Introducing Windows Applications Lesson 1

Objectives

Windows GUI Applications To create Windows GUI applications Visual Studio provides two technologies: –The Windows Forms.NET Framework. –The Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). With the introduction of the.NET Framework, Visual Studio has enabled developers to create GUI-based Windows application by using the.NET Framework’s System.Windows and System.Windows.Forms namespaces. These two namespaces combined provide all of the graphical elements required to give a rich graphical user interface and interactions.

Windows Forms (WinForms) Windows Forms (WinForms) applications support all of the standard Windows application User Interface (UI) elements.

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) With the introduction of.NET Framework 3.0, Visual Studio enabled developers to create GUI-based Windows applications by using the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). WPF is a unified programming model for combining UI, media, and document elements into one Windows application.

Windows Non-GUI Applications To create Windows non-GUI applications, Visual Studio provides two technologies: –The Windows Services –The Console application.

Windows Services Applications A Windows Services application is designed to execute and interact with the Computer Management Console. –The Windows Services application is intended to be executed for monitoring, maintaining, or evaluating functionality. –A Windows Services application is by definition a “service” and should function as one.

Console Applications A Console application is a command-line application that has no UI and is executed from the command-line prompt.

Windows Win32 Applications A Windows Win32 application is created using the Windows Application Programming Interface (API). Although you can create an application strictly using the Win32 APIs, it is more common to use Win32 APIs within another application. The Win32 APIs provide functionality into most of the Operating Systems’ features.

Windows Application User Interface A Windows Forms or WPF application provides several options for presenting graphic information. Deciding if the application needs to have a single document, multiple document, or navigation interface will affect your end user’s satisfaction with the application’s ability to meet his or her objective.

Single Document Interface (SDI) The Single Document Interface (SDI) is one of the first UI designs introduced when the Windows operating system was created. SDI is a design pattern in which the graphical elements of the window apply only to the current Window where they reside. The toolbars, menus, and other common Window elements control only the functionality for the window in which they are embedded. Each window that appears will have its own set of toolbars and menus to control its functionality.

Multiple Document Interface (MDI) The Multiple Document Interface (MDI) is a design pattern where the graphical elements of a parent window apply to all of the children windows that have a common document type. The toolbars, menus, and other common Window elements apply to all of the children windows –The parent window must be aware of which child has focus when performing functionality.

Navigation User Interface The Navigation User Interface is used like a wizard or process flow. The Navigation UI design pattern has built-in buttons and capabilities to allow for moving forward and backward through application pages of functionality.

Microsoft Design Principles Guidelines Microsoft has compiled a complete list of design principles to consider when creating a Windows application in the Microsoft Design Principles Guidelines document. As each new Windows operating system is released, Microsoft updates this list of design principles to help developers understand the reasoning behind the various UI elements. You can view the list of design principles for Windows 7 and Windows Vista at: us/library/aa511258(v=MSDN.10).aspx

Microsoft Design Principles Guidelines Small things matter, good and bad. Be great at “look” and “do.” Solve distractions, not discoverability. Value the life cycle of the experience. Time matters, so build for people on the go.

Microsoft Specific Design Principles Example Check Box List Box List View Comman d Button Progress Bar Status Bar Tree View Menu bar Tool Bar Group Box Radio Button Desktop Label TextBox Start Menu Notification Area

Summary Understand Windows Application types and how to recognize a GUI versus a non-GUI Windows Application. Understand Windows Application User Interface types and their various capabilities. Understand Microsoft Design Principles and how to apply the Microsoft Design Principles to various Windows controls.