Building Windows 8 Apps with JavaScript

Book description

Building Windows 8 Apps with JavaScript is the definitive guide for every experienced developer who wants to create, ship, and profit from Windows 8 apps built with HTML5 and JavaScript. Written by Chris Sells, former Visual Studio Principal Program Manager who led the team that built Microsoft’s official Windows 8 JavaScript app templates, and Brandon Satrom, expert web/mobile developer, this book covers every facet of development with Microsoft’s new JavaScript framework and WinRT.

The authors guide you through building full-featured Windows Store apps that merge the best aspects of desktop, web, and mobile apps into a single user and developer experience. You’ll learn how to leverage the full power of the Windows 8 platform and integrate services ranging from client-side state to offline storage. Leveraging these techniques, you can deliver information to users faster, more clearly, and more concisely, on whatever devices they prefer.

Through complete example projects, Building Windows 8 Apps with JavaScript covers 

  • Understanding powerful new improvements in Windows 8 developer experience

  • Using Windows 8’s more flexible binding to update the UI as underlying data changes

  • Creating layouts and typography that fit Windows 8 style and leverage its advantages

  • Working with audio, video, captured media, animation, and HTML5 graphics

  • Making your app “connectable” with PlayTo

  • Integrating WinJS navigation services to improve UI control

  • Maintaining app states built up over time, and sharing them across devices

  • Writing highly responsive async apps

  • Supporting true-touch metaphors and interactions, location data, and sensors

  • Designing apps for the Windows 8 design language

  • Extending JavaScript code to integrate existing C/C++ code or to access Windows capabilities that WinRT doesn’t expose

  • Discovering best practices for monetizing Windows Store apps 

  • All of the downloadable examples can be created and run with Microsoft’s free Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows 8, which includes all you need to build, package, and deploy your Windows Store apps.

    Table of contents

    1. Title Page
    2. Copyright Page
    3. Praise for Building Windows 8 Apps with JavaScript
    4. Dedication Page
    5. Contents
    6. Foreword by Chris Anderson
    7. Foreword by Rey Bango
    8. Preface
      1. Some Terminology
      2. What This Book Is For
      3. Who This Book Is For
      4. Sample Code and Errata
      5. How to Contact the Authors
    9. Acknowledgments
      1. From Chris Sells
      2. From Brandon Satrom
    10. About the Authors
    11. 1. Hello, Windows 8!
      1. Your First Windows Store App
      2. Getting Started in Visual Studio 2012
      3. Controls, Binding, and Styling in Blend
      4. Navigation
      5. Networking in WinJS and WinRT
      6. Split App Template
      7. The Rest
      8. Where Are We?
    12. 2. Binding and Controls
      1. Binding
      2. Initializers
      3. Binding List
      4. Sorting and Filtering
      5. Grouping
      6. Templates
      7. Controls
      8. Where Are We?
    13. 3. Layout
      1. Layouts: Taming the Device Matrix
      2. Using CSS Layout Capabilities to Adapt Your App
      3. Creating Adaptive UIs with CSS and WinJS
      4. Where Are We?
    14. 4. Typography
      1. Typography in Windows Store Apps
      2. Working with Platform Iconography
      3. Using and Manipulating Icon Fonts in a Windows Store App
      4. Where Are We?
    15. 5. Media
      1. Working with Audio and Video
      2. Getting Started with Media in Windows 8
      3. Styling Media and Creating Custom Controls
      4. Adding Subtitles to Video
      5. Adding Video Effects
      6. Working with Audio in Windows Store Apps
      7. Working with User Media Libraries via a File Picker
      8. Selecting Multiple Files
      9. Other File Picker Types
      10. Working with Captured Media
      11. Making Your App Connectable with Play To
      12. Where Are We?
    16. 6. Drawing and Animation
      1. HTML5 Graphics with SVG and Canvas
      2. Manipulating Pixels
      3. Animation in Windows Store Apps
      4. Where Are We?
    17. 7. App State
      1. Settings
      2. Lifetime
      3. Files
      4. Libraries
      5. Where Are We?
    18. 8. Networking
      1. Network Capabilities
      2. Mobile Networking
      3. XMLHttpRequest
      4. Syndication
      5. Background Data Transfer
      6. Web Content
      7. Where Are We?
    19. 9. Shell Contracts
      1. The Windows 8 Shell
      2. Contracts
      3. Search Contract
      4. Share Contract
      5. Contacts Contract
      6. Debugging Contract Providers
      7. Where Are We?
    20. 10. Shell Integration
      1. Live Tiles
      2. Badges
      3. Background Tasks
      4. Toast Notifications
      5. Where Are We?
    21. 11. Device Interaction
      1. An Introduction to Touch
      2. Working with Device Capabilities
      3. Working with Location Data
      4. Working with Sensors
      5. Where Are We?
    22. 12. Native Extensibility
      1. Multiple Languages, One App
      2. Getting Started
      3. WinRT and the JavaScript Environment
      4. WinRT Classes
      5. WinRT Objects
      6. WinRT Types in C++/CX and JavaScript
      7. Delegates and Functions
      8. Events
      9. Concurrency and Asynchrony
      10. Where Are We?
    23. 13. Making Money
      1. Preparing for Submission
      2. Submitting Your App to the Windows Store
      3. Working with Ads
      4. Enabling Trial Mode in Your App
      5. Working with In-App Purchases
      6. Design for Monetization
      7. Marketing and Managing Your App
      8. Where Are We?
    24. A. JavaScript for C-Family Programmers
      1. Hello, World
      2. Values and Types
      3. Operators
      4. Objects
      5. Dates
      6. Regular Expressions
      7. Arrays
      8. Object Prototypes (“Classes”)
      9. Functions
      10. Debug Output
      11. Scoping
      12. Strict
      13. Serialization
    25. B. Presentation and Style at a Glance
      1. Using HTML for App Content and Structure
      2. Using CSS for App Layout and Style
      3. CSS in Windows Store Apps
    26. Index
    27. Ad Pages

    Product information

    • Title: Building Windows 8 Apps with JavaScript
    • Author(s):
    • Release date: December 2012
    • Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional
    • ISBN: 9780133090628