Hot Reload in Windows Applications

In a previous post on the topic of hot reload I discussed using the CreateNewOnMetadataUpdate attribute to force updating of entire classes, rather than patching existing types. This makes hot reload more resilient but does require additional logic in order to apply the newly created types. In this post we’re going to walk through the … Read more

XAML Based Navigation in Windows and Multi-Platform Applications with Uno.Extensions

One of the more complex parts of building an application is getting navigation to work. In a Windows application (or in a multi-platform application using the Uno Platform) you can easily navigate between pages using Frame.Navigate and Frame.GoBack but what if you want to use a more complex navigation structure like tabs or a NavigationView. … Read more

Feeds in MVUX

In the past three posts (Getting Started, Comparison with MVVM and Incremental Loading) I’ve talked about the use of Model-View-Update-eXtended (MVUX). In this post we’re going look at feeds, which is one of the key components of MVUX. What’s a Feed In simple terms, a feed represents a stream of values, much like an Observable … Read more

Incremental Loading (Pagination) with MVVM and MVUX

In my first post in this sequence on MVVM and MVUX we built out a simple application that searched movies in The Mobile Database (TMDB) using the text entered to match against the movie title. What’s interesting about the TMDB api is that the search results are actually paginated with the initial request only returning … Read more

Adding Windows 11 Widgets to a UWP Application

With the recent release of v1.2 of the Windows App SDK came support for developing third party widgets for Windows 11. What’s not immediately obvious from the documentation is that you don’t have to be using Windows UI (WinUI), or even the Windows App SDK, for your application. In this post we’re going to add … Read more

Adding a Windows Widget to a C# Windows App SDK (Windows UI) App

Microsoft just shipped v1.2 of the Windows App SDK, which includes support for creating third-party Widgets for Windows. During the previews, it was understood that there was a limitation that the widget provider (i.e. the functionality of the widget) needs to be developed using C++. However, this changed and the final release included support for … Read more

Getting Started with the Windows App SDK (Preview 2)

As we get closer to the first release of the Windows App SDK, Microsoft has started shipping preview releases. Whilst it’s not clear what “preview” means versus “experimental”, it does appear that the move to shipping releases via the preview channel indicates that we’re getting very close to the v1 stable release. In this post … Read more

Custom Validation Attributes and Multi-Language Resource Loading for Validation with INotifyDataErrorInfo for XAML Applications (UWP, WinUI, Uno)

I think this will be the last in the series of posts covering validation using the INotifyDataErrorInfo interface, which can be used to expose validation error messages directly in your XAML. In this post we’re going to look at adding custom validation using both the CustomValidationAttribute and by creating our own ValidationAttribute. We’ll also look … Read more

Customising Error Messages with INotifyDataErrorInfo Validation for XAML Applications (UWP, WinUI, Uno)

In my previous post, Adding Validation to a XAML Control Using INotifyDataErrorInfo, I walked through adding validation to a view model using the INotifyDataErrorInfo interface and the Community Toolkit. This post will pick up where that post left off and look at how you can customise the error message that gets displayed. This will improve … Read more

Camera Preview Control for WinUI, UWP and Uno (iOS & Android) Applications

The Windows Community Toolkit provides a limited feature camera preview control for both UWP and WinUI but this doesn’t help if you want to build a cross platform application with the Uno Platform. In this post I wanted to share the very, very, very early version of a CameraPreview control for Uno. Initial support will … Read more

I am a Windows App Developer

With the recent excitement surrounding the announcement of Windows 11, there’s renewed interest in developing apps for the Windows platform. In this post we’re going to celebrate what it means to be a Windows App Developer, regardless of what framework or technology you chose. It’s not going to be an exhaustive list of options but … Read more

Ditch that Packaging Project with the Windows App SDK (Windows UI)

One of the most annoying “features” of both UWP and WinUI/ProjectReunion WindowsAppSDK apps is the need to generate a package. With UWP development, the packaging was built into the UWP project. However, with the WindowsAppSDK, a separate packaging project is currently required. In this post we’re going to walk through how you can remove this … Read more

Windows 11 and the Windows App SDK

Last night / this morning I sat through one of the most professional and well executed series of non-live presentations from Microsoft covering Windows 11 and all the great features / tools that are coming for developers. In this post I’m going to cover some of the points that I took away from the sessions, … Read more

Nuget Package Explorer (nuget.info) is a PWA powered by Uno Platform

As a true demonstration of the capabilities of the Uno Platform the Nuget Package Explorer (source on GitHub / Microsoft Store) is now available at https://nuget.info. For more information read the announcement. One thing that’s not immediately obvious is that https://nuget.info is in fact a PWA. In Edge (and Chrome) you should see an icon … Read more

Getting Started with Project Reunion (Windows UI) and Visual Studio 2022

There’s a bit of fanfare going on at the moment because Microsoft have released the first preview of Visual Studio 2022 (announcement / download) which is significant because this is the first version of Visual Studio which will be 64bit. Note, this isn’t the first version that supports 64bit development, it’s the first version where … Read more

Running a Windows UI (Project Reunion) App as Partial Trust (Windows App Container)

I’ve covered this a couple of times already but it’s already possible to run a Windows UI (aka WinUI / Project Reunion) app as “partial trust”. This is roughly equivalent to the security context of a UWP application. However, there are some difference, which I’m assuming Microsoft will have to bridge if they’re going to … Read more

Visual Designer, Hot Reload and Beyond

In the last couple of years we’ve seen a massive spike in interest around “Hot Reload” thanks to the popularity of frameworks such as React/React Native and more recently, Flutter. The goal of Hot Reload is to allow developers to iteratively change their application code, whilst debugging their application – this cuts down considerably the … Read more

Running Your Windows UI / Project Reunion App in the Windows App Container (sandbox)

In a number of my previous posts I’ve challenged the need for Windows UI (WinUI3) to continue to support UWP. In nearly every instance I get push back from the community regarding all the features that are missing from Project Reunion and that UWP needs to be the future – but why I ask? wah, … Read more

We Don’t Want or Need WinUI for UWP

There are a bunch of loyal UWP developers that are complaining because Project Reunion / WinUI isn’t available for UWP but have they really taken a step back and understood what they’re asking for. Let’s break this down a little and understand why WinUI for UWP shouldn’t exist (and why there are political reasons why … Read more