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The proliferation of rich interactive web applications through the cloud and cellular phones continues to generate new opportunities for creative design and development. As these technologies evolve, Microsoft is devoted to providing best-in-class tools for building modern applications. In support these industry trends Microsoft is consolidating our lead design and development offerings Expression and Visual Studio to make available all of the customers a unified solution which brings together the most effective of Web and modern development patterns.
Blend continue to ship like a standalone tool with Visual Studio 2012, together with a consolidated designer/developer offering. Blend for Visual Studio 2012 offers a rich design-centric environment for building Windows Store apps and Windows Phone apps. In addition, WPF, Silverlight and SketchFlow support is accessible today to be a preview and released in Visual Studio 2012 Update 2.
Expression Studio 4 Ultimate and Expression Studio 4 Web Professional won't be available for sale. For customers who previously purchased the products, all components within Ultimate and Web Professional is going to be supported through their support lifecycle.
Expression Design 4 and Expression Web 4 at the moment are available for download free of charge. Technical support will never be designed for these free versions.
Expression Encoder 4 Pro is no longer intended for purchase. Expression Encoder 4 remains intended for download for free.
Additionally a Preview version of Blend for Visual Studio 2012 that supports Silverlight and WPF editing, along with SketchFlow is obtainable. With this addition, developers may now leverage a consolidated tool for those platforms, included in a fully integrated solution with Visual Studio.
We are focused on releasing a production-ready version of Blend that supports these platforms inside upcoming Visual Studio 2012 Update 2. Please check back around the availability at the Visual Studio website.
The web is about applications and also traditional websites, which requires a new number of tools. Microsoft is invested in offering a unified method of focus on website development and development features in Microsoft Visual Studio 2012.
As point about this consolidation, Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 supplies the leading web design tool, which means that you can design, develop, and look after websites and web applications. Visual Studio 2012 allows to build CSS-based websites on the ground up with new CSS layouts, HTML5 support and full featured capabilities for dealing with and debugging JavaScript. Learn more about Visual Studio Express 2012 for Web and WebMatrix 2.
Expression Web is available like a free download through the Microsoft Download Center, without new versions will likely be developed. Customers who previously purchased Expression Web will get support over the established support lifecycle.
Expression SuperPreview Remote Beta continue running being a service through June 30, 2013.
Customers are demanding better tools to assist them create innovative, user-centric, fast and fluid applications. Going forward, our focus is on building the most beneficial tools for creating these applications with Visual Studio and Blend for Visual Studio, importing content from your range of traditionally used graphical tools.
Expression Design is actually available being a free download in the Microsoft Download Center, with no new versions is going to be developed. Customers who previously purchased Expression Design included in Expression Ultimate or Expression Web will get support from the established support lifecycle.
Going forward, Microsoft is continuing to purchase encoding, format conversion, and live on-demand streaming like a part of Windows Azure Media Services.
Expression Encoder 4 Pro is no longer readily available for purchase. It will likely be supported with the remainder of their support lifecycle no new versions is going to be developed.
Additionally, the free version of Expression Encoder continues to be intended for download.
Whats the visible difference between the free and paid versions of Expression Web and Design?
The features and functionality are the same between free download and paid versions. The key difference could be that the free versions are certainly not supported, meaning they are presented as-is without Microsoft technical support can be acquired these products are supported using the community.
How do I get tech support team for Expression products?
If you bought Expression Studio Ultimate, Expression Web Professional or Expression Encoder Pro: youre qualified for the same support as today via assisted support, self-support, along with the community. Support is accessible on the Expression support webpage.
If you did not purchase Expression Web or Design and are also using a free version: they are supported through community.
I recently purchased Expression Studio 4 Ultimate or Expression Studio 4 Web Professional and would love a refund.
Contact the retailer you obtain it from to find out if your purchase is due to their return policy.
North America: submit your refund request from the Microsoft Money Back Guarantee program.
Outside of North America: contact the nearest Microsoft subsidiary for assistance.
I have Expression Studio 4 Ultimate and/or Web Professional by using a MSDN, MPN, BizSpark, WebsiteSpark, or DreamSpark subscription. Will the supported versions in the software build up to me?
You continues to have access to precisely the same software and support for Expression.
The team blog in the Expression Blend and Design products.
We released important news today concerning the Expression class of products. Please visit the Expression Community site for details.
If you've watched the BUILD keynotes and sessions, you could have seen some exciting reasons for having Expression Blends support for Metro-style applications.
For all future news and updates concerning Expression Blend, please go to our new team blog called BlendInsider. The BlendInsider blog gives you the types of content you found hereand hopefully additional!
This blog will likely be kept around for archival purposes, but no new content are going to be added.
As imaginable, soon there after a major release like we'd, most people shift our focus slightly towards speaking about and sharing understanding some from the cool extra features we released. In this firstly a two-part series, I hope to produce up for your long period of inactivity about this blog by sharing two Windows Phone focused videos that Unni, Billy, and I recorded for Channel 9.
The first video with this list is certainly one that walks you through, with a breakneck speed, most on the new features we combined with Expression Blend to make building Windows Phone 7 apps easier:
Through the guise of creating a Bing Search application, I cover features which range from our Device Panel to Application Bar support to cooking Sample Data from the Class file. You can learn more about these traits by considering some of my more in-depth Windows Phone 7-focused articles.
The templates they created cover a wide selection of common UIs that you see, so you can utilize these directly a highly effective projects or simply as being a source of inspiration. Before you can go of that, certainly, download the templates from codeplex first.
As always, if you could have any questions, you can comment below. If you recorded some interesting videos, post them inside comments also.
Today, we have now released the ultimate version on the Windows Phone Developer Tools. You can download it below:First, download programs below:
This installer will automatically install free, phone-flavored versions of Expression Blend, Visual Studio 2010, and XNA Game Studio.
If you have now Expression Blend 4 installed, unlike earlier releases, running this installer will get more existing version of Expression Blend 4 and provide the chance to create Silverlight, WPF, and Windows Phone applications:
Thanks to everyone who's provided feedback in the last number of releases to assist us arrive at this stage. As always, if you've got any additional feedback, do post them for the Windows Phone Developer Forums.
