Hardcore WPF

(Windows Presentation
Foundation)

casey chesnut
brains-N-brawn.com

Madison .NET 11/06

 Source
• Fundamental demos
– http://www.brains-n-
brawn.com/artifacts/HardcoreWPF.zip
• /backRow demo
– http://www.brains-N-brawn.com/backRow/
Which of these would
you like to see?

brains-N-brawn.com
• Pervasive Computing
– Tablet PC (MVP 03)
– Compact Framework (MVP 04)
– Advanced Web Services (MVP 05)
– Media Center (MVP 06)
– Speech
– Location Based Services
– Artificial Intelligence
– 3D
 OUTLINE
• Overview
• Fundamentals – demos!
• Application Models
• /backRow demo!
OUTLINE : Overview
Which of these have
you worked with?

Now
• GDI (20 years), GDI+, WinForms
• DirectX (11 years), Direct3D
• Quartz, DirectShow (8 years)

• Problems
– Showing their age
– Each API is different
– Mixing APIs is challenging
 Next Gen
• WPF – replaces GDI
• Direct3D – large games, used by WPF
• Media Foundation – ultimately will replace
DirectShow

• MCML –markup language for Media

Center Edition applications
• XNA – small games
 WPF
• Compositing
– UI, Documents, Media, 3D, Browser, …
• Declarative programming with XAML markup
• For Designers and Developers
• Rewritten from scratch
– Built on top of Direct3D
– Hardware accelerated
– Vector based
– Resolution independent (1/96 inch)
– Retained graphics
 Platforms
• Vista
• XP SP2
• Server 2003 SP1

• Renders the same on each

• Remote Desktop transport
• Subsets of WPF (XPS, WPF/E) will make
it to other platforms
 Tiers
• Tier 2 – DirectX 9, Shader 2.0, 128 megs
video ram (hardware rendering)
• Tier 1 – DirectX 7, 32 megs video ram
(mixed hw/sw rendering)
• Tier 0 – below (software rendering)

• Defaults to 60 fps
• Anti-aliasing
 Timeline
• Pillar of .NET 3.0
– Class libraries built on .NET 2.0
– WPF, WCF, WF, InfoCard
– Past Release Candidate
– Go-live licenses available
• Released with Vista
• “Orcas”, .NET 3.X coming after that
 Installation
• Visual Studio 2005
• .NET 3.0 (pre-installed with Vista)
– Runtime
• Windows SDK
– MSBuild, XAMLPad, samples
• Orcas extension for VS 2005
– Visual designer, schemas, project templates
XAMLPad
Microsoft Expression
Interactive Designer Tools
• Windows SDK
– XAMLPad, Perforator, UISpy, XPS Conformance,
WICExplorer
• VS 2005
– Orcas Extensions (beta)
• Electric Rain Zam 3D
• Mobiform Aurora
• Microsoft Expression
– Graphics Designer
– Interactive Designer
• “Orcas”, Cider
 OUTLINE : Fundamentals
• XAML, Application, Navigation, Layout,
Content, Data Binding, Dependency
Property, Styles, Templates, Controls,
Events, Shapes, Documents, Imaging,
BitmapEffects, Animation, Media,
Brushes, 3D
HelloWorldXamlPage
HelloWorldCodePage
XAML
• Declarative object instantiation
• Not exclusive to WPF
• Separates UI and logic
– Common language for Designers and Developers
– Parallel development
– Localization, Branding
– Targeted UI (devices, users, …)
• Tool support
• Supports C# and VB.NET
VS.NET WPF app from
scratch
DragDrop Cider controls
from Toolbox
Application
• Global
• Message handling
• App events (e.g. startup, shutdown)
• NavigationService
• Properties collection
• StartupUri
XamlSyntax

XAML
• Object elements, Attribute syntax
• Property elements, Abbreviated syntax
• Content syntax
• Attached properties, Attached events
• Markup extensions
– Binding syntax, Resource syntax
• Xml Namespaces
• Code-behind vs Inline vs Code-only
MainWindowTransparency

Window
• Window
• NavigationWindow
• Page
http://localhost/PageNavigation/PageNavigation.xbap

Navigation
• NavigationWindow and Frame
• Hyperlink
• NavigationService
• URI, fragment support
• Events
• Journal
• PageFunctions
 Events
• RoutedEvents
– Tunneling (Preview*) and Bubbling
• ElementTree
• Stylus support for Tablet PCs
• Attach handler in XAML or Code
• Styles/Templates can handle events
• Bind to element with Name or x:Name
PanelLayout

Layout
• Dynamic sizing and positioning
• Panels are key
– Grid, StackPanel, DockPanel, WrapPanel, Canvas, …
• Alignment
– Stretch (Size to container)
– Left, Right, Center (Size to content)
• Margin (parent) and Padding (content)
• Overflow
– Clip, Wrap, Scroll, Scale
ToolTip

