I'm new to Windows 10 and I absolutely love the Modern/Metro design. I'd love to create programs for Microsoft appstore that look like the Windows Mail or Office 365 Powerpoint but I don't know if I'm on the right track:
I downloaded and installed Microsoft Visual Studio Code, but it seems more for web development. Should I use Cordova and web technologies to create such apps? It is using WinJS(?) but I'm wondering if XAML is a better option?
I've also installed Visual Studio 2015 and put my Windows 10 in developer mode, but there is a bunch of options under C# projects: universal apps, windows forms apps, etc. Which one should I choose to do a native Windows app that looks like Microsoft Mail?
In general there is a whole bunch of options available and that is confusing. I know Java so picking up C# isn't hard for me. Also I've worked with Javascript/HTML/CSS for 4 years now and that is also comfortable for me.
I prefer performance and ease of maintenance.
The apps you mention are just regular Windows Universal apps so you can certainly do what you are asking.
1) No, VS Code is not for creating Windows Universal Apps, use Visual Studio 2015 instead (community edition is fine)
2) Your best starting point in terms of templates is Visual Studio 2015 > File > New Project >Installed > Templates > Visual C# > Windows > Universal > Blank App (Universal Windows)
It sounds like you could do with doing a few tutorials before diving into a real app. https://dev.windows.com/ is the main landing page for Windows app development. There are some great tutorials under the 'getting started' section, take the time to learn the basics now and you'll find writing your app much easier (and you'll probably produce a better app too).
https://dev.windows.com/en-us/design is also worth a look for design-specific resources.
Related
I recently bought an iMac in order to develop my App on Visual Studio for Mac in a better environment (lots of issues on Windows), but on the Visual Studio for mac, there is no UWP projects.
It is understood that I have to create a new .NET project, but what are exactly the steps to follow in order to achieve that correctly for the app to work on Windows with a peace of mind? Should I have gone with Visual Studio code, which support the .NET core framework completely?
I saw on other answers that I need the .NET SDK tool, and so forth, but further details are needed if you don't mind on the why (not the installation stuffs, only the tech savvy explanations for the app to build correctly at the end!
You will need to run a Windows installation (eg, via Parallels or Boot Camp) and then run the Windows version of Visual Studio to create UWP apps.
You can do a lot of the business-logic coding inside Visual Studio on MacOS, but you will need Visual Studio and the Windows SDK to use WinRT types (which are required to build a UWP app) and to correctly build / package the app for deployment.
.NET is a big ecosystem. As you cannot develop all kinds of .NET projects using Visual Studio on Windows (Xamarin.Mac for example), you cannot do the same using Visual Studio for Mac (like you found, WinForms/WPF/UWP and so on). Such limitation comes from vendor SDK availability or other underlying systems.
In your case, you can easily develop web apps, Mac apps, and iOS apps. If you do want to develop Windows specific apps, like the other answer shows, please use Windows.
You mentioned ".NET SDK", but I believe that should be ".NET Core SDK". .NET Core apps are cross platform. Thus, you can develop such apps in Visual Studio for Mac, and then deploy to Windows. However, so far only console apps and web apps can be developed. What might happen in the future is still to be determined.
Visual Studio Code, however, is just a code editor. It won't give you extra flexibility.
For those whom imperatively needs to develop their app on all platforms, here is what I did, and the pros and cons:
Buying an Imac, thinking that I could also develop UWP projects within it
After realizing that I couldn't, I bought a cheap Windows 7 pro License on ebay (around 5$), and installed it on VirtualBox.
From there, I upgraded to Windows 10 for free and installed everything. It worked like a charm.
Cons: Buying a brand new IMac while a Macbook pro would have been better. An old one even since YOU CAN'T upgrade the ram.
Working on 8go of ram computer when you must give 4go of RAM to your VM isn't quite great. 4go gets you a laggy environment! Really frustrating.
So, prefer something older, but up-gradable (a cheap Macbook pro with 16go of RAM would do).
Not to mention that you will have to install Ubuntu as another VM in order to setup a .Net core Server for the majority of you.
What environment to favor while developing, most importantly when you are a C# and Xamarin noob like me?
The best being to develop from Mac as you will have FAR LESS ERRORS AND BUGS than in VS for Windows.
Correcting mistakes is really daunting and the best is really to develop from Mac to mitigate the damages, but it won't be hurdles free as well!
It took me more time debugging than coding within VS Windows.
After developing chunk of your app within Visual Studio MAC, the best is to get the code on the windows machine and arrange it to work in UWP.
UWP apps compile fastly and like a charm, so better is to get rid of errors within macOS, IOS, Android, and then go and adapt to UWP. This is easier IF YOU THINK ABOUT CHOOSING THE CORRECT LIBRARIES (working on all platforms, hence check my last advice).
From VS Mac, compile using macOS as a host! It's the easiest way to develop fastly, and correct your bugs.
