Click here to Skip to main content
15,867,568 members
Articles / Web Development / HTML5
Article

Showing the AppBar for HTML Metro Applications in Design Mode using Blend for Visual Studio 2012

Rate me:
Please Sign up or sign in to vote.
5.00/5 (2 votes)
1 Aug 2012CPOL1 min read 15.8K   9   2
Showing the AppBar for HTML Metro Applications in Design Mode using Blend for Visual Studio 2012.

Introduction

Showing the AppBar in XAML Metro applications requires no special tips or tricks, just place the code on your page and open it in Blend and you will see the AppBar:

XML
<Grid Background="{StaticResource ApplicationPageBackgroundThemeBrush}">

</Grid>    
<Page.BottomAppBar>
<AppBar x:Name="bottomAppBar" Padding="10,0,10,0">
    <Grid>
        <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" HorizontalAlignment="Left">
            <Button Style="{StaticResource EditAppBarButtonStyle}" Click="Button_Click"/>
            <Button Style="{StaticResource RemoveAppBarButtonStyle}" Click="Button_Click"/>
            <Button Style="{StaticResource AddAppBarButtonStyle}" Click="Button_Click"/>
        </StackPanel>
        <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" HorizontalAlignment="Right">
            <Button Style="{StaticResource RefreshAppBarButtonStyle}" Click="Button_Click"/>
            <Button Style="{StaticResource HelpAppBarButtonStyle}" Click="Button_Click"/>
        </StackPanel>
    </Grid>
</AppBar>
</Page.BottomAppBar>
</Page>

As you can see below, it just works.

image

HTML Metro Application on the other hand doesn’t have this luxury, instead you have to enabled it. Open Visual studio 2012 and create a new JavaScript Metro Application and replace everything inside default.html with the following code snippet:

XML
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <title>App7</title>

    <!-- WinJS references -->
    <link href="//Microsoft.WinJS.1.0.RC/css/ui-dark.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="//Microsoft.WinJS.1.0.RC/js/base.js"></script>
    <script src="//Microsoft.WinJS.1.0.RC/js/ui.js"></script>

    <!-- App7 references -->
    <link href="/css/default.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="/js/default.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
    <p>Content goes here</p>
     <div id="appbar" data-win-control="WinJS.UI.AppBar">
        <button data-win-control="WinJS.UI.AppBarCommand" 
          data-win-options="{id:'cmd', label:'Command', icon:'placeholder'}"></button>
  </div>
</body>
</html>

Notice the div that specifies the AppBar. Go ahead and right click on default.html and open it in Blend. Once launched, you won’t see your AppBar in the design view. You have to manually navigate to your AppBar from the Live DOM then right-click and say “Activate AppBar”

image

It will now show on the Design View.

image

One thing to note here is that if you drag/drop the AppBar from within Blend for Visual Studio, then it will turn that option on automatically.

Wrap-up

Thanks for reading! You can download the Windows 8 Release Preview and VS2012 RC here if you haven’t already. I’d also suggest checking out Telerik’s RadControls for Metro for some great Windows 8 components. If you have any questions or comments, then please leave them below.

This article was originally posted at http://michaelcrump.net/blog

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Software Developer (Senior) Telerik
United States United States
Michael Crump is a Silverlight MVP and MCPD that has been involved with computers in one way or another for as long as he can remember, but started professionally in 2002. After spending years working as a systems administrator/tech support analyst, Michael branched out and started developing internal utilities that automated repetitive tasks and freed up full-time employees. From there, he was offered a job working at McKesson corporation and has been working with some form of .NET and VB/C# since 2003.

He has worked at Fortune 500 companies where he gained experience in embedded systems design and software development to systems administration and database programming, and everything in between.

His primary focus right now is developing healthcare software solutions using Microsoft .NET technologies. He prefers building infrastructure components, reusable shared libraries and helping companies define, develop and automate process standards and guidelines.

You can read his blog at: MichaelCrump.net or follow him on Twitter at @mbcrump.

Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralMy vote of 5 Pin
Christian Amado1-Aug-12 12:02
professionalChristian Amado1-Aug-12 12:02 
QuestionDescription Pin
Kenneth Haugland1-Aug-12 11:28
mvaKenneth Haugland1-Aug-12 11:28 

General General    News News    Suggestion Suggestion    Question Question    Bug Bug    Answer Answer    Joke Joke    Praise Praise    Rant Rant    Admin Admin   

Use Ctrl+Left/Right to switch messages, Ctrl+Up/Down to switch threads, Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right to switch pages.