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The team blog in the Expression Blend and Design products.
We released important news today concerning the Expression group of products. Please visit the Expression Community site for details.
If you could have watched the BUILD keynotes and sessions, you could have seen some exciting reasons for 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 offers you the types of content you found hereand hopefully considerably more!
This blog will probably be kept around for archival purposes, but no new content are going to be added.
As you can think of, soon there after a major release like there were, the majority of us shift our focus slightly towards dealing with and sharing utilizing some with the cool extra features we released. In this initially a two-part series, I hope to produce up for your long period of inactivity within this blog by sharing two Windows Phone focused videos that Unni, Billy, and I recorded for Channel 9.
The first video for this list is certainly one that walks you through, at the breakneck speed, most in 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 including our Device Panel to Application Bar support to Sample Data at a Class file. You can learn more about these functions by investigating some of my more in-depth Windows Phone 7-focused articles.
The templates they created cover a variety of common UIs that you'll see, so you may use these directly absolutely need projects or just as a method to obtain inspiration. Before you can go of that, obviously, download the templates from codeplex first.
As always, if you might have any questions, go ahead and comment below. If you recorded some interesting videos, post them inside comments also.
Today, we've got released the last version on the Windows Phone Developer Tools. You can download it below:First, download solutions below:
This installer will automatically install free, phone-flavored versions of Expression Blend, Visual Studio 2010, and XNA Game Studio.
If you already possess Expression Blend 4 installed, unlike earlier releases, running this installer will remodel your existing version of Expression Blend 4 and provide you the capability to create Silverlight, WPF, and Windows Phone applications:
Thanks to everyone that has provided feedback within the last number of releases to aid us reach this stage. As always, if you could have any additional feedback, twenty-four hours a day post them about the Windows Phone Developer Forums.
Its been a little while since we released an update for all of us working on Windows Phone 7 projects! Well, wait get rid of! Today weve released an new version of Expression Blend that supports all from the latest changes created to the Windows Phone 7 runtime as well as some cool latest features.
First, download programs below:
As you will see, you don't need to download and install Expression Blend separately. You can just run the one Windows Phone Developer Tools installer and obtain Windows Phone variants of Expression Blend, XNA Game Studio, and Visual Studio at no cost.
This version of Expression Blend installs and runs side-by-side with Expression Blend 4 in support of supports dealing with Windows Phone projects.
As mentioned earlier, beyond supporting the changes built to the runtime ever since the last release, weve added lots of new functionality which makes designing Windows Phone 7 applications easier. Some from the more notable features are described below.
Because your applications can be seen in different orientations, themes, and accent colors, weve made it easier for that you visualize within Expression Blend what you would appear to be.
The Device Panel now gives you easy access to preview between Landscape and Portrait orientations, Light and Dark themes, and Accent color.
For example, this is a preview of what the job looks like within the default Dark theme:
This allows that you design make certain that your applications look and the choice of want in spite of which light/dark mode an individual has their phone in.
Windows Phone 7 applications emphasize consistent using text as being a key design element. To make it easier for that you preview and apply existing text styles, weve added a chance to preview inline that of a particular text style would resemble:
In this release, we have now exposed an exceptionally early preview in our support for allowing you to definitely design the Application Bar. You have the cabability 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 are able to specify your individual icon or pick coming from a collection of icons we have now provided for you personally:
A future article will look at in greater detail the way you use what you've got today to design a functional Application Bar!
Because Windows Phone applications are extremely page centric, we decided for making navigating between pages easy. To navigate from a single page to an alternative, we exposed a Navigate To context menu:
This menu is usually accessed if you right click any element which you wish to start the navigation when clicked.
We have revised the FluidMoveBehavior to become on par while using improvements we generated for Silverlight 4 4. You can learn more with what this means by reading Kenny Youngs blog post for this topic.
Unlike Silverlight and WPF when a full keyboard for input is actually always guaranteed, Windows Phone users might possibly not have that luxury when focusing on their phones. While a on-screen keyboard can be obtained, due to the size from the screen, obtaining the full keyboard with all from the keys appear on-screen is probably not ideal for every situation either. It may be useful to users if your keys displayed were optimized for your type of information they will be entering at this particular moment.
To address which need, we improved our support to the InputScope property on TextBox that allows one to specify what sort of data is going to be entered:
For example, if Number was selected to the InputScope with a TextBox, is going to do the on-screen keyboard appears to be when you consentrate on it around the emulator/device:
Notice you are not seeing the original full keyboard. Instead, that you are seeing a keyboard optimized simply for numerical input.
As always, if you've any questions or feedback, please twenty-four hours a day comment below or post on our forums.
A weeks ago, some Expression Blend associates presented with the TechEd conference stuck New Orleans this season!
You can search through all from the sessions to the information.
Creating appealing and functioning applications is. It requires which has a good eye for design, just about all requires some technical information about how to create the design functional.
As it is possible to probably guess, it really is our goal to help you you use Expression Blend, Visual Studio, and our related tools to produce those great applications. We spend significant amounts of time adding extra features and making existing features better to aid you just do that. Making improvements towards the applications is side of how we try to help you you create great applications, however.
The opposite side involves assisting you to better discover how to actually create great applications, therefore we try good to provide some valuable training resources. Some notable shoutouts include along with the Expression Community sites. While thinking about videos or reading tutorials is helpful, we planned to go further and in addition provide you using a library of xamlcode samples that showcase something small, something specific, something cool. We felt that, most of the time, simply being capable to deconstruct how something was done may be equally or even more useful in finding out how to do something.
