Windows® Phone 8 Unleashed

Design-Time Data

It can be difficult and time consuming constructing a page or control without knowing how the content will appear at runtime. The dimensions of images can disturb the layout, as can the length of text and text wrapping settings. The d:DataContext markup extension, which exists in the http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008 namespace, allows you to simulate the runtime DataContext of a control with a design-time object (see Figure 3.13).

FIGURE 3.13 The d:DataContext markup extension provides for design-time sample data.

Here a design-time instance of the ProductDetailsViewModel class presents some sample data to improve ...