CODE Magazine / Articles
XAML
Articles filed under XAML
Articles
Showing 1–51 of 51
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Windows Desktop Apps and .NET 5
This article describes the differences between .NET 5 and .NET Core 3.x and describes breaking changes from the upgrade. Overview of how to upgrade existing WinForms and WPF applications to .NET 5.
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Using a Scripting Language to Develop Native Windows WPF GUI Apps
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Vassili Kaplan describes how using CSCS (Customized Scripting in C#) can save time creating WPF applications.
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A WPF Security System
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In this article, Paul Sheriff presents a data-driven security system for WPF applications, addressing the lack of built-in security unlike MVC or Web Forms. He demonstrates how to secure UI controls based on user roles by loading security settings from a database or hard-coded collection, avoiding code changes for updates. Sheriff details the creation of a base security view model, control identification via Name, Tag, or binding path, and dynamic control state changes (e.g., hidden, disabled, read-only). The approach leverages MVVM, reflection, and Entity Framework to provide a flexible, maintainable security solution adaptable to different WPF containers.
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Upgrading Windows Desktop Applications with .NET Core 3
In her article, Olia Gavrysh explains the significant advancements brought by .NET Core 3 for Windows desktop applications, highlighting the ability to build Windows Forms and WPF apps on .NET Core with new features like XAML Islands, MSIX packaging, and enhanced deployment options. She guides developers through migrating existing .NET Framework apps to .NET Core, addressing compatibility challenges and showcasing tools like Portability Analyzer and Try Convert. Additionally, Olia emphasizes the benefits of .NET Core’s modularity, improved app size, single-file executables, and integration with Windows 10 APIs and App Center for continuous release and monitoring, positioning .NET Core as the future of .NET development.
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A Design Pattern for Building WPF Business Applications: Part 3
In the third installment of his WPF series, Paul shows you how to get feedback using an Entity Framework entity class. He also shows you how to start expanding user activities, like adding, editing, or deleting screens.
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.NET Core 3.0 for the Desktop
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Rick examines what is—and isn’t—coming in .NET Core Runtime. You’ll get to put this knowledge to good use as you build a small app, too.
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A Design Pattern for Building WPF Business Applications: Part 2
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In the second installment of his new series, Paul explores sending a message from a View Model class to the main window, setting up a timer, and creating a log in screen.
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A Design Pattern for Building WPF Business Applications: Part 1
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Paul begins a new series of articles on how to create a WPF business application. This first one teaches how to use a message broker to eliminate strong coupling between classes, how to display status and information to the user while resources are loading, and how to load user controls onto a single window while aggregating controls and building a large screen.
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.NET Core for the Desktop
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Software vendors and conferences would tell you that the desktop is dead, but if you’re a working consultant, you know that’s not true. Mike dives into a great tool using WinForms to show you what you’ve been missing.
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Create a Title Bar for User Controls
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Those helpful buttons for minimize, maximize, and close functions need to be added to your WPF pages if you don’t want to crowd your user’s screen. Paul shows you how.
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Marking up the Web with ASP.NET Core and Markdown
You’re probably already using Markdown for HTML text entry and formatting your README.md files. But Markdown is good for so much more—Rick shows you parsing, stable content in a website, embedding converted HTML into a Razor output, and more.
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The Resurgence of XAML
Microsoft seemed to have put XAML out to pasture for a while, but Billy shows us how it’s back, and why even Microsoft is touting its praises.
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What’s New in CODE Framework in 2016
ByMarkus Egger
CODE Magazine · 2016 - September/October · Addison Wesley Books · Smart Client Deployment with ClickOnce
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If you’d like a neat summary of the many interesting and useful changes in CODE Magazine’s free development framework, you’ve come to the right place. Markus talks about themes, input validation, security, and binding, Web API service hosting, calling REST services, and interacting with the community and GitHub.
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Arranging Views with Xamarin.Forms Layout
There’s no longer a simple answer to what sort of device your page will be viewed upon. Walt examines the options and shows you how to make sure that yours will look great on anything, old or new.
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More about Xamarin Pages
Walt continues his series of articles on Xamarin, this time, exploring the nature of pages. You’ll learn what a page is, how to navigate among them, how to create sub-pages, and strategies for loading data onto pages.
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XAML Anti-Patterns: Layout SNAFUs
Just when you think a container is simple, your user resizes the screen and mayhem ensues. If you want to know what happened—or prevent it, better yet—read Markus’ piece about the XAML layout engine.
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Xamarin Pages: The Screens of an App
In the next article of his series on Xamarin, Walt takes a look at the all-important UI and how to make it work best for the development process and the user.
