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Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed (WPF)
- By Adam Nathan
- Published Dec 21, 2006 by Sams. Part of the Unleashed series.
- Copyright 2007
- Dimensions: 7x9-1/8
- Pages: 656
- Edition: 1st
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-672-32891-7
- ISBN-13: 978-0-672-32891-6
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Product Author Bios
Adam Nathan is a senior software development engineer in Microsoft’s Developer Division. He is the author of the acclaimed .NET and COM: The Complete Interoperability Guide (SAMS, 2002), a coauthor of ASP.NET: Tips, Tutorials, and Code (SAMS, 2001), and a contributor to books such as .NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference, Vol. 2 (Addison-Wesley, 2005) and Windows Developer Power Tools (O’Reilly, 2006). Adam regularly speaks at development conferences and to groups within Microsoft about a variety of .NET Framework topics. Having started his career on Microsoft’s Common Language Runtime team in 1999, Adam has been at the core of .NET technologies since the very beginning. Adam is also the creator of popular tools and websites for .NET developers, such as PINVOKE.NET, CLR SPY (and its Visual Studio add-in), and XAMLshare.com. You can find him online at www.adamnathan.net.
Daniel Lehenbauer is the lead software design engineer responsible for the 3D features in Windows Presentation Foundation. Prior to WPF, he worked on multiple graphics and UI technologies, including mobile controls for ASP.NET and Windows Forms. Daniel is active in the WPF community and blogs about 3D graphics using WPF at www.viewport3D.com.
Printed entirely in color, with helpful figures and syntax coloring to make code samples appear as they do in Visual Studio.
Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is a key component of the .NET Framework 3.0, giving you the power to create richer and more compelling applications than you dreamed possible. Whether you want to develop traditional user interfaces or integrate 3D graphics, audio/video, animation, dynamic skinning, rich document support, speech recognition, or more, WPF enables you to do so in a seamless, resolution-independent manner. Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed is the authoritative book that covers it all, in a practical and approachable fashion, authored by .NET guru and Microsoft developer Adam Nathan.
· Covers everything you need to know about Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML)
· Examines the WPF feature areas in incredible depth: controls, layout, resources, data binding, styling, graphics, animation, and more
· Features a chapter on 3D graphics by Daniel Lehenbauer, lead developer responsible for WPF 3D
· Delves into non-mainstream topics: speech, audio/video, documents, bitmap effects, and more
· Shows how to create popular UI elements, such as features introduced in the 2007 Microsoft Office System: Galleries, ScreenTips, custom control layouts, and more
· Demonstrates how to create sophisticated UI mechanisms, such as Visual Studio-like collapsible/dockable panes
· Explains how to develop and deploy all types of applications, including navigation-based applications, applications hosted in a Web browser, and applications with great-looking non-rectangular windows
· Explains how to create first-class custom controls for WPF
· Demonstrates how to create hybrid WPF software that leverages Windows Forms, ActiveX, or other non-WPF technologies
· Explains how to exploit new Windows Vista features in WPF applications
Source Code
Download the Source Code from this book.
