Unifying Developer Registration: Windows and Windows Phone

Great news! Unifying Developer Registration: Windows and Windows Phone

http://blogs.windows.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/2013/11/06/unifying-developer-registration-windows-and-windows-phone.aspx

Design tips for Windows 8.1 apps

Design tips for Windows 8.1 apps

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/uk_faculty_connection/archive/2013/09/06/design-tips-for-windows-8-1-apps.aspx

Useful links related WinRT app

1) Hands-on labs for Windows 8

 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/jj674832

2) Create a trial Version of your app:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh694065.aspx

Callisto:A control suite for some common things a Windows 8 XAML application might want to include such as a Flyout, Menu, Rating, Settings Pane, and Pivot control

Callisto:A control suite for some common things a Windows 8 XAML application might want to include such as a Flyout, Menu, Rating, Settings Pane, and Pivot control


http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/0526563b-7a48-4b17-a087-a35cea701052


Callisto is a library for use in Windows 8 XAML applications (aka Metro style apps).  The XAML framework in Windows.UI.Xaml is great, but has some functionality that isn't provided in-the-box in a few controls and APIs.  Callisto serves to provided added functionality on top of the XAML UI framework for Windows.
What's In It?
So far Callisto includes:
* `Flyout` - a primitive that includes positioning and 'light dismiss' logic
* `Menu` - primarily to be used from AppBar, contains the base for providing, well, a Menu
* `MenuItem` - an item for a menu, including separators and contains the command point for the menu item
* `SettingsFlyout` - an item to create a custom settings pane UI
* `LiveTile` - an in-app tile experience to give you animated or 'live' tiles
* `Tilt` - an effect to provide the tilt experience when clicked on edges/corners
* OAuth helpers - a set of helpers to create OAuth 1.0 signatures/headers for those sites that hate OAuth 2.0 :-)
* `BooleanToVisibilityConverter` - a converter to well, convert boolean to visibility, very common use
* `LengthToBooleanConverter` - a converter to examine a string length to convert to boolean (simple validation helper)
* `RelativeTimeConverter` - a converter to show time as relative string, i.e., 'about an hour ago'
* Extensions - some extension method helpers

Assign color from codebehind

Assign color from codebehind


MySettings.HeaderBrush = new SolidColorBrush(Windows.UI.Colors.BlueViolet);
 MyBackGround..Background = new SolidColorBrush(Windows.UI.Colors.BlueViolet);

Detecting Network Connection in Windows Store Apps

If you developing a Windows Store Apps, it’s a possible likelihood that you rely on some sort of service to either get data or store data. This means that you will probably at the mercy of the Internet connectivity on the device. As a best practice you are supposed to make sure the device is connected to Internet and if not gracefully handle the situation. In this blog post you  will take a look at how to achieve this

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mvpawardprogram/archive/2013/04/01/detectingnetwork-connection-in-windows-store-apps.aspx
 

WCF Data Services Tools for Windows Store Apps

The WCF Data Services Tools for Windows Store Apps installer extends the Add Service Reference experience with client-side OData support for Windows Store Apps in Visual Studio 2012.
Here is link to install it:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30714

Styles for App Bar buttons

In WinRT StandardStyles.xaml already defined lots of styles. Here is one example from the StandardStyles.xaml file.



    <Style x:Key="SaveAppBarButtonStyle" TargetType="ButtonBase" BasedOn="{StaticResource AppBarButtonStyle}">
        <Setter Property="AutomationProperties.AutomationId" Value="SaveAppBarButton"/>
        <Setter Property="AutomationProperties.Name" Value="Save"/>
        <Setter Property="Content" Value="&#xE105;"/>
    </Style>


To look for more style, open the Windows Character map and type Segoe UI Symbol from the Font combo box and here you will see all the symbols.