DavideZordan.net

I’m a big fan of separation of concerns: applying the correct architecture and patterns is the right way to make a successful project instead of making it fail.

There’s a lot of buzz in this period around Windows 8 and its programming model based around WinRT, WinJS, CSS3 and HTML: the platform is out from a while and it’s ready for prime time. What about applying some best practices for building awesome applications?

I’m coming from a XAML background and, in the past years, I had the opportunity to verify in real projects how the correct usage of patterns like MVVM, Commanding, Event Aggregation, Dependency Injection (and more…) permits the developer to build reliable, maintainable and scalable applications.

MVVM Stack for WinJS is a new project by my friend and Microsoft MVP Corrado Cavalli: it contains a set of  reusable classes that helps you creating Windows Store Applications using MVVM, messaging, suspend/resume support, Blendability (design-time data) and more.

The available documentation contains useful information about:

• Introduction
  Introduction to MVVM Stack http://bit.ly/mvvmstack1
• Core components
  Describes stack core components and loading sequence http://bit.ly/mvvmstack2
• Application specific components
  Describes application specific components, what they do and how to customize them http://bit.ly/mvvmstack3
• Page ViewModels
  Describes the viewmodels associated with each view http://bit.ly/mvvmstack4
• Custom bindings and Blendability
  Details about custom binding available in the demo and how to manage Blendability http://bit.ly/mvvmstack5
• Service persistence
  Describes how to handle services state during suspend/resume events http://bit.ly/mvvmstack6
• Command support
  Describes how to use Command instances exposed by ViewModels http://bit.ly/mvvmstack7
• Application resuming support
  Describes how to be notified each time app resumes http://bit.ly/mvvmstack8
  

The code is available for download on Codeplex and contains a sample application describing the concepts.

Happy coding everyone!

I’m always interested in evaluating new tools and components for enriching the User eXperience of projects and shortening the time to market.

In the past I used for some projects XAML controls from Telerik and I’ve been always pleased with their performance, availability of samples and ease of use.

Recently I’ve received my copy of the new “Telerik RadControls for Windows 8” and I observed how the same approach has been applied to the new components for the Windows 8 platform.

RadControls for Windows 8 are native XAML and HTML components for creating Windows 8 apps. Built from the ground up for Windows 8, RadControls offer the same intuitive UI and UX no matter if you are developing in XAML or HTML environment. The suite offers functionalities such as DatePicker and Chart to complement the stock UI toolbox and shorten your app time to market.

If you have a certified app using the product, let Telerik know so that your app can get featured in the showcase gallery.

Check out an overview video here: http://youtu.be/yxzXFrlVPfc

Happy XAMLing everyone!

Just a quick post to highlight an interesting article by Blaine Wastell about a new project (codename “Kona“)  that will provide guidance on developing line of business (LOB) apps for Windows 8.

Check out this link for the details of this interesting project!

Check out these useful downloads including hands-on labs, presentations, samples and resources from the Windows 8 camps.

More resources available in this post @ ExpressionBlend.com.

Enjoy!

Great days and lot of new tools for Metro XAML developers on Windows 8.

Callisto is a new library of controls and helpers (including SQLite support) for Windows 8 XAML applications (aka Metro style apps) developed by Tim Heuer (@timheuer) and Morten Nielsen (@dotmorten).

Click here to access the project and download the new bits!

Enjoy

The “Windows Runtime (WinRT) XAML Toolkit” is a new resource containing a set of controls and helpers for building Windows 8 Store applications.

Click here to read the details and access the download link on CodePlex.

New to Windows 8 development? Mark your calendars: the new book “Programming Windows, Sixth edition” by Charles Petzold is coming soon!

Happy XAMLing everyone

Are you interested in keeping up to date and discussing topics about Windows 8, WinRT, Windows Store Apps?

Don’t forget to join the new “Windows 8 Experts” Group on Linkedin and start creating awesome applications for this great platform!

During the //Build conference in Anaheim the release of Windows 8 Developer preview has been announced: you can download it from this link.

To get started an impressive number of video tutorials is available in the official site of the conference: http://www.buildwindows.com/.

Check out also this great post by Michael for downloading all the Build videos in your pc.

Useful resources are available in the SDK: all the XAML Metro style app samples are available following this link.

It’s possible to install Windows 8 side by side with your operating system using a boot from VHD: I’ve followed the instructions described here by Mister Goodcat and all went smoothly.

Also available for download:

• Visual Studio 11 and .NET Framework 4.5 Developer Preview;
• RIA Services update for //build;
• Windows Azure SDK and tools update.