Posts for Category: Getting Started
Here are 4 WPF utilities I use almost daily, that also have the excellent property of coming with source-code included.
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Kaxaml
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Kaxaml is a great tool for quick experimentation with snippets of XAML. The editor has intellisense, and the app itself is gorgeous to look at. Written By Robert Ingebretsen you can download the source from codeplex. |
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Shazzam
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Based on the code for Kaxaml this is a nifty app for experimenting and developing pixel shaders, especially for inclusion in WPF applications. It compiles the shaders, builds C#/VB.NET "wrappers" and auto-generates a GUI for editing the shader properties inside of Shazzam (so you can 'twiddle the knobs' and see what the effect on the shader is). Developed by Walt Ritscher it can also be downloaded from codeplex.
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Snoop
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Think "firebug for WPF" - Snoop is my favourite application for viewing, editing and inspecting the visual tree of WPF applications. From its irreverent icon down to the many nice little touches in the UI, it is a great app, and I find myself turning to it, usually to get a better understanding of my OWN code rather than anyone elses. Originally written by Peter Blois it is now also hosted on Codeplex.
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Inkscape
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Inkscape is an open-source vector graphics editor, primarily targeting SVG but which in the last couple of versions added support for XAML. I enjoy using the inkscape editor more than I like Expression Design, although I think Expression Design's XAML output options are better than inkscape. Inkscape is none-the-less a useful tool, especially when working with "raw materials" that aren't in XAML format. You can download the source form sourceforge. |
Want to get started playing around with WPF applications, but you'd rather save your cash for some SLI video cards? Never fear - we've assembled a list of free (as in gratis) tools for most facets of WPF development.
Essentials
Visual Studio Express Editions (C#/VB.NET) and Visual Studio Extensions for .NET 3.0 will get you up and running and building "hello world".
Optional - Development
Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit for Windows Vista and .NET Framework 3.0 Runtime Components - this SDK includes a number of samples, tools and documentation that can be very helpful when developing WPF applications.
Optional - Design
Inkscape is an open-source vector graphics editor. It is ideal for creating vector icons, complex paths, geometries and the like. It's native file format is SVG, an XML dialect for representing vector graphics. In order to incorporate Inkscape into your WPF tool-chain you'll need this handy SVG to XAML converter, written by Andrej Benedik from wpf-graphics.com.
Optional - 3D
Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite. You can use it to develop 3D content, which you then export to XAML using this export script from Daniel Lehenbauer from the WPF 3D team at MS. Note - the latest release of Blender seems to have some issues running on Vista. Also, to run the export script you will need to install Python.
Optional - Components
Xceed DataGrid for WPF is a free, commercial-quality data grid offered by Xceed. WPF does not include a datagrid as one of the build-in controls, and Xceed has more than filled this gap with their grid. You can also catch an interview with Pascal Bourque, one of the senior developers from Xceed on Channel9, talking about the new approaches and opportunities for developing components for WPF.
You may receive the following error message when trying to create a new XBAP application using the Visual Studio Orcas March 2007 CTP:
"Error: this template attempted to load an untrusted component 'WinFxBrowserApplicationTemplateWizard, Culture=Neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a'. For more information on this problem and how to enable this template, please see documentation on Customizing Project Templates."
This is a defect in this pre-beta version of Visual Studio that should be corrected in the next release. One simple way to get around this problem is to run "sn -Vr *,b03f5f7f11d50a3a" from the Visual Studio command prompt. This turns off strong name verification for assemblies with this public key token. This tip comes courtesy of Marco Goertz in the WPF Forums.
.NET Framework 3.0 (the delivery vehicle for WPF) has been officially released. Congratulations to all the designers, developers, testers, program managers and technical writers who worked on this release. It is now up to the development community to build something cool with it. You can download the installer and the associated SDK and visual studio extensions. Note: although WPF and .NET Framework 3.0 has been officially released this is the November CTP of the Visual Studio designer and project templates for WPF not the final release.
The most recent release of WPF is Release Candidate (RC) 1 - released on the 1st of September 2006. This release is a great milestone for the WPF team, and an important step towards the final release at the end of this year/early next year.
To begin developing WPF applications for Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP SP2 you need to download the .NET Framework 3.0 run-time components RC1 (WPF is a part of a larger package of new components for windows called .NET 3.0). The .NET 3.0 runtime components are already installed with Windows Vista RC1. The tighter integration with Vista and WPF means that the RC1 release of the .NET Framework 3.0 runtime components are not compatible with earlier versions of Vista such as beta 2 and build 5472.5.
The run-time components can be installed in two ways, either by downloading a small startup program (around 2.5 MB) that then downloads what is required for your install. You can download the setup program .NET Framework 3.0 run-time components from here. You can also download the whole thing for x86 or x64 (both are around 45 MB). The installers for the .NET Framework 3.0 run-time components can be found here.