Content
• Rich Content
– ContentControl
– HeaderedContentControl
– ItemsControl
– HeaderedItemsControl
InteropWinForm

Interop
• HwndSource, HwndHost
• Interops with WinForms, Win32, DirectX,
…
• ActiveX interop is through WinForms
interop
• Cannot share airspace, so compositing
will not work
TwoWayBinding

Data Binding
• Data models : XML, Objects, DataSets,
WCF, LINQ, …
• Binding syntax
• DependencyProperty
• DataContext, DataTemplate
• INotifyPropertyChanged,
INotifyCollectionChanged
• Modes : OneTime, OneWay, TwoWay,
OneWayToSource
 DependencyProperty
• Value depends on some other property
– User for DataBinding, Styles, Animation, …
• Validation
• Inheritance
• AttachedProperties
• Default values
StyledButton

Styles
• Similar to CSS
• Resources
• Setters
• Triggers
• Inheritance
• … Templates
• … Animation
TemplateButton

Templates
• Controls are built based on their
functionality
• The default template can be changed to
radically change how the control renders
• The goal is to avoid having to create user
drawn controls
VS.NET Toolbox

Controls
• Comes with a set of standard set of
common controls for UI
• UserControl
– Simple reusable control
– Similar to application development
• Control
– Provides templating
– For reuse between many applications
Shapes

Shapes
• 2D Geometric Shapes
– Ellipse
– Line
– Path
– Polygon
– Polyline
– Rectangle
FlowDocument
File – Print - XPS

Documents
• Flow vs Fixed (XPS)
• Packaging
• Document viewing
• Typography
– ClearType
– OpenFont
– Font can be deployed with an Application
• Printing
• Annotating
Imaging

Imaging
• BMP, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, WDP, GIF, ICON
• BitmapFrame
• Rotation
• Image, BitmapImage for XAML
• CroppedBitamp, FormatConvertedBitmap
• Clipping
• Stretching
• Metadata
BitmapEffect

BitmapEffect
• Applied to Visuals
• Can be chained
• Blur
• OuterGlow
• DropShadow
• Bevel
• Emboss
AnimatedButton

Animation
• Dependency Properties
• Animation Types : Double, Color, String,
Point, Int32, Path, …
• Targets : From, To, By
• Time based : duration, repetition, start
times, …
• Storyboards : pausing, stopping, resume
• Key-Frame support
MediaInk

Media
• Audio
• Video
Brushes

Brushes
• SolidColorBrush
• Gradients
– LinearGradientBrush
– RadialGradientBrush
• ImageBrush
• DrawingBrush – vector and bitmap
• VisualBrush – any Visual!
ThreeD

3D
• Basic 3D Support
• Viewport3D
• Cameras
• Models
• Materials
• Lights
• Transforms
• Hit Testing
• Animations
 OUTLINE : App Models
• Loose XAML
• Windows Application
• XBAP / WBA
• WPF/E
• XPS
 Loose XAML
• XAML without any code
• Opens in IE
• Can be dynamically generated
 Applications
• Windows application
• EXE with a Window or NavigationWindow
• Installed
• Offline and Online
• Full access
 XBAP / WBA
• Hosted in a browser, IE6 and above
– Other browsers, FireFox with a plugin
• Online only
• Internet zone permissions
• Embed in webpage using IFrame
– Cannot interact with hosting page
• Media Center, Sidebar Gadgets
 WPF/E
• Multiple browsers
– Browsers IE5.5+, Mozilla, Firefox, Opera,
Safari
• Multiple platforms
– MS : Win2K+, MAC OS X 10
– 3rd party : Linux, Solaris
• Multiple devices
– Desktop, PPC, SP
 WPF/E
• Subset of WPF e.g. no 3D
• Shooting for 2 meg runtime install
• Object tag for embedding in HTML
• WPF + JScript, IL
• Public beta bits are late (Q3 06), browser
release (1st half 07), device support (2nd
half 07)
 XPS
• XML Paper Specification
• Subset of WPF
• Fixed immutable layout
• Zip format with resources
• Viewers can be ported to other platforms
– Open package specification
– XPS
• Vista printer spool format
 OUTLINE : /backRow Demo
• brains-N-brawn.com/backRow/
 Resources
• Books
– Applications = Code + Markup
– Programming Windows Presentation Foundation
– XAML in a Nutshell
• Forum
Windows Presentation Foundation ("Avalon“)
• Newsgroup
microsoft.public.windows.developer.winfx.avalon
 Resources
• Webcasts
http://sessions.mix06.com
• eLearning

Developing Rich Experiences with Microsoft® .NET F

• Samples
C:\Program
Files\Microsoft\SDKs\Windows\v6.0\Samples\WPFSa
mples.zip
 Resources
• Sites
– http://wpf.netfx3.com/
– WPF Windows SDK Documentation
– My Five Day Course For Hitting the WPF Curve/C
– www.brains-N-brawn.com/backRow/
Questions