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Visual Studio 2015 Cookbook
Visual Studio 2015 Cookbook

Visual Studio 2015 Cookbook: Over 50 new and improved recipes to put Visual Studio 2015 to work in your crucial development projects , Second Edition

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Visual Studio 2015 Cookbook

Chapter 2. Getting Started with Universal Windows Platform Apps

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

  • Enabling UWP app development on Windows 10
  • Creating a UWP app
  • Customizing your UWP app
  • Using the UWP app simulator
  • Defining capabilities and contracts
  • Analyzing your app's performance
  • Packaging your UWP app
  • Validating your Windows Store app
  • Submitting your app to the Windows Store
  • Distributing your UWP app through sideloading

Introduction

Windows 10 marks the second radical departure from the traditional Windows desktop applications in as many releases. Whereas Windows 8.x saw the introduction of the modern interface and major support for touch-based apps through Windows Runtime (WinRT), Windows 10 has introduced the Universal Windows Platform (UWP). An evolutionary change from the Windows 8 apps, UWP apps run on any device that runs Windows 10. This includes tablets, desktop PCs, hybrid systems, and phones. Taking advantage of UWP will let you focus on writing solid code while having your app automatically benefit from the multitude of hardware devices that exist.

The UWP approach works by targeting one or more device families rather than a specific operating system. Your app can elect to only use the base APIs provided by UWP that are found on all devices, or it can augment those with the additional device-specific APIs. Choosing which APIs to use can be a decision made during design (such as targeting the...

Enabling UWP app development on Windows 10

To get started with UWP app development, you must first enable app development for your Windows 10 device. If you are familiar with app development on Windows 8.X, you will recall the need to possess a developer license that had to be periodically renewed with Microsoft. That is no longer the case for UWP apps—once you have enabled development support, you are good to go. Let's look at how to do that.

Getting ready

Have Windows 10 installed on your computer. VS Express for Windows 10 will install all the necessary tools for you by default, so if you are running a different version of VS2015, make sure you have opted to install the Universal Windows App Development Tools for your particular installation of VS2015. You can rerun the VS2015 installer, if needed, to install them.

The following screenshot shows the items that should be installed. Note that specific version numbers may change between the time of writing this and when you read...

Creating a UWP app

One of Microsoft's goals for UWP apps is to truly make them universal so that they run on any system based on the core Windows 10 technology—not only traditional desktop computers, but devices ranging from Raspberry Pi, to Xbox One, to Microsoft's new HoloLens.

In this recipe, we will begin by creating a brand new UWP app to see how the process differs from Windows 8.X app creation, and the new capabilities made available to us.

Getting ready

Windows 10 is required for this recipe. Visual Studio Community will be used to provide the example screenshots, but of course, a premium edition or VS Express for Windows 10 would also be suitable.

How to do it...

The types of app templates available has changed with VS2015 and Windows 10. Let's begin by creating a Blank App. For our example, we will use C#:

  1. From Visual Studio's File menu, navigate to New | Project…
  2. A dialog showing the available project templates will appear. From the Installed templates...

Customizing your UWP app

We saw in the previous recipe that creating a new UWP app is pretty simple, but in VS2015, the choices are limited to some basic types. Rather than provide some pre-made templates around common design themes (such as Hub, Split, Items, and so on) as was done previously in VS2013, Microsoft has instead decided to provide us with a blank canvas with which to work. Let's see how we can spruce it up a bit.

Getting ready

Windows 10 is required for this recipe. Visual Studio Community will be used to provide the example screenshots, but of course, a premium edition or VS Express for Windows 10 would also be suitable. If you still have the UWP app created in the previous recipe, open that solution file.

How to do it...

We are going to start with a brand new UWP app, so create a Blank App template. For our example, we will use C#:

  1. Create a new UWP app using the Blank App template.
  2. Once the project has opened, open the file MainPage.xaml, as shown in the following screenshot...

Using the UWP app simulator

The design behind the UWP architecture has been established so that your app can easily be deployed to any device that runs Windows 10. There may be some minor customizations needed depending on the capabilities that various platforms offer, but UWP will not limit you unnecessarily. As a reader of this book though, you are probably developing your UWP on a traditional computer that most likely has a keyboard and a mouse. While this is great for development (and usually, a keyboard is a needed component), this means that your workstation doesn't always match what is available to your app's users. Enter the Windows 10 simulator.

The Windows 10 simulator, available under VS2015, provides the ability to run your UWP app in your choice of Debug or Release builds, so that you can see how it runs and appears on a machine outside of your regular development machine configuration.

This recipe will show how to use the simulator to assist in developing your own...

Defining capabilities and contracts

Windows 10 provides UWP apps the ability to communicate with any other app on the computer, without prior knowledge of what those apps might be, through a concept called contracts. A contract is an operating system level interface that is implemented by consumers or providers of information. The operating system then keeps track of which apps support which contracts, and coordinates the information between apps using those contracts.

Windows 10, as part of its focus on maintaining a trust level in the apps it runs, expects UWP apps to communicate the capabilities they need. A capability is a permission or access right that a UWP app requires for it to run correctly, for example, an app that requires Internet access or local network permissions. There is a range of capabilities that the operating system can provide to UWP apps. An app that doesn't request capabilities from the operating system will be provided minimum level access, which means that...

Analyzing your app's performance

Given the wide variety of devices that your UWP app can run on, it is important to track performance to ensure you are not being wasteful. Users appreciate improved battery life, and a responsive app is always appreciated by users. VS2015 has several app performance and diagnostic tools available that can help you measure and review its performance to ensure it is as efficient as needed.

