Disable WebView scrolling in Windows Store Apps

WebView is a control which enables developers to host the HTML content. In WinRT framework WebView still lacks some features when we compare it to the WebBrowser of WPF. WebView class inherits from FrameworkElement class, but many properties of base class in not working in WebView.

Recently I was creating an app and I want to disable the horizontal & vertical scrolling of WebView. I tried below given code.

<WebView x:Name="webView" Source="http://myawesomewebsite.com"
    ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Disabled"
    ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollMode="Disabled"/>

But it didn't work. I was getting annoyed. I start binging & googling but didn't get any solution. WebView doesn't have its template also. Then I start analyzing the control in microscopic way. Finally I get to know that the scroll bars are due to HTML content, WebView itself doesn't have its own scroll bars. So I decided to go for JavaScript way. I applied some CSS properties in HTML content using JavaScript. It will display only that HTML content which is being displayed in current viewport or say display area. WebView provides InvokeScript method, which executes the specified script function from the currently loaded HTML, with specific arguments. When WebView's LoadCompleted event occurs, I am invoking that JavaScript which disables the scrolling. Check out whole code given below.

string DisableScrollingJs = @"function RemoveScrolling()
                              {
                                  var styleElement = document.createElement('style');
                                  var styleText = 'body, html { overflow: hidden; }'
                                  var headElements = document.getElementsByTagName('head');
                                  styleElement.type = 'text/css';
                                  if (headElements.length == 1)
                                  {
                                      headElements[0].appendChild(styleElement);
                                  }
                                  else if (document.head)
                                  {
                                      document.head.appendChild(styleElement);
                                  }
                                  if (styleElement.styleSheet)
                                  {
                                      styleElement.styleSheet.cssText = styleText;
                                  }
                              }";

void webView_LoadCompleted(object sender, NavigationEventArgs e)
{
    webView.InvokeScript("eval", new[] { DisableScrollingJs });
}

I hope this blog post will help you while developing WebView oriented app if you required such feature to implement.

Helper class to print the text box content in Windows Store App

Introduction

Microsoft's documentation & sample for printing is too much complex. The sample app for printing shows only how to print RichTextBlock. There's no tutorial to print the TextBox content in Windows Store app. Moreover to print single line of string, one has to write too much code rather than maximum 10 lines in WinForm. So this helper class provides simplest method to print the text box content. It has only one static method. It prints the text box content with its formatting. It's majorly based on MSDN print sample.

I got idea to write a library from the following Stack Overflow questions.

How to print the contents of a TextBox ?

How do you print contents of a RichTextBox ?

How do I print a TextFile OR contents of a TextBox in Metro apps ?

How to use it ?

You have to call just one static method ShowPrintUIAsync of class Printer, it will do print job on your behalf.

await Printer.ShowPrintUIAsync(PrintPreview, MyTextBox, Guid.NewGuid().ToString());

• PrintPreview is a canvas, which is mandatory to show print preview in device charm. You have to declare in your XAML. 
• MyTextBox is a text box object, whose text content is going to be printed. 
• Guid.NewGuid().ToString() is a file name for printing the document. (It will be applied if you are creating PDF or XPS file via printing.)

To install WinRT.TextboxPrintHelper as NuGet package, run the following command in the Package Manager Console.

PM> Install-Package WinRT.TextboxPrintHelper

I would be glad to have issues or suggestions from you, so I can improve this. If you want to fork the repository or post issues, find this helper class on GitHub.

Testing in-app puchasing in Windows 8

One of the many new features with upcoming Windows 8 is the Windows Store distribution and monetization channel. Developers can now add in-app purchasing to their apps. The prizes are the same as application prizes in store, e.g. starting from 1,49 USD (1,19 EUR) and gradually growing up in 50 cent increments. Because it seems testing in-app purchasing system isn’t trivial to everybody, here’s a quick sample to get you started. This is only a basic example to get you started, so I don’t cover different in-app types.

