Sometimes I wonder whether the idea of the paperless office wasn’t fueled in part by the fact that many apps didn’t implement printing very well, an artifact of it being a difficult task to begin with. (And then there were printer drivers of dubious quality, connection difficulties, and many other challenges.) But gradually the whole world of printing has improved, both for consumers and for developers. Of course, printing isn’t always about going to paper either. I frequently use a PDF “printer” to create read-only copies of documents that are more suitable to sharing in many cases than my originals. Occasionally I print to a fax machine (which sends a fax), and more occasionally I’ll print an email or web page directly to Microsoft OneNote for filing. In fact, I highly recommend setting your default printer to a digital target of some kind when working on printing features in your own app. That way you’ll avoid producing copious amounts of scratch paper in the process, unless you happen to own a tree farm that you’ll be thinning in a couple of years! Get the backstory If you want to know more about how printing as a whole has been reimagined, check out Simplifying printing in Windows 8 on the Building Windows 8 Blog, a post that provides deep soul satisfaction knowing that there are fewer drivers in your printing future. To understand how to implement printing in an app, let’s first see what it looks like to the user. Then we’ll see how to ready content for printing and how to handle the printing-related events from Windows. Note A Windows Store app written in JavaScript can use the window.print method to print with default settings. It’s not recommended, however, because it doesn’t work with the print UI and doesn’t always produce the best output. Windows Store apps should give the user the full Windows 8 experience as described here. The Printing User Experience Printing typically starts in an app where the user is looking at something they want to print and invokes an appropriate command. In Scenario 2 of the Print sample, for instance, whose code we’ll be looking at in the next section, we see a big block of content along with a Print button, as shown in Figure 15-5. Note that such a Print button would normally be on the app bar and not on the app canvas, but this is a sample. To start printing, the user can either tap this Print button or open the Charms bar and select Devices. Either way, if the app is registered for printing—that is, it’s listening for the event that’s raised from the Devices charm and provides suitable content—the user will see a list of print targets, as shown on the left side of Figure 15-6. If the app doesn’t have printable content (that is, it doesn’t listen for the event or provides no content in response), the user will see a panel like that on the right side of Figure 15-6. This is very much the same experience that a user sees with the Share charm depending on whether the app provides data for that feature. You’ve likely seen the epic fail message of “This app can’t share.” Printing supplies a similar disappointment for apps that lack the capability. Don’t let your app be one of them. 708
FIGURE 15-5 Scenario 2 of the Print sample shows a typical app with something ready to print. FIGURE 15-6 The Devices charm when an app has available print content (left) and when it doesn’t (right). 709
1 99
Table of Contents Introduction ....
WinJS Tools for Pages and Page Navi
Chapter 6: Layout .................
Design Guidelines for Settings ....
Manipulating Audio and Video ......
Managing Secondary Tiles ..........
The User Profile (and the Lock Scre
The Windows Store APIs ............
Introduction Welcome, my friends, t
I'm also assuming that your interes
Acknowledgements In many ways, this
Support for developers, however, ca
technologies, including DirectX, XA
The upload process will walk you th
FIGURE 1-2 A typical app page in th
do this, I’m sure!). In a hotel,
The app host is more or less Intern
Sidebar: Mixed Language Apps Window
When snapped, on the other hand, ap
Capability Description Prompts for
Taking a Break, Getting Some Rest:
So you might say, “Well, I should
that the user has to configure the
Fortunately, the Windows Store dash
graphics called for in the design s
4. After Visual Studio churns for a
Add-AppxDevPackage. That batch file
package, whereas a single / refers
QuickStart #1: Here My Am! and an I
FIGURE 2-8 Snapped wireframe (left;
which we’ll instantiate a Bing ma
orientation, screen resolution, and
FIGURE 2-12 Full-screen landscape v
What this means is that, for the mo
Create the map (though the namespac
Next, in the second parameter to po
FIGURE 2-17 Setting the Location ca
Here we’re providing capturePhoto
the contract is an abstraction that
Extra Credit: Receiving Messages fr
Note that such apps might not be ab
Chapter 3 App Anatomy and Page Navi
content and controls from web servi
Such capabilities are blocked becau
Can you do any kind of dynamic page
appdata. This happens via Windows.S
I don’t know about you, but I rea
telling you to not use it! After al
App Activation First, let me congra
In the table, note that 80% scale t
Activation Code Paths As we saw in
splashScreen SplashScreen Contains
In truth, so long as the user keeps
Of course, setPromise ultimately do
previousExecutionState values are d
object to which you can add whateve
Because we stored lastPosition in s
FIGURE 3-9 The output of the Simple
What about launching from the previ
For all other details on this funct
The Navigation App Template, PageCo
(function () { "use strict"; WinJS.