Its been some time since we released an update for all of us working on Windows Phone 7 projects! Well, wait no longer! Today weve released an new version of Expression Blend that supports all from the latest changes designed to the Windows Phone 7 runtime in addition to some cool latest features.
First, download solutions below:
As you can view, you don't need to download and install Expression Blend separately. You can just run the only Windows Phone Developer Tools installer and find Windows Phone variants of Expression Blend, XNA Game Studio, and Visual Studio without cost.
This version of Expression Blend installs and runs side-by-side with Expression Blend 4 in support of supports utilizing Windows Phone projects.
As mentioned earlier, beyond supporting the changes meant to the runtime ever since the last release, weve added plenty of new functionality that creates designing Windows Phone 7 applications easier. Some in the more notable features are described below.
Because your applications will be displayed in different orientations, themes, and accent colors, weve made it easier for one to visualize within Expression Blend what the job would appear to be.
The Device Panel now gives you easy usage of preview between Landscape and Portrait orientations, Light and Dark themes, and Accent color.
For example, this is a preview of what the application looks like from the default Dark theme:
This allows that you design and make certain that your applications look and the choice of want no matter what which light/dark mode the person has their phone in.
Windows Phone 7 applications emphasize consistent usage of text like a key design element. To make it easier for that you preview and apply existing text styles, weve added the opportunity to preview inline exactly what a particular text style would resemble:
In this release, we've got exposed a really early preview of our own support for allowing you to definitely design the Application Bar. You have the opportunity to create an Application Bar, add Application Bar Buttons, and add Application Bar Menu Items. Because Application Bar Buttons display a 48x48 PNG icon, you may specify your personal icon or pick from the collection of icons we've got provided for you personally:
A future short article will review in greater detail utilizing what you've today to design an operating Application Bar!
Because Windows Phone applications are extremely page centric, we decided to produce navigating between pages easy. To navigate from a single page to a different, we exposed a Navigate To context menu:
This menu might be accessed once you right visit any element you wish to begin the navigation when clicked.
We have revised the FluidMoveBehavior to become on par with all the improvements we manufactured for Silverlight 4 4. You can learn more by what this means by reading Kenny Youngs blog post within this topic.
Unlike Silverlight and WPF when a full keyboard for input is nearly always guaranteed, Windows Phone users might possibly not have that luxury when focusing on their phones. While a on-screen keyboard is obtainable, because of the size in the screen, getting the full keyboard with all from the keys appear on-screen most likely are not ideal for every situation either. It may be useful to users should the keys displayed were optimized to the type of information they will be entering during that particular moment.
To address which need, we improved our support to the InputScope property on TextBox that allows that you specify what type of data is going to be entered:
For example, if Number was selected to the InputScope with a TextBox, this is what the on-screen keyboard appears to be when you concentrate on it within the emulator/device:
Notice that you usually are not seeing the standard full keyboard. Instead, you're seeing a keyboard optimized just for numerical input.
As always, if you could have any questions or feedback, please do comment below or post on our forums.
A couple weeks ago, a few Expression Blend associates presented on the TechEd conference locked in New Orleans this coming year!
You can search through all on the sessions on this link.
Creating attractive looking and functioning applications is actually difficult. It requires which has a good eye for design, just about all requires some technical information about how for making the design functional.
As you are able to probably guess, it's our goal to aid you use Expression Blend, Visual Studio, and our related tools to make those great applications. We spend a lot of time adding additional features and making existing features better that can help you do exactly that. Making improvements for the applications is only 1 side of how we try to help you you create great applications, however.
The far wall involves assisting you better learn how to actually create great applications, therefore we try good to provide some valuable training resources. Some notable shoutouts include plus the Expression Community sites. While considering videos or reading tutorials is effective, we needed to go further plus provide you which has a library of xamlcode samples that showcase something small, something specific, something cool. We felt that, on many occasions, simply being capable to deconstruct how something was done may be equally or more useful in finding out how to do something.
This library of xamlcode snippets, known better by its family as the Pattern Library, lives as a possible extension to your Expression Gallery:
You can learn more regarding the Pattern Library by reading Lars Powers newsletter article introducing it.
Please you can download and spend playtime with the patterns. If there is something you are feeling is missing, please feel permit us know or merely create it yourself and upload it.
Today at Internet Week in NYC, we announced the production of Expression Studio 4. You can download the trial of Expression Studio 4 Ultimate that also includes Expression Blend 4 and SketchFlow by clicking below:
Keep watching this site for more news, updates, and in-depth investigates some with the new features that weve introduced. Until then, here are a few related links:
Note that if you happen to be currently doing Windows Phone development, please not upgrade to a final version of Expression Blend 4 yet. We will release an latest version of our phone components from the future, so please keep using Expression Blend 4 RC.
Of course, no major release could be possible with no feedback all of you might have provided, so thanks!
While the PathListBox control gives an easy way to formulate items along a path, making a carousel control that appears 3 dimensional and possesses smooth scrolling requires additional functionality that any of us did not have time and energy to do in Expression Blend 4. Ive made the PathListBoxUtils sample situated on CodePlex to produce the tools that make making a carousel much like the one shown below quite simple:
Visit the Carousel tutorial to find out how to build this example, and you may view all PathListBoxUtils-related tutorials here.
Its been quite some time since the last article where I promised to post about all with the behaviors that ship with Expression Blend in greater detail. Ill try to become more prompt inside future. Today, lets look with the ControlStoryboardAction as well as the StoryboardCompletedTrigger.
Storyboards are one with the primary ways you create animations in Silverlight, WPF, and Windows Phone using Expression Blend. Creating a storyboard is rather easy, but actually employing a storyboard for example having it play is just not. To help using this, you've got the ControlStoryboardAction.
Simply put, the ControlStoryboardAction can be an Action that allows one to select a storyboard and specify what you would love to do into it:
Lets check out some from the properties its content has in greater detail.
When you are looking at this behavior, you can find only two properties you need to bother about. They are the ControlStoryboardOption and Storyboard properties.
From here you are able to choose whether you intend to play a storyboard, stop it, toggle between play/pause, pause, resume, or jump on the end.
The only missing piece thus far is knowing which storyboard to affect. Not to worry, simply because you specify the storyboard while using aptly named Storyboard property:
This property can place all in the Storyboards your behavior has use of. Once you've got selected a Storyboard, you might be done!
