Straight from Microsoft, Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit provides the developer community with new FREE components, functionality, and an efficient way to help shape product development. Toolkit releases include open source code, samples & docs, plus design-time support for the Windows Phone platform as well as the Silverlight browser plugin.
In this toolkit you will find user interface controls like those found throughout the Windows Phone, with components like toggle switches, page transitions, picker controls and more.
Overview
Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit August 2011 offers the following 21 Components:
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All Aug 2011 Components |
New Components |
Key Fixes |
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You can download the new release straight from the CodePlex site at http://silverlight.codeplex.com/ – it requires the latest ‘Mango’ developer tools as well.
The release is also available on NuGet as the SilverlightToolkitWP package.
New features in Windows Phone Toolkit August 2011 release
Here are some of the new things you will find in this release:
LongListSelector has been rebuilt and redesigned to take advantage of the new smooth scrolling and off-thread touch input support in ‘Mango’. This is a buttery-smooth control for showing lists, including grouping and jump list support.
MultiselectList control enables multiple selection for easily working with lists of data, similar to the Mail app’s capability.
LockablePivot adds a special mode to the Pivot control where only the current item is shown (often used with multiple selection).
ExpanderView is a primitive items control that can be used for expanding and collapsing items (like the threaded views in the Mail app).
HubTile lets you add beautiful, informative, animated tiles to your application, similar to the new People groups in ‘Mango’.
ContextMenu control has been reworked: performance improvements and visual consistency fixes.
ListPicker now supports multiple selection.
RecurringDaysPicker lets your users select a day of the week.
Date & Time Converters localized to 22 languages. The converters let developers easily display date and time in the user interface in one of the many styles found throughout the phone’s UI, from a short date like ‘7/19’ to relative times like ‘about a month ago’.
Page Transitions have improved performance for a more responsive feel.
PhoneTextBox is an early look at an enhanced text box with action icon support, watermarking, etc.
All error messages and interface elements have been localized to all of the supported languages, making for a great experience for users around the world.
Other great components
If you’re new to the Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit, you’re in for a treat as an app developer: the simple developer library also contains these great components designed specifically for the Windows Phone:
AutoCompleteBox is a text box control that allows for simple auto-completion based on a filter.
DatePicker lets a user select a date, similar to that found in the Alarms app on the Windows Phone.
PerformanceProgressBar can be used to show indeterminate progress inside an app (though you should also consider the new ProgressIndicator support in ‘Mango’, too).
TiltEffect attached property that gives buttons, list items, and other components that nice ‘tilt’ touch experience.
TimePicker for choosing a time.
WrapPanel is a non-virtualized wrapping panel often used for displaying photo thumbnails.
Helper code for Gestures (touch input manipulations).
Check out the sample app
One of the best ways to learn about the controls is to use the sample app on your Windows Phone. We haven’t published it to the marketplace yet, so in the meantime, just deploy this .XAP to your developer-unlocked Windows Phone (or the Windows Phone Emulator). It should work with the latest Windows Phone ‘Mango’ developer tools.
You can find the sample XAP here.
The app includes a nice list of the controls, touch one to go into a sub-page. The full open source code to the sample is on the CodePlex site at http://silverlight.codeplex.com/