This library of xamlcode snippets, known better by its relatives and buddies as the Pattern Library, lives just as one extension towards the Expression Gallery:
You can learn more around the Pattern Library by reading Lars Powers newsletter article introducing it.
Please do download and use the patterns. If there is something you sense is missing, please feel to allow us know or simply create it yourself and upload it.
Today at Internet Week in NYC, we announced the provision 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 your blog for more news, updates, and in-depth examines some with the new features that weve introduced. Until then, below are some related links:
Note that if you're currently doing Windows Phone development, remember to not upgrade to the last version of Expression Blend 4 yet. We will release an latest version of all of the phone components from the future, so please keep using Expression Blend 4 RC.
Of course, no major release can be possible without worrying about feedback all of you could have provided, so appreciate it!
While the PathListBox control gives an easy way to lie down items along a path, developing a carousel control that appears 3 dimensional and has now smooth scrolling requires additional functionality that people did not have time for it to do in Expression Blend 4. Ive come up with PathListBoxUtils sample entirely on CodePlex to supply the tools that make setting up a carousel such as the one shown below a breeze:
Visit the Carousel tutorial to view how to build this example, and it is possible to view all PathListBoxUtils-related tutorials here.
Its been some time since the last article where I promised to post about all from the behaviors that ship with Expression Blend in greater detail. Ill try to become more prompt within the future. Today, lets look on the ControlStoryboardAction and also the StoryboardCompletedTrigger.
Storyboards are one in the primary ways you create animations in Silverlight, WPF, and Windows Phone using Expression Blend. Creating a storyboard is pretty easy, truly using a storyboard for example having it play will not be. To help using this, you've got the ControlStoryboardAction.
Simply put, the ControlStoryboardAction is definitely an Action that allows you to definitely select a storyboard and specify that which you would like to complete to it:
Lets take a look at some on the properties it has in greater detail.
When you are looking at this behavior, you will find only two properties that you simply need to be worried about. They are the ControlStoryboardOption and Storyboard properties.
From here you may choose whether you intend to play a storyboard, stop it, toggle between play/pause, pause, resume, or jump towards the end.
The only missing piece up to now is knowing which storyboard to affect. Not to worry, simply because you specify the storyboard while using aptly named Storyboard property:
This property are listed all on the Storyboards your behavior has access to. Once you might have selected a Storyboard, you happen to be done!
This trigger invokes an Action each time a specified storyboard set using the Storyboard property has fully cost completion. Of course, because it can be a trigger, it is possible to use it with any Action.
In Expression Blend 4, one with the new samples we added is known as MockupDemonstration. If you havent a chance to put it to use yet, you may open MockupDemonstration through the Welcome screen, that's available whenever you first start Expression Blend or after you click Help then click Welcome Screen. In the Welcome screen, click Samples, and click MockupDemonstration:
As you'll be 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 the fact that these controls only exist within this particular sample. Since some of you might have requested that it could well be useful to possess these controls available outside with the sample, this short article will explain how for making these mockup controls for sale in other projects.
To enable mockup controls for virtually any SketchFlow project, copy the mockup controls run-time and design-time assemblies from your MockupDemonstration sample on the pre-configured Libraries folder through using the steps below:
1. Copy both and Design folder from:
for WPF projects, follow this method but copy files from Libraries Debug
2. Add copied files on the following destination:
Computer OS C: Program Filesx86 Microsoft Expression Blend 4 Libraries Silverlight 4.0
for WPF paste the copied files on the NETFramework folder inside previous the answer to Libraries 4.0
3. Restart Blend. You can now begin to use mockup controls by clicking the Mockups category from the Assets panel the proper assembly reference is automatically included in your project.
If you might have any questions or comments, please do post below or on our forums.
At MIX, we released a young preview of our own support for building applications for Windows Phone 7 that only ran on the pre-release version of Framework.
If you could have been suppressing on upgrading to your latest versions of Expression Blend, Visual Studio, 4, wait get rid of! Today, we as well as the Windows Phone team are releasing an update towards the components we released recently to work on the last version Framework 4.
Besides the RC posted above, you will want the following components installed for developing Windows Phone apps:
Besides support 4, there are some general improvements on the overall design experience, emulator updates, and breaking API changes. You can get a broader overview for the Windows Phone Developer blog.
As always, we like to hear from you. Please twenty-four hours a day comment below or use our forums here.
As nearly all of you know, a couple weeks ago we released the discharge candidate version of Expression Blend 4. Shortly after the majority of you stood a chance to use it, many of you reported that Expression Blend crashes during launch.
If you might be one of such people whose Expression Blend crashes after launch, please download this minor revision on the release candidate we released yesterday:
If you arent having any problems launching Blend, you don't have to upgrade. There are no latest features or changes besides some changes to produce sure Expression Blend runs properly on launch.
We were in a position to detect this matter thanks largely throughout the error reports those of you using this crash submitted. We constantly move through all with the crash reports we receive, and now we try to fix as most of them as you can.
While produce your own . you never should experience crashes from running Expression Blend, should you experience this brief, please submit whole body reports!
Recently, the last versions of both Silverlight 4 4 have already been released! To coincide using this type of, we're releasing a release candidate version of Expression Blend 4 that you are able to use to focus on them:
There are two things that you simply 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 offer an update for you personally soon with updated components, but inside meantime, please use Expression Blend 4 Beta.
Second, this relieve Expression Blend 4 targets the ultimate versions of Silverlight 4 4, it is possible to share your creations while using rest with the world. You don't are restricted to only sharing your creations in source code form and private testing.