This trigger invokes an Action any time a specified storyboard set through the Storyboard property has fully be completion. Of course, because it can be a trigger, you are able to use it with any Action.
In Expression Blend 4, one from the new samples we added is known as MockupDemonstration. If you havent stood a chance to make use of it yet, you'll be able to open MockupDemonstration in the Welcome screen, which is accessible when you first start Expression Blend or whenever you click Help after which click Welcome Screen. In the Welcome screen, click Samples, after which click MockupDemonstration:
As you are able to tell quickly from exploring this sample, this sample posesses a handful of controls designed that can help you create prototypes easily. The catch is always that these controls only exist inside this particular sample. Since some of you might have requested that it will be useful to obtain these controls available outside in the sample, this short article will explain how for making these mockup controls accessible in other projects.
To enable mockup controls for almost any SketchFlow project, copy the mockup controls run-time and design-time assemblies in the MockupDemonstration sample to your pre-configured Libraries folder through using the steps below:
1. Copy both and Design folder from:
for WPF projects, follow this but copy files from Libraries Debug
2. Add copied files to your following destination:
Computer OS C: Program Filesx86 Microsoft Expression Blend 4 Libraries Silverlight 4.0
for WPF paste the copied files in the NETFramework folder inside the previous factor to Libraries 4.0
3. Restart Blend. You are now able to start using mockup controls by clicking the Mockups category inside the Assets panel the suitable assembly reference is automatically combined with your project.
If you've any questions or comments, please you can post below or on our forums.
At MIX, we released an earlier preview individuals support for building applications for Windows Phone 7 that only ran using a pre-release version of Framework.
If you've got been suppressing on upgrading on the latest versions of Expression Blend, Visual Studio, 4, wait get rid of! Today, we in conjunction with the Windows Phone team are releasing an update on the components we released a few weeks ago to work within the final version Framework 4.
Besides the RC posted above, you should have the following components installed for developing Windows Phone apps:
Besides support 4, we have seen some general improvements for the overall design experience, emulator updates, and breaking API changes. You can get a broader overview around the Windows Phone Developer blog.
As always, we like to hear from you. Please do comment below or use our forums here.
As nearly all of you know, yesterday we released the making candidate version of Expression Blend 4. Shortly after a lot of you experienced a chance to use it, many of you reported that Expression Blend crashes during launch.
If you happen to be one of such people whose Expression Blend crashes after launch, please download this minor revision in the release candidate we released yesterday:
If you arent having any problems launching Blend, you don't have to upgrade. There are no extra features or changes besides some changes for making sure Expression Blend runs properly on launch.
We were competent to detect this matter thanks largely from the error reports those of you using this crash submitted. We constantly proceed through all in the crash reports we receive, so we try to fix as lots of them as it can be.
While produce your own . you never need to experience crashes from running Expression Blend, should you experience an accident, remember to submit whole body reports!
Recently, the last versions of both Silverlight 4 4 happen to be released! To coincide using this, were releasing a release candidate version of Expression Blend 4 that it is possible to use to them:
There are two things you really need to find out about this release.
First, if that you are doing Windows Phone development, you shouldn't use the Expression Blend 4 RC. We will produce an update available for you soon with updated components, but inside meantime, please use Expression Blend 4 Beta.
Second, this launch of Expression Blend 4 targets one more versions of Silverlight 4 4, you are able to share your creations while using rest with the world. You no longer are on a only sharing your creations in source code form or even for private testing.
If you havent a chance to read the sessions from MIX10 that showcased Expression Blend 4, all the backlinks below should assist you out:
Authoring for Windows Phone, Silverlight 4 and WPF 4 with Expression Blend
This post only focuses for the sessions from MIX which might be Expression Blend specific. By now, all on the sessions from MIX should be for sale online, so head over towards the MIX Sessions page to examine more: /Sessions
Click here to observe Kennys MIX 2010 session that covers a lot in the topics which you see in this posting.
In Expression Blend, weve been thinking to get a loooong time about how to generate it ever easier to produce great animated visual effects quickly on top in the Silverlight and WPF runtimes. Weve been thinking about large-scale animation needs since Blend 2 SP1 and steadily building features to handle those needs, therefore we think weve reached critical mass. With Blend 4, we have now a compelling pair of technologies that work well very well together.
This post is a companion to your Dynamic Layout and Transitions demo app that weve placed inside Expression Gallery at /en-us/DynamicLayoutTrans. That app reveals the features whose motivations are described here.
Since its inception, Blend has offered keyframed editing of Silverlight and WPF properties via Storyboards. While I wont begin specific precisely that here, it forms the basis for all you features described below. Some of these functions work from Storyboards you create while others create Storyboards behind the scenes for your benefit and sometimes both.
Lets begin by turning the time back couple of years. In Expression Blend 2 SP1, we introduced the States Panel, which edits VisualStates and VisualStateGroups for Silverlight 2 and WPF 3.5 together with the WPF Toolkit. This introduced the notion of an state as being a means of communication between visuals and code, generating it dramatically simpler to describe a group of visual changes. Based on input, the control code could decide when you ought to enter what state, and also the visuals would decide what changes were seen in that state plus the time it popularized transition between any couple of states you may want most state changes to consider 0.25s, but want Pressed state changes being instantaneous.
This proved to be an extremely effective tool, however it had limitations. The core VisualStateManager runtime which well call VSM down the road could only do linear interpolations on the values being set. This is very rewarding for opacity and transform offsets, but doesnt are very effective for discrete properties or data that isnt known until runtime. Also, you cannot assume all animation scenarios are on the odometer by state changes. So we put our thinking caps on about precisely how we could read more scenarios to figure in a way that designers could rapidly tool the consequences.
In V3, we added four primary enhancements in this field. The first was EasingFunctions, which can be critical to making property animations contain the right feel. Weve got every one of the classics quadratics, cubics, bounce, elastic, etc. Plus, it is possible to write your individual EasingFunction in C or VB and put it to use to any animation you'd like. This is all supported in Silverlight 3 and WPF 4. EasingFunctions may be applied in an individual animation or keyframe, and you'll be able to apply a default EasingFunction on your entire state transition.
