Tag: WinJS

Windows 8 HTML/JavaScript Sessions at DevTeach

DevTeach is coming to Toronto May 27-31st and I’ll be doing a couple of session on developing Windows 8 apps using HTML5 and JavaScript

Designing Windows Store HTML5/JavaScript Apps Using Blend and Visual Studio

Embrace the Windows 8 design principles by taking full advantage of the rich feature sets offered by both Blend and Visual Studio. Learn how to start from scratch and have a fully functioning (and visually appealing!) application that highlights how to work with styles, controls, data sources, layout, CSS3 transitions, web services, and many other features that help you create a better user experience with greater productivity.

JavaScript, HTML, and Windows Store Apps

In this talk we’ll cover the basics of creating a Windows Store app experience using HTML and JavaScript, including the Windows Library for JavaScript (WinJS). Topics will include how to leverage your existing HTML and JavaScript skills, how to integrate Windows 8 personality and contracts into your app, and how Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 provides tools to make this easy and fast.

There are also a bunch of other sessions on Agile, Architecture, Mobile, Cloud Computing, SQL and other topics by some great speakers so be sure to register for DevTeach and attend!

A Lap Around Windows 8 Development for HTML Developers

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During the  Developer Movement Web Camp I presented on Building Windows 8 Apps with HTML5 & JavaScript and as a deeper dive, I also presented Lap Around HTML Development for Windows 8 where I covered the features of WinJS and some of the WinJS Controls in more details. Here is a list of some of the topics covered:

  1.  WinJS Promises
  2. WinJS Animation Library
  3. Camera Capture in Windows 8
  4. Windows.Devices.Sensors
  5. MSPointer in WinJS
  6. WinJS Tiles & Notifications
  7. Windows Push Notification Service
  8. WinJS Contracts

A lot of the demos where off the MSDN sample site and listed here for easy download

  1. Demo 1,6,8,9 – Contoso Cookbook
  2. Demo 2 – Controls
    1. HTML Essential Controls
    2. ListView Essential Samples
  3. Demo 3 – Animation Library Sample
  4. Demo 4
    1. Camera Capture UI Sample
    2. Media Capture Sample
  5. Demo 5 – Canvas Paint Sample
  6. Demo 7 – App Tiles & Badges Sample

Throughout some of the demos, I showed the Contoso Cookbook.  The original download for Contoso Cookbook which goes through a lot of concepts is available in the Windows 8 Camp in a Box.

Here is the video which is hosted on the Channel 9 site and be sure to check out all the other Developer Movement Web Camp presentations.

Quick Start Guide to Windows 8 Hero App Template and Server

In two previous articles, I went through a technical overview of Windows 8 Finder App Template and the companion Finder App Server.  In this article, I’ll go through the Hero App Template and Hero App Server which are built on top of the Finder App Template and Server.

Introduction

The Windows 8 Hero App Template is a template developed to allow developers to quickly and easily create an application to collect certain information while out in the field on a Windows 8 device. For example, if a developer wanted to create an app to allow people to submit information on roads needing pothole repairs, the Hero App Template is a good starting point.

The Hero App Template is a derivative of the Windows 8 Finder App Template described in a previous article and The Hero App Server is a derivative of the Finder App Server described in a previous article.

This article will go through some of the technical features of the Hero App Template and accompanying NodeJS server to store all information. It’s assumed you have already gone through Windows 8 Finder App Template and Finder App Server articles. Continue reading Quick Start Guide to Windows 8 Hero App Template and Server

Quick Start Guide to Windows 8 Finder App Template

I recently announced the release of two Windows 8 templates on GitHub.  This article will go through a technical overview of the Windows 8 Finder App Template and how to get started with it.

Introduction

The Windows 8 Finder Template is a template developed to allow developers to quickly and easily create a location based type application for the Windows 8 store. It allows a developer to easily pull existing point of interest data into the app to visually display on a map. If no point of interest data set is available, it is accompanied by a backend NodeJS server which allows the importing of data which can be used to feed the Windows 8 application.

In Part 1 of this article we will go through the Windows 8 Finder Template and set it up to consume various feeds to display on a map. In Part 2, I’ll cover the backend NodeJS server and how to get started with that. Continue reading Quick Start Guide to Windows 8 Finder App Template

Windows 8 App Templates Released

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For the past month we have been busy putting together some Windows 8 templates to help developers build apps for Windows 8 faster. With the help of Barranger, I have built out two Windows 8 templates with each having a companion backend server.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, your will know that almost everything I do is .NET C#/XAML development.  For these templates, I decided to go the HTML5/CSS/JavaScript route and use WinJS for Windows 8 client apps. On the backend decided to use NodeJS on Windows Azure with a MongoDB data store on MongoLab.

So what templates are being released?

Finder App Template

The Windows 8 Finder App Template is a template developed to allow developers to quickly and easily create a location based type application for the Windows 8 store.  It allows a developer to easily pull existing point of interest data into the app to display on a map.

screenshot_02152013_022850

In the template, we have included some pre-defined point of interest feeds. If those are not exactly what you are looking for, you have the option to use the optional backend NodeJS server which allows the importing of data which can then be used to feed the Windows 8 application.

Both the Windows 8 Finder Template source code and NodeJS Finder App Server source code can be found on GitHub.

Hero App Template

The Windows 8 Hero App Template is a template developed to allow developers to quickly and easily create an application to collect certain information while out in the field on a Windows 8 device. For example, if a developer wanted to create an app to allow people to submit information on roads needing pothole repairs, the Hero App Template is a good starting point.  The Hero App Template is a derivative of the Windows 8 Finder App Template described above.

screenshot_02152013_024300

The Hero App Server is a required component and essentially provides a server to collect submitted data and feed the data back to users. It is a branch from the Finder App Server so is similar but adds more functionality.

Both the Windows 8 Hero App Template and NodeJS Hero App Server source code can be found on GitHub.

What’s Next?

So feel free to download and start playing with them and share any feedback.  I’ll be following up next with quick start guides on both templates and how to get up and running.