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Asynchronous Pattern Redux for XAML Developers
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By providing the history of asynchronous and await patterns, Bill examines the benefits of using these techniques in developing new apps and when it comes to the maintenance or revision of legacy code.
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XAML Anti-Patterns: Code-Behind
Markus Egger argues that relying on traditional XAML code-behind leads to tightly coupled, hard-to-test UIs and technical debt; instead he advocates a View/ViewModel approach using commands, property binding, attached properties and behaviors to decouple logic from visuals, improve reuse and testability, and simplify maintenance—practices embodied in his CODE Framework that enable building flexible XAML UIs without code-behind.
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XAML Anti-Patterns: Resource Overuse
In the second article of the series, Markus talks about keeping your code readable and maintainable by controlling how often and where you reuse objects.
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What’s New in CODE Framework in 2014
ByVFP Conversion Papers · CODE Magazine · 2014 - July/August · Markus Egger Talks Tech
Updated
There are a bunch of hot new tools in CODE Framework that you’ll want to explore, including a new theme, new View Actions, List improvements, a Flow Form layout, support for new versions of Visual Studio and the .NET Framework, and enhancements to the View Visualizer.
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XAML Anti-Patterns: Virtualization
Markus shows us why virtualization gets a bad reputation and how to clean it up.
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XAML Magic: Attached Properties
XAML properties don’t always behave as you think they might. Markus explains how they work and shows you some nifty ways to use these powerful tools.
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A Windows 8 Look and Feel for WPF, Part 3
Updated
In Part 1 of this article you learned how to create a Windows 8 look and feel for your WPF applications. In Part 2 of this article you learned to create a few of the user controls that went into making the shell application. In this final article in this series, you will learn how to create the last few user controls that I used to create the Windows 8 Shell application. In this article, you will learn to put together a WPF Image button, an Image button with text and finally the main Tiles used for the primary navigation system.
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CODE Framework: Documents, Printing, and Interactive Document UIs
ByVFP Conversion Papers · Markus Egger Talks Tech · CODE Magazine · 2013 - March/April
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The CODE Framework WPF features (based on MVVM and MVC concepts) have become very popular amongst .NET developers, thanks to ease of development paired with a high degree of freedom, control and reuse. Another CODE Framework module takes these concepts and extends them into the domain of documents and printing. Many applications use third-party reporting products to create print and report output, and those products certainly have a good reason for existence and aren’t entirely replaced by the CODE Framework Document features. However, the CODE Framework Document features can replace some functionality that would otherwise be handled by reporting packages, and in addition, the CODE Framework Document features add a significant number of new features including the ability to create more naturally flowing documents and printouts and use those not just for print, but also use them as interactive user interfaces.
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The Easiest Path to Windows 8: HTML + CSS + JavaScript
Sometimes it happens that a new version of an operating system introduces a new type of application completely incompatible with older versions of the same system. The last time it happened I think it was with Windows 95. More than 15 years later, Windows 8 comes with support for a completely new segment of applications named Windows Store apps.
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A Windows 8 Look and Feel for WPF, Part 2
In part 1 of this article, you learned how to create a Windows 8 look and feel for your WPF applications. You were shown a high-level overview of the various components that made up the shell for navigating. In part 2 of this article you will learn to create a WPF Button user control, a Message Box you can style, and a simple Message Broker System. All of these components are used to create the “Windows 8 Style” WPF shell you learned about in part 1.
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A Windows 8 Look and Feel for WPF, Part 1
Many people will not be able to upgrade to Windows 8 right away for various reasons. However, there is nothing to stop you from designing your WPF applications to have a similar look and feel.
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Converting XAML-Based Applications to Windows 8
ByVFP Conversion Papers · Markus Egger Talks Tech · CODE Magazine · 2012 - July/August
Updated
The big news about Windows 8 is its new mode based on the Metro design language and UI paradigm. Metro apps are based on the new WinRT (Windows Runtime) and can be built in two distinct ways. One utilizes HTML5 and JavaScript, while the other uses XAML for the user interface definition and C#, Visual Basic, or native C++ as the language behind the scenes. Not surprisingly, the later has often been compared to other XAML-based setups, in particular Silverlight, but also WPF. After all, “XAML is XAML,” the reasoning goes, so it should not be difficult to move both WPF/Silverlight skills as well as actual applications into the new world of WinRT. But is that really so?
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Getting Rid of Your Code Behind
Updated
You know you should be moving code out from behind your forms, windows and web pages and into stand-alone classes. Everyone preaches that this is what to do, everyone shows you examples of ViewModel classes, but no one really shows you a real-world example of how to get rid of the code behind.