The second was obviously a GoToStateBehavior in addition to Blends Behaviors engine, which made it simple to program all of your state change logic directly inside markup without code. Like all of Blends Behaviors, you may simply drag it from the Asset Panel onto any elements you select.
Those two enhancements just made the prevailing scenarios run better. We also wanted to treat new classes of scenario. The first one we tackled was the challenge of elements planning a StackPanel or WrapPanel. Traditionally, these 4 elements have snapped into place being an application changes elements or changes size, so we wanted an even transition that users could control. So we introduced the FluidMoveBehavior for making it feasible for an element to observe the layout manager because it gone to live in a new spot, and erase its progress by having an animation controlled by a type of EasingFunctions we described earlier. So now its easy to obtain your elements animate into place at the speed you ultimately choose!
Heres a picture on the feature for doing things. Theres you can forget room around the first line to the purple rectangle, so its moving for the beginning on the second row along with the other elements are moving for making space. Technically, from your layout perspective, the next thunderstorm in motion are in reality at their destinations already but by adding the suitable transforms number one, we have the change look smooth on the visual perspective that users love.
The fourth enhancement we made was essentially the most challenging for all of us. We seen that many times, customers wanted different states inside their control to possess different layouts entirely, but nevertheless respond to active layout changes from the application. For example, one layout probably have a group of task panes visible beyond the working area, and another probably have one or more of such panes hidden. Customers planned to describe these different layouts with states to acquire a good separation between their visuals as well as their business logic, however the properties that necessary to change between these states werent properties that is certainly smoothly interpolated. For example, how will you interpolate between and?
What we learned was that in the event like these, users werent satisfied together with the direct property animations which our system as long as they just wanted it to seem right, and rendering it look right required that individuals animate a morph in the change as opposed to the change itself. So we wrote a train locomotive that would please take a layout snapshot prior to a state change, take another layout snapshot following your state change, and create an easy morph relating to the start and end positions, employing the duration and EasingFunction from the users choosing. We dubbed this FluidLayout, and you may turn it on here:
Just click that little button, and your complete layout modifications in that VisualStateGroup will likely be animated between states even though it seems impossible. Well even simulate a Visibility change by using an opacity simulation. Note that youll have an overabundance success in the event you click this before starting making layout changes otherwise, whenever you move an item, itll create translate/scale animations that do not respect layout, because thats the very best that the common VSM can perform.
Its hard to perform justice for this feature in a photo, but heres my best attempt. In it, the Timeline Pane is from the process of shrinking for the leftmost column, which I configured by changing the Panes property within a state. Similarly, I changed the RowSpan from the pink rectangle, and it is from the process of skyrocketing taller as being a result.
In Blend 4, weve managed to look at these themes farther, and possess three more toys for designers to have fun with. Lets start with animating things in and out of lists. In V3, you might apply a FluidMoveBehavior for a ListBox, plus the other items would dutifully make room for the new item or up close the space. But there wasnt any easy way to effectively control an item that was itself being added or removed; should you were clever, you might rig up some events to create an element animate on entry, and you also had being really really clever and pollute your details model in unfortunate ways to produce an element animate on exit. We worked closely while using Silverlight team to generate a solution here that you are able to tool effectively, as well as called LayoutStates. To find them, first edit the ItemContainerStyle:
And then, note these three new VisualStates inside States Panel:
You are able to use these states to model what an element appears like just before its loaded, what it appears to be after its been loaded, and what it seems as if just before its unloaded. Silverlight are able to animate a state changes for you for the appropriate times, when your items are included in or removed from your list. Remember to convey a FluidMoveBehavior on the ItemsPanel template note its presence within the Edit Additional Templates submenu, a few pictures above, and place AppliesTo Children, to acquire the elements to move out with the way. Note that when your ItemsPanel is usually a VirtualizingStackPanel, your ListBox needs to have set to Standard, or maybe you should learn one in the other new tricks below.
Heres an illustration of this doing his thing the middle item is definitely entering this list.
The next feature we added is another inside the vein of simulation. In V3, we added FluidLayout to VSM so that you can get an even and realistic morph between two states, nevertheless it got us to thinking regarding the other sorts of morphs we can easily perform. Enter TransitionEffects. Whereas transition effects in video editing give a pixel-based transition from a single video clip to a new, Blends TransitionEffects supply a pixel-based transition from state to an alternative. In Blend, a TransitionEffect is really a PixelShader which has an animatable Progress property. We are shipping several of the in our SDK, and if you understand HLSL you'll be able to write your individual. Heres the method that you set one up:
As configured here, all state changes inside the LayoutStates group will work a Smooth Swirl Grid pixel-based TransitionEffect, taking one second with a cubic ease. You can certainly set another transition for just about any individual state change if desired. Some in the TransitionEffects have properties to help promote customize them; as an example, Smooth Swirl Grid allows you to control the degree of subdivision plus the intensity in the twisting effect, but those properties are beneath the combo dropdown inside the picture. Heres a screenshot of these TransitionEffect for doing things:
The final feature we added is one area that weve been attempting to wrap our minds around for 5 years. Weve remarked that in lots of applications, visuals will move from part with the application to a new even though the visuals in many cases are generated from data. In a true MVVM design the place that the data model should be aware of nothing regarding the visuals, its extremely difficult to get these types of effects.
What weve done is train the visuals to learn more around the data model specifically, to coach FluidMoveBehavior to associate positions with data rather then with visuals. This requires a little bit of explanation, but is remarkably simple to use you are able to create an animated list-detail example yourself in about two minutes.
What we wish is for your large chair within the details view to look to grow out in the small chair inside master list. All we have now to do is locate the Image element inside the ItemTemplate with the ListBox, and present it a FluidMoveTagSetBehavior that can register it with all the FluidMove system. That seems as if this:
Note which the Tag property points too element will probably be tagged as outlined by its DataContext, that is the model item behind the visuals. Next, theres a FluidMoveBehavior within the detail Image, which appears to be this:
The other half with the connection is made together with the InitialTag field which is set to DataContext. This means that if the detail element appears, it'll consider the registered position of the DataContext for being the place it is going to appear to are derived from. And thats the entire thing! Heres a screenshot of this app doing his thing; remember that in this case I set the FluidMoveBehavior within the entire Grid, so the details would animate as well as the image.
