesley). Jeremy regularly speaks, contributes articles, and blogs on topics of interest to the Microsoft developer community. His blog can be found at http://csharperimage.jeremylikness.com.