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34 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Best WPF Resource,
This review is from: Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed (WPF) (Paperback)
If, as a software developer, you have spent years looking at the visual promises of Vista, really wanting to dive in and create those next generation, media-rich interfaces, but didn't have a clear indicator of where to begin - now you do. Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed is your one-stop answer to discovering what WPF is, learning basic and advanced controls, and building WPF applications.Without a lot of dry history, and in a full-color presentation that makes comprehending what you're reading much more efficient, you are given a very complete coverage of controls, control manipulation, data binding, animation, and other multimedia objects. Throughout the text you are given not only code snippets, but illustrations of what the finished product should resemble, sidebar Tips sections, sidebar Warnings sections, and sidebar "Digging Deeper", really solidifying the information presented not only in the initial component coverage, but the follow-up WFP application... Read more
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Very Good; But beginners be warned, By Abu H (Nigeria) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed (WPF) (Paperback)
It's a good buy.The book as a package is a good reference for WPF. However, absolute beginners will have a difficult time through it, or at least I did. The first few chapters left me with a headache. I persisted and I can say I now have a firm understanding of WPF. Overall its a good buy. Pros: ====== 1. Loads and loads of examples. 2. Full color graphics, helps one to quickly grasp the concepts being illustrated. 3. Easy reference. Quite easy to reference Cons: ===== 1.Beginners be warned. Just keep reading you will understand later on. 2. The Author pulls things out of the hat and starts using them before explaining what they are. If he had explained them immediately after, it would be okay; but he doesn't, until a few chapters later. The chapter that was supposed to introduce XAML ended up confusing me, only after reading half the book did I grasp the concepts of the XAML chapter. 3.The general use of... Read more
30 of 33 people found the following review helpful
The best on the subject ., By
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This review is from: Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed (WPF) (Paperback)
Excellent book, very well designed, organized and the colors make a huge difference. This is the best book on WPF I have read (I've read 5 so far). the examples are simple and concise (and they work! which is not always the case with books published so close to the product release). Also, it is amazing how much of WPF this book covers, probably the most extensive coverage of the WPF capabilities. Perfect for intermediate to advanced programmer. Again I was surprised how having color code and illustations made such a difference. A Must have!!
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Online Sample Chapters
Important New Concepts in Windows Presentation Foundation
Table of Contents
PART I Background
1 Why Windows Presentation Foundation?
2 XAML Demystified
3 Important New Concepts in WPF
PART II Building a WPF Application
4 Introducing WPF’s Controls
5 Sizing, Positioning, and Transforming Elements
6 Layout with Panels
7 Structuring and Deploying an Application
PART III Features for Professional Developers
8 Resources
9 Data Binding
10 Styles, Templates, Skins, and Themes
PART IV Going Beyond Today’s Applications with Rich Media
11 2D Graphics
12 3D Graphics
13 Animation
14 Audio, Video, Speech, and Documents
PART V Advanced Topics
15 Interoperability with Win32, Windows Forms, and ActiveX
16 User Controls and Custom Controls
17 Layout with Custom Panels
PART VI Appendix: Helpful Tools
Index
Downloadable Sample Chapter
Errata
| PrintNumber | ErrorLocation | Error | Correction | DateAdded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | p2 | Because WPF enables you to create not only standalone Windows applications but also content hosted in a web browser, anyone interested in alternatives to Adobe Flash might find this book interesting. And although the more lightweight and cross-platform Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere (WPF/E) technology does not have significant coverage in this book, many of the same concepts in this book will apply to WPF/E once it is released. |
Because WPF enables you to create not only standalone Windows applications but also content hosted in a web browser, anyone interested in alternatives to Adobe Flash might find this book interesting. And although the more lightweight and cross-platform Silverlight technology does not have significant coverage in this book, many of the same concepts in this book will apply to WPF/E once it is released. |
6/25/2007 |
