Windows App Developer Links - 2012-05-01

posted on 30 Apr 2012 | App Developer Links

Visual Studio 11

  • Video Demo: Overview of Xaml Authoring Features in Blend and Visual Studio (Microsoft Expression Blend Team Blog)

    • "Now that many of you have had the opportunity to check out Kirupa's Visual Studio Toolbox episode on Channel 9 for visually building HTML apps using Blend you are probably wondering where is the video for XAML authoring? Look no further! I met with Robert Green last week and we walked through building out a simple Metro app starting with the Grid app project template. You can view the recording below (or download a high-quality MP4)..."

  • Using Shims in Visual Studio 11 to test untestable code (Ricci Gian Maria)

    • "I always strive myself to write testable code, but it is not always easy, especially if you do not follow TDD red-green-refactor mantra. Code written without Unit Testing in mind is usually not so easy to test and when is time to modify code written by other, if you want to create a safety net of Unit Tests to avoid breaking code it is usually an hard task. The main problem is hardcode dependency from static functions because you cannot test a single function or method in isolation, forcing you to use pattern like Back door manipulation that makes test difficult to read, write and maintain. Lets take this code as example..."

  • Getting feedback on your Visual Studio 11 Storyboards (Microsoft Visual Studio UK Team)

    • "I really love the PowerPoint Storyboarding and the Stakeholder Feedback Client that are part of Visual Studio 11 and using the tools together is a great way of getting feedback on your proposed design. However, just hitting F5 in PowerPoint to launch your presentation will leave the feedback client on top and obscure part of your storyboard."

  • Open Tabs to the Right in Visual Studio 2011 Beta (Anthony Grace)

    • "I've previously shown how to set this in VS 2010. In the new VS 2011 beta, it's a little harder to find. In order to change this behavior so that the tabs open to the right of any currently open tabs, go to the Tools drop down menu in Visual Studio and configure as follows:"

Metro App Development

  • Filling in the UX Gaps in Metro style Apps - TechBash Edition (Brent Schooley)

    • "On Saturday, I gave a presentation at TechBash about Windows 8 application design anddevelopment. The talk introduces the Metro Design principles and shows how to apply these principles to convert a desktop application into a Metro style app. Also as part of this presentation, I prepared a Visual Studio template for Grid Applications that improves on the user and developer experience that Microsoft delivered in their Grid application template. I will have a series of blog posts that goes through the concepts in this presentation in detail at a later date."

  • How to cook a complete Windows 8 application with HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript in a week - Day 3 (David Catuhe)

    • "Today the menu is about integrating your application into Windows 8 Metro. The first part of the integration was done with the snapped views and settings but it is now time to finish the job with: Search contract, Share contract, File picking contract, Live tile, Secondary tiles. These five subjects are really important for the symbiosis between Windows 8 Metro and your application."

  • Metro design inspiration (Laurent Bugnion)

    • "With Windows 8, Microsoft is going to potentially install their new design language called Metro on a massive amount of computers of all shapes, from thin low-powered slates to full scale PCs. However Metro was not born overnight and in fact a lot of research was put into it. In this article we will discuss the origins of the Metro design language, the inspiration that was the source of it all."

  • Converting to Windows 8 from Windows Phone | Live tiles (10 of 12) (Jayway Team Blog)

    • "Live tiles was introduced with Windows Phone. Compared to an icon, which only used to start an application, a live tile is more like a window into your application. A window where you can present up to date information even if your application is not running. Live tiles in one of the strengths of Windows Phone and it has, of course, been transferred to Windows 8. But there are differences between live tiles in Windows Phone and Windows 8. With a Windows Phone you had greater limitations in display size and performance. In this post we'll start with a short overview how live tiles work and then continue with an introduction to live tiles in Windows 8."

  • Windows 8 and ASP.NET Web API - Part 1 - Getting Started (Jon Galloway)

    • "Many of the key Windows 8 Metro Style application features either require or can greatly benefit from a connection to online services. ASP.NET Web API is a great fit for these services, as it's tightly focused around providing HTTP services to applications. I'm starting a series that will look at how to leverage ASP.NET Web API services from Windows 8 applications. In this first post in the series, we'll begin with a simple C# Windows 8 Metro Style application that displays data from the ASP.NET Web API Contact Manager sample. Once we've got the basics locked down, we'll move on to some more complex topics. I'm thinking Live Tiles and Notifications, but I'm interested in your ideas of where to go next, so please let me know in the comments."

Apps & Code to Look At

  • Metro RSS Reader: Free and open source Metro Application for Windows 8 (Zubair Ahmed)

    • "Those that follow me on twitter know that for couple of weeks I am working on a RSS/Atom news feed reader application framework, it is based on the Metro User interface format for Windows 8. It is a completely free and open source application available from Codeplex.com"