}, ); if (that.pageElement.winContr
Sidebar: Helping Out IntelliSense I
thousands of items, where tapping a
Completing the Promises Story Whew!
mechanism on top of singular XHR op
The story of controls in Windows 8
Creating or instantiating HTML cont
Hyperlink href, target Link text L
defined as part of the WinJS.UI nam
Clearly, then, the bulk of the work
var element = document.getElementBy
This example is taken directly from
FIGURE 4-7 Expanding a WinJS contro
Flexbox -ms-[inline-]flexbox (value
Note Though not shown here, you can
For the ToggleSwitch, win-* classes
• If a WinJS.UI.Tooltip is gettin
Custom Control Examples To see thes
Between calendar.js and calendar.cs
]]> Whe
This would be appropriate if you cr
Two-way: essentially one-way bindin
The code for this can be found in T
Sidebar: Data-Binding Properties of
Implementing Two-Way Binding To imp
• oneTime A function that just lo
• Windows 8 apps have rich stylin
Collection Control Basics To seek t
indingList: bindingList, array: arr
Now while the ListView control in S
The header template in html/scenari
In the modified sample I changed na
} return groupCompareGlobalized(lef
a function instead of a declarative
var list = new WinJS.Binding.List()
data-win-options="{ itemDataSource:
e used anywhere it’s appropriate,
If you were to provide your own nav
sample code in this chapter’s com
Because of data binding, changes to
What is does have, however, is this
What you then do inside the element
• The groups themselves are all s
and the current viewable area. Thou
Styling Following the precedent of
Technically speaking, the layout pr
or you can set layout.groupInfo fro
Using the first item’s dimension
You can set a breakpoint in this fu
Incremental Loading Apart from pote
The yellow bars indicate execution
If it’s not provided (as when the
During initialization (outside the
Chapter 6 Layout Compared to other
that appear when needed through app
Within the body of content, then, W
} -ms-grid-columns: 120px 2fr 80px
-ms-scroll-snap-x Shorthand to comb
WinRT: filled -ms-view-state: fille
Handling View States As I just ment
var mql = window.matchMedia("(-ms-v
individual items in snapped view. B
FIGURE 6-5 Options for display size
If your developer sensibilities obj
Content goes here This is really
Such a layout is most easily achiev
Because the specs themselves are st
/* In CSS */ #divMain { width: 100%
CSS styles that are supported for W
Within the activated handler docume
Multicolumn Elements and Regions Tr
FIGURE 6-9 CSS region chains to flo
Chapter 7 Commanding UI For consume
• Commands that can’t be placed
which provide many specifics on pla
Tip To prevent the app bar from app
This example doesn’t provide any
var appbar = document.getElementByI
• afterhide occurs immediately af
This button’s click handler uses
In the extraClass properties we’v
To provide graphics of your own, do
It should come as no surprise by
Flyouts and Menus Going back to our
are optional with show. (Note also
function confirmOrder() { bought =
The point of this last example is t
Also, go into css/header-menu.c
In the contextmenu handler menu.sho
Scenario 3 is identical to Scenario
The app bar now appears as follows,
This message will appear if the use
Chapter 8 State, Settings, Files, a
while our permanent home was being
• Account and profile configurati
By the way, you might have some rea
var localSettings = Windows.Storage
It is also possible to migrate app
Tip There are some file extensions
Sidebar: Closing Streams vs. Closin
Using App Data APIs for State Manag
efore setting up new defaults. As m
Roaming State The automatic roaming
good idea to not be too aggressive
Each app-supplied command can do on
There are two ways to implement thi
function helpCommandInvoked(e) { va
Programmatically Invoking Settings
Sidebar: Changes to Permissions A c
Think about this for a moment (as I
eturns an appropriate StorageFile o
function pickSinglePhoto() { // Ver
When picking multiple files, the re
indicate a new filename in which to
scenario oriented on the music libr
A QueryOptions is generally created
The setPropertyPrefetch method goes
What We’ve Just Learned • State
Chapter 9 Input and Sensors Touch i
• Second, when you need to handle
One or more fingers touch the scree
You might notice a conspicuous abse
Note that this method has no effect
• TouchCapabilities Properties ar
Tip Pointer events won’t fire if
Properties Description currentPoint
The first step to receiving gesture
• MSGestureHold occurs when MSPoi
FIGURE 9-3 A conceptual representat
FIGURE 9-4 The Input Instantiable G
obviously a specific deceleration m
• Process keydown, keyup, and key
For passwords you get a key to hide
keyboard sample. 50 Adding listener
Standard Keystrokes The last piece
FIGURE 9-9 The Input Ink sample wit
(string), and timestamp (Date) prop
Like all other WinRT APIs, however,
Here’s an example of such code fr
Chapter 10 Media To say that media
movie.controls = true; document.get
declared inline, created dynamicall
} document.getElementById("r").styl
function onImageError(source) { sou
• By copying pixel data from a vi
It’s also helpful to understand t
Video Element Extension APIs Beyond
vid.msInsertVideoEffect("GrayscaleT
elements with the same source. The
in the background. As a developer,
function soundLevelChanged() { //Ca
Playing Sequential Audio An app tha