If you havent experienced a chance to browse the sessions from MIX10 that showcased Expression Blend 4, the hyperlinks below should assist you out:
Authoring for Windows Phone, Silverlight 4 and WPF 4 with Expression Blend
This post only focuses within the sessions from MIX that happen to be Expression Blend specific. By now, all with the sessions from MIX must be available online, so head over towards the MIX Sessions page to examine more: /Sessions
Click here to see Kennys MIX 2010 session that covers a lot in the topics which you see in this posting.
In Expression Blend, weve been thinking for just a loooong time about how for making it ever easier to build great animated visual effects quickly on top in the Silverlight and WPF runtimes. Weve been considering large-scale animation needs since Blend 2 SP1 and steadily building features to deal with those needs, therefore we think weve reached critical mass. With Blend 4, we have now a compelling pair of technologies realistically work very well together.
This article is a companion towards the Dynamic Layout and Transitions demo app that weve placed inside the Expression Gallery at /en-us/DynamicLayoutTrans. That app exhibits 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 get into specific precisely that here, it forms the idea for all the characteristics described below. Some of these functions work completely from Storyboards you create while others create Storyboards behind the scenes in your stead and sometimes both.
Lets begin with turning the hands of time back 2 yrs. In Expression Blend 2 SP1, we introduced the States Panel, which edits VisualStates and VisualStateGroups for Silverlight 2 and WPF 3.5 with all the WPF Toolkit. This introduced the notion of any state to be a means of communication between visuals and code, and created it dramatically simpler to describe a number 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 just how long it loved transition between any set of two states you may decide most state changes to adopt 0.25s, but want Pressed state changes to become instantaneous.
This proved to be an extremely effective tool, but it really had limitations. The core VisualStateManager runtime which well call VSM down the road could only do linear interpolations with the values being set. This works well for opacity and transform offsets, but doesnt work efficiently for discrete properties or data that isnt known until runtime. Also, don't assume all animation scenarios are on the odometer by state changes. So we put our thinking caps on about how precisely we could find more scenarios to operate in a way that designers could rapidly tool the end results.
In V3, we added four primary enhancements in this field. The first was EasingFunctions, which might be critical to making property animations possess the right feel. Weve got all of the classics quadratics, cubics, bounce, elastic, etc. Plus, it is possible to write your individual EasingFunction in C or VB and use it to any animation you'll want. This is all supported in Silverlight 3 and WPF 4. EasingFunctions could be applied for an individual animation or keyframe, and you are able to apply a default EasingFunction in your entire state transition.
The second became a GoToStateBehavior in addition to Blends Behaviors engine, which made it simple to program your complete state change logic directly inside the markup without code. Like all of Blends Behaviors, you'll be able to simply drag it from the Asset Panel onto any elements you select.
Those two enhancements just made the previous scenarios run better. We also wanted to treat new classes of scenario. The first one we tackled was the problem of elements planning a StackPanel or WrapPanel. Traditionally, these four elements have snapped into place as a possible application changes elements or changes size, and now we wanted an even transition that users could control. So we introduced the FluidMoveBehavior for making it straightforward for an element to view the layout manager whenever it chosen a new spot, and lessen its progress by having an animation controlled by among those EasingFunctions we described earlier. So now its all to easy to have your elements animate into place for a speed you decide on!
Heres a picture from the feature doing his thing. Theres you can forget room around the first line for your purple rectangle, so its moving to your beginning with the second row as well as the other elements are moving for making space. Technically, coming from a layout perspective, sun and rain in motion have been at their destinations already but by adding the suitable transforms at the top, we result in the change look smooth through the visual perspective that users love.
The fourth enhancement we made was essentially the most challenging for individuals. We realized that many times, customers wanted different states into their control to obtain different layouts entirely, but nonetheless respond to active layout changes from the application. For example, one layout could have a list of task panes visible away from working area, and another could have one or more of such panes hidden. Customers planned to describe these different layouts with states to have a good separation between their visuals as well as their business logic, nevertheless the properties that required to change between these states werent properties that is smoothly interpolated. For example, how would you interpolate between and?
What we learned was that in the event like these, users werent satisfied together with the direct property animations the system after they just wanted it to take a look right, and turning it into look right required we animate a morph in the change instead of the change itself. So we wrote an electric train engine that would please take a layout snapshot prior to state change, take another layout snapshot following state change, and create an easy morph relating to the start and end positions, employing the duration and EasingFunction with the users choosing. We dubbed this FluidLayout, and you are able to turn it on here:
Just click that little button, and your layout modifications in that VisualStateGroup is going to be animated between states even if it seems impossible. Well even simulate a Visibility change by using an opacity simulation. Note that youll have an overabundance of success in case you click this before starting making layout changes otherwise, whenever you move something, itll create translate/scale animations that do not respect layout, because thats the top that the typical VSM can perform.
Its hard to perform justice to this particular feature in a photo, but heres my best attempt. In this situation, the Timeline Pane is inside process of shrinking to your leftmost column, which I configured by changing the Panes property within a state. Similarly, I changed the RowSpan in the pink rectangle, and it is within the process of accelerating taller as being a result.
