A Floating Behavior for Windows 8 Store apps 06 March 2014 Diederik-Krols WinRT In my previous article I introduced a Floating Control for Windows Store apps, and hinted that it could be rewritten as a Behavior. Well, that’s exactly what I did. This article describes the Floating Behavior: it allows a ContentControl to be dragged around the screen through mouse or touch, while ... [More]
A Floating Control for Windows 8 Store apps 23 February 2014 Diederik-Krols WinRT Windows 8 Store apps need to run on a huge number of screen resolutions. That makes positioning your controls not always an easy task. So why not let the end user decide where a control should be placed? This article describes how to build a XAML and C# ContentControl that can be dragged around (and... [More]
LexDB performance tuning in a Windows 8 Store app 09 February 2014 Diederik-Krols WinRT This article explains how to create fast queries against a LexDB database in a Windows 8 Store app, and how to keep these queries fast. LexDB is a lightweight, in-process object database engine. It is written in C# and can be used in .NET, Silverlight, Windows Phone, Windows Store, and Xamarin proje... [More]
SQLite performance tuning in a Windows 8 Store app 03 February 2014 Diederik-Krols WinRT This article explains how to monitor and optimize a SQLite query in a Windows 8 Store app by adding indexes and/or rewriting the query. I’ll be using the WinRT SQLite wrapper from the Visual Studio Gallery. I assume that you know how to install and use it, but feel free to check a previous blog post... [More]
Choosing the right serialization engine for your Windows Store app 19 January 2014 Diederik-Krols Most Windows 8 Store apps spend a significant time in the saving and retrieving of local data. The local file system is often used as main storage. But even the apps that come with server side storage, often need to use local storage: to host a cache for when there’s no network available or whilst t... [More]
Using the Windows 8.1 Hub as an ItemsControl 06 January 2014 Diederik-Krols WinRT This article presents a Windows 8.1 Hub control with ItemsSource and ItemTemplate properties, making it easily bindable and more MVVM-friendly. The Hub control has become the main host on the startup screen of many Windows Store apps: it’s flexible but still presents a standard look-and-feel w... [More]
First time MVP 02 January 2014 Diederik-Krols It is with great pride that I announce that I was presented with the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Award for the very first time. For the next 12 months, I’m an MVP in the Client Development category, which has an impressively strong Belgian representation. I would like to thank M... [More]
Using Lex.DB as a local storage in a Windows 8 Store app 10 December 2013 Diederik-Krols WinRT Lex.DB is a lightweight, in-process database engine, completely written in C#. It can be used on .NET 4+, Silverlight 5+, Windows Phone 8+, WinRT, and Android (through Xamarin). That makes it a direct competitor against SQLite. The latter seems to become the de facto standard for storing structured ... [More]
Using SQLite in a Windows Store MVVM App 05 December 2013 Diederik-Krols WinRT Some of my Windows Store Apps are desperately seeking for a local database. I was getting tired of waiting on Microsoft to release a SQL Express for WinRT - which as far as I know, was never planned. So I decided to test-drive SQLite: a free, technology neutral, self-contained, zero-configuration, t... [More]
Drawing a Circular Gradient in Windows Store and Windows Phone apps 15 November 2013 Diederik-Krols Windows Phone, WinRT This article shows a way to easily create a circular gradient effect in a Windows Store app or a Windows Phone app. The standard linear and radial gradients are nice, but they do not allow you to draw something like this: <Spoiler> There’s no magic involved. </Spoiler> What we&... [More]