#183 – Project Types Available from Visual Studio 2010 and Expression Blend 4

January 11, 2011 1 Comment

You can create the following types of WPF-related projects from Visual Studio 2010:

  • WPF Application – Standard Windows WPF client application
  • Class Library – Library of reusable classes
  • WPF Browser Application – Page-based application that runs in browser
  • WPF User Control Library – Template for a new control, deriving from UserControl
  • WPF Custom Control Library – Template for new control, deriving from Control

You can create the following WPF-related projects from Expression Blend 4:

  • WPF Application – Standard Windows WPF client application
  • WPF Control Library – Template for a new control, deriving from UserControl
  • WPF Databound Application – Basic template for an MVVM application
  • WPF SketchFlow Application – Template for an application prototype, using the SketchFlow theming
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#182 – Create a WPF Project from Either Visual Studio or Blend

January 10, 2011 Leave a comment

You can create a new WPF project from either Visual Studio 2010 or Expression Blend 4.

Create a new project from Visual Studio 2010 using File | New | Project:

This opens the New Project dialog.

Create a new project from Blend 4 using File | New Project:

This opens Blend 4’s New Project dialog.

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#181 – Creating a WPF Development Environment

January 9, 2011 Leave a comment

To start developing WPF applications on Windows, you need to install Visual Studio 2010 on Windows.

The bare minimum setup includes:

A more typical professional development environment would include:

[Click here for a screen-by-screen example of installing Visual Studio C# 2010 Express).

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#90 – Stepping Into .NET Source Code in Visual Studio 2010

October 10, 2010 5 Comments

It’s sometimes helpful to see not only the metadata for .NET and WPF classes, but to actually step through the source code in the debugger to see how things are working.

To enable stepping through .NET source code in the debugger:

First, close any open solutions.  Then, under Tools | Options, select Debugging | General and check the option Enable .NET Framework source stepping.

Also check the Enable Source Server Support checkbox. Next, select Debugging | Symbols in the list at left.  Unselect Microsoft Symbol Servers, if it’s checked.  Click on the add button and enter http://referencesource.microsoft.com/symbols.  Then click on the Empty Symbol Cache button.

When you start debugging, you’ll see a message indicating that symbols are being downloaded.  This may take some time.

When you first try stepping into a .NET Framework method, you’ll see a EULA.

But then you’ll find yourself looking at .NET source code.  Voila!

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#89 – Using Visual Studio to Follow the Inheritance Chain for WPF Types

October 9, 2010 Leave a comment

The inheritance chain for WPF classes is pretty deep.  The Button class, for example, inherits from ButtonBase, and then from ContentControl, Control, FrameworkElement, etc.

You can look classes up in the MSDN documentation to find out which classes a particular class inherits from and which properties and methods it inherits.  Or you can use the Go To Definition feature in Visual Studio 2010 to follow the chain.

Assume you have some code that mentions the Button class.  You can right-click on the word “Button” and select Go To Definition.

You’ll see the metadata for Button and that it inherits from ButtonBase.

To follow the chain, right-click on ButtonBase and select Go To Definition again.

Again, a metadata window comes up, this time showing you the metadata for the ButtonBase class–and the fact that ButtonBase inherits from ContentControl.

The containing DLL is also listed at the top of the window.

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