In Blend 4, weve managed to look at these themes farther, and also have three more toys for designers to use. Lets start with animating things in and out of lists. In V3, you might apply a FluidMoveBehavior on your ListBox, plus the other items would dutifully make room to your new item or close-up the space. But there wasnt any easy way to effectively control them that was itself being added or removed; when you were clever, you might rig up some events to generate an element animate on entry, therefore you had to become really really clever and pollute important computer data model in unfortunate ways for making an element animate on exit. We worked closely while using Silverlight team to make a solution here that you are able to tool effectively, and it is called LayoutStates. To find them, first edit the ItemContainerStyle:
And then, note these three new VisualStates within the States Panel:
You may use these states to model what an element appears like just before its loaded, what it seems as if after its been loaded, and what it appears to be just before its unloaded. Silverlight will animate their state changes for you with the appropriate times, as the items are put into or removed from your list. Remember to give a FluidMoveBehavior on the ItemsPanel template note its presence from the Edit Additional Templates submenu, a number of pictures above, and hang up AppliesTo Children, to obtain the other components to move out from the way. Note if your ItemsPanel is really a VirtualizingStackPanel, your ListBox must have set to Standard, otherwise you should learn one in the other new tricks below.
Heres an illustration of this this for doing things 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 as to get an even and realistic morph between two states, but it really got us to thinking around the other sorts of morphs we might perform. Enter TransitionEffects. Whereas transition effects in video editing supply a pixel-based transition in one video clip to a different, Blends TransitionEffects give you a pixel-based transition from a single state to an alternative. In Blend, a TransitionEffect is usually a PixelShader that's an animatable Progress property. We are shipping several these in our SDK, and if you already know HLSL you'll be able to write your own personal. Heres the way you set one up:
As configured here, all state changes from the LayoutStates group will do a Smooth Swirl Grid pixel-based TransitionEffect, taking one second is actually a cubic ease. You can certainly set a new transition for just about any individual state change if desired. Some in the TransitionEffects have properties to help promote customize them; one example is, Smooth Swirl Grid permits you to control the degree of subdivision along with the intensity on the twisting effect, but those properties are within the combo dropdown inside picture. Heres a screenshot of this TransitionEffect doing his thing:
The final feature we added is one thing that weve been wanting to wrap our minds around for 5 years. Weve realized that in a great deal of applications, visuals will move from part with the application to a new even though the visuals will often be generated from data. In a true MVVM design the location where the data model should be aware nothing in regards to the visuals, its extremely difficult to get these kind of effects.
What weve done is train the visuals to understand more concerning the data model specifically, to practice FluidMoveBehavior to associate positions with data rather then with visuals. This uses a little bit of explanation, but is remarkably all to easy to use you may create an animated list-detail example on your own in about two minutes.
What you want is for your large chair inside details view to seem to grow out in the small chair from the master list. All we now have to do is locate the Image element within the ItemTemplate for that ListBox, and present it a FluidMoveTagSetBehavior that can register it while using FluidMove system. That appears to be this:
Note the Tag property suggests that element are going to be tagged based on its DataContext, that is the model item behind the visuals. Next, theres a FluidMoveBehavior for the detail Image, which seems like this:
The other half with the connection is made while using InitialTag field that may be set to DataContext. This means that in the event the detail element appears, it is going to consider the registered position of that DataContext to become the place it's going to appear to originate from. And thats the entire thing! Heres a screenshot of these app for doing things; remember that in this case I set the FluidMoveBehavior within the entire Grid, so how the details would animate in conjunction with the image.
Theres so much happening behind the scenes, but weve were able to boil this complex scenario to two simple properties. This system could be used to animate objects in one list to an alternative list.
If I had included all of our own future investigations of this type, this writing would be doubly long as it's already. Were working hard to treat more and more scenarios from the simplest ways possible. Rest assured that material hearing about more improvements someday inside not too distant future!
If you've any opinions or feedback, please go ahead and comment below.
Architect, Expression Blend
As many of you recognize, today was the very first day of MIX - Microsofts annual conference for designers and developers. Just like previous years, there has been plenty of great news coming out from the conference.
The two big things we announced are Expression Blend 4 Beta along with an add-in to Expression Blend giving you to be able to build applications with the Windows Phone.
Christian Schormann includes a nice breakdown of Expression Blend 4 and the latest features in it, so if you intend to learn more, go read his article.
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 keep tuned in.
Over the following couple of weeks, it appears like smart to go over some from the behaviors we shipped to be a part of Expression Blend 3. Many of you've got mentioned which you would love to learn more around the stock behaviors we ship and exactly how they are used, which means this blog will probably be a good interim solution to the until we properly add your feedback into our future product documentation.
First on our list is certainly one of one of the best behaviors that people shipped, the GoToStateAction!
As you realize, you've got the capacity to define and modify your own personal visual states inside your applications:
Having a visual state is only 1 part of the needs being done. The other part will be being in a position to switch to your visual state with the appropriate time. For predefined visual states which you find inside your controls, the mechanism for switching states was made in. For visual states which you create on your own personal, you will have to deliver the logic for switching the visual states yourself.
That is how this behavior will come in. The GoToStateAction allows you to definitely easily switch visual states given the ideal event using just your Properties Inspector. The following screenshot teaches you the standard behaviors UI customized with all the properties exposed by GoToStateAction:
Lets look at many of these properties in greater detail.
Like I mentioned earlier, this behavior primary functionality is based on allowing that you change the visual state. How it does may need some further inspection, so lets look with the various properties in greater detail.
The visual state is set through StateName property. By default, you will see every one of the states defined inside your root scope ie: UserControl or Window in spite 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 another element, such like a Button containing its own states, the StateName list is populated with those states instead:
I spoke lots about changing the target that a states originate from, so lets look for the TargetName property the location where the element you need to target is in fact specified.
If you intend to target states living somewhere else for example another Control or UserControl, you may use the TargetName property to modify the element you need to point to. As mentioned earlier, the default value for TargetName could be the root scope including your UserControl or Window.
