customizing the app bar in windows phone 8 - c#

I noticed that internet explorer has an app bar that is non standard. It has the standard ... Button that expands the app bar to show additional options but rather than app bar buttons it has the address ba and a refresh button.
does anyone know how one would go about overriding the app bar in a similar way, i cant find a way of doing it.

You can't extend the application bar beyond what's already offered in the SDK. You'll need to implement your own XAML version of the application bar since you can't tweak the shell object to contain additional visual components.

Related

Application Bar scrolls up the Webbrowser view in Windows phone App

I have been working on a windows phone 8 app. I have given complete space of my layout to a WebBrowser element which renders my mobile site's pages.
Those pages has:
-A fixed header at the top.
-A fixed text box for replies and search at the bottom
-And a scrollable region in between.
I have also provided my app with an Application Bar which provides buttons for some quick links. Application Bar comes and goes depending on the page user is.
Now the problem is:
- When Application Bar comes up, my whole pages scrolls up and the fixed header goes out of view. without Application Bar things are fine.
Somebody else facing the same problem?
Are there any workarounds for this?
NOTE - I tried reserving some space for the application bar and giving rest of the space to WebBrowser, but that also doesn't help. And strange thing is, things are working fine on emulator.
Thanks
I wonder if the platform does the same thing that happens when the SIP shows up - that would mean the root visual element has a RenderTransform/TransformGroup/TranslateTransform that gets updated when some OS component like the app bar shows up. Check Vinoth's answer to this question here:
Scrollable form control in Windows Phone 8
It is normal for the page to scroll up (i.e. title disappears) when application bar opens. you can not do much about that.
If your need is to have whole webpage visible including the title when the application bar is in view, then you need to reduce the height of web browser so it fit into a smaller window.

Custom dynamic object panel for Windows Phone 7 application

I am currently working on an application for Windows Phone 7+ and am lost as to how to create a dynamic menu bar at the bottom of my application. When the user clicks on the bar at the bottom, it should act exactly like the Application Bar by sliding about halfway up the screen. I have tried multiple approaches and can't seem to replicate the behavior of the Application Bar.
Here is a screenshot of the custom object in question: http://i.imgur.com/1If0pFt.jpg
Again, when any one of the icons at the bottom is pressed, I want the entire bar to slide up as if the "..." on the Application Bar was pressed. Any feedback is welcome.
Thank you,
TiDe
Have you tried PhoneFlipMenu?
Maybe this is something that you need?

How to place a control over the task bar in windows using c#

i googled a lot and found out some info about the band object from which we can make the ad-in for the task bar, can i get some more tutorials from scratch & some sample programmes.
is there any other alternative way is there to place a control over the windows task bar apart from band objects?
Thanks in advance
If you want to place a textbox in the taskbar like the Google Desktop search bar, then you're not actually trying to place the control over the taskbar, you want to place it within the taskbar.
The proper solution here is a Desk Band. You can find an MSDN article explaining those here. I'm not really sure why you say that you want to avoid band objects. That's the right way to do this.
There's even a sample implementation in C# available on Code Project: Extending Explorer with Band Objects using .NET and Windows Forms
To make a window overlap the Taskbar you can set it's TopMost property to true. But then you will have to control the positioning yourself, and it will also overlap anything else beneath it, but it is a solution at least :)

What "growl" type notification windows are available for WPF (windows that appear and fade after X seconds)?

I wanted to know if there are any good "growl" type notification windows available as open source or guided tutorials for WPF applications. I'm looking for a window that can appear when users save for example, notifying them that the save was successful and then disappears after X seconds (with a fade out) without the user needing to take the explicit action to close the notification window. This way for messages/notifications that require no confirmation, like the example, the user would not have to click "OK" to make the messagebox or dialog close.
This link could help you:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WPF/wpf_notifyicon.aspx
It is a Pure WPF implementation of the NotifyIcon class from WinForms and supports almost everything normal WPF controls do :)
Cheers
Why don't you use GrowlForWindows?
You can use C# or VB.

WPF C# UI : New Window or Tab?

Our WPF application in the current design opens new windows for list screen.We don't have restrictions on the number of windows you open etc.We are using a ribbon control and well it has tab support.Which is better a new window or a tab? (With windows 7 having a better group of window management etc) Should I go in for tab or leave it as window. I can't make the detail screen tab since well the user click of a item in the grid to select and edit.Any valid suggestions? Thanks in advance.
Tabs in a Ribbon shouldn't change the view. The Ribbon is an enhanced toolbar, not a view changer.
If your using the MS Ribbon via OfficeUI, then there is a stipulation in the design guidelines that the view should never change the appearance of the ribbon (apart from loading context tabs) and that they ribbon should never wholesale change the view.
In regards to your question, do you mean that you have list/grid and you want a view to be able to change the data in the row. Eg. they double click a row, a view appears that gives them the ability to edit that row?
The right way is to ask your users what they like more. If you can't ask users, ask yourself - what you find more convenient - to open\close windows or switch between tabs. I wouldn't rely on win7 task bar as it's grouping behavior can be disabled or users may use another OS. Also I would suggest to check Microsoft guidelines for using ribbon.
Do you need to see more than one pane's content at once? Windows allow this, but tabs do not.
Tabs make management of the various windows easier at the expense of some flexibility.
Are your users likely to be running on multiple windows?
It is really hard to give a confident answer to you on this one without knowing more about your application and your user's requirements.
Windows 7 displays multiple previews on grouped windows of the application, however in case of tab, like IE, you will have to write quite a good custom code to show your tabs in preview of Windows 7 taskbar, which in case of Multiple Windows, it will be done automatically.
Not only that, Windows 7 also lets you put seven toolbar buttons on the preview windows, very few people knows about it because no application currently does it.
For tabs you will need to do extra programming to support multi window preview.
So its better to stay with multi window solution for now.
However in case of IE, if you try to use Windows 7 taskbar, the tabs dont align themselves in correct order of what is displayed in preview, it could be bug, but yes there might be certain limitations because when user chooses the tab to preview you will not be able to show them preview unless you make it active and thats why its little bad.
I recommend playing with Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome if you want to see tabs at their finest.
Notice that tabs can be teared out into a separate window and windows can be docked as tabs.

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