WinRT: GroupedGridView first item other template

I’m currently building a comic application for Windows 8, yesterday I was building the page where users can see the details about a certain comic issue. The idea I had for this page was that on the left was the cover of the issue, followed by a list of characters appearing in the issue. A grouped GridView would be perfect for this scenario but it only accepts one template, so all groups usually look the same. Here’s the way that I’ve fixed it, I’m not 100% happy with it but it works. If you have a better way, please tell me, I’ll update this post accordingly and give credit where credit is due off course.

Let’s start off with the class. I have a class called Issue that obviously contains all the information about an issue.

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Adding multiple lines of text to your Win8 tile update

Live tiles is one of the best things about Windows Phone and WinRT. I love how easy it is to add updates to your tiles in Windows Phone but hate how limited the updates are allowed to be. With WinRT comes a new API and more robust tile updates. There are many different types oftile updates and your app should support AT LEAST one square and one wide tile. If you’re like me (and I know I am), I started with theC# WinRT sample for App tiles and badges. I began looking at the code and could easily see that you use the TileUpdateManager to update your tile. The TileUpdateManager needs a TileNotification in order to update your tile. Here is where I quickly became lost in this rather complex sample. The TileNotification needs to be created with XML (an XmlDocumentto be exact) but I had not idea what XML elements are needed (Seriously, is all of the abstraction really needed here? This is suppose to be a simple sample to let devs see how to quickly and easily create a tile update). All I wanted to know was how to format the XML!

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Migrating your Release Preview app to Windows 8

This paper provides guidance and tips for migrating code assets built using the Windows 8 Release Preview released in May 2012 to Windows 8. It includes porting guidance and helpful details for developers who are tasked with migrating apps from versions of Windows 8 Release Preview. It assumes that the reader is familiar with Windows 8 Release Preview.

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What Is New In SkyDrive – Metro Look & Context Menus

Microsoft is all up for a major revamp. Following Windows 8, Microsoft changed both Hotmail and Office software to a new look that goes with Windows 8. It seems Microsoft is racing for grabbing a major share of market space in portable devices. With Windows 8, it changed the interface of its operating systems from the traditional Windows style to the new Metro or Modern or Tiled  style. It also changed the look of its Office applications to the tiles-style to match Windows 8. This change is visible from Microsoft Office 2013 onward.

Not only that, it went ahead and changed Hotmail to Outlook – and again this has the look of what we may call “tiled interface”. The essential feature of this tiled-interface is plenty of white space between tiles so that people using touch navigation can go tapping happily on the tiles. The font too has increased at some places to enable finger touch (example, in the Navigation Options of Microsoft Outlook 2013).

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Data Binding In Windows 8. Part 3–Element Binding

In my previous post, I discussed the three modes of DataBinding for Windows 8. Todaywe’ll take a brief look at binding not to data, but rather binding one UI element to the value of another. In this example, we’ll bind the IsActive property of the ProgressRing to the IsChecked property’s value in a CheckBox.

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Windows 8 RTM is available for developers

Two weeks ago we announced that Windows 8 released to manufacturing (RTM). Since then we’ve been preparing builds for distribution as described in the Windows 8 has reached the RTM milestone post on Windows Team blog. I’m happy to let you know that we are now ready with early access builds for developers. In this post I’ll give you some pointers on the best way to get and install the RTM build and I’ll also point you to resources you can use to get your apps up and running on Windows 8 RTM.

Want to get Windwos 8 RTM, Click here

Channel 9 Videos : Visual Studio 2012 Premium and Ultimate Overview

A series of videos that give an overview of the key features in Visual Studio Premium and Ultimate 2012.
This includes:

• Managing lab environments for testing
• Using layer diagrams to design and validate your architecture
• Improving architecture through modeling
• Coordinate your team with agile project management
• Visualize the impact of a change
• Finding and managing cloned code
• Easily testing user interfaces with Coded UI tests
• Using Code Review to Improve Quality
• Collecting and analyzing data in production
• Easily reproducing issues through manual testing
• How to multi-task with My Work
• Improving quality with unit tests and fakes
• Load testing applications in Visual Studio
• Understand your code dependencies through visualization 

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Visual Studio 2012 and .NET Framework 4.5 released to the web

I’m thrilled to announce that this morning we released Visual Studio 2012, Team Foundation Server 2012, and .NET Framework 4.5 to the web. It’s time to start your engines, and begin downloading today!

MSDN Subscribers can download immediately at the MSDN Subscriber Download Page, and volume licensing customers will be able to download starting tomorrow from the Volume Licensing Service Center. You’ll also be able to find the product in stores in the next month or so, as well as some availability to purchase through the Visual Studio product website in the next few days. Finally, to evaluate the free trial versions or download our free Express products, please visit the Visual Studio product website today.

This has been a great release for the team, and I’m really excited about all that we’ve accomplished. By adopting agile practices, and using our IDE and ALM tools, we’ve been able to complete the release in half as many milestones this time around. Here’s a picture of our release team, signing off on the final build:

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