If you happen to be trying to pick out something that isnt easily selectable visually, you are able to hit the small button to determine a flat listing of of your elements. That is similar to whatever you see within 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 will work. By default, the UseTransitions property is checked, but you'll be able to uncheck it in case you want a sudden switchover for a new state.
Hopefully this helped offer you a summary on the GoToStateAction and the way it might be used. If you might have any questions, please twenty-four hours a day comment below.
For a fixed time, there is usually a 30% discount on all Microsoft Expression 3 products Microsoft Expression Studio Expression Web, both full and upgrade versions from the Microsoft Online Store for US-based customers:
No promo code required by any means just go on the store and add to your shopping cart!
Ok, pop-quiz time. Below, you'll find two screenshots I took from two different applications:
Can you tell what exactly is different between the above images? If you said that this button inside the second image seems a number of pixels off on the image within the top or something similar, that you are wrong. The UI depicted in both with the screenshots is likely same. Yes, it would have been a trick question.
While both applications look almost precisely the same when run, let me go over both of the applications when opened in Blend. Here is what the appliance depicted in Screenshot 1 appears like:
As you'll be able to tell, there is an important discrepancy between first and second screenshot when viewed in Blend. More specifically, your second version with the application seems for being missing some UI as well as the button just isn't styled in any way.
The source in the discrepancies have to try and do with what Blend actually shows within the design surface. By and large, Blend is usually a XAML editor. Anything defined in XAML, we'll do good to display it on our design surface. For visuals defined with your code-behind files, you might not always be capable to see them in Blend.
This is in which the differences between your two apps is a result of. In the primary app, everything was defined in XAML. In the 2nd app, some in the visuals were defined in XAML, but a many in the visuals wasn't. That is why Blend is just showing an incomplete subset of what the application actually seems as if when you view it for the design surface. This is usually a problem.
The word problem might be a harsh word due to this, though the outcome is a lot less than ideal if the application is a collaborative effort between someone technical and someone less technical. If you happen to be a developer, being in a position to visualize code making changes could possibly be straightforward. If you happen to be more design oriented, taking a look at code to define the appearance and feel of the application will not be natural. You would prefer something that appears like the application depicted in Screenshot 1 where all things are 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 get you stay away to add controls, define layout, or perform other visual tasks using code. The reason is, since you saw within the screenshot on the second application, Blends design surface wont be able to help you you out.
Of course, you'll find many cases when such an extreme solution won't work. It is common for a lot of applications to belong to a gray area where visuals are partly defined in XAML and partly defined in code. Fortunately, you will discover some simple steps you are able to take to produce designers more productive while still giving developers the pliability to develop the approval.
If you might have visual content that needs to become added programmatically, ensure that content is understood to be UserControls. The reason is that you may define the UserControl and produce changes entirely within Blend. Programmatically, you are able to add this UserControl which may are actually edited inside Blend to the job without sacrificing the designability with the UserControl itself.
Create Styles in XAML, Apply them Programmatically
Sometimes, UserControls might be a bit excessive. For example, from the second screenshot, I possess a button that is certainly unstyled:
Instead of creating a dedicated UserControl to wrap your styled button, you could potentially just define the fashion in Blend and programmatically apply the form. Lets say you've a style called GreenButtonStyle defined inside your Resources panel:
To apply this style for your button, use the next code:
GreenButtonStyle as Style;
This allows someone to still define the appearance and feel of one's Button using Blend, nevertheless its application is handled entirely via code.
Hopefully this post helped offer you some ideas on tips on how to ensure the visuals of you have to be able to be modified by Blend. I didnt enumerate all with the various cases, in case there is a thing clever which you do to allow developers and designers to operate together, please comment below.
Today at PDC, we made some announcements that could be of interest to you personally! First, Scott Guthrie announced the availability from the Silverlight 4 Beta. This version of Silverlight contains some cool latest features that many of you've got asked for, so look at Whats New document to acquire an breakdown of some on the new features.
To coincide with the discharge of Silverlight 4 Beta today along with the release of Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 a while ago, were making a version of Expression Blend available that allows you to definitely work 4 and Silverlight 4 based projects.
This relieve Expression Blend is useful alongside Expression Blend 3, so you'll be able to continue to be effective on your WPF 3.5 and Silverlight 3 based projects on the same time.
When using Expression Blend, a typical task you most likely engage in is using the services of layout. Tasks I commonly associate with using the services of layout involve moving things around, rearranging your order of elements, ensuring everything flows when resized, altering your layout container, etc. For by far the most part, adjustments you make to your layout of the job are pretty harmlessexcept in the event it involves DataContexts.
In a nutshell, data contexts allow that you specify the info that elements can inherit and assist. Seems pretty harmless to date. Data contexts might be set on just about anything, but because the information is inherited, data contexts tend to be placed on parent elements such to be a layout container whose children will inherit your data:
What seemed harmless earlier is now offering the potential to cause trouble. Because data contexts are sometimes placed over a layout container, and since data contexts primarily benefit any children listening in, you must ensure that any layout changes you are making do not cause your computer data context to destroy. The common ways your details context can break are:
When a kid is inheriting data, will not reparent the kid to a location the spot that the data context isn't inheritable. This will cause your child to seem for something which doesnt exist.
Blend makes it a breeze for that you ungroup children from your layout container. When you ungroup a layout container containing a data context set into it, your data context your sons or daughters rely on will probably be lost.
Today, Blend will not let you know once you perform a layout operation that breaks data context. It is up to one to be vigilant, and you can view which element features a data context set onto it by considering its DataContext property:
If this property isnt empty, this means that a data context has become set upon it. While which has a data context set shouldn't imply that data is definitely being used, it truly is a good gauge on whether a layout operation you perform could have any down side effects for the children involved.