The Diagnostic Tools menu provides the following tools:

  • Application Timeline: See where your app spends most of its time.
  • CPU Sampling: Analyze which of the functions being used by your app are using the most CPU time.
  • CPU Usage: Examine where the CPU is spending its time. Helpful when the CPU is the limiting factor.
  • GPU Usage: Review and monitor GPU usage. Helpful when the GPU is the limiting factor.
  • Memory Usage: Used to help find memory leaks, and examine how your app is using memory.
  • Network: Provides for the monitoring of all network traffic used by your app.
  • Energy Consumption...

Introduction


Windows 10 marks the second radical departure from the traditional Windows desktop applications in as many releases. Whereas Windows 8.x saw the introduction of the modern interface and major support for touch-based apps through Windows Runtime (WinRT), Windows 10 has introduced the Universal Windows Platform (UWP). An evolutionary change from the Windows 8 apps, UWP apps run on any device that runs Windows 10. This includes tablets, desktop PCs, hybrid systems, and phones. Taking advantage of UWP will let you focus on writing solid code while having your app automatically benefit from the multitude of hardware devices that exist.

The UWP approach works by targeting one or more device families rather than a specific operating system. Your app can elect to only use the base APIs provided by UWP that are found on all devices, or it can augment those with the additional device-specific APIs. Choosing which APIs to use can be a decision made during design (such as targeting the Xbox...

Enabling UWP app development on Windows 10


To get started with UWP app development, you must first enable app development for your Windows 10 device. If you are familiar with app development on Windows 8.X, you will recall the need to possess a developer license that had to be periodically renewed with Microsoft. That is no longer the case for UWP apps—once you have enabled development support, you are good to go. Let's look at how to do that.

Getting ready

Have Windows 10 installed on your computer. VS Express for Windows 10 will install all the necessary tools for you by default, so if you are running a different version of VS2015, make sure you have opted to install the Universal Windows App Development Tools for your particular installation of VS2015. You can rerun the VS2015 installer, if needed, to install them.

The following screenshot shows the items that should be installed. Note that specific version numbers may change between the time of writing this and when you read it, but that...

Creating a UWP app


One of Microsoft's goals for UWP apps is to truly make them universal so that they run on any system based on the core Windows 10 technology—not only traditional desktop computers, but devices ranging from Raspberry Pi, to Xbox One, to Microsoft's new HoloLens.

In this recipe, we will begin by creating a brand new UWP app to see how the process differs from Windows 8.X app creation, and the new capabilities made available to us.

Getting ready

Windows 10 is required for this recipe. Visual Studio Community will be used to provide the example screenshots, but of course, a premium edition or VS Express for Windows 10 would also be suitable.

How to do it...

The types of app templates available has changed with VS2015 and Windows 10. Let's begin by creating a Blank App. For our example, we will use C#:

  1. From Visual Studio's File menu, navigate to New | Project…

  2. A dialog showing the available project templates will appear. From the Installed templates category, navigate to the Visual...

Customizing your UWP app


We saw in the previous recipe that creating a new UWP app is pretty simple, but in VS2015, the choices are limited to some basic types. Rather than provide some pre-made templates around common design themes (such as Hub, Split, Items, and so on) as was done previously in VS2013, Microsoft has instead decided to provide us with a blank canvas with which to work. Let's see how we can spruce it up a bit.

Getting ready

Windows 10 is required for this recipe. Visual Studio Community will be used to provide the example screenshots, but of course, a premium edition or VS Express for Windows 10 would also be suitable. If you still have the UWP app created in the previous recipe, open that solution file.

How to do it...

We are going to start with a brand new UWP app, so create a Blank App template. For our example, we will use C#:

  1. Create a new UWP app using the Blank App template.

  2. Once the project has opened, open the file MainPage.xaml, as shown in the following screenshot:

  3. Once...

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Key benefits

  • ? Get to grips with all the new Visual Studio 2015 features regardless of your preferred programming language
  • ? Apply Visual Studio to all areas of development: writing, debugging, and application lifecycle maintenance
  • ? Straightforward and hands-on advice for building both Windows and Android apps

Description

Visual Studio 2015 is the premier tool for developers targeting the Microsoft platform. Learning how to effectively use this technology can enhance your productivity while simplifying your most common tasks, allowing you more time to focus on your project. Visual Studio 2015 is packed with improvements that increase productivity, and this book walks you through each one in succession to help you smooth your workflow and get more accomplished. From customization and the interface to code snippets and debugging, the Visual Studio upgrade expands your options — and this book is your fast-track guide to getting on board quickly. Visual Studio 2015 Cookbook will introduce you to all the new areas of Visual Studio and how they can quickly be put to use to improve your everyday development tasks. With this book, you will learn not only what VS2015 offers, but what it takes to put it to work for your projects.

Who is this book for?

If you are a developer excited about the new features introduced in Visual Studio 2015, then no matter what your programming language of choice is, Visual Studio 2015 Cookbook is for you. You should have a good knowledge of working with previous versions of Visual Studio to benefit from the recipes in this book.

What you will learn

  • Customize the editor s new abilities to fit your development style
  • Create apps for Windows
  • Use Visual Studio to debug parallel and concurrent programs
  • Integrate .NET Framework 4.6 effectively
  • Put TypeScript to work in your web applications
  • Develop modern C++11 with Visual Studio 2015
  • Protect and manage your source code with Team Foundation Server
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Length: 368 pages
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Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781785887260
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Length: 368 pages
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Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781785887260
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Table of Contents

11 Chapters
1. Exploring Visual Studio 2015 Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Getting Started with Universal Windows Platform Apps Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Web Development Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. .NET Framework Development Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Debugging Your .NET Application Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Asynchrony in .NET Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Unwrapping C++ Development Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Working with Team Foundation Server 2015 Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Languages Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. Final Polish Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
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