Theres a great deal happening behind the scenes, but weve been able to boil this complex scenario about bat roosting two simple properties. This system could be used to animate objects derived from one of list completely to another list.
If I had included the whole future investigations in this field, this short article would be two times as long as it's already. Were working hard to handle more and more scenarios inside the simplest ways possible. Rest assured that the information hearing about much more improvements someday within the not too distant future!
If you've got any opinions or feedback, please twenty-four hours a day comment below.
Architect, Expression Blend
As many of you realize, today was day one of MIX - Microsofts annual conference for designers and developers. Just like previous years, there has been many great news coming out on the conference.
The two big things we announced are Expression Blend 4 Beta along with an add-in to Expression Blend that offers you the ability to develop applications for your Windows Phone.
Christian Schormann carries a nice summary of Expression Blend 4 and also the new features within it, so if you need to learn more, go read his writing.
Of course, there will likely be plenty of posts from the upcoming days and weeks that dive into detail about what weve released and announced today, so stay tuned in.
Over your next couple of weeks, it appears like smart to go over some in the behaviors we shipped being a part of Expression Blend 3. Many of you've mentioned that you would love to learn more around the stock behaviors we ship and just how they are used, this blog will probably be a good interim solution for the until we properly add your feedback into our future product documentation.
First on our list is a of one of the best behaviors we shipped, the GoToStateAction!
As you recognize, you could have the power to define and modify your individual visual states as part of your applications:
Having a visual state is just one part of the items needs being done. The other part is really being in a position to switch for the visual state in the appropriate time. For predefined visual states which you find as part of your controls, the mechanism for switching states is created in. For visual states that you just create on your personal, you will have to supply the logic for switching the visual states yourself.
That is how this behavior also comes in. The GoToStateAction allows that you easily switch visual states given a suitable event using just your Properties Inspector. The following screenshot explains the standard behaviors UI customized using the properties exposed by GoToStateAction:
Lets look at a number of these properties in greater detail.
Like I mentioned earlier, this behavior primary functionality is in allowing you to definitely change the visual state. How it does may need some further inspection, so lets look for the various properties in depth.
The visual state is set through the StateName property. By default, you will see every one of the states defined inside your root scope ie: UserControl or Window irrespective of where you drag/drop this behavior onto. You can change this by targeting this behavior at another element.
For example, the default target is my UserControl where I have two states defined:
If I were to concentrate on another element, such to be a Button which has its own states, the StateName list is populated with those states instead:
I spoke a good deal about changing the target that the states originate from, so lets look for the TargetName property the location where the element you desire to target is really specified.
If you need to target states that reside somewhere else like another Control or UserControl, you'll be able to use the TargetName property to modify the element you would like to point to. As mentioned earlier, the default value for TargetName will be the root scope for instance your UserControl or Window.
If that you are trying to select something that isnt easily selectable visually, you may hit the miscroscopic button to determine a flat listing of of your elements. That is similar to everything you see inside the Objects and Timeline panel.
You may either switch states suddenly, or you are able to smoothly transition into states. The UseTransitions property is what controls what your behavior can do. By default, the UseTransitions property is checked, but it is possible to uncheck it when you want a sudden switchover for your new state.
Hopefully this helped supply you with a summary on the GoToStateAction and ways in which it might be used. If you've got any questions, please twenty-four hours a day comment below.
For a restricted time, there is usually a 30% discount on all Microsoft Expression 3 products Microsoft Expression Studio Expression Web, both full and upgrade versions throughout the Microsoft Online Store for US-based customers:
No promo code required in any way just go to your store and add for the shopping cart!
Ok, pop-quiz time. Below, you will discover two screenshots I took from two different applications:
Can you tell what exactly is different between the two images? If you said how the button inside the second image seems a couple of pixels off from your image about the top or something similar, you might be wrong. The UI depicted in both on the screenshots is exactly the identical. Yes, it would be a trick question.
While both applications look almost a similar when run, let me detail both of those applications when opened in Blend. Here is what the approval depicted in Screenshot 1 appears like:
As you'll be able to tell, there is an essential discrepancy between first and second screenshot when viewed in Blend. More specifically, the next version from the application seems to get missing some UI plus the button will not be styled in any way.
The source on the discrepancies have to try and do with what Blend actually shows within the design surface. By and large, Blend is really a XAML editor. Anything defined in XAML, we're going to do healthy to display it on our design surface. For visuals defined as part of your code-behind files, you possibly will not always be in a position to see them in Blend.
This is in which the differences relating to the two apps is a result of. In the primary app, everything was defined in XAML. In your second app, some from the visuals were defined in XAML, but a many in the visuals just weren't. That is why Blend is just showing an incomplete subset of what the job actually appears to be when you view it within the design surface. This can be a problem.
The word problem might be a harsh word because of this, even so the outcome is under ideal if the job is a collaborative effort between someone technical and someone less technical. If you're a developer, being in a position to visualize code and produce changes can be straightforward. If that you are more design oriented, considering code to define the looks and feel associated with an application is just not natural. You would prefer something that seems like the application depicted in Screenshot 1 where it is all totally exposed in Blends design surface and it is possible to make changes visually without writing code.
The first and obvious answer that I have is to own you subdue the longing to add controls, define layout, or perform other visual tasks using code. The reason is the fact, since you saw from the screenshot on the second application, Blends design surface wont be able to aid you out.
Of course, you will discover many instances when such an extreme solution will not likely work. It is common for many people applications to belong to a gray area where visuals are partly defined in XAML and partly defined in code. Fortunately, you can find some simple steps you are able to take to produce designers more productive while still giving developers the flexibleness to develop the application form.
If you've got visual content that needs being added programmatically, ensure that content is thought as UserControls. The reason is that you are able to define the UserControl and earn changes entirely within Blend. Programmatically, you'll be able to add this UserControl which may happen to be edited inside Blend to the application without sacrificing the designability on the UserControl itself.
Create Styles in XAML, Apply them Programmatically
Sometimes, UserControls can be a bit excessive. For example, from the second screenshot, I use a button which is unstyled:
Instead of using a dedicated UserControl to wrap your styled button, you might just define the form in Blend and programmatically apply the form. Lets say you've a style called GreenButtonStyle defined as part of your Resources panel:
To apply this style for a button, use these code:
GreenButtonStyle as Style;
This allows that you still define the style and feel of one's Button using Blend, nonetheless its application is handled entirely via code.
