Windows Presentation Foundation and User Experience and Atlas

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Windows Presentation Foundation and User
Experience and Atlas ?

• Paul Cross
• Richard Godfrey
• Microsoft

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Agenda

• Aims
• Suggest how we have got to here
• Show where Microsoft are heading as a Roadmap
• Side-Aims
• Provide examples and demos for illustration
• Anti-Aims
• Too much marketing ?
• Show how to use the technologies
• Dig into implementation depth

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User Experience 'UX' Matters
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What is UX?
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The world we are in
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(No Transcript)
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The 'Real World'

• Functionality traditionally comes first
• Little application development time for 'user
  experience' beyond prototypes
• Cost/Value justification breaks down?
• Developers are not designers!
• Except some Web developers?
• Tooling inadequate
• Flash? CSS?

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Consumers and the Enterprise

• Consumer activity drives enterprise activity
• Windows
• Office
• XBox Live
• GPU
• Blogging
• Online Presence Messenger, Yahoo, AOL, ICQ

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Why does it matter now?

• It always mattered ?
• Information Overload
• Real Business impact
• Faster
• Make business decisions faster on more data
• Cheaper
• Reduce costs
• Less training time (e.g. PoS operators)
• Reduce errors e.g. restricted UI, User self
  service
• Better
• Enhanced user/customer experience
• Data visualisation
• Stickiness e.g. Making it more stylish,
  approachable

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Is it a Client or a Server?

• Through the decades
• White coats
• The 50s Scheduling Time
• The 60s Batch Processing
• The 70s Timesharing OLTP
• Empowering the user
• The 80s PCs Client-Server
• User self-service
• The 90s Internet Services
• Community
• The 00s Users Experiences?
• Observations
• Computing power moving to the edge of the
  network
• E.g. CPU, GPU
• Mobile devices
• Move to user centricity
• BUT Issues with deployment, manageability,
  security

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Switch to Paul
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Where are we now (or nearly)?

• 'SOA' in the Enterprise
• Thin client experience seen as lacking (AJAX)
• 'Web 2.0' and 'Mashups' in the consumer space
• Designers engaged in the software lifecycle
• Tooling directed at the User Experience domain
• Agile development practices

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Richness vs. Complexity
ASP.NET 2.0 (HTML)
Windows Forms 2.0
DHTML
Direct 3D v9
2005
1997
Availability
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(No Transcript)
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AJAX/Atlas
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AJAX is

• Not a product
• Not a specification
• Not a standard
• Not a floor cleaning product
• Not the name of the son of Telamon of Salamis who
  fought against Troy
• Not an Amsterdam football team

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AJAX is

• Asynchronous Javascript And XML
• A layer of abstraction between the browser and
  the web server
• Available in Internet Explorer since 1999
• Improved UX through client-side interactions
  while data fetches are asynchronous
• According to some commentators, the future of all
  web development

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Typical Technologies for AJAX

• XHTML and CSS
• Document Object Model (DOM)
• XMLHttpRequest object
• JavaScript
• XML
• XSLT
• Etc.

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Demo
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Atlas Overview

• End-to-end application framework
• Enables building rich, interactive DHTML
  applications
• Component-oriented framework
• Imperative and declarative programming models
• Integrates with ASP.NET
• Extensible Application framework
• Custom script components, controls, behaviours
• Custom server controls
• Enables complex script-based applications
• Makes script development more approachable

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Atlas Approach to Development

• Application development
• Simple inclusion of script-based functionality
  via script components, server controls
• Separation of UI and behaviour
• Component development
• Enables disciplined approach to scripting
• Framework for encapsulating data and logic
• Abstracts browser differences
• Provides building blocks for higher level
  development

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Atlas Client Overview

• Collection of JavaScript (.js) files providing
  features for object-oriented development
• Browser compatibility layer
• Atlas core services
• Classes, namespaces, event handling, inheritance,
  data types and object serialisation
• Base class library
• String builders, debuggers, timers and tracing
• Networking layer
• Communication with web-based services and
  applications
• Management of the asynchronous remote method
  calls
• UI layer providing a number of Atlas client
  capabilities
• Behaviours
• The Atlas declarative syntax
• UI components
• Data binding
• Controls layer that creates Atlas-specific
  controls
• Data-bound, scripted, drag and drop,
  auto-completion text box, ordinary form controls,
  data-bound listview control, navigation controls

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Atlas Server Overview

• Includes components in ASP.NET, including web
  services and server controls
• Work in conjunction with Atlas client script
  libraries
• Leverages the following
• Profiles service
• Membership service
• Roles service
• Personalisation services
• Globalisation and culture-specific services
• Atlas server controls that resemble ASP.NET
  server controls
• Emit Atlas client script
• Simplify the process of producing Atlas client
  script
• E.g. Buttons, labels, options, textboxes, check
  boxes, hyperlinks and validation controls
• Special Atlas controls that emit JavaScript to
  produce client behaviours
• HoverBehavior control, a ClickBehavior control, a
  Popup control and an AutocompleteBehavior control

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What is Atlas?
Atlas-enabled ASP.NET Pages
HTML, Script, Atlas Markup
Atlas Service Proxies
Web Services (ASMX or WCF)
Atlas Server Framework
Atlas Client Framework and Services
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Windows Presentation Foundation
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Windows Presentation Foundation

• Next generation framework for building smart
  clients
• That could only be built by very experienced
  graphic programmers previously
• Declarative (XAML) for designers
• Object-based for developers
• Available for Windows Vista, Windows XP and
  Windows Server 2003

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Windows Vista Platform
WinFX
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Windows Presentation Foundation (1)
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Windows Presentation Foundation (2)
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Graphics Designer Developer in Perfect Harmony ?
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Windows Presentation Foundation (3)
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Windows Presentation Foundation (4)
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Windows Presentation Foundation (5)
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What couldnt be done easily before?

• 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional graphics
• Animation
• Vector-based graphics
• the capability to zoom without distorting the
  image
• Audio and video integration
• Fixed and flow format documents
• Easy data binding, styling, templates
• WYSIWYG vector-based printing

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Windows Presentation Foundation
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Demo
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'WPF/E' Web Architecture
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'WPF/E' Features
Core Runtime
Media Integration Layer
Base Services
Other Services
Core Controls
Text
2D
XML/XAML Parser
Container Controls
Audio
Video
Accessibility
Basic Layout
Imaging
Animation
Input and Eventing
Composition Engine
Property System
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Summary
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Richness vs. Complexity
ASP.NET 2.0 (HTML)
Windows Forms 2.0
DHTML (AJAX)
Direct 3D v9
2005
2006
1997
Availability
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What to use and when?

• WPF Pros
• Richest experience
• Offline capability
• ClickOnce deployment
• Text/Fonts

• Atlas Pros
• Platform reach
• Extends current web technology (HTML, CSS, etc.)
• Zero deployment

• WPF Cons
• Microsoft XP Vista specific (for now)
• Client footprint required
• Tools lag

• Atlas Cons
• Learning curve (less with)
• Maintainability (less with)
• Requires Javascript on browser
• Restricted by Javascript and HTTP abilities
• Compatability?
• Tools lag

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Platform Roadmap
Expression Interactive Designer VS 'Orcas' (inc
Atlas)
Vista Release(inc WPF)
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Next Session WRK10104

• Workshop
• A look at Atlas and WPF in action
• QA Debate
• In Conwy 2 Room