| 4 | p15 | To address cross-platform support and ubiquity, Microsoft has announced Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere (WPF/E). WPF/E (not yet released at the time of writing) is a small, lightweight runtime representing a subset of WPF. It supports XAML and JavaScript in addition to C# and Visual Basic, and should eventually be available on both Windows and non-Windows systems. At the time of writing, it is expected that WPF/E will support vector-based graphics, images, video, animation, text, and basic controls, but it won’t support 3D, rich documents support, extensibility, or hardware acceleration. It remains to be seen how popular WPF or WPF/E will be as an alternative to Flash. | To address cross-platform support and ubiquity, Microsoft has announced Silverlight. Silverlight (still in beta at the time of writing) is a small, lightweight runtime representing a subset of WPF. It supports XAML and JavaScript (in version 1.0) in addition to .NET languages (in version 1.1) and is available for both Windows and Mac systems. At the time of writing, Silverlight supports vector-based graphics, images, video, animation, text, and basic controls, but it doesn’t support 3D, rich documents, extensibility, or hardware acceleration. It remains to be seen how popular Silverlight will be as an alternative to Flash, but it holds a lot of promise. | 6/25/2007 |
| 4 | p110 | TabControl The final selector—TabControl—is useful for switching between multiple pages of content. Figure 4.17 shows what a basic TabControl looks like. Tabs in a TabControl are typically placed on the top, but with TabControl’s TabStripPlacment property (of type Dock), you can also set their placement to Left, Right, or Bottom. |
TabControl The final selector—TabControl—is useful for switching between multiple pages of content. Figure 4.17 shows what a basic TabControl looks like. Tabs in a TabControl are typically placed on the top, but with TabControl’s TabStripPlacement property (of type Dock), you can also set their placement to Left, Right, or Bottom. |
6/25/2007 |
| 4 | p227 | XAML Browser Applications This chapter started with a standard Windows application, and basically continued to add features to it to take fuller advantage of WPF or of the underlying operating system. These last two sections are actually about ways to repackage and restrict functionality for the sake of achieving broader and easier deployment. WPF supports the creation of applications that run directly in a web browser. (So will WPF/E, when it is released.) They are called XAML Browser Applications (XBAPs), and have a .xbap file extension. |
XAML Browser Applications This chapter started with a standard Windows application, and basically continued to add features to it to take fuller advantage of WPF or of the underlying operating system. These last two sections are actually about ways to repackage and restrict functionality for the sake of achieving broader and easier deployment. WPF supports the creation of applications that run directly in a web browser. (So does Silverlight, but with less power and broader reach.) They are called XAML Browser Applications (XBAPs), and have a .xbap file extension. |
6/25/2007 |
| 4 | p227 | Do XAML Browser Applications work on any operating system or in any web browser? No. Just like full WPF applications, they require Windows and they require the .NET Framework 3.0 or later to be installed. And at the time of writing, they are only supported within Internet Explorer or any other browser that hosts the Microsoft WebBrowser ActiveX control. If you don’t need all the power of WPF and want broader platform exposure, WPF/E is the best choice. (Especially considering that all the power of WPF isn’t typically available in the browser anyway due to security restrictions!) |
Do XAML Browser Applications work on any operating system or in any web browser? No. Just like full WPF applications, they require Windows and they require the .NET Framework 3.0 or later to be installed. And at the time of writing, they are only supported within Internet Explorer or any other browser that hosts the Microsoft WebBrowser ActiveX control. If you don’t need all the power of WPF and want broader platform exposure, Silverlight is the best choice. (Especially considering that all the power of WPF isn’t typically available in the browser anyway due to security restrictions!) |
6/25/2007 |
| 4 | p232 | Why would you want to create a XAML Browser Application? XBAPs are suited for relatively full-featured applications that happen to be hosted directly in a web browser. This direct hosting can be desirable for seamless navigation between HTML and WPF content, or simply for the lightweight feel conveyed by such an arrangement. After WPF/E is released, it is likely to be the preferred approach over creating an XBAP (as it will have broader platform support) for simpler applications that don’t require as much functionality. If you want weblike deployment but don’t care about having your application hosted directly in a web browser, you can simply create a standard Windows application rather than an XBAP, decide if you want to constrain it to run under partial trust, and deploy it using ClickOnce. On the other hand, if your goal is to use WPF to create richer web pages (which tend not to require custom application logic), you should consider creating and deploying a loose XAML page, described in the “Loose XAML Pages” section. |
Why would you want to create a XAML Browser Application? XBAPs are suited for relatively full-featured applications that happen to be hosted directly in a web browser. This direct hosting can be desirable for seamless navigation between HTML and WPF content, or simply for the lightweight feel conveyed by such an arrangement. Silverlight is likely to be the preferred approach over creating an XBAP (as it will have broader platform support) for simpler applications that don’t require as much functionality. If you want weblike deployment but don’t care about having your application hosted directly in a web browser, you can simply create a standard Windows application rather than an XBAP, decide if you want to constrain it to run under partial trust, and deploy it using ClickOnce. |
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