One in the goals of Silverlights Visual State Manager technology is to permit you do a substantial amount of control customization without the need to use Blends Timeline, nor even the need to know exactly what a Storyboard is! Feel free to test-drive the Silverlight Button below, and after that read on to get a run-down of how easily it might be built.
I begun with some vectors Paths depicting the facial skin in its normal resting state. Then I used the Tools Make Into Control command to create the artwork in to a template applied in an actual Button. After deleting the ContentPresenter through the template, I selected the MouseOver state within the States pane, so that the alterations I was about to generate to the current elements to manufacture a face seems alert and ready could well be recorded only from the MouseOver state. I moved the head plus the features upward slightly, as well as the rest on the changes involved utilizing the Direct Selection tool to advance Path points around.
Because I wanted the Pressed state to get a variation for the MouseOver state, I used the Tools Copy State To command to copy all my changes to the Pressed State. Then, together with the Pressed state selected, I adjusted one eye and also the mouth for making the wink.
For the Disabled state I decided I needed new graphics as opposed to adjusting properties on the existing graphics. So I designed a simplified grayscale version on the face and created that version opaque only inside the Disabled state.
For transition timing, I created a volume of transitions back and forth from various states and hang their durations to taste.
Finally, to ensure that each Button instance can customize some aspect with the template, I used template bindings to ensure that Brush colors used within the template to attract various pieces in the face will likely properties on the Button instance. So for instance I selected shoulders, then selected Fill within the property inspector, and after that clicked Advanced property options Template Binding Background. So now, by setting a price for Background, Foreground, BorderBrush and OpacityMask, a Button instance using this style set into 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 types of methods doing a similar task? When would I use one out of preference to a different? Do they all operate in all project types?
This post will try and answer those questions by describing the animation and control customization tools which can be available to your account 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 launch of Blend, if you desired to change the value of any property after some time, next the Storyboard was your one option. Using a Storyboard can be known as keyframing. You create a brand new Storyboard or build a BeginStoryboardAction and allow that workflow make a Storyboard for you personally, move the playhead to be able to times and use the artboard or the exact property inspector to alter values. Each time you change a worth, a keyframe is included with Blends Timeline and therefore, during that time, the exact property has that value. During the interval between keyframes, the home and property value smoothly assumes intermediate values inside a process generally known as interpolation. By default, the interpolation between two values is linear, meaning the worth changes steadily after a while to form a straight gradient with a graph. And you may control interpolation between keyframes by describing an easing curve. Whether you had been changing the Y coordinate of any bouncing ball, or changing the color of your rectangle within a Button
Storyboards are obtainable in all project types. Theyre in the same way useful today as always, plus they are worth learning using, because sooner or later youll probably want to use them. They give you by far the most control over animation, but control can come on the cost of some effort.
For the work of customizing the style and transitions of any controls visual states, theres another 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 their states then, whether important to your account, specify the length of time any in the transitions take. I say draw because thats morally what youre doing; as it happens you pick a state in Blends States panel, set properties, select another state, and the like, 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 abbreviated does generate a handoff animation for each and every state transition. For practical purposes, drawing states and setting transition durations this way gets the job done much from the time without needing to find out Blends Timeline with a
Of course you'll be able to leverage the Visual State Manager is likely to UserControls too. This is because states can apply on the level in the individual control inside the MouseOver state a Brush is really a different color too as in the level of the page or scene inside ShoppingCartOpen state an otherwise hidden panel is so visible. So, you are able to add states to one of your respective UserControls that represents a website or scene, set different properties in numerous states, then use GoToStateActions drive an automobile state modifications to response to events.
The Visual State Manager is fully incorporated into Blend Silverlight projects and SketchFlow Silverlight projects. You can also use VSM in WPF projects although, as you move the UserControl experience may be the same as for Siverlight, don't assume all WPF custom controls support VSM. Ive written previously around the States panel and WPF controls.
The last tool Ill mention will be the SketchFlow Animation, this also tool can be acquired 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 an account. When youre creating a prototype, you dont wish to implement a characteristic fully so that you can demonstrate it. Playing back a scripted example in the interaction you might have in mind has the job done on the prototyping stage. So if you intend to show off the method that you imagine the application will reorganize and animate reacting to an individual dragging something into the shopping cart software, you might create a different SketchFlow animation and draw a number of frames showing what sort of product gets dragged between containers and how customized for specific cultures of those containers responds, as well as specify the easing between frames.
For those that like to understand how things work underneath the hood, a SketchFlow Animation is represented internally being a VSM state group. But you dont need for being familiar with VSM to train on a SketchFlow Animation. Nor do you need to become aware products a Storyboard is, nor be capable of use Blends Timeline. In a sense, each frame or state in a very SketchFlow Animation can be a keyframe, but at the macro level making sure that each keyframe defines the whole scene for a point in time as opposed to the micro keyframes in a very Storyboard that comprise a single propertys value for a point in time.
Now that you could have an idea products these different pieces do, then when theyre available, youll be capable of pick probably the most efficient tool per animation job you want to try and do.
As maybe you know, Silverlight and WPF employ a runtime piece the Visual State Manager or VSM in short. As Ill describe in this article, VSM and also the Expression Blend tooling support for VSM lend an excellent clean mental model to your business of visual states and visual state changes for both custom controls and UserControls.
Although chronologically the storyplot begins while using control author, Ill discuss that aspect later on this page simply because you'll find more people inside the world concerned using the visual stuff than with all the logical stuff. The visual aspect begins in Blend, with a group of already-defined visual states organized into groups inside States panel.