Hopefully this post helped offer you some ideas on the way to ensure the visuals of you have to be able to be modified by Blend. I didnt enumerate all on the various cases, but when there is one area clever that you simply do to allow developers and designers to operate together, please comment below.
Today at PDC, we made several announcements that could well be of interest for your requirements! First, Scott Guthrie announced the availability on the Silverlight 4 Beta. This version of Silverlight contains some cool extra features that many of you could have asked for, so look at the Whats New document to obtain an breakdown of some on the new features.
To coincide with the production of Silverlight 4 Beta today as well as the release of Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 a while ago, we're also making a version of Expression Blend available that allows one to work 4 and Silverlight 4 based projects.
This discharge of Expression Blend is effective alongside Expression Blend 3, so you'll be able to continue to figure on your WPF 3.5 and Silverlight 3 based projects at precisely the same time.
When using Expression Blend, one common task maybe you engage in is dealing with layout. Tasks I commonly associate with working together with layout involve moving things around, rearranging an order of elements, ensuring everything flows when resized, altering your layout container, etc. For one of the most part, the modifications you make towards the layout of the application are pretty harmlessexcept in the event it involves DataContexts.
In a nutshell, data contexts allow one to specify the information that elements can inherit and use. Seems pretty harmless up to now. Data contexts is usually set on just about anything, but because the info is inherited, data contexts tend to be placed on parent elements such as being a layout container whose children will inherit your data:
What seemed harmless earlier presenting the potential to cause trouble. Because data contexts in many cases are placed over a layout container, and since data contexts primarily benefit any children listening in, you have to ensure that any layout changes you create do not cause your details context to interrupt. The common ways crucial computer data context can break are:
When children is inheriting data, will not reparent the kid to a location the location where the data context is not inheritable. This will cause your child to appear for an issue that doesnt exist.
Blend makes it super easy for one to ungroup children from the layout container. When you ungroup a layout container containing a data context set onto it, the information context your kids rely on will probably be lost.
Today, Blend doesn't let you know whenever you perform a layout operation that breaks data context. It is up to that you be vigilant, and you can view which element features a data context set upon it by thinking about its DataContext property:
If this property isnt empty, this means that a data context may be set onto it. While creating a data context set should never imply that data is definitely being used, it's a good gauge on whether a layout operation you perform may have any bad side effects for the children involved.
One in the goals of Silverlights Visual State Manager technology is permit you do a substantial amount of control customization without the need to use Blends Timeline, nor even needing to know just what a Storyboard is! Feel free to test-drive the Silverlight Button below, and read on for any run-down of how easily it could be built.
I began with some vectors Paths depicting the head in its normal resting state. Then I used the Tools Make Into Control command to create the artwork right into a template applied with an actual Button. After deleting the ContentPresenter from your template, I selected the MouseOver state from the States pane, so that adjustments I was about to create to the present elements to make a face that appears alert and ready can be recorded only inside MouseOver state. I moved the head and also the features upward somewhat, plus the rest with the changes involved utilizing the Direct Selection tool to go Path points around.
Because I wanted the Pressed state to become a variation around the MouseOver state, I used the Tools Copy State To command to copy all my changes in the Pressed State. Then, using the Pressed state selected, I adjusted one eye as well as the mouth to generate the wink.
For the Disabled state I decided I needed new graphics rather then adjusting properties on the existing graphics. So I made a simplified grayscale version with the face and created that version opaque only inside the Disabled state.
For transition timing, I created a variety of transitions back and forth various states and place their durations to taste.
Finally, to ensure that each Button instance can customize some aspect from the template, I used template bindings in order that Brush colors used from the template to get various pieces in the face will likely properties from the Button instance. So as an example I selected shoulders, then selected Fill inside the property inspector, and clicked Advanced property options Template Binding Background. So now, by setting a price for Background, Foreground, BorderBrush and OpacityMask, a Button instance with this particular style set upon it can determine the colors from the shoulders, face, hair, eyes and nose.
You can download the sample project files here.
What are these items are they approaches doing a similar task? When would I use one inch preference completely to another? Do they all are employed in all project types?
This post will try and answer those questions by describing the animation and control customization tools which are available for you in Expression Blend 3 SketchFlow, and discussing what jobs each tool is meant to try and do. Ill be classifying project types along two independent axes: WPF or Silverlight, and Blend or SketchFlow.
In the first discharge of Blend, if you needed to change the value of the property after some time, then a Storyboard was your one option. Using a Storyboard is usually known as keyframing. You create a fresh Storyboard or build a BeginStoryboardAction and allow that to workflow build a Storyboard available for you, move the playhead to be able to times after which use the artboard or the exact property inspector to improve values. Each time you change a price, a keyframe is included with Blends Timeline which means that, during this time, the exact property has that value. During the interval between keyframes, the home and property value smoothly assumes on intermediate values inside a process often known as interpolation. By default, the interpolation between two values is linear, meaning the additional value changes steadily eventually to form a straight gradient using a graph. And it is possible to control interpolation between keyframes by describing an easing curve. Whether that you were changing the Y coordinate of your bouncing ball, or changing the color of your rectangle inside a Button
Storyboards are for sale in all project types. Theyre equally useful today as it ever was, and they are generally worth learning using, because sooner or later youll probably want to use them. They give you essentially the most control over animation, but control can come with the cost of some effort.
For the job of customizing the looks and transitions of your controls visual states, theres an alternative solution and arguably simpler mental model than by using a Storyboard to define the transition to a state. The simpler mental model is that you simply draw the control in each of the company's states then, if it is important for you, specify the length of time any with the transitions take. I say draw because thats morally what youre doing; in fact you pick a state in Blends States panel, set properties, select another state, and so forth, but youre drafting a static image of that this control looks in each state. You neednt be worried about animation, although its interesting to note the runtime that supports this mental model that runtime is known since the Visual State Manager, or VSM for brief does generate a handoff animation for every single state transition. For practical purposes, drawing states and setting transition durations in this way gets the job done much on the time without needing to determine Blends Timeline at the
Of course you'll be able to leverage the Visual State Manager in your UserControls too. This is because states can apply with the level in the individual control from the MouseOver state a Brush is really a different color in addition to at the level of the page or scene from the ShoppingCartOpen state an otherwise hidden panel sometimes appears. So, you may add states to one within your UserControls that represents a website or scene, set different properties in various states, then use GoToStateActions they are driving state adjustments to response to events.