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Microsoft DevRadio: Your Top Windows Store Questions Answered

Jerry Nixon welcomes Principal Program Manager Arik Cohen to the show as they discuss the recently launched Windows Store and a wide variety of topics developers ask most.

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Shortcut Key Handling in Windows Store Apps

I wanted to create a simple ALT+S shortcut in my app to jump to a TextBox in my Windows Store App (no this is not the Win+Q search charm shortcut). However, this is not that obvious to get working app-wide, so I’ll share it here:

The obvious way to do this is assign a KeyDown event to your page using the typical “this.KeyDown += MyKeyDownHandler”, or override OnKeyDown. However this has one problem: If any control that has focus currently handles key down events (like TextBox), this event won’t be raised due to how event bubbling works. However there is another way to create an event handler that overrides the bubbling: UIElement.AddHandler. In the 3rd parameter of that, you can specify that you want to be notified even if the event has been handled.

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Top 10 features of the Microsoft Surface

Microsoft Surface is the new tablet device made by Microsoft, running Windows RT and Windows 8. InformationWeek, today, released their top 10 for the coolest features of Microsoft Surface. I have listed them below with a little more information next to each.

Surface: Where work meets play. The power of Windows, the productivity of Office Home & Student 2013 RT Preview, and the joy of Xbox – not to mention apps, social media, music, and more. Surface is also cloud-connected with SkyDrive, so you can access your content from anywhere, at any time.

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Data Template Selector in Windows 8 Metro XAML App

It has been work around to have more than one data template in a list to display the data. In Windows 8 it has been eased, WinRT introduces the DataTemplateSelector class, where we could have more than one template to display in an items source control in Windows 8. In this article we would discover that.

To explore the sample, you definitely need Windows 8 Consumer Preview and Visual Studio 2012 RC.

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Controlling caching of BitMapImage under WinRT

By default Bitmap Images are cached by WinRT with no intervention required by the developer.  Often times this is a good thing but there are some occasions where this is undesirable.  Although there doesn’t appear to be any obvious control in the API reference I have found that adding a dummy querystring to the BitMapImage source filename reference does the trick and also can offer precise control over the length of caching required (if any) .

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Creating your own file format to import .FBX, .OBJ and .X in your Windows 8 modern UI game (or 3D engine)

There is a lot of different file format when it comes to 3D objects. One of the most used is the FBX from Autodesk. This file format can be exported by all major DCC but the key point is that it can be complex for a game or 3D developer to open such file format.

I would like to propose here a solution that can allows you to easily offline files importation. The idea is to simulate a MSBuild execution to reuse the importation process of the XNA pipeline.

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The Windows Store App Lifecycle

Windows 8 is changing how and when applications run, and you’ll want to understand the nuances of the new application lifecycle so you can build apps that respond as they should at every point. Apps that conform to the Microsoft lifecycle management guidelines offer a better experience for the user, especially on small devices where memory and battery conservation are warranted.

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Using the MVVM Pattern in Windows 8

Any programmer with previous experience in any of the XAML-based frameworks has probably at least heard of the Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) pattern. Some have been using it extensively in all of their Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Silverlight or Windows Phone applications. Others have avoided it, either because they misunderstand what the pattern does, exactly, or because they don’t want to add what they see as a new level of complexity to their application.

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Download the Code Sample

Asynchronous Programming with Async and Await (C# and Visual Basic)

You can avoid performance bottlenecks and enhance the overall responsiveness of your application by using asynchronous programming. However, traditional techniques for writing asynchronous applications can be complicated, making them difficult to write, debug, and maintain.

Visual Studio 2012 introduces a simplified approach, async programming, that leverages asynchronous support in the .NET Framework 4.5 and the Windows Runtime. The compiler does the difficult work that the developer used to do, and your application retains a logical structure that resembles synchronous code. As a result, you get all the advantages of asynchronous programming with a fraction of the effort.

