New Version of the Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit
Imagine my surprise when I browsed to the Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit page on Codeplex and discovered a new version was released today.
There are some great new controls in the release:
- AutoCompleteBox – Very similar to the Silverlight AutoCompleteBox I know and love
- ListPicker – Similar to a ComboBox control; shows a selected item and allows a user to choose a new item from a list
- LongListSelector – Like a ListBox on steroids…supports more advanced scenarios such as really long lists with ease
- Page Transitions – Provides professional looking page transitions that are easy to use
Also, you get the controls released in the September version of the toolkit:
- GestureService/GestureListener
- ContextMenu
- DatePicker
- TimePicker
- ToggleSwitch
- WrapPanel
All of these controls can help you easily build great phone UIs. Get started by…downloading the toolkit here.
Next to use the toolkit controls, add a reference to the toolkit assembly (Microsoft.Phone.Controls.Toolkit) to your project,. Do this by right-clicking your project and selecting Add Reference. Then click the Browse tab and navigate to the toolkit assembly.
You should be able to find it here:
InstallDrive:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v7.0\Toolkit\Nov10\Bin
Next, map the toolkit namespace in the XAML for your page…something like this:
xmlns:toolkit="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Phone.Controls.Toolkit"
Now when editing the xaml for your page, if you type <toolkit:, you will automatically get Intellisense suggesting controls and types available in the toolkit. Also, the download includes a .chm file with some basic reference documentation to help you get rolling.
These are great controls brought to you by a great team and I can’t wait to get started using them.
Enjoy!
--Cheryl
Comments
Anonymous
November 03, 2010
The ListPicker example for accent color would do better with a bit of transition instead of just appearing suddenly and disappearing when you select an item.Anonymous
November 03, 2010
WP7 is dead. No new developers will support this platform since Muglia has basically killed Silverlight.Anonymous
November 04, 2010
Please stop mentioning what Muglia said. There is a (obvious) and very significant difference between HTML5 and Silverlight: "Silverlight is what an app is for the iPhone" There will always be the need for a mature tool which allows development of pure offline-applications - this is something you just cannot do with any HTML version. So - in my everyday experience I see that comparing Silverlight with HTML5 just makes no sense.Anonymous
December 29, 2010
Hi , I am trying to apply the toolkit to my project. I have added it as a reference and also insert : xmlns:toolkit="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Phone.Controls.Toolkit" to my xaml page. But it seems that the tools are still not available. Is there any steps that are need to be done?Anonymous
January 19, 2011
same problem, that tool kit xaml block everyone keep offering up on their blog does not work. <toolkit:TransitionService.NavigationInTransition> <toolkit:NavigationInTransition> <toolkit:NavigationInTransition.Backward> <toolkit:TurnstileTransition Mode="BackwardIn"/> </toolkit:NavigationInTransition.Backward> <toolkit:NavigationInTransition.Forward> <toolkit:TurnstileTransition Mode="ForwardIn"/> </toolkit:NavigationInTransition.Forward> </toolkit:NavigationInTransition> </toolkit:TransitionService.NavigationInTransition> <toolkit:TransitionService.NavigationOutTransition> <toolkit:NavigationOutTransition> <toolkit:NavigationOutTransition.Backward> <toolkit:TurnstileTransition Mode="BackwardOut"/> </toolkit:NavigationOutTransition.Backward> <toolkit:NavigationOutTransition.Forward> <toolkit:TurnstileTransition Mode="ForwardOut"/> </toolkit:NavigationOutTransition.Forward> </toolkit:NavigationOutTransition> </toolkit:TransitionService.NavigationOutTransition> The tag 'TurnstileTransition' does not exist in XML namespace 'clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Phone.Controls.Toolkit'. many blogs discuss this but no working samples to be found, except for the actual toolkit which is so frustrating.