Transcript Markus Egger President / Publisher EPS Software Corp. / CODE Magazine Session Code: WUX309

Markus Egger
President / Publisher
EPS Software Corp. / CODE Magazine
Session Code: WUX309
About Me…
Markus Egger
President and Chief Software Architect
EPS Software Corp.
Publisher:
CODE and CODE Focus Magazines
International Author and Speaker (INETA)
Microsoft MVP: C#
Co-Host of CodeCast
CSA, Xiine – www.xiine.com
CSA, Tower 48 Software Escrow
Agenda
A lap around Expression Blend
Finding features you know from Visual Studio
Exploring features unique to Expression Blend
Working with Visual Studio and Expression Blend in
tandem
Silverlight vs. Windows Presentation Foundation
Learning a few designer tricks
Creating a real world user interface for an
existing business application
What is Expression Blend?
User Interface design tool for WPF and Silverlight
The focus is on next-generation interactive user
interfaces and user experiences
The tool covers the entire range of possible WPF/SL
interfaces from desktop business applications to web
experiences
The main focus of Expression Blend has traditionally
been on designers
However, it turns out to be a great developer tool as well!
Expression Blend Versions and History
Expression Blend 1 – WPF design tool
Expression Blend 2 – WPF and Silverlight 2.0
Expression Blend 3 (preview) – WPF and
Silverlight 3.0 (beta)
My recommendation: Use Expression Blend 3
whenever you can!
I have been using Expression Blend 3 (beta) for all
my WPF design needs and the product has already
been very stable
Expression Blend and VS Similarities
Creating Projects based on templates
Expression Blend supports WPF and Silverlight
templates only
Projects and Solutions
New Source Control support in version 3.0
Design and Editor windows
Blend 3.0 supports code editing and IntelliSense
Toolbox
Properties and events window
Expression Blend: The Familiar
Markus Egger
President / Publisher
EPS Software Corp. / CODE Magazine
Expression Blend and VS Differences
Richer visual UI editor in Expression Blend
UI hierarchy window
Storyboards and Timelines
Trigger and Visual State support
Resources (XAML)
Data Sources
Expression Blend: New Features
Markus Egger
President / Publisher
EPS Software Corp. / CODE Magazine
Blend and Visual Studio Together
Blend 2.0:
Design in Blend, code in Visual Studio
Source Control through Visual Studio
Blend 3.0:
Source code editing is now supported
Still, for heavy duty coding (and debugging!)
Visual Studio is the better choice
Even as a developer, I do all my visual UI editing
in Expression Blend
Expression Blend & Visual Studio
Markus Egger
President / Publisher
EPS Software Corp. / CODE Magazine
Some Real-World Tips
Create new projects in Visual Studio
The templates used by both tools are not identical
Test-run your applications from Visual Studio
No debugging support in Blend
Better error information in Visual Studio
Beware of having the same file open twice
Save changes before you switch to the other tool,
to avoid accidental simultaneous editing
Differences Between WPF and SL
Expression Blend can be used for both WPF and
Silverlight, and most things you know apply to both
The differences in the two technologies change the Blend
experience
Example: Triggers vs. Visual States
Example: Resource Dictionaries vs. Inline Resources
The two technologies move closer together
Visual States are available in WPF (and supported by Blend)
as an add-on
Silverlight 3.0 supports Resource Dictionaries
Building a Real-World Application
This example uses an existing middle tier that
runs as a production application
Note: The downloadable example provides a “fake”
middle tier so you can easily run it on your system
Note: There are Silverlight and WPF versions
The example app shows a list of sports teams
and the players rostered by each team
The goal of the example is to create a nice UI with a
visual appearance that is both appealing and
professional and suitable for a business application
Building an Application
Markus Egger
President / Publisher
EPS Software Corp. / CODE Magazine
[email protected]
Downloads at: www.MarkusEgger.com
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Related Content
WUX204 - Building Rich Business Clients in WPF: Building Data Visualization
Applications with the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)
WUX205 - Designing and Prototyping in WPF and Microsoft Silverlight: A Case Study
WUX206 - What's New in Microsoft Silverlight 3
WUX303 - Building Data-Driven RIAs with Microsoft ASP.NET and Microsoft Silverlight
WUX304 - Building Rich Business Clients in WPF: Get productive quickly with new
tools and controls for Windows Presentation Foundation
WUX305 - Building Rich Business Clients in WPF: Getting the Most Out of Windows
Presentation Foundation
Complete an
evaluation on
CommNet and
enter to win!
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