Here is an article on how to get started from Mac:
https://blog.xamarin.com/preview-bringing-macos-to-xamarin-forms/
Cons: Always having to commit the code for it's use within UWP. But that's also a good way to save your project as well, so that if you screw up (like it happened to me numerous time) you roll back.
Hope that helps others whom didn't know what to do and where to start.
ALSO:
Don't follow tutorials dating from before 2017. Use the .Netstandard/.NET Core framework to develop your App so that libraries are more portable (following the blog article above should do).
Otherwise, headaches ahead!
In my company we have an existing product that runs on Windows 7 and communicates with our web services.
We wish to make a Windows 8 tablet version of our product, and my first thought was:
"Hey, its just a new Windows version, so we can probably use our existing model, data access and business layer logic projects, and just focus on making a new UI layer"
But I fear that this is not the case, or am I wrong?
I tried opening our VS2010 solution file in VS2012 Express, but received an error "This edition of Visual Studio only supports Windows Store apps".
So, my naive hope now is: Can anyone tell me the easiest way to make our existing code work in a Windows 8 App?
EDIT:
The code is .NET C#, and my thought was that I just wanted to make a Windows 8 app so that the product had a tablet/touch friendly interface.
In general, you'll make a new UI using XAML, reuse a lot of your existing code, and change the data access to use SQLite.
VS2012 Express Edition is for making Windows Store apps. By "Windows Store" app, I mean an app which uses the WinRT APIs. Depending on your code, making a Windows Store version of your app can be straightforward.
If you need other features, you might need a different version of Visual Studio 2012. You definitely need to be on 2012 though. You can't build a Windows Store application with Visual Studio 2010. I think you know this already though.
If your existing .NET app uses WPF for the UI, you can reuse a lot of your XAML knowledge for the Windows 8 port. It's not as simple as recompiling, but it should be straightforward.
SQL CE is currently not an option for Windows Store applications. Instead, consider using SQLite.
Take a look at a post on MSDN called .NET for Windows Store apps - supported APIs. Some APIs you may be familiar with have been moved to WinRT. Sometimes porting is as simple as changing namespaces.
You mention that you also write to the C: drive. There's a sample on MSDN on how to read and write files.
So You need to build a new Metro Style Interface.
Wen You built interface just copy the Logic of your old application.
You can open old application in old VS 2010 and copy code line by line.
You can't convert old Windows app to Metro Style App.
Windows 8 had released! I want to create a metro style DESKTOP application like GitHub-for-Windows(http://windows.github.com/).How can I develop this kind style? WPF,WinForm or others.
Does Microsoft supply solutions for Desktop Metro applications at Visual Studio 2012?
Have a look at Mahapps.Metro
It is exactly for what you want.
I have used it and I found it very easy to get in to.
EDIT
You could also have a look at the more recently released Modern UI for WPF
I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this. But anyway, you can check this out
Microsoft does provide Visual Studio Express for Windows 8.
I'm developing applications for iPhone and Android on my Mac, but now I want to port them to Windows Mobile. I know that it requires Visual Studio, but that's just if you want to make .Net applications. Then I want to know if there is any alternative, something like Mono...
Windows Phone 7 (unlike Windows Mobile) is quite a closed system with one development environment supported. I.e. you are stuck with Visual Studio and, consequently, Windows.
Update: Windows Mobile 6.x is not much better for MacOS developer. For .NET CF you use Visuaal Studio 2005 or 2008. For native code development you could use Visual Studio 2005 (if memory serves) or, before it, there existed eMbedded Visual Studio 4 (and embedded visual tools 3 earlier), both being similar to Visual Studio 6 (and probably built using the same code base).
Alternatives included FreePascal (Pascal language, native code compilation) and NSBasic (interpreted BASIC language, if memory serves).
But all those tools were for Windows only.
You'll need Visual Studio for both managed and native Windows Mobile applications. I don't think Mono supports .NETCF and I don't think SharpDevelop does either.
You might need to install a Windows virtual machine to run on your Mac. Or... get a PC for Windows development. I have both a PC and Mac workstation on my desk since I do iPhone, Android, and .NET all together.
I am actually looking at starting a project to do this using Mono and Moonlight. Granted, I am in the very early stages of research but I think that it can be done and I am hoping to start getting some people together to help in the near future. I will post the github repo back here when I get something going.
PLease have a look into this
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/interoperability/archive/2012/12/21/how-to-develop-for-windows-phone-8-on-your-mac.aspx
there is this Visual studio code which can be leveraged to initiate and test some basic wiMo app development
Is it possible to devlop old school Windows Phone app with VS2010 ? Do I have to dowload the template as I couldn't find this kind of project when I start a new project.
I definitively want to devlop old .Net Compact Framework 3.5 app, and no XNA or Silverlight app.
Do I have to swith back to VS2008 ?
Regards
No. Studio 2010 doesn't have any of the project wizards or templates for general Smart Device Application programs like Studio 08 does. Microsoft has said that they will add Smart Device programming capabilities into VS10 later, but they've not yet announced when or even what (e.g. will they support both native and managed).