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Pizza Ordering Made Easy with Telerik RadControls for Metro - HTML

We all love pizza. I know that I do and several have speculated how it will be ordered in the future. Don’t take my word for it, check out the video above.

While it may seem strange that in the year 2015 people are using Windows 98 to order pizza, it may be more realistic to say they will be using Windows 8 instead. So, let’s build a Windows 8 HTML app using several new controls that are part of Telerik’s Windows 8 UI Controls that we have not seen yet. They include: RadDropDownList, RadSlider and RadGauge.

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Callisto Dialog Helpers for Caliburn.Micro WinRT

Callisto is excellent open source UI Control library for the Windows 8 Store apps. Caliburn.Micro is a powerful framework for building Windows Phone, Silverlight and Windows 8 Store apps. These helpers make it easies to combine Caliburn.Micro with the Callisto's dialogs.

Content

• Helper for displaying settings dialogs on the Settings charm
• Helper for displaying normal dialogs all around the screen

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Get Library on CodePlex

Building a custom control using XAML and C#

You may already know that one of the most powerful features of the Windows 8 XAML platform is the flexibility the platform provides to create custom controls. XAML provides features like Dependency Properties and Control Templates that make it easy to create feature-rich and customizable controls.

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Converting TimeZones in Store/WinRT apps

For anyone who’s tried to convert a DateTime/DateTimeOffset to another time zone in a Windows Store style app, I’ve put together a helper class that uses some of the Win32 APIs that are allowed in Store apps.

In the code below, I’m converting all times to be Eastern time, but it can be easily adapted more generically. I’m calling the Win32 functions that take changes in daylight time into account, so it should be accurate for any supplied date.

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File Manipulation in Windows 8 Store Apps

The IO Subsystem in WinRT has been written ground up to be completely async.In this article, we see how we can manage (Create and Update) binary data in Files using the Windows 8 runtime.

As we know now, Windows 8 Store Apps are a new category of desktop apps that are touch-centric and run on the new WinRT runtime on Windows 8. In this article, we see how we can manage (Create and Update) binary data in Files using the Windows 8 runtime.

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Windows Runtime Components in a .NET World

The new type of program known as a Windows Store app—optimized to run on Windows 8 devices—has a default view with a full-screen window and no distracting chrome, so the content is the focal point. Windows Store apps support fluid layouts that adapt and scale to a variety of screen sizes and resolutions. They provide a touch-first experience while providing full support for the traditional keyboard and mouse.

Windows Store apps run on a new set of APIs called the Windows Runtime (WinRT). The Windows Runtime exposes components that are built as part of the Windows 8 OS along with third-party components you can develop yourself. Although some core Windows Runtime Components are accessible from desktop apps, third-party Windows Runtime Components are only available from within the Windows 8 environment. WinRT types are described using WinRT metadata files that have the .winmd extension. These files are encoded using the same standard the Microsoft .NET Framework uses for providing metadata definitions and semantics for classes, ECMA-335 (see bit.ly/sLILI).

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Interacting with Windows 8 Maps app using WindowsMapsHelper library

Windows 8 is shipped with preinstalled Maps application. This app provides all basic mapping features such us showing current location, searching for place or local business and calculating driving directions. Even better, Maps app implements bingmaps protocol to allow 3rd party applications to activate these features. There is just one disadvantage of the protocol: it’s basically a URL string and all numerous parameters need to be properly formatted.

WindowsMapsHelper library aims to simplify communications with Maps app. It encapsulates maps protocol into a few strongly typed classes.

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Source code at GitHub
NuGet Package Here

Walkthrough: Adding Text Translation to your Windows 8 App

The Microsoft Translator is a powerful service that developers can leverage in their Windows 8 apps. It’s core functions are to detect the language of some text. To translate text from one language to another. And, to read text to you – that’s right! The API is hosted on Azure’s Data Marketplace. It has a pricing schedule, including a free tier that developers can leverage to develop with the API.

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