The Visual State Manager is fully built into Blend Silverlight projects and SketchFlow Silverlight projects. You can also use VSM in WPF projects although, as you move the UserControl experience is the identical as for Siverlight, not every WPF custom controls support VSM. Ive written previously around the States panel and WPF controls.
The last tool Ill mention could be the SketchFlow Animation, and this also tool is accessible in SketchFlow projects only, both WPF and Silverlight. A SketchFlow Animation is logically a storyboard from the true sense on the word: a sequence of frames that tells a tale. When youre making a prototype, you dont need to implement a characteristic fully to be able to demonstrate it. Playing back a scripted example from the interaction you've in mind contains the job done in the prototyping stage. So if you wish to show off the method that you imagine you will reorganize and animate in reaction to anyone dragging an item into the shopping cart application, you could potentially create a brand new SketchFlow animation then draw several frames showing how a product gets dragged between containers and how the design of those containers responds, as well as specify the easing between frames.
For those that like to understand how things work in the hood, a SketchFlow Animation is represented internally being a VSM state group. But you dont need for being familiar with VSM try using a SketchFlow Animation. Nor do you need for being aware of the items a Storyboard is, nor be in a position to use Blends Timeline. In a sense, each frame or state within a SketchFlow Animation is usually a keyframe, but for a macro level in order that each keyframe defines your entire scene in a point in time instead of the micro keyframes within a Storyboard comprise a single propertys value for a point in time.
Now that you've an idea of the these different pieces do, when theyre available, youll be in a position to pick by far the most efficient tool for each and every animation job you want to complete.
As you almost certainly know, Silverlight and WPF employ a runtime piece the Visual State Manager or VSM in short. As Ill describe in the following paragraphs, VSM along with the Expression Blend tooling support for VSM lend a good clean mental model on the business of visual states and visual state changes for both custom controls and UserControls.
Although chronologically the storyline begins while using control author, Ill speak about that aspect later in this posting simply because you will find more people from the world concerned with all the visual stuff than with all the logical stuff. The visual aspect begins in Blend, with a pair of already-defined visual states organized into groups from the States panel.
You can identify three stages within the design of visual states and transitions. First, the static stage. Here you will be making each visual state look and the choice of want it to, therefore you do so ideally without thought of transitions. You go with a state inside the States panel and you also change object properties. And speaking in the States panel, this is probably a good the perfect time to introduce the thinking behind state groups.
Visual states are categorized in such a way that the the states within scenario group are mutually exclusive of each other and b the states incorporated into any group are independent with the states incorporated into any other group. This means that one, and then for any one, state from every group might be applied at precisely the same time without conflict. An example can be a check box the place that the checked states are outside of, and orthogonal to, the mouse states. Changing an objects property in additional than one state within a similar group is normal practice. For example, you may change a Rectangles Fill to be able to colors in MouseOver, Pressed and Disabled. This works because one state on the CommonStates state group is ever applied in a time. But changing an objects property in many than one state group breaks the independent nature from the state groups and causes conflicts where multiple state is attempting to set a similar objects property at exactly the same time. Blend will display an alert icon that has a tooltip cont
Each state group should contain circumstances that represents the default state for your group. CommonStates has Normal, CheckedStates has Unchecked, and the like. It is usually a good and efficient practice to create objects properties in Base in a way that no changes have being made in any default state. So, as an example, you'll hide a check mark boxs check glyph while focusing rectangle in Base and show them in Checked and Focused respectively.
So now you'll be able to click throughout the states to make sure that that each looks correct. You can build and run, and test out your states, and also you might even visit to this stage if you are happy how the control switches instantly from state completely to another. But if instant state switches are certainly not what you want then you are able to breathe life for your transitions in stage two, the transitions stage. First, add any transitions you want to determine, then set transition durations and easing in it, still within the States panel. And again, in biggest reason so many cases this will likely be enough on your scenario. Whats interesting for people designers who can take a look at this point is there was you should not open the Timeline no need to become bothered together with the attendant concepts of the items a Storyboard is, etc. To keep unnecessary concepts and UI out of the face, automagically Blend keeps the Timeline closed if you select a visual state or edit a transition duration. You can obviously open it at any time with all the Show Timeline button.
Still inside transitions stage, there might be times once you need a propertys value to alter during the transition from StateA to StateB but, because from the way StateA and StateB are defined, the home and property either doesnt change or doesnt pass with the desired value. In this case you have to customize that transition. Select the transition after which use the Timeline as normal to define the animations that ought to take place in the transition.
The last stage is dynamic states. If, one example is, you will want blue rectangle to subtly pulse while a control has focus then you will need a steady-state animation. I also contact in-state animations since the animation happens while youre in the state. To do that, just select the state of hawaii, open the Timeline, and do not delay- keyframe as usual, possibly also picking out the Storyboard and setting repeat behavior and auto reverse.
Now lets begin the topic of how states correspond with control authoring. Before a designer start deciding what states and transitions resemble, the control author must decide what states exist. As a control author, your job isn't to think about visual states, but logical states. Forget what it appears like; exactly what does it mean? You need to consider every one of the ways the tip user and maybe other factors like invalid data can interact while using control, and from that thinking build out a group of candidate states; along with the states are logical at this aspect because they have zero look. Nows the the perfect time to think about whether your candidate states need factoring. Look for islands of states: closed graphs that do not link to other states. There are two kinds: orthogonal and nested. Orthogonal islands really should be put inside their own state group. An example is always that of CheckedStates and FocusedStates. There are no transitions from your CheckedStates state plus a FocusedStates state, along with a control is either ch
When a control initializes, it first has to acquire itself onto a state graph. This is important. If a control doesnt make this happen then it truly is still in Base after initialization. Base isn't a state; it merely represents the control which consists of local or base property values set, without the need of states applied. When the mouse pointer first moves over this control it goes to MouseOver but it should go there from Base, and so the Normal - MouseOver transition won't run the initial time. This can be a subtle bug that this consumer within your control cannot fix by defining Base - MouseOver, because Base is just not a state. So after you author your templated control or UserControl, you ought to define a default state in each state group. Have the control check out those default states if this initializes, and achieve this with transitions suppressed so which it happens directly. Once its about the state graph, the control is ready for state transitions to take place so now it is possible to implement the event-handlers that trigger the transitions
I hope this post continues to be useful and possesses helped clarify some with the less obvious areas of designing and authoring controls to figure well with all the Visual State Manager. If you want to discover a walkthrough of some on the ideas presented here, you can try my Button styling video.
