Windows 8 Development – XAML Add Resource

We've created a class that will handle the blog data feeds we are interested in, but now we have to incorporate that class into our program. Using App.xaml, we can insert a named instnace of our feed data, and then later manipulate that instance to retrieve data feeds. For those familiar with XML, XAML allows for easily defining a resource, and inserting it at an appropriate point in the schema. In this video, I will show you how to add a resource to an application using XAML. References XAML Blog Reader - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/br211380.aspx

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  1. Windows 8 Development – Data Binding Grid Title

    Now that we have loaded some Feed data, we need to customize our page with some data binding. To avoid having to worry about managing the title for each blog, we will instead data bind the title text directly to the title of the feed. This will let us offer a consistent user experience, with a minimum of scaffolding in our code. In this video, I will show you how to bind a data item to a grid element, and change the column span of a grid. References XAML Blog Reader – http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/br211380.aspx

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  2. Windows 8 Development – Loading State With Navigation Parameters

    When we finish navigating to the SplitPage, we need to load some state information from our blog feeds. We will do this through the familiar LoadState method, and using some simple parameter casting we will populate the title of the different blogs. In this video, I will show you how to use a navigation parameter of type Object to load state in a new page. References XAML Blog Reader – http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/br211380.aspx

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  3. Windows 8 Development – Edit Static Text Property

    Windows 8 Development – Edit Static Text Property

    By default, Visual Studio creates new projects with a title of 'My Application'. This is usually acceptable for a hello world application, but we will want to change this to match the intent of our application, being a Blog Reader. We could change this resource in many ways, but we are simply going to edit the Text property as a static resource. In this video, I will show you how to edit a static resource, namely the Text property of a TextBlock representing our page title. References XAML Blog Reader – http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/br211380.aspx

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  4. Windows 8 Development – Navigation via ItemClick Event

    Now that the UI for our main application page is working, we need to add navigation to other related pages. While we have looked at adding a navigation bar previously, we can also navigate to a new page by simply adding code to the ItemClick event handler. Additionally, we can pass in parameters to identify the previous page, and give the target page whatever data it needs. In this video, I will show you how to enable the ItemClick event, and add code to the ItemClick event handler. References XAML Blog Reader – http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/br211380.aspx

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  5. Windows 8 Development – XAML DefaultViewModel Binding

    Next we're going to hook up the UI for our main application page through the DefaultViewModel collection. A page of type 'Items' has a default View Model defined, and it is possible to hook up to a data source with only a few lines of code. Once done, the page will render the items in the default template format. Of course,customization will likely take place from the default settings. In this video, I will show you how to bind our data feeds to the DefaultViewModel["Items"] element of our ItemsPage. References XAML Blog Reader - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/br211380.aspx

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  6. Windows 8 Development – Changing XAML Start Page

    Developers familiar with Visual Studio are aware that it is possible to change the startup project via a context menu. Similarly, when the application starts, it will load the page defined in the OnLaunched method. In order to change which page is launched, the type of the page passed in just needs to match a type within the current project which derives from LayoutAwarePage. In this video, I will show you how to change the start page for a XAML application through the code-behind file. References XAML Blog Reader - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/br211380.aspx

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  7. Windows 8 Development – Adding Multiple XAML Pages

    Adding UI pages is a fundamental part of creating any interactive application, and can sometimes be quite time consuming. Luckily, there are several templates to choose from which can speed up the process, and reduce development time by enabling rapid deployment of pre-defined templates. In this video, I will show you how to add multiple pages to a XAML application. References XAML Blog Reader - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/br211380.aspx

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  8. Windows 8 Development – XAML OnLaunched / NetworkInformation Class

    Now that we've added our resource for the feed data, we need to override the OnLaunched method in App.xaml. Since our application also needs to check for an internet connection, we will make use of the NetworkInformation class. This class presents a standardized way to check for an active internet connection rather than an arbitrary DNS query, or other methods of checking for connection. OnLaunched is called when the application is launched, and it is in this method that we'll perform our internet check, as well as start pulling down feeds. In this video, I will show you how to override the OnLaunched method with application specific logic, and how to use the NetworkInformation class. References XAML Blog Reader - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/br211380.aspx

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  9. Windows 8 Development – XAML Add Resource

    Windows 8 Development – XAML Add Resource

    We've created a class that will handle the blog data feeds we are interested in, but now we have to incorporate that class into our program. Using App.xaml, we can insert a named instnace of our feed data, and then later manipulate that instance to retrieve data feeds. For those familiar with XML, XAML allows for easily defining a resource, and inserting it at an appropriate point in the schema. In this video, I will show you how to add a resource to an application using XAML. References XAML Blog Reader - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/br211380.aspx

    read more

  10. Windows 8 Development – XAML Blog Reader Code Review / Await Keyword

    After creating our project and copying some code from our tutorial, we will now examine that code. The SyndicationClient makes pulling down feeds next to trivial, however to make a responsive application asynchronous programming is the best approach. The await keyword takes care of a lot of work behind the scenes such as creating callbacks, and allows updating UI elements in the same piece of code as an asynchronous call is made, without the need to invoke any external dispatchers. In this video, I will discuss the sample code and the asynchronous approach. References XAML Blog Reader – http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/br211380.aspx

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