Pro WPF: Windows Presentation Foundation in .NET 3.0 (Paperback)

by Matthew MacDonald (Author)
Key Phrases: button command, binding source, span tag, Windows Forms, Setter Property, Visual Studio (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation (formerly code-named "Avalon") is a key part of .NET 3.0 and provides the foundation for building applications and high-quality user experiences in Windows Vista. WPF blends together application user interface, documents, and media content, while exploiting the full power of your computer.

WPF functionality extends support for Tablet PCs and other forms of input device, and provides a more modern imaging and printing pipeline. It also provides accessibility and UI automation infrastructure, data-driven UI and visualization, and even integration points for weaving the application experience into the Windows shell.

Pro WPF: Windows Presentation Foundation in .NET 3.0 covers WPF from installation to application design and implementation to deployment. One of the most detailed books on new WPF technology, it provides you with the no-nonsense, practical advice you need in order to build high-quality WPF applications quickly and easily. It also digs into the more advance aspects of WPF and how they relate to the other elements of the WinFX stack and the .NET Framework 2.0.

Topics covered include

• WPF basics: XAML, layout, control essentials, and data flow
• WPF applications: navigation, commands, localization, and deployment
• Advanced controls: custom controls, menus, toolbars, and trees
• WPF documents: text layout, printing, and document packaging
• Graphics and multimedia: drawing shapes, sound and video, animation, geometric transformations, and imaging

About the Author
Matthew MacDonald is an author, educator, and MCSD developer who has a passion for emerging technologies. He is a regular writer for developer journals such as Inside Visual Basic, ASPToday, and Hardcore Visual Studio .NET, and he's the author of several books about programming with .NET, including User Interfaces in VB .NET: Windows Forms and Custom Controls, The Book of VB .NET, and .NET Distributed Applications. In a dimly remembered past life, he studied English literature and theoretical physics. Send e-mail to him with praise, condemnation, and everything in between, to [e-mail].

Product Details

• Paperback: 1000 pages
• Publisher: Apress (May 21, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590597826
• ISBN-13: 978-1590597828
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #356,608 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deep and wide, July 3, 2007

By	E. Ball (WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Pro WPF is quite impressive both in its breadth and in its depth. This tome of nearly 1,000 pages describes seemingly every feature of WPF with enough detail to actually get something done. No book of this size is perfect, but the typos were rare enough to not be distracting, and the writing was easy to read and comprehend. Even the succession of chapters is logical enough to allow sequential reading through the book, despite the varied topics.

Even if you're not of a mind to read the entire book cover to cover as I did, you'll still want this book as a reference for topics that you won't find discussed in the other WPF books, including how to build a custom view for a ListView, the many options for implementing printing in your application, how to create and use classes derived directly from Visual, etc. Highly recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book to learn about WPF, January 13, 2008

By	Walter Williams Jr. (Rockledge, FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Books stated purpose: This book is an in-depth exploration of WPF for professional developers who know the .NET platform, the C# language, and the Visual Studio development environment.

This book introduces the developer to the WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), which is a new graphical display system for Windows. This book is well written from beginning to end, and takes the developer through the process of learning how to utilize the capabilities of WPF. The author provides references to outside sources throughout the book. These either provide a more in depth look at the current topic, or point to a tool that would be useful. The author introduces WPF in a manner that lets developers of any level understand what WPF is and the benefits of using WPF. Then chapter by chapter he provides instructions and examples that take the developer through the learning process about WPF.

System Requirements;
* To run WPF applications, you must be running Windows Vista or Windows XP with Service Pack 2.
* To create WPF application, you must have either Visual Studio 2005 with .NET 3.0 and the WPF extension, or Visual Studio 2008.

The early part of the book is about the basics in and about WPF. The author gives basic, but understandable examples that lead the developer in a growing understanding of WPF. Once the developer has the basics of WPF down, the author begins to build on this base.

One of the basics covered is the creation of the Application object. This is the foundation for all the code throughout the book. Another basic operation covered is the layout of the forms. WPF provides the ability for Windows forms to dynamically grow and resize based on data and language, similar to Web Forms. It takes more work to set up a form, but it will give the user a much better experience in using it.

Now that the developer has the basics, the author moves along the path for using them. The developer is introduced to the WPF controls and how to develop with them. There are a number of features added to familiar controls. Some examples include: Tooltips can now contain both images and text. Multi-line text boxes can grow dynamically and text does not have to always break where it fits the textbox edge. You can add a dynamic spell check to textboxes.

There is a chapter on building control templates or modifying existing controls. This feature appears to be more powerful, and quicker than the old method of building a new specialized control from scratch.

The following topics are part of what is covered as the book continues. Data Binding to a database, Printing, Animation, Sound and Video and 3-D drawing.

The author wraps the book up with a short tutorial on using the ClickOnce Deployment. If the developer has already learned to use the ClickOnce Deployment, this chapter can be skipped. However, it is a useful conclusion to the book if the developer has not yet used the ClickOnce Deployement.

The book is pretty detailed. This review only touches on a few of the highlights from the book that specifically caught the reviewer's eye. It is worth adding to any developers library if they are looking to do new development for Windows Vista or Windows XP SP2.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Clear and Comprehensive Coverage of WPF, January 19, 2008

By	G. Mead "Ged Mead" (UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I already have several WPF books now, each of them has something to offer and it's a rare day when you can find all the information you need on a complex, wide ranging topic like WPF in one book.

Without detracting from the other books that I admire, I think if one book does come closest to being a one-stop source then possibly it is this one. Coverage of topics is comprehensive, detailed and accurate. At just under 1000 pages it's definitely a heavyweight, although you're unlikely to want to be parted from it long enough to use it as a doorstop.

The author's writing style is clear and friendly without being patronising. If I have a gripe about the book, it's the same complaint I've been making since the middle of 2007 - this is yet another WPF book that only has code behind samples in C#. However I understand that there will be a VB2008 version out early in 2008.

Of the books I have on WPF, I turn to this one early in most researches. I consider this book to be a good investment. I have several of Matthew MacDonald's earlier books, which I have always found relevant, well-written and useful; this book is in the same mould.