Introduction to WPF

1
Introduction to WPF

• Calvin P. Schrotenboer

2
What is WPF?

• Windows Presentation Foundation is one of four
  principal components in .NET 3.0
• The others are Windows Communication Foundation
  (WCF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) and
  Windows Cardspace (WCS) (InfoCard)
• WPF is essentially an alternative method for
  developing Windows based applications

3
WPF Demos

• New York Times Reader
• Nostalgia Photo Viewer

4
WPF vs Windows Forms Development

• WPF has a number of advantages over Windows Forms
  development which include
• Comprehensive Integration WPF provides a
  uniform platform for using video, speech, text,
  2D and 3D graphics
• Resolution Independence as DPI increases, WPF
  applications maintain their size exactly
• Instead of shrinking, WPF applications merely get
  sharper

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WPF Advantages over Windows Forms Development

• WPF supports hardware acceleration
• WPF applications can take advantage of GPUs on
  Graphics cards for smoother graphics
• WPF allows the effective separation of design
  work (to be performed by Designers) and
  functionality (to be performed by Developers)

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WPF Advantages over Windows Forms Development

• WPF supports a new model for content under which
  almost any control can host almost any other
  control
• This permits very rich user interfaces as almost
  any control can support 3D graphics, animations
  and even videos
• WPF supports almost complete scalability

7
WPF Advantages over Windows Forms Development

• WPF was designed from the ground up for managed
  code
• WPF benefits from 5 years of experience with .NET

8
Disadvantages of WPF

• At the present time there are certain controls
  available in Windows Forms for which no WPF
  equivalent exists
• Eg DataGridView and PropertyGrid
• The learning curve for WPF is very, very steep

9
The Future of Windows Forms Development

• Adam Nathan, one of the authors of a leading WPF
  book, has suggested that there will be no further
  development by Microsoft for Windows Forms beyond
  Version 2.0 (released in 2005)

10
WPF and Windows Vista

• WPF does not explicitly require Windows Vista
• WPF also will work with Windows XP Service Pack 2
  and with Windows Server 2003 SP1
• Of course, WPF does require Version 3.0 of the
  .NET Framework, a free download from Microsoft
• .NET Framework 3.0 is automatically included with
  Windows Vista

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WPF and Windows Vista

• There are some relatively minor features of WPF
  which are only supported on Windows Vista
• 3D objects only get anti-aliasing on Windows
  Vista or later
• Non-rectangular or translucent windows only get
  hardware acceleration on Windows Vista or later

12
WPF and XAML

• XAML is a declarative programming language
  designed for constructing and initializing .NET
  objects
• XAML code is principally the textual
  representation of some visual element either a
  graphic object or a user interface object such as
  a button or a combo box

13
WPF and XAML

• Under the standard paradigm the User Interface is
  described in XAML and the underlying
  functionality is built using C (or Visual
  Basic.NET)
• However, using Markup Extensions Microsoft has
  cleverly been able to build a considerable degree
  functionality into XAML
• Usually when things can be expressed in either C
  or XAML, XAML is more terse

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Demo

• Huntress Demo (Graphic image)
• AllXAMLClock (Animation)
• XAML User Interface Example
• CS User Interface Example

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What is WPF/E

• WPF/E stands for WPF Everywhere
• WPF/E is basically a Microsoft equivalent for
  Macromedia Flash
• Currently only in beta form, WPF supports Firefox
  and Internet Explorer 7 on Windows and Firefox
  and Safari on the MAC

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WPF/E Demo

• PageTurn
• Microbe The city where WPF/E and Flash live
  together in harmony
• WPF/E and Flash Interactive Example

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What is the Relationship Between WPF/E and WPF

• WPF/E uses a Javascript control to host content
  created using XAML
• Recall that vector graphics can be expressed in
  XAML and that WPF has very strong support for
  animations
• Client side event handling is processed using
  Javascript

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Does WPF Apply Only to Windows Based Applications

• Answer Not entirely
• As we have seen the WPF/E branch of WPF is
  designed for Internet delivery and to be platform
  independent
• Also, XAML Browser applications (XBAPs) are a
  variation of a WPF application which can run over
  the Internet
• However, there are considerable restrictions on
  XBAPs

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XBAP Limitations

• XBAPs will only run on Windows
• XBAPs require Version 3.0 of the .NET Framework
  (2.8 MB 7 minutes on a 56Kb Dialup, 1 minute or
  less on a decent DSL time to install)
• XBAPs require Internet Explorer 7
• Standard on Vista but requires a custom install
  on Windows XP

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XBAP Limitations

• Because XBAP applications run in a Browser (in
  the partially trusted Internet Zone), they are
  denied certain functionality
• File I/O is denied
• Access to the Registry is denied

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XBAP Demo

• PhotoViewer Demo
• (Coming Later)

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Loose XAML Pages

• It is not possible to simply write web pages in
  XAML and expect clients to view them with their
  browsers
• Loose XAML can only be viewed in a browser under
  very limited circumstances
• Moreover, since a large portion of functionality
  is implemented via C, this is unavailable with
  loose XAML

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WPF and ASP.NET

• Given the limitations of XBAPs and Loose XAML
  pages, there is no doubt that WPF will not have
  any negative impact on ASP.NET development

24
What is the Expressions Suite

• The Expressions Suite consists of four designer
  type applications
• Only one of these applications, Expressions Web
  Designer has been officially released (January,
  2007)
• The other three releases are currently in beta
  release (or CTP)

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Expressions Web Designer

• This product is essentially the successor to
  Microsoft Front Page
• Its principal competitor is Macromedia (Adobe)
  DreamWeaver
• The emphasis by Microsoft for this product is
  Standards Based web design (XHTML)
• This product has nothing at all directly to do
  with WPF

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Expressions Blend

• Expressions Blend is a Visual Studio like tool
  for designing WPF user interfaces
• While Blend is intended for use by Designers, it
  is sufficiently superior to the equivalent
  designer in Visual Studio that most Developers
  will likely use it in conjunction with Visual
  Studio

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Expressions Graphic Designer

• This product represents Microsofts attempt to
  move into the space occupied by Adobe Illustrator
  and CorelDraw
• Vector Graphics
• Graphic Designer uses XAML as its native output
  language
• This, of course, facilitates using these vector
  graphics in WPF applications

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Expressions Media

• The latest addition to the Expressions suite
• Represents a content management system similar to
  Adobe Bridge
• No direct relationship with WPF

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Additional Demos

• XcEEd DataGrid

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Further Study

• Windows Presentation Foundation Introduction
  CIS-019M
• Foothill College Los Altos Hills, CA
• Spring Term (April June) 2007
• Available both Online and Face to Face
• Also a class on Expressions Blend (Summer 07)