Professional Visual Studio 2012

Chapter 20

Windows Store Applications

WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• The major characteristics and considerations of a Windows Store application
• The Windows Store project templates
• How to use the Windows Store Simulator to test your application
• The basic structure of a data-bound Windows Store application

If you have been paying attention to the Windows development world in the last few years, you would be hard pressed to avoid the topic of Windows Store applications. After making its debut in Windows Phone 7 (when it was still code-named Metro), the Windows Store has become the focal point of the design sensibilities in Microsoft. When Windows 8 was introduced to the world, lo and behold the Windows Store took center stage.

But what exactly is the Windows Store? And, more important, what tools and techniques are available in Visual Studio 2012 to enable you to create Windows Store applications? In this chapter you’ll learn the basic components of Windows Store applications, as well as how to create them and debug them using Visual Studio 2012.

WHAT IS A WINDOWS STORE APPLICATION?

When you look at Windows Phone 7 or Windows 8, the first visual impression is given by the Windows Store. And this impression is consistency and elegance. The navigation paradigms are intuitive. The applications (see Figure 20-1) fill the entire screen, providing an immersive experience for the user. The chrome that has surrounding applications since Windows 3.0 is gone, leaving nothing in the way of the user. ...