Professional WPF Programming: .NET Development with the Windows Presentation Foundation (Wrox Professional Guides) (Paperback)

by Chris Andrade (Author), Shawn Livermore (Author), Mike Meyers (Author), Scott Van Vliet (Author)
Key Phrases: xaml file, xaml page, dependency property system, Visual Studio, Expression Blend, Windows Forms (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Professional WPF Programming

If you want to learn how to build killer user interfaces for Windows and the web, then this book is for you. It arms you with the tools and code you'll need to effectively utilize the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). From creating appealing graphics and animated structures to enhancing performance and security, you'll be programming in no time.

First you'll explore the WPF framework and learn how to develop basic applications with ASP.NET or Visual Basic(r). Next you'll discover how to build more sophisticated WPF interfaces using Microsoft(r) ExpressionBlend and then progress to more advanced programming techniques.

Throughout the book, you'll find best practices for enterprise architectures using the WPF and its underlying technology. All this will help you quickly learn how to develop next-generation applications on the .NET 2.0 platform using the WPF.

What you will learn from this book

• How to write applications with identical UIs on both Windows and the web
• Tips for collaborating design and code development with Microsoft(r) Expression Blend
• All about the object models, built-in server controls, HTML markup, code-behind, and the coordinative structure of each file
• How to migrate Win32 applications to WPF
• Techniques for integrating special effects and custom controls into an application
• Advanced development concepts, including building workflows and a WCF service

Who this book is for

This book is for experienced .NET developers who want to begin creating WPF web and desktop applications.

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

From the Back Cover
Professional WPF Programming

If you want to learn how to build killer user interfaces for Windows and the web, then this book is for you. It arms you with the tools and code you'll need to effectively utilize the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). From creating appealing graphics and animated structures to enhancing performance and security, you'll be programming in no time.

First you'll explore the WPF framework and learn how to develop basic applications with ASP.NET or Visual Basic®. Next you'll discover how to build more sophisticated WPF interfaces using Microsoft® ExpressionBlend and then progress to more advanced programming techniques.

Throughout the book, you'll find best practices for enterprise architectures using the WPF and its underlying technology. All this will help you quickly learn how to develop next-generation applications on the .NET 2.0 platform using the WPF.

What you will learn from this book

• How to write applications with identical UIs on both Windows and the web

• Tips for collaborating design and code development with Microsoft® Expression Blend

• All about the object models, built-in server controls, HTML markup, code-behind, and the coordinative structure of each file

• How to migrate Win32 applications to WPF

• Techniques for integrating special effects and custom controls into an application

• Advanced development concepts, including building workflows and a WCF service

Who this book is for

This book is for experienced .NET developers who want to begin creating WPF web and desktop applications.

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Wrox (May 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470041803
• ISBN-13: 978-0470041802
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #120,129 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Should be called Introduction to Expression Blend for Designers, April 18, 2009

By	Travis Parks (Howard, PA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am a developer who spends most of his time in the user interface hooking up controls to data sources. I have worked with .NET Forms for a good deal of my career. My primary interest in learning WPF is to see how to achieve what I do in Forms using WPF. If Wrox intended this book to be specifically oriented toward designers they should have named it accordingly. Someone like myself who could care less about how pretty a form looks and more about functionality is not going to find this information useful.

What I want to know is: how to create common controls like a data grid view? how do I do data binding? localization? element interaction? minimal styling? While some of these things are touched on, the depth is limited. True professionals want details, not skimmings. I am not proud to have this book on my shelf.

Outside of the lack of detail and information, there are regular grammatical errors that should have been caught by a competent reviewer. Obviously, the amount of care put into the production of this book was small. I have had good luck with Wrox in the past, but this book fails the test.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good focus and presentation, November 28, 2007

By	J. Osborne "sundownr" (New Mexico) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I find it rewarding that I am the first reviewer for this book. I say this because Wiley/WROX and their authors are decent people whom do not self promote by writing their own reviews.

This book is as good as any I have read on WPF technology. The authors have done a wonderful job in presenting a very difficult subject. Above all the technical material submitted in this book is intellectually sound and thus informative.

Anybody wanting to understand WPF technology needs to first understand the WPF learning curve is very steep and requires a good OOP background to grasp the fundamentals. It also helps to understand the declarative nature XAML and how UI development is greatly enhanced by building .Net assemblies with a declarative interface.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Nice Introduction to WPF, January 20, 2008

By	Rob "ActivelyX" - See all my reviews

I started this book once, and had to put it down. The information was a bit overwhelming at first, and I didn't have a copy of Expression Blend or Expression Designer. I was using Expression Blend beta, Visual Studio 2005 and the .Net Framework 3.0 SDK. Many of the examples didn't work without significant and time-consuming research. Then I purchased a copy of Expression Studio and started over. The examples worked perfectly. Not only that, but the examples in the last several chapters were quite good. I think this book deserves a five star rating because it provides a good introduction to WPF.