Modernizing Your Windows Applications with the Windows App SDK and WinUI: Expand your desktop apps to support new features and deliver an integrated Windows 11 experience

Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Contributors
Table of Contents
Preface
Section 1: Basic Concepts
Chapter 1: Getting Started with the Windows App SDK and WinUI
	Technical requirements
	A brief history of Windows UI platforms
	Introducing the Windows App SDK and WinUI 3.0
	The role of the new .NET runtime
	Exploring the Windows App SDK
	Choosing the right deployment model
	Managing the dependency with the Windows App SDK
		Packaged apps
		Unpackaged apps
		Upgrading the Windows App SDK runtime
	Creating the first Windows App SDK project
		A new packaged WinUI C# application
		Using a separate packaging project
		A new unpackaged WinUI application
		Adding support to an existing application
	Building libraries and components
		Using a WinUI class library
		Using a .NET class library
	Summary
	Questions
	Further reading
Section 2: Modernization Journey
Chapter 2: The Windows App SDK for a Windows Forms Developer
	Technical requirements
	Introducing XAML
		Using namespaces
		Customizing controls with properties
		Reacting to changes with event handlers
	Styling your applications with resources
		Sharing a resource with a whole application
		Using dictionaries to organize resources
	Reusing multiple resources with styles
	Understanding animations
		Playing an animation
	Customizing the template of a control
		Using a Universal Windows Platform project
		Using the XAML source code
	Managing the states of a control
	Data binding
		Binding with C# objects
		Implementing the INotifyPropertyChanged interface
	Displaying collections of data with DataTemplates
	Creating user controls
	Summary
	Questions
Chapter 3: The Windows App SDK for a WPF Developer
	Technical requirements
	Importing XAML namespaces
	Binding with x:Bind
		Different context
		Default binding mode
		Using x:Bind to define a DataTemplate
		Event binding
		Functions
	Using the dispatcher
		Improving dispatcher usage in asynchronous scenarios
	Localizing your applications
		Translating the user interface
	Handling translation in code
		A better way to manage localization
		Support localization in a packaged app
	Summary
	Questions
Chapter 4: The Windows App SDK for a UWP Developer
	Technical requirements
	Moving to a new namespace
	Working with the UI thread
	Controlling the application's life cycle
	Supporting the application's activation
		Supporting multiple activation paths
	Application instancing
		Supporting advanced redirection scenarios
	Managing the application's window
		Using the AppWindow class
	Performing operations in the background
	Summary
	Questions
Chapter 5: Designing Your Application
	Technical requirements
	Creating a responsive layout
		Using effective pixels
		Adapting the UI
		Using the right controls to build a responsive layout
	Supporting navigation
		Implementing the NavigationMenu control
		Handling the navigation
		Supporting the page's life cycle
		Supporting page transitions
		Managing backward navigation
		Adding sections to the footer
		Displaying a menu at the top
	Supporting Windows themes
		Forcing a specific theme
	Creating animations
		Creating animations in C#
		Creating animations in XAML
		Applying effects and animating them
		Connected animations
		Using a connected animation in a master-detail scenario
		Using animated icons
	Exploring the WinUI controls
	Summary
	Questions
Chapter 6: Building a Future-Proof Architecture
	Technical requirements
	Learning the basic concepts of the MVVM pattern
		Moving a bit deeper into the MVVM pattern
	Exploring frameworks and libraries
	Supporting actions with commands
		Enabling or disabling a command
	Making your application easier to evolve
	Exchanging messages between different classes
	Managing navigation with the MVVM pattern
		Navigating to another page
		Passing parameters from a ViewModel to another
	Summary
	Questions
Section 3: Integrating Your App with the Windows Ecosystem
Chapter 7: Migrating Your Windows Applications to the Windows App SDK and WinUI
	Technical requirements
	Getting an understanding of general migration guidance
		Exploring the sample application