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Intro to Metro
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Ten years after the release of the .NET Framework, Microsoft is stirring the pot again with a new development platform that set’s to focus your talents on what everyone is betting is the next big thing, mobile devices; specifically in this case, tablets. The Windows Runtime, or WinRT, is the foundation for the development of applications designed to target Windows 8-driven touch-enabled devices, but what does that mean for .NET developers and their existing skill sets?
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CODE Framework: Building Productive, Powerful, and Reusable WPF (XAML) UIs with the CODE Framework
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In a prior installment of this series of articles about CODE Framework (“CODE Framework: Writing MVVM/MVC WPF Applications”, Jan/Feb 2012), I discussed how to use the WPF features of CODE Framework to create rich client applications in a highly productive and structured fashion reminiscent of creating ASP.NET MVC applications, although with WPF MVVM concepts applied. In this article, I will dive deeper into the subject and discuss the unique benefits of the CODE Framework WPF components which enable developers to create the part of the UI that is actually visible in a highly productive and reusable manner.
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CODE Framework: Building Services and SOA Business Layers
ByVFP Conversion Papers · CODE Magazine · 2012 - March/April · Markus Egger Talks Tech
Updated
In the last issue of CODE Magazine, we took a look at CODE Framework’s WPF features. This time, we are going to look at a completely different area of the framework: Creating business logic and middle tiers as SOA services. SOA is the cornerstone of many modern applications, creating systems that are more maintainable, flexible, and suitable for a wide range of scenarios, ranging from Windows to Web and Mobile scenarios using a wide variety of technologies, and outperforming conventional multi-tiered applications in a range of metrics. Using CODE Framework, it also becomes easy and extremely productive to build SOA layers.
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Working with Windows Phone User Interfaces, Part 2
Updated
In Part 1 of this article you learned how to work with orientation changes on the Windows Phone and how to create horizontally scrolling pages using Panorama and Pivot pages. In Part 2 you’ll see how to interact with some of the built-in applications on the phone through the use of the Launcher and Chooser applications.
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CODE Framework: Writing MVVM/MVC WPF Applications
ByVFP Conversion Papers · CODE Magazine · 2012 - January/February · Markus Egger Talks Tech
Updated
The CODE Framework is an open-source application framework by the makers of CODE Magazine. It is entirely free of charge. It covers a wide range of features that can be applied altogether or individually in an À la carte fashion. All of these features revolve around a single concept: Building advanced business applications in a productive and maintainable fashion while maintaining great application architecture. In this article, we are focusing on a subset of the CODE Framework, specifically the components used to build WPF applications using the MVVM and MVC patterns.
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Seven New Features in Silverlight 5 (Plus a 3D Bonus)
The next version of Silverlight should be available by the time you read this article. The Silverlight team has followed a fast pace during the last few years, producing four versions of their framework in only thirty months. Each new version of Silverlight has been full of surprises and useful features. Version 5 is no different. Let’s look as some of the best features available in SL 5
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Six Silverlight ListBox Tips
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The Silverlight ListBox is much more than you may think. When most people think of a ListBox they typically think of just a simple control that displays rows of text. However, the Silverlight ListBox is one of the most flexible controls you will find. I tend to think of the ListBox as similar to the ASP.NET Repeater control as it too is very flexible. In this article, I will show you six different ways to display data in a Silverlight ListBox.
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Line-of-Business Applications Consolidation with Silverlight and Windows Communication Foundation
It’s probably one of the most interesting moments to do a post mortem for a Silverlight project. The entire Microsoft ecosystem is boiling around the Silverlight OR HTML 5 debate fueled by the recent PDC and some statements from Microsoft officials. The interesting part about it is that it is a false debate, and like most false debates it will probably lead to nowhere. The simple truth is that Microsoft’s commitment to Silverlight has not changed a bit, and Silverlight is more healthy and strong than ever. And the fact that the same Microsoft places an important bet on HTML 5 too can only make me happy as an architect and a developer. Mostly because it assures me I’ll have my fair share of choices in the future without having to leave the development platform I like. The reality is that neither Silverlight/RIA nor HTML 5 will turn out to be the magic to fly us to the land of perfect web apps and, at least for the foreseeable future, there will always be a need for alternatives. That’s why I think the debate on Silverlight or HTML 5 is nonsense in the Microsoft ecosystem. But I digress… Let me tell you about the latest software project I participated in.
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MVVM Made Simple
Struggling to grasp the concepts of Model-View-View-Model? Keep it simple!
