02
JUL
.NET and Azure Developer
Windows Development UWP, WPF, WinForm, etc
19
APR
Send Feedback in UWP Apps by Windows 10 Feedback Hub
After our app has been put on Microsoft Store, there are a lot of ways to get users to send feedback, such as email, store reviews, or even write our own API collect feedback. But in fact, Windows 10 Feedback Hub can also be used to send feedbacks for our own Apps. Those who are familiar with Windows Insider know that when Windows 10 is installed, the system has a Feedback Hub, which is usually …
29
MAR
Customize Acrylic Brush in UWP Applications
Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (Build 16299) added acrylic brush, this is a UI brush that similar to Windows 7 Aero effect. A lot in box Windows Apps, such as Calculator are updated with the acrylic brush. However, the built in brushes will not always meet our own requirments. Especially when Windows automatically disable render of acrylic, such as low power mode, or with an inactive window, it …
24
JAN
Apply Keyboard Short Cuts in UWP
A greate Windows App requires not only mouse and touch screen friendly, but also need to think about keyboards. Especially for some common short cuts, like Undo (CTRL + Z). So that the App can provide better user experience. So how can we define short cut keys in UWP? Take my App Tracing as example, I need to implement short cuts for Undo (CTRL + Z). First, we need to consider which Control is …
29
DEC
Show Confirm Dialog When User Close UWP App
When our UWP Application deal with user data in it, e.g. like drawings or documents, we usually want to make sure user won't close the App by accident and lose their work. Just like what you see in a Office application, it will ask you if you want to save your document before close the App. For a long time, UWP could not do that in a normal way. Because it is not a general public API and it is …
17
OCT
Automatically Set Text Color on Accent Background in UWP
Windows 10 allows users to set accent color for the system, and in UWP apps, we usually honor those settings by using XAML pre-defined resource keys like {ThemeResource SystemControlBackgroundAccentBrush}. But regardless of how the user set default app mode to dark or light, when we apply text on accent colors, it may have some problems. For example, when the App is in light mode, the default …
06
OCT
Configure VSTS Build for UWP Apps
UWP Apps usually require a lot of time to compile a "release" package for submitting to Windows Store, and if you are working in a team, TFS/VSTS can help your team ensure that each check-in has a success build, and make it easier for deployment and testing. Let's see a basic example of how to setup a CI build for a UWP App on VSTS. Important Pre-condition: Before you do that, please ensure that …
09
SEP
Windows 10 UWP: Switching Languages in Your App
By default, a UWP App's UI language is automatically fits the system current language settings. However, what if the user need the ability to set a particular UI language just for your App without having to change system language? In my App, I supports Simplified Chinese and English. The user can override the system language in App's settings page: So how to do it? First, you need to have …
08
SEP
Windows 10 UWP: How to Read and Save Settings Easily
In the UWP Application model, reading and saving settings are very similar to WinRT API. The class we are using is ApplicationData.Current.LocalSettings It is using key-value-pair to store settings. LocalSettings will stay on the user's current computer, and not being synced with thier Microsoft account. The API to save settings is: LocalSettings.Values[key] = value; To read settings: if ( …
25
AUG