You can identify three stages inside the design of visual states and transitions. First, the static stage. Here you will be making each visual state look how we want it to, and also you do so ideally without thought of transitions. You go with a state inside the States panel so you change object properties. And speaking on the States panel, that is probably a good time and energy to introduce the thinking behind state groups.
Visual states are sorted in such a way that the the states within circumstances group are mutually exclusive of each other and b the states incorporated into any group are independent with the states in any other group. This means that one, and then one, state from every group might be applied in the same time without conflict. An example is often a check box the spot that the checked states are separate from, and orthogonal to, the mouse states. Changing an objects property in than one state within exactly the same group is normal practice. For example, you could change a Rectangles Fill to several colors in MouseOver, Pressed and Disabled. This works because merely one state from your CommonStates state group is ever applied at the time. But changing an objects property in many than one state group breaks the independent nature on the state groups and causes conflicts where multiple state is seeking to set exactly the same objects property on the same time. Blend will display an alert icon using 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 put objects properties in Base so that no changes have to get made in any default state. So, by way of example, you'd probably hide a check mark boxs check glyph while keeping focused rectangle in Base after which show them in Checked and Focused respectively.
So now you are able to click with the states to verify that each looks correct. You can build and run, and try out your states, so you might even visit this stage when you happy which the control switches instantly from state to a new. But if instant state switches are not what we want then you may breathe life in your transitions in stage two, the transitions stage. First, add any transitions you want to determine, then set transition durations and easing to them, still inside States panel. And again, in biggest reason so many cases this are going to be enough to your scenario. Whats interesting for anyone designers who can visit to this point is the fact that there was no reason to open the Timeline with out need being bothered while using attendant concepts products a Storyboard is, etc. To keep unnecessary concepts and UI out within your face, automagically Blend keeps the Timeline closed if you select a visual state or edit a transition duration. You can certainly open it at any time using the Show Timeline button.
Still from the transitions stage, there could be times after you need a propertys value to switch during the transition from StateA to StateB but, because on 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 and use the Timeline as normal to define the animations that will take place throughout the transition.
The last stage is dynamic states. If, for instance, you will want blue rectangle to subtly pulse while a control has focus then you want a steady-state animation. I also contact them in-state animations for the reason that animation happens while youre within a state. To do that, just select a state, open the Timeline, and proceed to keyframe as usual, possibly also deciding on the Storyboard and setting repeat behavior and auto reverse.
Now lets start the topic of how states correspond with control authoring. Before a designer start deciding what states and transitions appear to be, the control author must decide what states exist. As a control author, your job just 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 final user and maybe other factors like invalid data can interact with all the control, and from that thinking build out a number of candidate states; and also the states are logical at this time because they don't have any look. Nows the time for it to think about whether your candidate states need factoring. Look for islands of states: closed graphs which don't link to other states. There are two kinds: orthogonal and nested. Orthogonal islands really should be put into their own state group. An example is the fact 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 hawaii graph. This is important. If a control doesnt make this happen then it's still in Base after initialization. Base isn't a state; it merely represents the control using its local or base property values set, without having states applied. When the mouse pointer first moves over this control it may go to MouseOver but it should go there from Base, hence the Normal - MouseOver transition will not likely run the primary time. This is usually a subtle bug how the consumer of one's control cannot fix by defining Base - MouseOver, because Base is just not a state. So whenever you author your individual templated control or UserControl, you need to define a default state in each state group. Have the control visit those default states in the event it initializes, and accomplish that with transitions suppressed so which it happens at once. 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 may be useful and has now helped clarify some on the less obvious facets of designing and authoring controls to function well using the Visual State Manager. If you want to discover a walkthrough of some in the ideas presented here, you can try my Button styling video.
2015 Microsoft Corporation.
If you've got watched the BUILD keynotes and sessions, possibly you have seen some exciting reasons for having Expression Blend s support for Metro-style applications.
The second was obviously a GoToStateBehavior in addition to Blend s Behaviors engine, which made it all to easy to program all of your state change logic directly inside 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 within the vein of simulation. In V3, we added FluidLayout to VSM to be able to get an even and realistic morph between two states, nonetheless it got us to thinking regarding the other sorts of morphs we might perform. Enter TransitionEffects. Whereas transition effects in video editing supply a pixel-based transition derived from one of video clip to a different, Blend s TransitionEffects offer a pixel-based transition in one state completely to another. In Blend, a TransitionEffect is often a PixelShader that's an animatable Progress property. We are shipping several of those in our SDK, and if you realize HLSL it is possible to write your own personal. Heres the way you set one up:
As many of you already know, today was the very first day of MIX - Microsoft s annual conference for designers and developers. Just like previous years, there has been many great news coming out with the conference.
The word problem can be a harsh word with this, however the outcome is a lot less than ideal if the application is a collaborative effort between someone technical and someone less technical. If you happen to be a developer, being capable to visualize code making changes might be straightforward. If you're more design oriented, taking a look at code to define the appearance and feel of the application just isn't natural. You would prefer something that appears like the application depicted in Screenshot 1 where things are all exposed in Blend s design surface and you are able to make changes visually without writing code.
The first and obvious answer that I have is to obtain you subdue the longing to add controls, define layout, or perform other visual tasks using code. The reason is, when you saw inside the screenshot from the second application, Blend s design surface wont be able that can help you out.
One in the goals of Silverlights Visual State Manager technology is permit you do a lot of control customization without the need 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, and after that read on for any run-down of how easily it may be built.
