Real World Windows 8 Development

Real World Windows 8 Development

by Samidip Basu
Released May 2013
Publisher(s): Apress
ISBN: 9781430250258

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Book description

Real World Windows 8 Development is a developer's handbook - an essential guide to building complete, end-user ready Windows 8 applications on the XAML and C# programming stack from start to finish. Starting with Windows 8 basics and walking through practical aspects of building your Windows 8 application, you'll find step-by-step instructions and practical advice that will leave you with a modern, elegant app written to the highest of standards.

Author Samidip Basu, an early adopter of Windows 8 app development techniques, breaks down the design, development, and polish of a real-world business application, adding handy tips and tricks around controls, user interface design, storage, navigation, contracts, and more.

Give your Windows 8 application development efforts a kick-start with Real World Windows 8 Development.

What you'll learn

  • Discover the pertinent points of the technology stack in Windows 8 from a developer's perspective.

  • Familiarize yourself with best practices around usage of controls, user experience paradigms, navigation, storage, service integration, contracts, and more.

  • Incrementally make your Windows 8 application feature-rich and an integrated well-behaved citizen in the operating system.

  • Learn from crisp, standalone discussion of topics in each chapter

    • Who this book is for

    Real World Windows 8 Development is by a developer, for developers. The book is for .NET developers wanting to utilize their existing skills in XAML and C# towards building a Windows 8 application. On the fence about how your C# and .NET skills apply in the new WinRT world? Have a dream application idea that you slowly want to build up? This book is for you.

    Table of contents

    1. Title Page
    2. Contents at a Glance
    3. Contents
    4. About the Author
    5. About the Technical Reviewer
    6. Acknowledgments
    7. Introduction
    8. PART 1: Knowing the Ecosystem
      1. CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Windows 8
        1. The State of Computing
        2. Windows 8: The Overview
        3. The Form Factors
        4. Platform Investments
        5. The One Ecosystem
      2. CHAPTER 2: Modern UI Design
        1. The Backdrop
        2. Modern UI Design Principles
        3. The Traits
        4. Call to Action
    9. PART 2: Getting Started
      1. CHAPTER 3: The App Platform and Developer Tools
        1. Examining the Platform Architecture
        2. Development Choices
        3. Tools: Required Software
        4. Working with Templates
        5. Anatomy of a Visual Studio Project
        6. Some Boilerplate Code
        7. Summary
      2. CHAPTER 4: The Right Controls
        1. Framework and Namespace Basics
        2. The Placeholders
        3. The Container Controls
        4. The Collection Controls
        5. Selection Controls
        6. Filter/Navigation Controls
        7. Transient UI Controls
        8. Summary
      3. CHAPTER 5: The Look and Feel
        1. Imagery
        2. From Template to App
        3. Implementing Semantic Zoom
        4. Summary
      4. CHAPTER 6: Content Structuring and Navigation
        1. Planning Your Content Structuring
        2. Page Navigation Within Frame
        3. Hub-and-Spoke Model
        4. The Templated Solution
        5. A Real-World Hub-and-Spoke Solution
        6. Summary
    10. PART 3: Into the Groove
      1. CHAPTER 7: Orientation and View States
        1. Device Orientation
        2. View States
        3. Visual State Manager
        4. Summary
      2. CHAPTER 8: Handling Data
        1. Data Types
        2. Data Containers
        3. Storage Targets
        4. Storage Through Application Settings
        5. Storage Through Files
        6. Relational Data
        7. Summary
      3. CHAPTER 9: Application Life-Cycle Management
        1. Process Life Cycle
        2. Events
        3. Timing and Debugging
        4. Async-Await and Race Conditions
        5. Background Agents
        6. Summary
      4. CHAPTER 10: Contracts
        1. Contracts and Extensions
        2. Share
        3. Search
        4. Settings
        5. File Contracts
        6. Summary
    11. PART 4: The Bling
      1. CHAPTER 11: Media and Sensors
        1. Remote Debugging
        2. Camera
        3. Media Playback
        4. Sensors
        5. Summary
      2. CHAPTER 12: Tiles, Badges, and Toasts
        1. Notification Delivery
        2. Tiles
        3. Secondary Tiles
        4. Badges
        5. Toasts
        6. Lock Screen Apps
        7. Summary
    12. PART 5: Above and Beyond
      1. CHAPTER 13: Cloud Augmentation
        1. Cloud Computing
        2. Windows Azure
        3. Handling Data
        4. Accessing Data: OData
        5. Setting Up the Service
        6. Deploying to Windows Azure
        7. OData Service Integration
        8. OData CRUD
        9. Other OData Tricks
        10. Push Notifications
        11. Azure Mobile Services
        12. Push Notifications Through Mobile Services
        13. User Authentication
        14. Summary
      2. CHAPTER 14: Live Services Integration
        1. Live Services
        2. Live Connect
        3. Scopes
        4. Authentication
        5. Contacts
        6. Calendars
        7. SkyDrive
        8. App Management
        9. Summary
      3. CHAPTER 15: Real-World Techniques
        1. Building Real-Time Applications
        2. SignalR
        3. Building a SignalR Back End
        4. SignalR-Powered Windows 8 App
        5. Programming Patterns
        6. Model-View-ViewModel
        7. MVVM Light Toolkit
        8. MetroGridHelper for WinRT
        9. Summary
      4. CHAPTER 16: Deployment
        1. Deployment Options
        2. Packaging for LOB and Windows Store
        3. WACK Validations
        4. Show Me the Money
        5. Summary
    13. Index

    Product information

    • Title: Real World Windows 8 Development
    • Author(s): Samidip Basu
    • Release date: May 2013
    • Publisher(s): Apress
    • ISBN: 9781430250258