The next thing you need to install when developing WPF applications is the Windows Vista SDK. The SDK is available as either a DVD ISO image (around 1.1 GB in size) or as an Express Web Download that allows you to select and download only the components you require. The samples and documentation for WPF in the SDK make it an invaluable resource for WPF development.
If you wish to build WPF applications from within Visual Studio 2005 you should download the Visual Studio Extensions for .NET 3.0 RC1 (3.6 MB). This provides project templates for creating WPF applications, intellisense for editing Xaml files and a UI designer code-named "cider".
Although it is not essential you may also wish to install the Expression Interactive Designer September CTP (formerly known as Sparkle, and only 7MB in size) is a designer-focused tool for creating WPF user interfaces. It has the best "design-time" experience of the two Microsoft WPF development tools.
You may also want to install the Expression Graphic Designer September CTP (formerly known as Acrylic, and 118 MB in size), which allows you to create images and export them as Xaml for inclusion in your WPF applications.
The most recent release of WPF is the July CTP - released on the 18th of July 2006. This CTP is a little different to previous WPF CTPs in that the extensions for Visual Studio 2005 to build WPF projects with the CTP have not been released. We'll suggest some work-arounds for this below, but if you're new to WPF and not so concerned with using the latest release you might be better suited to the June CTP. The details for getting started with the June CTP can be found here.
To begin developing WPF applications for Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP SP2 you need to download the July CTP release of the .NET Framework 3.0 run-time components (WPF is a part of a larger package of new components for windows called .NET 3.0). The .NET 3.0 runtime components are already installed with Windows Vista, but because WPF is more closely integrated into the operating system in Vista than in XP or Windows Server 2003 you need to make sure you have the right version for WPF for your version of Vista. The July CTP of .NET 3.0 will work with Vista build 5472.5. If you want to develop WPF applications for Vista Beta 2 you should use the beta 2 release of WPF. Tom Archer has a compatability matrix here which explains which WPF builds should be used with which Vista builds.
The run-time components can be installed in two ways, either by downloading a small startup program (around 2.5 MB) that then downloads what is required for your install. You can download the setup program WinFx run-time components from here. You can also download the whole thing for x86 or x64 (both are around 45 MB). The installers for the .NET Framework 3.0 run-time components can be found here.
The next thing you need to install when developing WPF applications is the Windows Vista SDK, which is about 1.1 GB in size. The Windows Vista SDK can be downloaded from here.
As mentioned above there will not be a release of visual studio extensions for .NET 3.0 for the July 2006 CTP. There are a number of ways to potentially work around this problem:
- Use this as an opportunity to get familliar with the Expression Interactive Designer. There is an expression interactive designer release for the .NET 3.0 July 2006 CTP which can be downloaded from here.
- Craig McMurtry from the WCF team suggests you can manually edit your project file, using an example from the SDK as a starting point.
- You can install the Visual Studio Extensions for the June 2006 CTP (a totally unsupported configuration), using the following command-line as described here. msiexec /i vsextwfx.msi WRC_INSTALLED_OVERRIDE=1 This allows you to open existing WPF projects in Visual Studio, and edit Xaml in VS with intellisense. The "Cider" designer does not work, and renders as a black screen.
You may also want to install the Expression Graphic Designer for the July CTP (formerly known as Acrylic), which allows you to create images and export them as Xaml for inclusion in your WPF applications.
The most recent release of WPF is the June CTP - released on the 23rd of June 2006. To begin developing WPF applications for Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP SP2 you need to download the June CTP release of the .NET Framework 3.0 run-time components (WPF is a part of a larger package of new components for windows called .NET 3.0). The .NET 3.0 runtime components are already installed with Windows Vista, but because WPF is more closely integrated into the operating system in Vista than in XP or Windows Server 2003 you need to make sure you have the right version for WPF for your version of Vista. The June CTP of .NET 3.0 will work with Vista build 5456. If you want to develop WPF applications for Vista Beta 2 you should use the beta 2 release of WPF
The run-time components can be installed in two ways, either by downloading a small startup program (around 2.5 MB) that then downloads what is required for your install. You can download the setup program WinFx run-time components from here. You can also download the whole thing for x86 or x64 (both are around 45 MB). More information on the .NET Framework 3.0 run-time components can be found here.
If you have previous versions of the WinFx runtime components installed on your machine you should follow the manual step found in item 2.1 of the release notes to correct a problem with imaging in the June CTP.
The next thing you can optionally install when developing WPF applications is the Windows Vista SDK, which is about 1.1 GB in size. The Windows Vista SDK can be downloaded from here. This component is not required for WPF development if you intend to primarily use Visual Studio 2005, but the samples and documentation and tools like XamlPad are quite useful.