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Super Productivity: Using WPF and Silverlight’s Automatic Layout Features in Business Applications
ByVFP Conversion Papers · Markus Egger Talks Tech · CODE Magazine · 2010 - November/December
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In this article, Markus Egger demonstrates how to leverage WPF and Silverlight’s automatic layout features to create business application user interfaces that are faster to develop, more reusable, maintainable, and less error-prone than traditional approaches. By shifting layout responsibilities to stylable, layout-agnostic containers and creating custom layout panels, Egger shows how developers can separate UI structure from presentation, enabling rapid UI creation and easy adaptation across devices and platforms. He also introduces an action-based command model integrated into the layout, emphasizing how these techniques together enhance productivity and flexibility in real-world enterprise UI development.
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Ask the Doc Detective
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In "Ask the Doc Detective," Doc Detective addresses common developer questions about navigating and utilizing Microsoft Visual Studio documentation and features. Through practical advice on topics such as migrating to WPF's DataGrid, setting Sub Main as the startup object, leveraging Windows 7 taskbar enhancements, and handling obsolete VB6 compatibility warnings, the author guides readers to relevant resources and solutions. Doc Detective emphasizes the value of thorough documentation exploration and offers tips to efficiently update local help content, making complex development challenges more manageable.
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Why Use WPF?
If you have not taken a look at Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) yet, you really should. WPF is a great desktop development platform. Granted, all of the tools are not yet in place, but Microsoft is pouring millions of dollars into developing WPF tools. Microsoft now considers Windows Forms a legacy technology and they won’t update it within Visual Studio. These two reasons alone should be enough to convince you that need to start learning WPF right now.While WPF offers a new set of development tools, you’ll see a lot that looks familiar. You still have the typical desktop controls like text boxes, check boxes, radio buttons, etc. You still write the same C# or Visual Basic code. The major difference is how you layout the screens, control the look and feel of the controls, and some of the properties are a little different. This article will give you a good introduction to what WPF is all about without diving too deep.
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Flexible and Powerful Data Binding with WPF, Part 2
All applications are dependent on data in some form and most developers find themselves writing reams of data access code.Microsoft has been building databinding frameworks for years. Each one promises to solve our databinding woes forever. We’re still waiting for the perfect one.In the Nov/Dec 2008 issue of CoDe Magazine you were exposed to programmatically controlling data binding mechanisms of WPF. Along with a programmatic interface, WPF also provides a declarative databining interface. This second article will introduce you to using the declarative data binding mechanisms contained in WPF.
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WPF Meets the iPhone
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The iPhone is one of the most compelling and exciting user interfaces to appear on any consumer electronic device, with many innovations that make it a pleasure to use. How can you deliver a similar experience with your .NET applications?This article demonstrates how you can implement these features in your .NET applications in a step-by-step format as you recreate the iPhone interface using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) technology with both Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft Expression Blend.
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101 Windows Phone 7 Apps, Volume I: Developing Apps 1-50- Chapter 2 Flashlight -
This excerpt is from the new book, ‘101 Windows Phone 7 Apps, Volume I: Developing Apps 1-50’, authored by Adam Nathan, published April 2011, ISBN 0672335522, Copyright 2011. For more info, please visit the publisher site http://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0672335522
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Building Windows 8 Apps with C# and XAML - Introduction to UI Design Patterns for Windows 8 Apps Chapter Excerpt
In this excerpt from Building Windows 8 Apps with C# and XAML, learn about the various parts of MVVM and how to apply it with a special focus on testing. By Jeremy Likness, Published Oct 25, 2012 by Addison-Wesley Professional. Part of theMicrosoft Windows Development Series series. Copyright 2013 ISBN-10: 0-321-82216-1 ISBN-13: 978-0-321-82216-1. To Purchase go to: http://www.informit.com/store/building-windows-8-apps-with-c-sharp-and-xaml-9780321822161?w_ptgrevartcl=%20Introduction%20to%20UI%20Design%20Patterns%20for%20Windows%208%20Apps%20_1960915.
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Chapter 1: Microsoft Expression Blend
Taking aside the technical aspects of learning how to use Microsoft Expression Blend, there are many areas that are often disregarded within discussions about how Blend is-and should be-used in a real-world project sense. You may be a single person business or employee that needs to fill all the roles that Blend is best used for; or, you may be part of an enterprise size team.
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Graphics in Silverlight 3
In this chapter, you will learn how to add rich vector graphics and images to your application.You will also learn how to optimize performance and image quality of those graphics elements.
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Windows 8.1 Apps with XAML and C#: Arranging UI Elements
The sizing and positioning of elements is called layout. Within the parent/child relationship between elements, this chapter focuses on the children, examining the common ways that you can control layout on a child-by-child basis.