Exam ref 70 484 essentials of developing windows store apps using c

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Exam Ref 70-484:
Essentials of Developing
Windows Store Apps
Using C#

Indrajit Chakrabarty

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Published with the authorization of Microsoft Corporation by:
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This book is dedicated to Tiya and Liana, the best gifts of my life.

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Contents at a glance
Introductionxvii

Preparing for the exam

xx

Chapter 1

Design Windows Store apps

1

Chapter 2

Develop Windows Store apps

Chapter 3

Create the user interface

143

Chapter 4

Program the user interaction

225

Chapter 5

Manage security and data

305

65

Index401

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Contents
Introductionxvii
Microsoft certifications

xvii

Acknowledgmentsxviii
Errata & book support

xviii

We want to hear from you

xix

Stay in touch

xix

Preparing for the exam

xx

Chapter 1 Design Windows Store apps

1

Objective 1.1: Design the UI layout and structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Evaluating the conceptual design and deciding how the
UI will be composed

2

Designing for the inheritance and reuse of visual elements

4

Designing for accessibility

6

Deciding when custom controls are needed

9

Objective summary

11

Objective review

11

Objective 1.2: Design for separation of concerns (SOC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Planning the logical layers of your solution to meet app
requirements13
Designing loosely coupled layers

14

Incorporating WinMD components

15

Objective summary

17

Objective review

17

What do you think of this book? We want to hear from you!
Microsoft is interested in hearing your feedback so we can continually improve our
books and learning resources for you. To participate in a brief online survey, please visit:

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Objective 1.3: Apply the MVVM pattern to your
app design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Designing and implementing the appropriate data
model to support business entities

19

Designing a viewmodel to support the view based on
your model

25

Developing a view to meet data-binding requirements

25

Creating viewmodels using NotifyPropertyChanged,
ObservableCollection, and CollectionViewSource

27

Objective summary

31

Objective review

31

Objective 1.4: Design and implement Process Lifetime
Management (PLM). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Choosing a state management strategy

33

Handling the Suspending event and preparing for app
termination35
Handling the Resuming event

38

Handling the OnActivated events

38

Checking the ActivationKind and previous state

41

Objective summary

44

Objective review

44

Objective 1.5: Plan for an app deployment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Planning a deployment based on Windows Store app
certification requirements

45

Preparing an application manifest

48

Signing an application

53

Planning the requirements for an enterprise deployment

54

Objective summary

55

Objective review

56

Chapter summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Answers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

viii

Objective 1.1: Thought experiment

58

Objective 1.1: Review

58

Objective 1.2: Thought experiment

59

Objective 1.2: Review

59

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Objective 1.3: Thought experiment

60

Objective 1.3: Review

60

Objective 1.4: Thought experiment

61

Objective 1.4: Review

61

Objective 1.5: Thought experiment

62

Objective 1.5: Review

62

Chapter 2 Develop Windows Store apps

65

Objective 2.1: Access and display contacts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Calling the ContactPicker class

66

Filtering which contacts to display

69

Selecting specific contact data

70

Displaying a set number of contacts

72

Creating and modifying contact information

74

Objective summary

76

Objective review

76

Objective 2.2: Design for charms and contracts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Choosing the appropriate charm based on app requirements

78

Designing your app in a charm-aware and contractaware manner

82

Configuring the app manifest for correct permissions

91

Objective summary

93

Objective review

94

Objective 2.3: Implement search. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Providing and constraining search within an app

95

Providing search result previews

100

Providing search suggestions using the SearchPane class

102

Implementing activation from within search

107

Searching for and launching other apps

108

Objective summary

109

Objective review

110

Objective 2.4: Implement Share in an app. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Using the DataTransferManager class to share data with
other apps

111
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ix


Accepting sharing requests by implementing activation
within the Share charm

114

Limiting the scope of sharing using the DataPackage object

120

Implementing in-app share outside the Share charm

122

Objective summary

123

Objective review

123

Objective 2.5: Manage app settings and preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Choosing which app features are accessed in AppSettings

124

Adding entry points for AppSettings in the Settings window

125

Creating settings flyouts using the Popup control

127

Adding settings to Popup

129

Storing and retrieving settings from the roaming app
data store

130

Objective summary

132

Objective review

133

Chapter summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Answers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Objective 2.1: Thought experiment

135

Objective 2.1: Review

135

Objective 2.2: Thought experiment

136

Objective 2.2: Review

136

Objective 2.3: Thought experiment

137

Objective 2.3: Review

138

Objective 2.4: Thought experiment

138

Objective 2.4: Review

139

Objective 2.5: Thought experiment

140

Objective 2.5: Review

140

Chapter 3 Create the user interface

143

Objective 3.1: Create layout aware apps to handle view states. . . . . . . . 143

x

Handling view state events from ViewStateManager

144

Choosing between style patterns for different view states

151

Setting up app orientation in the manifest

154

Objective summary

156

Objective review

156

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Objective 3.2: Implement layout controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Implementing the Grid control to structure the app layout

