The Slider’s Guide to the MVVM Galaxy 19 March 2013 Diederik-Krols This article describes two behaviors of the native XAML Slider control that reduce the joy of using it in MVVM Windows 8 Store apps. We all agree that XAML is one of the nicest technologies to develop Windows 8 Store apps, right? We all agree that you should use MVVM to build XAML apps, right? No, w... [More]
Semantic Zoom and LINQ: Better Together 05 March 2013 Diederik-Krols Metro, WinRT With this short article, I want to show you the easy way to provide data to a semantic zoom in a Windows 8 Store app. I’ve seen too many developers trying to massage their business data to make it consumable for a semantic zoom, by pulling it through custom implementations of IS... [More]
Avoiding hard times with the soft keyboard 05 February 2013 Diederik-Krols WinRT Developers who submit a Windows 8 XAML-based Store app that involves data entry, should always test their app on a real touch device. Otherwise they might see their app rejected because of the soft keyboard blocking the screen. This article illustrates some of my personal experiences and issues rega... [More]
Printing from MVVM XAML Windows 8 Store apps - the final frontier 21 January 2013 Diederik-Krols WinRT This article describes a reusable way of implementing print support in a Windows 8 MVVM-and-XAML based Store app. I noticed on the MSDN forum that many developers have a problem with the XAML version of the official printing sample app. They find it too complex. So I originally wanted to create... [More]
Using Dynamic XAML in Windows 8 Store Apps 08 January 2013 Diederik-Krols WinRT This article describes a couple of techniques that you can apply to dynamically change the look-and-feel of data-bound XAML controls in a Windows 8 Store App. You’ll be introduced to value converters, style selectors, template selectors, and the XamlReader class. I created a light-weight MVVM ... [More]
Building Custom Controls for Windows 8 Store apps 06 December 2012 Diederik-Krols Metro, WinRT This article explains how to build custom controls for Windows Store apps, using XAML and C#. Custom controls are the most powerful controls in the XAML department. Once you know how to design and build these, you’ll have no problems with their alternatives: user controls, derived controls, an... [More]
Building User Controls for Windows 8 Store apps 07 November 2012 Diederik-Krols Metro, WinRT This article describes how to build user controls for XAML-based Windows 8 Store apps. User controls –or composite controls- are the easiest controls that you can roll yourself, since they're defined in plain XAML and come with design-time support in Visual Studio. Basically&nbs... [More]
Using Behaviors in Windows 8 Store Apps 28 October 2012 Diederik-Krols Metro, WinRT This short article explains how to write and use behaviors in Windows 8 Store apps. Behaviors were introduced a couple of yahren ago, in Blend for Silverlight 3. Later on they also found their way to WPF and WP7. Technically, behaviors are nothing but an implementa... [More]
Input Validation in Windows 8 Store apps 09 October 2012 Diederik-Krols Metro, WinRT This article is an introduction to input validation in Windows Store apps. That sounds ambitious. On one hand, some apps really need decent data entry validation. On the other hand, the Store app runtime does not come with Data Annotations, and it does not come with the IDataErrorInfo... [More]
Enhancing the Win8 Slider experience 27 September 2012 Diederik-Krols Metro, WinRT This article describes a way to enhance the user friendliness of a standard slider control in a Windows 8 Store App. Problem In a touch oriented application, we often allow -or force- the user to set the value for an integer or an enumeration through a slider control. In most cases this is more co... [More]