2015 Microsoft Corporation.
If you might have watched the BUILD keynotes and sessions, you might have seen some exciting reasons for Expression Blend s support for Metro-style applications.
The second would be a GoToStateBehavior in addition to Blend s Behaviors engine, which made it an easy task to program your entire state change logic directly from the markup without code. Like all of Blend s Behaviors, it is possible to simply drag it from my Asset Panel onto any elements you decide on.
The next feature we added is another inside the vein of simulation. In V3, we added FluidLayout to VSM to be able to get an even and realistic morph between two states, nevertheless it got us to thinking regarding the other sorts of morphs we might perform. Enter TransitionEffects. Whereas transition effects in video editing offer a pixel-based transition from a single video clip to an alternative, Blend s TransitionEffects give you a pixel-based transition derived from one of state to an alternative. In Blend, a TransitionEffect is usually a PixelShader which includes an animatable Progress property. We are shipping several of such in our SDK, and if you understand HLSL you may write your. Heres the way you set one up:
As many of you recognize, today was day one of MIX - Microsoft s annual conference for designers and developers. Just like previous years, there has been a great deal of great news coming out on the conference.
The word problem can be a harsh word due to this, though the outcome is under ideal if you is a collaborative effort between someone technical and someone less technical. If you happen to be a developer, being competent to visualize code to make changes could be straightforward. If that you are more design oriented, taking a look at code to define the appearance and feel connected with an application is just not natural. You would prefer something that seems as if the application depicted in Screenshot 1 where all things are exposed in Blend s design surface and you'll be able to make changes visually without writing code.
The first and obvious answer that I have is to own you stay away to add controls, define layout, or perform other visual tasks using code. The reason is always that, when you saw from the screenshot with the second application, Blend s design surface wont be able to aid you out.
One in the goals of Silverlights Visual State Manager technology is to permit you do a substantial amount of control customization and not having to use Blend s Timeline, nor even requiring you to know exactly what a Storyboard is! Feel free to test-drive the Silverlight Button below, then read on for the run-down of how easily it might be built.
In the first relieve Blend, if you desired to change the value of an property with time, then your Storyboard was your one option. Using a Storyboard is usually known as keyframing. You create a fresh Storyboard or make a BeginStoryboardAction and allow that to workflow produce a Storyboard available for you, move the playhead to be able to times then use the artboard or the home and property inspector to switch values. Each time you change a price, a keyframe is put into Blend s Timeline and thus, as well time, the exact property has that value. During the interval between keyframes, the house value smoothly represents intermediate values inside a process called interpolation. By default, the interpolation between two values is linear, meaning the worth changes steadily over the years to form a straight gradient on the graph. And it is possible to control interpolation between keyframes by describing an easing curve. Whether you're changing the Y coordinate of an bouncing ball, or changing the color of the rectangle in the Butto
For the work of customizing the style and transitions of an controls visual states, theres a different and arguably simpler mental model than employing a Storyboard to define the transition to a state. The simpler mental model is which you draw the control in each of that states then, whether important for your requirements, specify just how long any in the transitions take. I say draw because thats morally what youre doing; in fact you go with a state in Blend s States panel, set properties, select another state, etc, but youre drafting a static image of the way the control looks in each state. You neednt be focused on animation, although its interesting to note how the runtime that supports this mental model that runtime is known as being the Visual State Manager, or VSM in abbreviation does generate a handoff animation for every state transition. For practical purposes, drawing states and setting transition durations such as this gets the job done much from the time without needing to determine Blend s Timeline at
For individuals who like to discover how things work in the hood, a SketchFlow Animation is represented internally as being a VSM state group. But you dont need for being familiar with VSM try using a SketchFlow Animation. Nor do you need being aware products a Storyboard is, nor be in a position to use Blend s Timeline. In a sense, each frame or state in a very SketchFlow Animation can be a keyframe, but for a macro level in order that each keyframe defines the whole scene at the point in time as opposed to the micro keyframes inside a Storyboard define a single propertys value for a point in time.
Allows someone to extend the capabilities of behaviors in Expression Blend, the Silverlight software development kit made from redistributable components
Microsoft Expression Blend 4 SDK addresses a smaller group of developers and programmers that are within the lookout for the Silverlight software development kit comprising the redistributable components for them to construct Expression Blend 4 programs.
Microsoft Expression Blend 4 includes incipient built-in departments, which might be reusable bits of packaged code that is usually dragged onto any object, and after that fine-tuned by transmuting their properties. Demeanors sanction one to integrate interactivity for your applications without being forced to indite any code. The Demeanor API contains three core classes: Trigger, Action and Comportment.
This SDK explores the best way to compose each these components, and boasts a few code samples to avail you receive commenced. Programming reference topics are shipped to Microsoft Silverlight. For more how-to and overview info on comportments in Expression Blend, optically discern the Expression Blend Utilizer Guide, available after you install Expression Blend 4.
Blend for Visual Studio, introduced with Visual Studio 2012 and enhanced in Visual Studio 2013, provides advanced design-centric capabilities for building applications for Windows Store, Windows Phone, WPF, and Silverlight. You can download Blend for Visual Studio 2013 with Visual Studio Express for Windows, Visual Studio Express for Windows Phone, and Visual Studio Professional 2013 and better.
The net profit with Microsoft Expression Blend 4 SDK is, because of the fact which you really need to start exploring this eventually new environment or if you happen to be already accustomed towards the previous version, then an one could be the way to go forward.
Support for Microsoft DirectX 9.0 graphics with Windows Vista Display Driver Model WDDM Driver, 128 MB of graphics RAM or higher, Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware, 32-bits per pixel
Actual requirements and product functionality are vastly different based on the body configuration and os.
Last updated on January 15th, 2014
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