158

Setting the number of rows/columns and size

163

Enabling scroll and zoom capabilities in layout controls

166

Managing text flow and presentation

170

Objective summary

177

Objective review

177

Objective 3.3: Design and implement the app bar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Determining what to put on the app bar based on app
requirements179
Designing the placement of controls on the app bar

182

Styling and positioning app bar items

184

Handling AppBar events

186

Objective summary

188

Objective review

188

Objective 3.4: Design and implement data presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Choosing and implementing data controls to meet app
requirements190
Creating data templates to meet app requirements

197

Objective summary

200

Objective review

201

Objective 3.5: Create and manage XAML styles and templates. . . . . . . . 202
Implementing and extending styles and templates

203

Implementing gradients

209

Modifying styles based on event and property triggers

210

Creating shared resources and themes

212

Objective summary

214

Objective review

214

Chapter summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Answers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Objective 3.1: Thought experiment

217

Objective 3.1: Review

217

Objective 3.2: Thought experiment

218

Objective 3.2: Review

218
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xi


Objective 3.3: Thought experiment

219

Objective 3.3: Review

220

Objective 3.4: Thought experiment

221

Objective 3.4: Review

221

Objective 3.5: Thought experiment

222

Objective 3.5: Review

222

Chapter 4 Program the user interaction

225

Objective 4.1: Create and manage tiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Creating and updating tiles and tile contents

226

Creating and updating badges using the
TileUpdateManager class

236

Responding to notification requests

237

Choosing an appropriate tile update schedule based on
app requirements

244

Objective summary

247

Objective review

248

Objective 4.2: Notify users by using toast. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Enabling an app for toast notifications

249

Populating toast notifications with images and text using the ToastUpdateManager class

252

Controlling toast duration

255

Playing sounds with toast notifications

256

Responding to toast events

257

Objective summary

261

Objective review

262

Objective 4.3: Manage input devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

xii

Capturing gesture library events

264

Creating custom gesture recognizers

272

Listening to mouse events or touch gestures

274

Managing stylus input and inking

276

Objective summary

278

Objective review

278

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Objective 4.4: Design and implement navigation in an app. . . . . . . . . . . 280
Designing navigation to meet app requirements

280

Working with navigation events, properties, and functions

286

Using Semantic Zoom in your app

292

Objective summary

295

Objective review

296

Chapter summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Answers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Objective 4.1: Thought experiment

298

Objective 4.1: Review

298

Objective 4.2: Thought experiment

299

Objective 4.2: Review

300

Objective 4.3: Thought experiment

301

Objective 4.3: Review

301

Objective 4.4: Thought experiment

302

Objective 4.4: Review

303

Chapter 5 Manage security and data

305

Objective 5.1: Choose an appropriate data access strategy. . . . . . . . . . . 306
Choosing the appropriate data access strategy based
on app requirements

306

Managing application data

316

Storing and retrieving data from a remote location

328

Objective summary

330

Objective review

330

Objective 5.2: Retrieve data remotely. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Using HttpClient to retrieve data from web services

332

Setting the appropriate HTTP verb for REST

337

Consuming SOAP/WCF services

340

Using WebSockets for bidirectional communication

341

Handling the progress of data requests

347

Objective summary

350

Objective review

350

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xiii


Objective 5.3: Implement data binding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Choosing and implementing data-bound controls

353

Binding collections to items controls

356

Implementing the IValueConverter interface

360

Creating and setting dependency properties

361

Validating user input

364

Enabling data filtering, grouping, and sorting in the
user interface

367

Objective summary

369

Objective review

370

Objective 5.4: Manage Windows Authentication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Retrieving a user’s roles and claims

372

Storing and retrieving credentials with the PasswordVault class 374
Implementing the CredentialPicker class

376

Objective summary

380

Objective review

380

Objective 5.5: Manage web authentication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
Using the Windows.Security.Authentication.Web namespace

382

Implementing the WebAuthenticationBroker class

384

Setting up OAuth2 for authentication

386

Setting up single sign-on (SSO)

387

Implementing the CredentialPicker class

388

Implementing credential roaming

389

Objective summary

389

Objective review

389

Chapter summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Answers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

xiv

Objective 5.1: Thought experiment

392

Objective 5.1: Review

392

Objective 5.2: Thought experiment

393

Objective 5.2: Review

394

Objective 5.3: Thought experiment

395

Objective 5.3: Review

396

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Objective 5.4: Thought experiment