In the first turmoil Blend, if you desired to change the value of an property as time passes, then this Storyboard was your one option. Using a Storyboard can also be known as keyframing. You create a different Storyboard or develop a BeginStoryboardAction and allow that workflow produce a Storyboard available for you, move the playhead to varied times and use the artboard or the home and property inspector to switch values. Each time you change a worth, a keyframe is included in Blend s Timeline which means, during this time, the home and property has that value. During the interval between keyframes, the house value smoothly assumes on intermediate values within a process referred to as interpolation. By default, the interpolation between two values is linear, meaning the worth changes steadily after a while to form a straight gradient with a graph. And you are able to control interpolation between keyframes by describing an easing curve. Whether you had been changing the Y coordinate of the bouncing ball, or changing the color of any rectangle in the Butto
For the project of customizing the looks and transitions of your controls visual states, theres an alternate and arguably simpler mental model than employing a Storyboard to define the transition right into a state. The simpler mental model is that you just draw the control in each of that states then, whether its important for you, specify the length of time any with the transitions take. I say draw because thats morally what youre doing; as it happens you go with a state in Blend s States panel, set properties, select another state, and many others, but youre drafting a static image of what sort of 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 because the Visual State Manager, or VSM in short does generate a handoff animation for every state transition. For practical purposes, drawing states and setting transition durations similar to this gets the job done much on the time without needing to discover Blend s Timeline at
For those that like to recognize how things work underneath the hood, a SketchFlow Animation is represented internally being a VSM state group. But you dont need being familiar with VSM try using a SketchFlow Animation. Nor do you need to become aware with the items 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 in a macro level to ensure each keyframe defines the complete scene for a point in time rather than micro keyframes in the Storyboard comprise a single propertys value with a point in time.
We can still keep using Expression Web 4 for many years. So dont panic.
Actually, that is the the perfect time to grab a replica of expression web 4 and acquire learning!! Once your learn using Expression web and CSS, youll be competent to use any professional design tool.
Expression Blend are going to be integrated with Visual Studio sooner or later.
Expression Web tudio 4 Ultimate and Professional packages will not be available to buy. For customers who previously purchased they, all components within Ultimate and Web Professional are going to be supported through their support lifecycle.
Expression Design 4 and Expression Web 4 have become available for download, FREE of Charge. No Technical support will never be available.
Theres more. Go to /en-US/
Microsoft claims that any of us need a new number of tools because within this day and age, its information on creating Web Applications.
Well, let me tell you, this can be so not the case. At least not from my perspective. I have a huge number of customers who purchased my training products to ensure that they could build their unique web site! Not build their very own Web Applications.
And why not consider FrontPage Users? There is a steady stream of FP users who need to transition to Expression Web. Again, they're people who desire to build and maintain their very own web sites. Not build and gaze after web applications. Now what are we to try and do? How do we match the growing need for Do it Yourself web design by using a software program which gives you complete control and builds valid compliant sites? By the way in which, FrontPage software can also be no longer avaiable.
While Microsoft will not be being up-front in regards to the REAL factors behind discontinuing Expression Web, theres obviously some reason. But its not the key reason why they gave us.
Usually things similar to this come down on the Bottom Line. Microsoft created Expression Web using the intention of competing with Dreamweaver. Yet, EW seemed to are already marketed towards FrontPage Users. FrontPage was an an easy task to use wysiwyg editor. EW was much harder, but helped one to build Web Compliant without a myriad of excess code along with other useless garbage.
Regardless from the Microsofts failure, we are able to continue to relocate forward. Im not going I will carry on and serve my customers and students, present and future, period. At now, we can easily continue to utilize Free that is identical towards the paid version of Expression Web 4, and build terrific websites!!
2. I will keep teach you utilizing HTML CSS in Expression Web 4.
3. Dreamweaver is undoubtedly an Option. Dreamweaver CS6 really has some sweet features. Some person may balk in the price of whole process almost. Just remember, there may be the Adobe Creative cloud that you pay a bill every month and then you are able to download every one of the apps. The apps happen to get Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, Illustrator, InDesign, or anything else.
I am also adding Dreamweaver Classes to my number of Training Products.
In Expression Web, we use Standard HTML and CSS to Design Web Sites. Expression Web will not rely upon any proprietary scripts or perhaps the like. This helps it be possible to edit an Expression Web site with any HTML Editor, including Dreamweaver.
Also, the best way I show you or taught you to definitely build a internet site is by using CSS and HTML. CSS HTML are Web Standards. That means I taught you the way to design such as a Professional designer. Once you learn the basic principles of CSS, youll be competent to use any application to design websites. You will just need to learn in regards to the tools and where they can be located inside the new software package. But you will not ought to learn a different way to make.
My point is always that CSS HTML has not yet changed whatsoever. That is probably the most important thing. All which includes changed will be the tool we use to development is changing.
Please send an email with any queries or concerns about pretty much everything.
If anyone would like to generate a suggestion or request a class, by all means do this!
Shortly I should have suggestions for everyone. I am researching some things at this time. So go ahead and makes use of the software. Expression web 4 can be a great tool and it is one you are able to use for many years.
Personally, I will keep using Expression Web 4 for your next number of years or so. I dont go to whichever reason for abandoning the application at now. I also find EW4 is usually a great teaching tool and is much quicker to learn than Dreamweaver. But once one does learn the way you use EW4, Dreamweaver becomes very easy to use.
2015 All Rights Reserved. Kellys Tutorials
Regardless on the Microsoft s failure, you can continue to relocate forward. Im not going I will keep serve my customers and students, present and future, period. At here, we could continue to utilize the Free which can be identical to your paid version of Expression Web 4, and build terrific websites!!
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