Windows Store 8.1 and System.Windows.Forms - c#

Recently, I tried to make a battery app (C#, store app) for Windows 8.1
(I am using VS2013, tried also VS2012 with the same result).
As it turned out, I need to add a Reference to the project - but I cannot add anything in Reference Manager: it says "All of the Framework assemblies are already referenced". And all what I need is to get System.Windows.Forms - when I search for it, nothing appears.
Any ideas, what can I do?
(Please tell me if I forgot something essential)

Windows Store Apps are build, from scratch, on new technology stack , So Windows Form and WPF are not part of Windows Store apps.
Windows store apps and Windows Forms apps has there different set of
APIs.
Windows store apps are used to known as known as Metro apps and Right now they have been merging the stuff(don't want to go into the details).
This will give a basic knowledge about this new Technology
So, above are the just a small hints about the differences. Actually, It is not possible to explain all the stuff here. Just explore.

Related

Using Universal Windows Platform (Windows 10) controls in WPF

Hopefully a simple question; I seem to recall seeing somebody at one of the recent Microsoft conferences say that some of the UWP application functionality was to be made available within WPF/Desktop. Unfortunately, I can no longer find (or remember) which of the many videos this was from (though it was probably Build or similar on Channel9).
Is it therefore possible to use UWP controls within a WPF application? Basically I want the look and feel of an "app", including some of the new controls (RelativePanel, SplitPanel) and the themed buttons etc., but I need the power of the full desktop - such as access to the full file system.
Thanks.
I think you are referring to the different Bridges to port apps to Windows 10 from for instance, IOS, Android, Web, Win32, etc. and still take advantage of Windows 10 features and APIs. Specifically, I think you are talking about the Bridge to bring in Win32 apps. You can find the bridges listed here.
https://dev.windows.com/en-us/bridges
•"Project Centennial": This toolkit will enable desktop developers to package and publish their existing .NET and Win32-based Windows applications to the Windows Store. Developers can also use Centennial to call common UWP APIs and services."

Windows 8 Tile Icon for WPF application?

guys, first time posting -
I'm a newbie to Windows development and VS (Using 2013 on Windows 8.1).
I've created a very simple application by the action of
File->New Project/WPF application.
The application works great, and does exactly what I'd like it to do.
I successfully added a large (128x128) icon and got it to look great on Windows 7's taskbar and start menu by right-clicking my project in the Solution Explorer and specifying my .ico file through there.
I also added the 'Icon' property to my MainWindow.xaml file and it even looks great on the taskbar of Windows 8...
However, it doesn't even display my app's icon on the Start Menu of Windows 8, and I am having a really hard time finding documentation specific to this issue.
I'm sure it's a no-brainer but I'm just stuck.
How do I get a nice icon and tile in Windows 8?
Live tiles are only supported in Windows Store Applications but you can use some third-party solutions that provides a way to add this capability via the interoperation between your Desktop Application and separate Windows Store application (this one is installed on end-users computers and behaves like a server that can provide a Tile for its clients, which actually are the Desktop applications).
For example, DevExpress solution - WinRTLiveTileManager.
Or you can implement this approach itself...
Live tiles are only supported in Windows Store Apps unfortunately.
See this thread...

How to port existing Windows Store Application to Windows8 Mobile App ?

We have existing Windows Store application which is developed using C# and XAML. We want to port the same to Windows 8 Mobile application. Is there any Guidelines available for this ?
Well at first I would start figuring out the differences
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/jj681690%28v=vs.105%29.aspx
http://blog.markedup.com/2013/07/winrt-windows-phone-8-code-sharing-pitfalls/
When I ported two of my (smaller) apps, I put as much in a PCL (portable class library) as I could. All the stuff that remained in the project itself needed to be rewritten. If you have well-maintainable code, there should be only UI (what you have to adapt anyway) and very few platform specific code (like accessing filesystem, camera or whatever) left. This is the part you must redevelop.
Dnt know how you have made these applications well If you have followed MVVM pattern then it is very easy to port windows and windows phone apps from one to other. You just need to take care of new XAML UIs every thing except some platform specific liberalizes will work. While making any of windows store and windows phone application you should use the liberaries that both platforms can consume. For example you can use LEX.db for the database.
here are very good explanations for it.
sharing code between windows phone and windows 8 app -1
sharing code between windows phone and windows 8 app -2
hope this will help
The answers given so far are quite good. One thing to note is that Windows Phone 8.1 is about to be released, which will share many of the WinRT libraries. This will mean that in a few months (as early as May), the shared libraries between the two platforms will greatly increase. You can download the leaked SDK to see what some of the changes will be.
Not that you should wait until then, and creating a PCL is definitely going to help you (especially if you want to later move to iOS, Android as well). It's just something to keep in mind.

Handle multiple "windows" in Windows Store apps in Windows 8.1

Ok, I have a question to which, despite my best efforts, I have not been able to solve. I searched the internet, and this is one of those that is particularly difficult to search for, but it seems that no user of Windows 8.1 nor any developers developing for Windows 8.1 has posted to any website asking how to do this (I could be wrong, of course).
What I am trying to do is make a Windows Store app targeting Windows 8.1, that takes advantage of multiple Windows. To see what I mean, open up metro ie, right click on a tab, and click "open in new window." This is also in the mail app, where you can open a single message in another window, which behaves like a separate app, and can be snapped like so. It's a new feature of the Windows 8.1 OS.
But I can't for the life of me figure out how to do it in C# and XAML. Does anyone know how? Thanks.
Alex
There are new APIs in Windows.UI.ViewManagement, namely the ApplicationViewSwitcher and ProjectionManager classes. The former is for working with multiple independent views that the user can arrange side by side on whatever monitors they have, which is what IE and Mail use; the latter is for working with multiple monitors.
See the Application Views sample along with the Projection sample for working both scenarios in code.
Might be bit late with my answer, nevertheless I had your similar apprehensions about the "Dismal Support Refs" for this subject, when I first began searching the topic. However I have been able to overcome this and use the feature in my apps. There are some good refs available; The Windows Dev Centre has a Quickstart ie "Quiskstart Creating Multiple Windows", a Good guide is the "MultipleViews" Sample, With the following providing additional support.
1) "Be two places at once using multiple windows" at
https://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2014/01/09/be-two-places-at-once-using-multiple-windows/#pBHiQtDSPFrCA7Gv.97
2) "MultipleViews for Windows 8.1 apps" (parts 1-3)
http://www.kraigbrockschmidt.com/2013/11/21/multiple-views-creating-view/
BQ at WATERVIEW

Windows 8 live tile from NET 4.5 app

I have create a Windows Store app which successfully updates its tile (live tile). The thing I hate about this now is that it seems there is no way for me to install this app anywhere except either through Windows Store or using another developer account (see this).
Since I am looking to support only desktop PC with this, can I work with live tiles from a generic NET 4.5 application?
Or to put it differently, is there a way to use / control live tiles from apps other than Windows Store apps?
This is still all too new to me... Finding answers on the web and SO revealed nothing.
Live Tiles are part of the Metro Framework, completely seperated from .NET. Your application is sandboxed when you develop for the Windows Store framework. no one can access your application and you can't access anyone else's application. The only way to update the live tile would be for the application to update it's own live tile. It would be a huge security flaw to allow anyone to update any tile.
If you do NOT intend to ever submit your app to the Windows Store for distribution - you can look at this thread, which talks about methods used to communicate between desktop apps and windows store apps.

Categories