need to bypass the audio element an
To guarantee the ordering we use Pr
Thumbnails First, StorageFile.getTh
or combination of System.GPS.Longit
} return degrees + "°" + minutes +
Most of the displayImageUI function
provides a specific BitmapEncoder i
method can be called only once and
Transcoding and Custom Image Format
Transcoding happens either from one
In Scenario 2, the sample always us
Media Capture There are times when
ecordLimitationExceeded Fired when
} captureInitSettings.videoDeviceId
} // Add the devices to deviceList
Streaming from a Server and Digital
Here’s how such apps generally wo
Next you’ll want to wire up handl
• WinRT provides a rich API for m
necessary. In this way, excessive a
The Control Panel setting can be ob
screen; the Panel animations are fo
want to chain or synchronize animat
Create addToList animation. var add
CSS Animations and Transitions As n
Animations work in an opposite mann
Keyframes, while typically defined
FIGURE 11-2 Output of Scenario 3 of
What’s more, requestAnimationFram
Still, 20% is a lot of CPU power to
Chapter 12 Contracts Recently I dis
File activation (file type associat
more specific. For instance, when a
var dataPackageTitle = document.get
The other interesting part of Scena
When sharing an image, don't forget
FIGURE 12-3 The Share content targe
• Acknowledge user actions when y
The key here is the args.detail.sha
target app. If you’re using image
FIGURE 12-7 Controls to create a qu
The question is how to wire up comm
The Search contract that makes this
FIGURE 12-11 The Search declaration
} } })); In the search activation p
} }); Windows.ApplicationModel.Sear
The request object also has a getDe
Type to Search The final feature of
egistered for that type, rather tha
At the very bottom of this UI you c
ecord a new sound. In such cases, h
Activation of a File Picker Provide
Windows.ApplicationModel.Activation
A final note is that a file picker
}; // Create a file to provide back
The next step for the provider is t
FIGURE 12-18 The provider sample’
FIGURE 12-21 The provider sample’
• If the UI status is visible, sw
Just as the file picker contract al
Using the Contact Picker Contacts a
} } }); Contact Picker Providers On
As you can see, the homeEmail field
Chapter 13 Tiles, Notifications, th
FIGURE 13-1 The typical default Sta
Selecting an item on the Start scre
In many ways, live tiles might redu
toss up lots of superfluous toast,
Yet Windows doesn’t want to force
The third way an app can issue upda
Providing both square and wide stat
• arguments A string that’s pas
function activated(eventObject) { i
16 or fewer characters that is used
Third, if you supply an image that
arrive on a Windows 8 machine will
The Notifications Extensions Librar
The other bits of the manifest that
In such cases it would be better to
Windows.UI.Notifications.BadgeUpdat
you’d use start time), or the pha
Tip The tile and badge updaters are
eturned from page requests, as we
through the Web platform installer.
Toast Notifications So far in this
FIGURE 13-16 Issuing text toasts th
supports addImageQuery for scale, l
A scheduled toast is created using
To update a tile, set a badge, or i
Your app should go through this sho
matter of sending an XmlHttpRequest
In the running app, the pushnotific
Background Tasks and Lock Screen Ap
FIGURE 13-18 The manifest editor fo
In this code, the BackgroundTaskBui
var internetCondition = new backgro
The Background task sample provides
Note Working with the lock screen i
Debugging Background Tasks By this
• Periodic updates for tiles and
Network Information and Connectivit
networkstatuschanged event that we
Note Windows Store apps written in
Programmatically, as noted before,
Although this option will not set u
hundred kilobytes—if you know fro
Finally, avoid using XHR for large
Starting a download transfer happen
There is also a variation of create
operations—it is possible to crea
); "form-data", "------------------
Basically, you would change the pol
Authentication, Credentials, and th
FIGURE 17-1 Creating an app package
desktop applications and distribute
means is that if you want to promot
You should also strongly consider m
• In-app purchases through the Wi
That said, WinRT provides for the f
When your app accesses CurrentAppSi
} }); currentApp.licenseInformation
You won’t hit your breakpoint imm
If you’re using a custom commerce
You might have noticed that a Produ
Id=\"e2a62d42-dbca-43d2-b779-66eb91
The latter two we’ve already cove
• aria-label Directly provides te
Apart from the small bits of code i
control sample, and switch between
Scenario 2 shows similar effects wi
Canvas a better choice? To this poi
one resource. For a few examples of
addition of new string and image re
FIGURE 17-9 Control panel dialogs f
Formatting Culture-Specific Data an
Sorting and Grouping Just as a worl
With images, you can reverse them w
Note CSS files can contain string l
Manifest: Let’s turn now to the m
Other affected files in this app in
Sidebar: String Resources in Settin
the folder name itself doesn’t us
If you like, you can just send your
FIGURE 17-11 The Multilingual App T
Second, the Toolkit will detect if
Localization Wrap-Up Well, we’re
Let me say that again: all of this
Onboarding and Working through Reje
Connecting Your Website If you have
What We’ve Just Learned • An ap
What do you think of this book? We