Windows Phone 7 : developing UI without xml

Question

We are developing an Windows Phone 7 mobile application. We are new to this platform. In our application, screen will be dynamically generated. So we would like to render the UI programmatically - without using any xmls. Please share some example code or resource or links, wherein UI is rendered programatically. In case of iPhone development, we referred "UICatalog" example. We are looking for similar type of example

Answer 1

You may want to investigate the XNA path for Windows Phone development.

Developing with SilverLight but choosing not to use the most useful features of the platform is probably not going to be fun.

Answer 2

It is possible to render the UI in code, though the examples of doing so are few and far between because it's a rare thing to do with XAML-based technologies like Silverlight and WPF. Instead, you tend to find that developers use to databinding and data templates to present generated content.

If you are porting an application from iPhone to Windows Phone (or even if you're just starting from scratch), the best thing to do is to firstly make sure that you understand the development platform. There are some great resources for this on MSDN here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/wp7trainingcourse_wp7gettingstarted_unit.aspx

The next thing to do is to make sure that you understand the Metro design language that Windows Phone is built upon. Here are some great resources in that respect:

• Metro Design Language for Windows Phone 7
• Microsoft design .toolbox
• From Transportation to Pixels

Once you've reached this point, you will most likely realise that your current approach isn't the right one and switch to a databinding and data templates approach :)

If you are doing an iPhone port, it's important to realise that the design approach is different for Windows Phone applications. Content is King, so work out what that is, put it "front and centre", and trim away every thing else.

I hope this helps.