397

Objective 5.4: Review

397

Objective 5.5: Thought experiment

398

Objective 5.5: Review

399

Index401

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Microsoft is interested in hearing your feedback so we can continually improve our
books and learning resources for you. To participate in a brief online survey, please visit:

www.microsoft.com/learning/booksurvey/
Contents

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xv


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Introduction
The Microsoft 70-484 certification exam tests your knowledge of designing and developing Windows Store apps. Readers are assumed to be experienced Microsoft Windows-based
application developers, including two or more years creating and modifying touch-enabled
interfaces.
The exam expects you to be familiar with the high-level concepts required to build such
apps, including C# and the Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 environment. Therefore, this book
adopts a high-level approach to teaching application design, and provides numerous code
samples that illustrate concepts without step-by-step details of building a Windows Store app
in Visual Studio. You should be able to design and build Windows Store apps on your own,
while using this book to study for the exam.
Success on the 70-484 exam will prove your knowledge and experience in designing and
developing Windows Store apps using Microsoft technologies. This exam guide reviews the
concepts described in the exam objectives, such as:
■■

Designing Windows Store apps

■■

Developing Windows Store apps

■■

Creating the user interface

■■

Programming the user interaction

■■

Managing security and data

This book covers every exam objective, but it does not cover every exam question. Only
the Microsoft exam team has access to the exam questions themselves and Microsoft regularly adds new questions to the exam, making it impossible to cover specific questions. You
should consider this book a supplement to your relevant real-world experience and other
study materials. If you encounter a topic in this book that you do not feel completely comfortable with, use the links you’ll find in text to find more information and take the time to
research and study the topic. Great information is available on MSDN, TechNet, and in blogs
and forums.

Microsoft certifications
Microsoft certifications distinguish you by proving your command of a broad set of skills and
experience with current Microsoft products and technologies. The exams and corresponding
certifications are developed to validate your mastery of critical competencies as you design

and develop, or implement and support, solutions with Microsoft products and technologies
xvii

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both on-premise and in the cloud. Certification brings a variety of benefits to the individual
and to employers and organizations.
MORE INFO  ALL MICROSOFT CERTIFICATIONS

For information about Microsoft certifications, including a full list of available certifications, go to />
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Jeff Riley, Box Twelve Communications, for choosing me to write this
book, and Kim Lindros for her work as the developmental editor. Kim’s thorough reviews immensely improved the quality of the book. I would like to thank Damien Foggon, the technical reviewer, for his comments and attention to detail while reviewing the book.
I would also like to thank Carole Jelen, Waterside Publications, for the initial discussions
and help in setting up the project, and David Wall (www.davidwall.com) for introducing me to
Carole and for helping me complete other projects while this book was under way.
Finally, I must thank Tiya and Liana for their understanding and support while I was writing
the book through the summer holidays.

Errata & book support
We’ve made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this book and its companion content.
Any errors that have been reported since this book was published are listed on our Microsoft
Press site at oreilly.com:
/>If you find an error that is not already listed, you can report it to us through the same
page.
If you need additional support, email Microsoft Press Book Support at

xviii Introduction

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Please note that product support for Microsoft software is not offered through the addresses above.

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Stay in touch
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Introduction xix

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Preparing for the exam
Microsoft certification exams are a great way to build your resume and let the world know
about your level of expertise. Certification exams validate your on-the-job experience and
product knowledge. While there is no substitution for on-the-job experience, preparation
through study and hands-on practice can help you prepare for the exam. We recommend
that you round out your exam preparation plan by using a combination of available study
materials and courses. For example, you might use this Exam Ref and another study guide for
your "at home" preparation, and take a Microsoft Official Curriculum course for the classroom
experience. Choose the combination that you think works best for you.
Note that this Exam Ref is based on publically available information about the exam and
the author's experience. To safeguard the integrity of the exam, authors do not have access to
the live exam.

xx Preparing for the exam

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CHAPTER 1

Design Windows Store apps
The launch of Windows 8 was accompanied with the introduction of Windows Runtime
(WinRT), a new framework for building touch-friendly user interfaces (UIs) for Windows
Store applications (apps). With WinRT, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Silverlight developers could leverage their existing XAML and C#/VB.NET skills to build Windows
Store apps. In addition to the new framework and an accompanying toolset, Microsoft
introduced a new design language called “Microsoft design style.”
The conceptual design of an application is the first stage of designing an application.
In the conceptual design, you focus on a set of ideas and concepts about what your app
should do, how it will behave when users interact with it, and what it should look like. A
well-designed application has logical layers loosely coupled with a UI, which is used for
presenting the data. Separating logic from presentation enables the application to be enhanced or updated without changing the conceptual design.
You can use design patterns such as Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) to develop maintainable and extensible applications. Data and state preservation across various states of
an application is important in providing a great user experience. After you build and test
your application, you need to prepare the app for Windows Store certification. Microsoft
provides a set of requirements to help you during the app certification process and deployment in the Windows Store.

