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How to make the sidebar transition?

I have a simple splitview that has a rectangle of width 4px that indicates the selected item in the spiltview.
<Rectangle HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top"
Width="4" Height="48" Margin="1,0"
Fill="{ThemeResource SystemAccentColor}" Grid.Row="2"
Visibility="{x:Bind btnHome.IsChecked, Mode=OneWay}"/>
Right now I've multiple rectangles turned on/off depending whether the checkbox is selected or not! But instead, I want a single rectangle in my code that should transition from the place where it previously was to place where the user has clicked.

Simplest for you would be using the new NavigationView if your minimum version is set to Fall Creators Update or use the HamburgerMenu control from UWP Community Toolkit (note that it's updated to use style very similar to yours, the docs aren't just updated with current screenshots). You can download the UWP Community Toolkit Sample App from Windows Store if you want to see how it currently looks.
If you want to use your custom solution, you should create a custom style or rather edit an existing style of the control you're using as hamburger menu items. Default styles are available for example here.

How do I use a button in Windows Phone 8 hub app

I am trying to change the context of a button inside a DataTemplate, but in my code-behind I can't acses it. What am I doing wrong?
Here is the XAML I am using:
<Grid>
<Hub>
<HubSection>
<DataTemplate>
<Grid>
<Button x:Name="THEbutten" Content="Button" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="186,230,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top"/>
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
</HubSection>
</Hub>
</Grid>

Your Button is inside a DataTemplate, and therefore it is in a different context than the page and not accessible from it's codebehind.
Consider the following options:
Modify your Buttons Properties using Data Binding.
Create a UserControl for your HubSections Content.
Sadly, the Hub Control is fairly hard to understand and use for beginners, because of this DataTemplate.
Here are some tutorials:
Mikaelkoskinen - Getting started
DotNetCurry - The Windows 8.1 Hub Control
There are also several questions around here on that topic:
How to access controls within hubsections

Add popup menu to AppBarButton

I want to add a contextual menu to a button from the appBar(bottom appBar). My min SDK is Windows 8.0. I would like something like this popup from MSDN:
Unfortunately I cannot use MenuFlyout since it is available only from Windows 8.1+, so I want to achieve this menu in another way. If you know how it can be done, please tell me.
Below is my bottom bar:
<common:LayoutAwarePage.BottomAppBar>
<AppBar x:Name="bottomAppBar" Padding="10,0,10,0" DataContext="{Binding}">
<Grid>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" HorizontalAlignment="Left">
<Button Style="{StaticResource EditAppBarButtonStyle}" Click="EditQuote_Click"/>
<Button Style="{StaticResource RemoveAppBarButtonStyle}" Click="RemoveQuote_Click"/>
<Button Style="{StaticResource AddAppBarButtonStyle}" Click="AddQuote_Click"/>
</StackPanel>
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" HorizontalAlignment="Right">
<Button Style="{StaticResource HelpAppBarButtonStyle}"/>
</StackPanel>
</Grid>
</AppBar>

You should take a look at the Flyout Settings sample at:
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsapps/Settings-Flyout-eceaafea
Or if you are targeting Windows 8.1, flyouts have become much easier, check the MenuFlyout element:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/bg182878.aspx#menuflyout

I would look at the Callisto library on Nuget. It's built by Tim Heuer who's one of the guys working on the xaml team at Microsoft and fills in some of the gaps in the 8.0 control set. It includes a Menu Flyout control that looks not that coincidentally like the controls added in 8.1.
The samples app in the project includes an example of what you're looking for (a Menu Flyout from an App Bar).
Edit: If you're targeting Windows 8.1 with your project then the Menu Flyout control is now built into the platform.

silverlight toolkit listpicker wp7 missing icons

I'm having a problem with the listpicker (SelectionMode="Multiple"!!!). When i go to fullmode it doesnt show "done", "cancel" icons like if the images were not in my project.
On full screen mode i only have this xaml code
<DataTemplate x:Key="listPickerFullModeItemTemplate">
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}" FontSize="30" Height="40" FontFamily="Segoe WP"/>
</StackPanel>
</DataTemplate>
<toolkit:ListPicker Header="Floral" SelectionMode="Multiple" FullModeHeader="Floral" CacheMode="BitmapCache" x:Name="floralListPicker" Margin="0,0,12,0" ItemTemplate="{StaticResource listPickerItemTemplate}" FullModeItemTemplate="{StaticResource listPickerFullModeItemTemplate}"/>
Code is ok, everything works fine but the icons doesn't show, actually it shows as the default app bar missing icon image. I copied the images from toolkit sample but no go.
anyone know whats wrong?
anyway to force icons on template?
thanks.

Do you need to set the Build Action of the icons to "Content" in their properties window?

I found out the solution by exploring the sample solution of the toolkit.
If you don't use a special page for the fullmode selection, you need to include the following images to your project:
Create one subfolder named Toolkit.Content (not ToolKit/Content).
Then, include the files named as this : ApplicationBar.Cancel.png and ApplicationBar.Check.png.
Mark them to be generated as content.
That's all! Your icons should now been displayed.
Hope this helps you !

Focus on Canvas overlapping the listbox in WP7

I have a situation here. I have a page containing a ListBox. The ListBox is populated with Items if it is able to fetch the data from a web service. Now when the user doesn't have network connectivity on his phone or the webservice doesn't respond back with Ok status, I want to show the user a pop-up with an option to Retry or select Ok to stay on the same page (though it sounds dumb). Now for this I used a Canvas:
<Canvas Name="Nonetwork" Height="150" Width="280" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" Background="DodgerBlue" Visibility="Collapsed" Margin="111,160,92,160" >
<TextBlock VerticalAlignment="Top" Height="120" Width="280" Text="No Network is currently availabe" TextAlignment="Center" TextWrapping="Wrap" Foreground="White" FontSize="28" />
<Button Margin="30, 80" Height="60" Width="100" Content="OK" FontSize="18" Click="Ok_Click"/>
<Button Margin="150, 80" Height="60" Width="100" Content="Retry" FontSize="18" Click="Retry_Click"/>
</Canvas>
Well as most of you experienced guys would have guessed, the canvas is buried inside the listbox and is not accessible when there is no network connectivity. So I have a blank page with the canvas but the user is not able to click on Ok or Retry. Please help
Please do let me know if there is any other approach to solve this problem. I tried Popup but I cant Navigate to the main page from a pop-up since that is a user control page. Any help is higly appreciated

Well, I placed my Canvas below the ListBox and the problem was solved. I didn't know that positioning of the controls in the XAML would have so much effect ...

The order in which elements are rendered in Silverlight is determined firstly by where they appear in the visual object hierarchy and secondly by their ZIndex property.
The Canvas has a third attached property named ZIndex that you can use to override the default layering of elements. Although this Canvas.ZIndex attached property is defined by the Canvas class, it actually works with any type of panel.
You can also try Canvas.ZIndex property:
Canvas.ZIndex Attached Property

What you do is a wrong practice and not at all recommended.
ChildWindow is the class you should use to display such kind of dialog.
Using a Popup is also another approach you can use.
NOTE: I know the simplest approach would be to use MessageBox.Show(), but it would create a popup out of silverlight frame and does not allow theming/styling and other customizations.