Silverlight Knowledge Base

XAML Tools

The primary tools for creating and manipulating XAML documents are those tools available from Microsoft; however, several third-party XAML tools are on the horizon, including KaXAML.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 is Microsoft's premiere development tool. All development tools from Microsoft have now been assimilated into Visual Studio. Figure 2-2 shows the Visual Studio 2010 start page.

Microsoft Expression Blend

Microsoft has developed and released an entire suite of tools, called the Microsoft Expression Suite, that is designed for preparing user interfaces, graphics, and media for WPF and Silverlight applications. The primary tool in the Expression Suite for creating and manipulating XAML files is Microsoft Expression Blend. Figure 2-3 shows Expression Blend.

Welcome to the Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1

Figure 2-2 Visual Studio 2010 start page

Figure 2-3 Expression Blend

NOTE

As mentioned, Visual Studio 2010 is Microsoft's primary development environment and will be the primary tool used by developers. The Expression Suite of tools was designed for designers. However, both tools share a common solution and project file format so that either tool can be used to create and manage Silverlight projects.

XAML Power Toys

XAML Power Toys is a third-party set of utilities used to extend Visual Studio 2010's XAML functionality. XAML Power Toys was developed by Karl Shifflett, a Microsoft developer, and is primarily used to ease the creation of line of business (LOB) XAML applications. XAML Power Toys offers the developer the following capabilities:

Easily create a ViewModel class stub

Automatically create a WPF or Silverlight DataGrid for a selected class Create a WPF ListView for a selected class Create a business form for a selected class Show a list of data members for a selected class

The XAML Power Toys menu is shown in Figure 2-4.

Figure 2-4 XAML Power Toys menu

For more information on XAML Power Toys, visit Karl Shifflett's website at http://karlshifflett.wordpress.com/xaml-power-toys/.

MoXAML Power Toys

MoXAML Power Toys was developed by Pete O'Hanlon as an extension to the XAML Power Toys and includes functionality for directly formatting XAML. MoXAML Power Toys provides the following functionality:

• Easy beautification and formatting of XAML markup

• Direct search the Web for a selected keyword

• The ability to mark selected XAML as a comment

• The ability to automatically add a status bar, toolbar, and menu to an application

The MoXAML Power Toys menu is shown in Figure 2-5. For more information on MoXAML Power Toys, visit Pete O'Hanlon's blog at http://peteohanlon.wordpress.com/moxaml-power-toys/.

Figure 2-5 MoXAML Power Toys menu

Figure 2-6 KaXAML editor

KaXAML

KaXAML is a simple third-party XAML editor. KaXAML does not include all the functionality included in Visual Studio 2010 or Expression Blend but is simple and lightweight. Each new version of KaXAML released includes new features, but the goal of KaXAML is to remain lightweight. KaXAML is shown in Figure 2-6.

For more information on KaXAML, visit the KaXAML website at http://www.kaxaml .com/.

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