WPF Hands-on-Lab: Build an Outlook 2007 UI Clone
I got wind today of a great hands-on lab that demonstrates the steps needed to create a high-quality user interface for business applications using WPF and Expression Blend. Two engineers from Microsoft Switzerland, Ronnie Saurenmann and Ruihua Jin, have put together this 90-page lab that starts at File / New Project and ends with a facsimile of the Outlook 2007 user interface. Along the way they demonstrate the use of data binding, templates, styles, and triggers; show how you can customize the ListView control to create a message listing; show how template binding works, and show how you can use code to customize and sort the list view.
There's lots to learn here - if you're wondering if WPF is just about data visualization or consumer-orientated graphical applications, this will help persuade you that it's also a great platform for building more traditional business software.
Download the lab manual and source project here.
Comments
Anonymous
June 13, 2007
PingBack from http://blog.cronberg.dk/PermaLink,guid,517d29ea-d3d4-4eff-af4f-45897ad73303.aspxAnonymous
June 13, 2007
We just put the app online as XBAP to look at: http://www.00001001.ch/download/HOL/WPF_XBAP/OutlookWPF/OutlookUI%20Browser.xbapAnonymous
June 13, 2007
I have been looking for a good project to start learning WPF with - this will do very nicely. Thank you for blogging this and bringing it to our attention.Anonymous
June 13, 2007
The comment has been removedAnonymous
June 13, 2007
How about a Tutorial To create a Ribbon interface :DAnonymous
June 13, 2007
What we want... thanks a lot guys!Anonymous
June 13, 2007
WPF Hands-on-Lab: Build an Outlook 2007 UI CloneAnonymous
June 13, 2007
The comment has been removedAnonymous
June 13, 2007
Let me start by saying that I'm a big fan of WPF and I have been working intensely with it for the past half year. Also, I really appreciate the effort that went into the preparation of this lab and it is really a great learning resource. However, this example clearly demonstrates why WPF is not yet ready for the bread-and-butter business applications. Look on the UI text on the left side, and compare it with the HTML text on the right side. WPF text at small font sizes is too fuzzy and causes great strain on the eye. The same goes for the small 16x16 bitmap icons. I'm aware of all the technical reasons for this phenomenon (resolution indepence, anti-aliasing, etc.), I've done all the known tweaking (setting the LCD at its natural resolution, adjusting the WPF anti-aliasing registry entries, etc.), and I've also been following all blogs and forums discussions about this topic. But nothing really helps. Another significant problem is rendering performance. I've manually increased the number of items in the "inbox.xml" to several hundreds, and the performance of the Inbox listbox scrolling is noticeably degraded. This is a pity, since WPF is probably the greatest achievement in the world of GUI frameworks to date. However, unless these problems are resolved in the next version of WPF, it will be very difficult to convince our business users to use this technology.Anonymous
June 13, 2007
One of the questions I get asked most when talking about Windows Presentation Foundation is around whetherAnonymous
June 13, 2007
Da wird mir ganz warm ums Herz und mir schießen die 5000 Ideen für eine Desktopanwendung in den Kopf, die ich schon immer mal umsetzen wollte. "Two engineers from Microsoft Switzerland, Ronnie Saurenmann and Ruihua Jin, have put together this 90-pag ..Anonymous
June 13, 2007
I am not able to download the pdf. Adobe is crashing.Anonymous
June 13, 2007
[... Next, Tim Sneath posted today about this Hands On Lab that will guide you thru how to create an Outlook-look-alike application based on WPF...] Pingback from http://samiqbits.blogspot.comAnonymous
June 13, 2007
Two engineers from Microsoft Switzerland, Ronnie Saurenmann and Ruihua Jin, have put together this 90-pageAnonymous
June 13, 2007
Hi Tim, On a related topic any idea where I can get the lab files for the mix labs i.e Silverlight, Blend etc. During the event the labs were made available without the project files. Tried to track them down at the time without any luck. RegardsAnonymous
June 15, 2007
Some of the WPF sample applications you have seen probably don't resemble the type applications you planAnonymous
June 19, 2007
The comment has been removedAnonymous
June 19, 2007
Online demo (XBAP), lab manual , and complete source project for building an Outlook 2007 UI Clone withAnonymous
June 19, 2007
Hi Tim, I want to use xbap in HTML or JSP,but i don't know how to communicate between them,would you please tell me that thank youAnonymous
June 20, 2007
Fala pessoal! Atendendo a diversos pedidos por mais material de WPF, vou postar hoje duas dicas rápidas...Anonymous
June 22, 2007
Evolution of the OK ButtonAnonymous
July 03, 2007
I used the xbap link someone provided to give this a try. I noticed that the text is extremely blurry, it is giving me a headache. What is causing this?Anonymous
September 05, 2007
I have been 'meddling' a little with WPF at long last, and am in all likelihood going to EchoAnonymous
January 09, 2008
Mein schweizer Kollege Ronnie Saurenmann hat ein Tutorial veröffentlicht, wie Sie Schritt-für-SchrittAnonymous
August 18, 2008
Tim is OOF and his automated response forwards WPF requests to me..   want to know the mostAnonymous
November 25, 2008
WPF Hands-on-Lab: Build an Outlook 2007 UI Clone