Introduction To Useful Wpf

Introduction To Useful WPF
Demystifying The Model-View- ViewModel Design Pattern (MVVM)
Burke Holland

About Me
A working guy
SharePoint, ASP.NET, WPF
Adobe Flex?

WPF Overview
Windows Presentation Foundation
“a graphical subsystem for rendering user interfaces in Windows-based applications”
Its all about graphics
GDI subsystem is old
Taking advantage of advanced effects – DirectX
Gradients
Transparency
Animation

Why You Should Use It
Design
Much more flexibility in the UI
Less need for 3rd party controls
Segmentation between designer and developer
Programming Model
Code behind
Support for new patterns
PRISM
MVP
MVVM

What’s The Difference
XAML based design vs. declarative object design
Like HTML for Windows Forms
Windows And UserControls

You already know how to do it
Same file/code behind model
Many of the same UI controls with different or similar properties
Its still just .NET

Visual Studio vs. Expression Blend
Why is there a new IDE?
You do not need both
But it really helps
Other Tools
KXAML
XAMLPAD

WPF vs. Silverlight
The difference is accessibility
The drawbacks to Silverlight
Data Access
Limited access to the framework
Not FULLY MVVM capable – yet
No commanding

WPF Out-Of-The-Box
Demo App

MVVM
Problems with the traditional model
Tight coupling
Less flexible
More difficult to maintain and implement
Model-View-ViewModel
Model-View-Presenter
2005 John Grossman

Understandable Definition
Model = Data
View = WPF Forms
ViewModel
Think of it as your code-behind on steroids

Why Now
“Databinding Rocks!” – Mike Eaton
Commanding
Data Modeling Tools

Refactor The Demo

Important MVVM/WPF Concepts
Single Responsibility Principle
Dependency Injection
Static Resources

Resources
WPF/MVVM
Josh Smith (MSDN Article)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd419663.aspx
Shawn Wildermuth (MDSN Article)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd458800.aspx