Unlock the power of WinUI and supercharge your Windows app development with .NET and C# using this beginner's guide
Key Features
- Find out how to create modern Windows apps with native UI controls
- Get to grips with modernizing existing desktop apps with a modern UI
- Leverage WinUI code to build apps for iOS, Android, the web, and more
- Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook
Book Description
WinUI 3 takes a whole new approach to delivering Windows UI components and controls and has the ability to deliver the same features across multiple versions of Windows. Learn WinUI 3 is a comprehensive introduction to WinUI and Windows apps for anyone who is new to WinUI and XAML applications.
This updated second edition begins by helping you get to grips with the latest features in WinUI and shows you how XAML is used in UI development. The next set of chapters will help you set up a new Visual Studio environment, develop a new desktop project, incorporate the Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) pattern in a WinUI project, and develop unit tests for ViewModel commands. Next, you’ll cover the basics of data access from WinUI projects with a step-by-step approach. As you advance, you’ll discover how to leverage the Fluent Design System to design beautiful WinUI applications. You’ll also explore the contents and capabilities of the Windows Community Toolkit and learn how to create cross-platform apps with markup and code from your project using Uno Platform. The concluding chapters will teach you how to build, debug, and deploy apps to the Microsoft Store.
By the end of this book, you’ll have learned how to build WinUI applications from scratch and how to modernize existing desktop apps using WinUI 3 and the Windows App SDK.
What you will learn
- Discover the latest features of WinUI 3 and learn how to provide product feedback
- Understand the WinUI project structure and the app lifecycle
- Use the MVVM pattern in WinUI and discover open source MVVM projects
- Find out how to create a simple data store to save app data between sessions
- Get to grips with incorporating the concepts of Fluent Design into a WinUI app
- Discover how to use push notifications and app notifications in WinUI
- Reuse WinUI views and view models in a cross-platform Uno Platform app
Who this book is for
This book is for anyone looking to develop applications for Windows with a modern UI. If you’re familiar with Windows desktop app development and want to enhance your knowledge of the latest Windows development techniques, this book is for you. Whether you're starting a new project or planning to modernize your existing Windows apps, this book will provide you with guidance. Hands-on experience with C# and .NET is expected, but no prior knowledge of WinUI or the Windows App SDK is required.
Table of Contents
- Introduction to WinUI
- Configuring the Development Environment and Creating the Project
- MVVM for Maintainability and Testability
- Advanced MVVM Concepts
- Exploring WinUI Controls
- Leveraging Data and Services
- Fluent Design System for Windows Applications
- Adding Windows Notifications to WinUI Applications
- Enhancing Applications with the Windows Community Toolkits
- Accelerating App Development with Template Studio
- Debugging WinUI Apps with Visual Studio
- Hosting a Blazor Application in WinUI
- Take Your App Cross-Platform with Uno Platform
- Packaging and Deploying WinUI Applications
Alvin Ashcraft is a senior content developer at Microsoft, working on the Windows developer documentation team on Microsoft Learn, with a focus on the Windows App SDK, .NET MAUI, Win32, and other desktop application technologies. Prior to this, Alvin spent over 25 years as a software developer and architect, most recently at Allscripts, a global healthcare software company, delivering electronic health record (EHR) software to healthcare systems across the world. He is the author of two previous books for Packt, the first edition of Learn WinUI 3 and Parallel Programming and Concurrency with C# 10 and .NET 6.