	Updating your applications to .NET 6
		The .NET Portability Analyzer
		Upgrading your solution
	Migrating a Windows Forms application
		Supporting navigation
		Migrating from the code-behind approach to the MVVM pattern
		Migrating the DataGrid control
		Migrating the Details page
	Migrating a WPF application
		Themes
	Migrating a UWP app
		Migrating the dispatcher
		Activation
		Managing the life cycle
	Summary
	Questions
Chapter 8: Integrating Your Application with the Windows Ecosystem
	Technical requirements
	Integrating APIs from the Universal Windows Platform
		Taking advantage of the Bing Maps service
		Introducing biometric authentication
	Working with files and folders
		Working with folders
		Working with files
		Using the local storage in packaged apps
		Using local storage to store settings
		Working with file pickers
	Supporting the sharing contract
		Building the source app
		Building the target app
	Integrating web experiences in your desktop application
		Adding the WebView2 control to your page
		Enabling interactions between the native and web layers
		Distributing the WebView2 runtime with your applications
	Summary
	Questions
Chapter 9: Implementing Notifications
	Technical requirements
	Sending a notification from a Windows application
	Working with toast notifications
		Supporting toast notifications in packaged apps
		Adding images
		Customizing the application's name and the timestamp
		Tagging a toast notification
		Scheduling a notification
	Adding interaction to a notification
		Handling activation from a notification
		Supporting user input
	Displaying a progress bar
	Displaying a badge in the taskbar
	Implementing push notifications
		Implementing the backend
		Limitations of the current implementation
	Summary
	Questions
Chapter 10: Infusing Your Apps with Machine Learning Using WinML
	Technical requirements
	A brief introduction to ONNX and WinML
	Evaluating an ONNX model with WinML
		Loading the ONNX model
		Loading the labels
		Preparing the model input
		Performing the evaluation
		Sorting the results
		Putting everything together
	Training and using your own machine learning model
		Training the model
		Testing the model
		Exporting the model
	Summary
	Questions
Section 4: Distributing Your Application
Chapter 11: Publishing Your Application
	Understanding the MSIX packaging technology
		Built-in optimizations around network bandwidth and disk space
		Deployment flexibility
		Tamper protection and signature enforcement
		Registry virtualization
		Local application data virtualization
		The Virtual File System (VFS)
		MSIX limitations
		The anatomy of an MSIX package
	Creating and signing an MSIX package
		Choosing a distribution method
		Choosing a signing method
		Selecting and configuring packages
		Signing an MSIX package
	Publishing your application to Microsoft Store
		Submitting an MSIX packaged application
		Submitting an unpackaged application
		The certification process
		Submitting updates
	Deploying your applications from a website using AppInstaller
		Generating an AppInstaller file with Visual Studio
		Generating an AppInstaller file with AppInstaller File Builder
		Deploying an AppInstaller file
		Updating an application automatically
		Updating an application from code
		Supporting updates and repairs
	Publishing your application to the Windows Package Manager repository
		Creating a manifest for Windows Package Manager
	Summary
	Questions
Chapter 12: Enabling CI/CD for Your Windows Applications
	Technical requirements
	Introducing CI/CD pipelines
	Building a Windows application in a CI/CD pipeline
		Pulling the source code
		Adding MSBuild to the system's path
		Building the Windows application
		Publishing the artifact
		Testing the workflow
	Supporting versioning
		Installing the tool and generating the version number
		Setting the version number
	Handling signing
		Storing the certificate on GitHub
	Automating the deployment
		Generating the App Installer file
		Deploying our Windows application
		Improving the deployment story
	Summary
	Questions
	Further reading
Assessments
	Chapter 1
	Chapter 2
	Chapter 3
	Chapter 4
	Chapter 5
	Chapter 6
	Chapter 7
	Chapter 8
	Chapter 9
	Chapter 10
	Chapter 11
	Chapter 12
Index
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