If you intend to develop WPF applications in Visual Studio 2005 you can download a group of extensions and project templates for visual studio 2005 [4.2 MB] to help you do WinFx and WPF development more easily. If you don't have Visual Studio 2005 installed you can use one of the free "Express" versions of Visual Studio to develop WPF application.
Versions of the Expression Graphic Designer and Expression Interactive Designer for the June CTP are now also available for download. The Expression Graphic Designer (formerly known as Acrylic) allows you to create images and export them as Xaml for inclusion in your WPF applications. The Expression Interactive Designer (formerly known as Sparkle) is a tool for designing WPF UIs, and is also written in WPF.
WPF is built on top of the .NET framework 2.0, so the very first thing you will need is Framework 2.0 if you don't already have it.
The most recent release of WPF is Beta 2 - released on the 23rd of May 2006. To begin developing WPF applications for Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP SP2 you need to download the Beta 2 release of the WinFx run-time components (WPF is a part of a larger package of new components for windows called WinFx). The WinFx runtime components are already installed with Windows Vista beta 2, so downloading them is un-necessary if you're going to be working with WPF on Vista.
The run-time components can be installed in two ways, either by downloading a small startup program (around 2.5 MB) that then downloads what is required for your install. You can dowload the setup program WinFx run-time components from here. You can also download the whole thing for x86 or x64 (both are around 45 MB). More information on the WinFx run-time components can be found here.
If you have previous versions of the WinFx runtime components installed on your machine you can remove them with this tool using the process described. WinFx Beta 2 is supported on Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP1 and Windows Vista Beta 2.
The next thing you will require to develop WPF applications is theVista Beta 2 Windows SDK. You can either download a small setup program which allows you to select which parts of the SDK you wish to install (to install the WinFx samples and tools is about 800 MB in total) or you can download the entire SDK (around 1.1 GB).
If you intend to develop WPF applications in Visual Studio 2005 you can download a group of extensions and project templates for visual studio 2005 to help you do WinFx and WPF development more easily. If you don't have Visual Studio 2005 installed you can use one of the free "Express" versions of Visual Studio to develop WPF applications.
You can also develop WPF applications using a new tool called the Expression Interactive Designer. The May 2006 CTP of the Expression Interactive Designer which is built for WPF Beta 2 can be downloaded here [6.9 MB download - registration via Microsoft Passport is required].
WPF is built on top of the .NET framework 2.0, so the very first thing you will need is Framework 2.0 if you don't already have it.
To begin developing WPF applications you need to download the February CTP of the WinFx components (WPF is a part of a larger package of new components for windows called WinFx). You can download the February CTP of the WinFX runtime components from here. The installer is quite small, but is really only a small startup program that does not contain the full set of WinFx components. Once you select what you want it will begin installing the components propper (meaning that you will have to stay on-line while this happens). If you have previous versions of the WinFx runtime components installed on your machine you can remove them with this tool using the process described. The Feb CTP is supported on Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP1 and the Windows Vista February CTP.
Next you should download and install the Windows SDK for the February CTP that accompanies the Feb WinFx CTP. Unfortunately this is quite a large download (~1GB) and contains many things you do not require, so if you are constrained for bandwidth you can omit this component.[update] but is required for the Visual Studio extensions and project templates to work (thanks Doug Stockwell). If you have problems installing the Windows SDK read this.
If you intend to develop WPF applications in Visual Studio 2005 you can download a group of extensions and project templates for visual studio 2005 to help you do WinFx and WPF development more easily.
A new release of the expression interractive designer built against the the Feb 2006 CTP is available here. It is written in WPF, and allows you to design WPF UI without needing an intimate knowledge of Xaml.
Once you've downloaded the latest bits you can begin in the how-to section with some simple WPF examples, or if you've done some WPF development before you might want to consult this list of changes between the previous CTP and this one.
WPF is built on top of the .NET framework 2.0, so the very first thing you will need is Framework 2.0 if you don't already have it.
To begin developing WPF applications you need to download the January CTP of the WinFx components (WPF is a part of a larger package of new components for windows called WinFx). You can download the WinFx January CTP from here. The installer is quite small, but is really only a small startup program that does not contain the full set of WinFx components. Once you select what you want it will begin installing the components propper (meaning that you will have to stay on-line while this happens). If you had previous versions of WinFx on your machine you should remove them with this tool.
Next you should download and install the Windows SDK that accompanies the Jan WinFx CTP. Unfortunately this is quite a large download (~1GB) and contains many things you do not require, so if you are constrained for bandwidth you can omit this component.
If you intend to develop WPF applications in Visual Studio 2005 you can download a group of extensions and project templates for visual studio 2005 to help you do WinFx and WPF development more easily.
You may also wish to download the Expression Interactive Designer Jan CTP. This is written in WPF for designing WPF UI.
Once you've downloaded the latest bits you can begin in the how-to section with some simple WPF examples.