Windows 10: XAML Islands - A deep dive Part 1 for Windows App Developers

Brink · Nov 5, 2018

XAML Islands is a technology that enables Windows developers to use new pieces of UI from the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) on their existing Win32 Applications, including Windows Forms and WPF technologies. This allows them to gradually modernize their apps at their own pace, making use of their current code as much as they want.

Background: How did we get here?

In 2012, with Windows 8, we introduced a new framework to modernize the Win32 APIs called Windows Runtime, with many new UI Controls. These UI Controls were part of the visual framework called XAML, which is part of the Windows Runtime. Back then, if you wanted to use any of these new XAML Controls, you would need to create a new App.

In the middle of 2015, with the introduction of Windows 10, UWP was born. The Universal Windows Platform (UWP) allows you to create apps that work across Windows devices (Xbox, Mobile, HoloLens, Desktop, etc).

In 2015 we announced Project Centennial, later Desktop Bridge, a set of tools that allowed developers to bring their existing apps (Win32) to the Microsoft Store (i.e. the new packaging system), so they could convert, for example, their MSI to an APPX. That was the first step on allowing even more apps to be delivered to customers in a safe and reliable way. Later on, we added even more capabilities to this bridge, allowing developers to enhance their apps leveraging some of the new Windows 10 APIs into their existing apps, like live tiles and notification on the new action center. But still, no new UI controls.

And now, at Build 2018, Kevin Gallo announced that Microsoft would be introducing a way for developers to use the new Windows 10 controls into their current WPF, Windows Forms and native Win32 apps, without fully migrating their apps to the Universal Windows Platform. That was branded as UWP XAML Islands, and it is huge! Now you can have your “Islands” of UWP controls wherever you want inside your WPF apps without rewriting thousands of lines of code.

Who is it for?

XAML Islands are intended for existing Win32 Apps that wants to improve their user experience by leveraging new UWP controls and behaviors but, due to effort or cost being prohibitive, are unable to do a full rewrite of the App. You could already leverage Windows 10 APIs, but up until XAML Islands, only non-UI related APIs.

If you are developing a new Windows App, a UWP App is probably the right approach.
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Read more: XAML Islands - A deep dive - Part 1 - Windows Developer Blog

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Brink · Nov 5, 2018

Mixing and Matching UIKit with XAML and the Windows Bridge for iOS

In part one of the Windows Bridge for iOS series, we created a simple to-do list app in Xcode and used the Windows Bridge for iOS to bring it over to Windows 10. In part two of the series, we went on a tour of Visual Studio for iOS developers. In part three, we used the Windows Bridge for iOS to convert an iOS calculator app created using Storyboards and Auto Layout to a Universal Windows Platform app that adjusts to various form factors on Windows 10.

Today, we discuss the various options that the Windows Bridge for iOS provides developers with, including controls in their converted UWP apps–whether UIKit, XAML, or some combination of both...
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Read more: Mixing and Matching UIKit with XAML and the Windows Bridge for iOS | Building Apps for Windows

Brink · Nov 5, 2018

Introducing XAML Standard and .NET Standard 2.0

XAML Standard

We are pleased to announce XAML Standard, which is a standards-based effort to unify XAML dialects across XAML based technologies such as UWP and Xamarin.Forms.

XAML Standard is a specification that defines a standard XAML vocabulary. With that vocabulary, frameworks that support XAML Standard can share common XAML-based UI definitions. The goal is for the first version, XAML Standard 1.0, to be available later this year.

Post-specification plans include support of XAML standard in Xamarin.Forms and UWP. You can continue developing your UWP and Xamarin.Forms apps as you do today. When XAML Standard support is enabled, you will be able to reuse and share between the frameworks and expand into more platforms.

To visualize what this support would look like, here’s a side-by-side comparison between today’s XAML in Xamarin.Forms and in UWP:

In the above example – once XAML Standard is supported by Xamarin.Forms, you can use <TextBlock /> and have it supported in a Xamarin.Forms app targeting iOS and Android instead of needing to know and use <Label /> as shown above. In addition to a TextBlock, here are some of the currently proposed items for standardization.

We are at the beginning of a journey that makes it easy for you to reuse your XAML source files between some simple Xamarin.Forms and UWP views. For example – a Settings.xaml page, where you typically have some text, toggle switches and some buttons. You’d only need to design and create one XAML file to describe this UI and that can be used everywhere.

Nothing changes for existing developers – you can continue to use the same APIs you have always used in both frameworks. XAML Standard will help you reuse/share any common UI code that you wish to share between end points.

The XAML Standard v1 draft spec is being defined in the open, we encourage you to start a discussion or give us direct feedback in the GitHub repo here.

.NET Standard 2.0

We are also happy to announce .NET Standard 2.0! .NET Standard is the set of APIs which work in all .NET implementations. A good way to think about it is how HTML5 is today. There are many different browsers which implement HTML parsing and rendering, but the HTML standard is the common glue that holds the web together and allows for interoperability.

.NET Standard was introduced in June of 2016 to bring consistency to the .NET ecosystem. With the .NET Framework, Xamarin & Mono, .NET Core and then UWP, there were many different implementations of .NET and it was very difficult to write code or a library that could work across all of them. Using .NET Standard, and the tooling in Visual Studio, makes it possible to build libraries and NuGet packages that work literally everywhere .NET runs.

The feedback we received on after .NET Standard’s introduction last year was generally phrased as “We like the direction you’re going in, but the set of APIs isn’t large enough to be useful.” The goal with .NET Standard 2.0 is to respond to that feedback and add a large set of .NET’s “greatest hits” into .NET Standard. To do this, we looked at the intersection of APIs between the .NET Framework and Mono. This lead to the 2.0 definition including over 20,000 new APIs and those APIs enable the top 70% of existing NuGet packages to work.

With the addition of .NET Standard 2.0 support for UWP with the Fall Creators Update, .NET developers will be able to share code across all Windows 10 devices, in the cloud and through the rest of the .NET ecosystem. This will also make it easier to reuse existing WinForms and WPF code as many of the most frequently used APIs like DataSet/DataTable, and popularly requested APIs like SqlClient, are now part of .NET Standard 2.0.

You can learn more about .NET Standard here.

Forming the shape of the future

We invite you, the .NET community, to join the discussion and help shape the future of XAML Standard and .NET Standard. You can provide your feedback, both suggestions and issues, at the following locations; .NET Standard on Github and XAML Standard on Github.

Resources:

Github

.NET Standard

XAML Standard

Microsoft Docs

.NET Standard Documentation

Build 2017

Session Video (Presentation Slides)

Ch9 Interview with Tim Heuer, Scott Hunter and Miguel de Icaza

All online Build 2017 Sessions, Presentations and Labs

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Source: Introducing XAML Standard and .NET Standard 2.0 - Building Apps for Windows

SNM · Nov 5, 2018

Need system for Android App Development and Other Java Development and DB work

Hello team,

I am looking for a lower to mid range PC which will be used in Development such as Android App development, java, DB and other related task, NO GAMING at all suggest some proper PC.

My Budget is INR 25,000, I have tried multiple build maker website but using core i3 6th ot 7th gen prices are going above 30,000. I dont have much knowledge about AMD, please suggest a build in the price I have given.

A ref: System Builder - Core i3-7100 3.9GHz Dual-Core - PCPartPicker India

Windows 10: XAML Islands - A deep dive Part 1 for Windows App Developers

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