One of the new data controls in Windows 8 Metro is the ListView. The ListView does the same thing as the ListBox, plus more. In this post, I’ll build on the TwitterClient, from my previous post: Windows 8 Composition and Content. and show how to refactor the ListBox to a ListView. I’ll also mention a few of the differences between the two controls. Refactor ListBox to ListView To save you a little time, I’ll show you the XAML for the ListBox, from my previous post. Then I’ll follow up with changes...
Composition is an integral part of Windows 8 UI design from both aesthetic and logical perspectives. This post modified my previous post, Refactoring Windows 8 Code-Behind to MVVM. adding to the variety of compositional examples. I’ll start with an explanation of composition in Windows 8, modify the previous code to show the power of composition, and then highlight a few more existing examples of where composition naturally fits into the Windows 8 UI environment. Understanding Windows 8 Composition...
In my previous post, Using LINQ to Twitter in Windows 8 Metro Apps, I cheated a little (some might say a lot) on my UI architecture by using code-behind. In this post, I’ll make it all better by showing you how to separate the model and interaction logic from the UI design – proper separation of concerns. I’ll accomplish this with a pattern, named Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM), which is widely used for WPF, Silverlight, and (soon) Windows 8 Metro Apps. I’ll start by discussing what MVVM is, move to...
While the title of this post suggests focus on LINQ to Twitter, it also indicates that I’ll be discussing how to build a Windows 8 Metro application. The application itself will display a list of tweets from Twitter’s public feed. In the sections that follow, you’ll read background information on pre-requisites to understanding the post, learn how to get LINQ to Twitter working with Visual Studio 11, and then see a step-by-step on how the application is built. Getting Started You can build Metro...
Installing Windows 8 Developer Preview isn’t always simple. It was troublesome on a 32-bit machine, but much easier on x64. Since Win8’s debut at Build last September, VirtualBox supports installing Win8 natively, so you’ll want to download the latest version of VirtualBox to make sure you don’t have problems. Another good option is VMWare. They have a free product, VMWare Player, that runs well. The only problem is it doesn’t have native Win8 support, but don’t let that get in the way. This blog...