Objectives in this chapter:
■■

Objective 1.1: Design the UI layout and structure

■■

Objective 1.2: Design for separation of concerns (SOC)

■■

Objective 1.3: Apply the MVVM pattern to your app design

■■

Objective 1.4: Design and implement Process Lifetime Management (PLM)

■■

Objective 1.5: Plan for an app deployment

Objective 1.1: Design the UI layout and structure
The primary form of interaction with a Windows Store app by its users is through the user
interface (UI). Microsoft design style consists of a set of principles that provide a consistent, elegant, and compelling user experience in Windows Store apps. You should plan
and design Windows Store app UIs with these principles as a reference. The UI should be



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composed of visual elements and controls, with a clear hierarchy in their layout. You should
also consider users with disabilities and preferences, and design your app for accessibility.
Reusing UI code in multiple applications will help you to rapidly build Windows Store apps;
therefore, you should consider building custom controls and using them in your apps.

This objective covers how to:
■■

Evaluate the conceptual design and decide how the UI will be composed

■■

Design for the inheritance and re-use of visual elements

■■

Design for accessibility

■■

Decide when custom controls are needed

Evaluating the conceptual design and deciding how the UI
will be composed
Windows Store apps provide Windows 8 users with a unique way of interacting with their
PCs and devices. The apps are unique in their design and functionality; they share a set of
important characteristics that are fundamental in their design. To design a compelling user
experience in your app with an attractive user interface, it is important to plan your app well.
Microsoft provides Windows Store app developers with a set of guidelines to help them in
planning their app. The steps you should follow to plan and design your Windows Store app
are described in the following sections.

Decide which features will make your app great
You might have an idea to create a blog reader or a weather app. When you check the Windows Store, you might find several dozen such apps, but none of them satisfies your needs.

Although some apps may be simple to use, they are perhaps lacking in fundamental features
such as sharing data with friends. You need to determine which features you think will make
your app great and make it stand out from the rest of the apps in the Windows Store. Then,
because it’s sometimes difficult to incorporate every feature you want in the first release of
your app, prepare a list of must-have features for the first release. Your focus should be on
your users and the scenarios in which they will use your app.

Assess user scenarios
Users will interact with your app in a variety of ways and you need to anticipate as many of
them as possible. For example, in the case of a blog reader app, users might open the app if
they see an interesting post when it appears in the app’s tile. This is one scenario you need to
include when assessing the various scenarios your app will support. Then you visualize them
by using sketches, prototypes, and storyboards. Remember that your app needs to perform
well for such scenarios, and your design should accommodate any necessary requirements.

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You might prioritize these scenarios and implement only a few of them in the first release of
your application, adding other scenarios in future updates.

Decide on your app’s features
After you decide on a set of scenarios to implement in your app, explore the Windows platform and investigate features to associate with your app’s needs. To provide users with the
best experience while using your app, follow the User Experience (UX) guidelines for each

feature.
■■

■■

■■

■■

Use the right contracts in your app  Contracts are agreements between apps that
enable your app to interact with other apps. Complex interactions such as sharing
content from within your app with your friends or searching with your app are easier to
implement with contracts. If your app is a source of media, the Play To contract enables
your app to stream media to devices such as televisions.
Touch-first design  Windows 8 has promoted touch and gestures as the primary
form of interaction with Windows Store apps, leaving the keyboard and mouse as
alternative methods of interaction. Therefore, you should consider using touch interactions, such as rotate, pan, swipe, cross-slide and others, to provide a more visual and
informative way to interact with content in your app.
Engaging experience  Animations, toast notifications, live tiles, and secondary tiles
can help users feel deeply immersed and engaged with your app.
Use device capabilities whenever possible  Modern devices have proximity sensors, cameras, accelerometers, and geolocation capabilities that you should consider
using in your app.

MORE INFO  USER EXPERIENCE (UX) GUIDELINES

See for more information on UX guidelines.

Design a great user interface for your app
After you establish the features you want to implement in your app, you should start working
on the fundamentals of designing the UI. Remember that the UI is the main gateway to your

app, enabling users to be immersed and engaged with your app’s features. Microsoft design
style provides designers and developers with a set of simple principles to follow while designing the UI of Windows Store apps:
■■



Showcase your content  You should strive to adapt a clean and open layout. Minimize distractions by removing unnecessary lines, boxes, blurs, and gradients; and use
open space to frame your app’s content. Remember to put “content over chrome.” You
should provide a clear and simple information hierarchy in your app with an emphasis

Objective 1.1: Design the UI layout and structure

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Chapter 1

3