I use Visual Studio 2010 for WPF development of desktop apps. I edit my XAML with the visual editor, often tweaking it manually. My code-behind is C#. I haven't had any particular problems with this arrangement.
What are the advantages of Expression Blend over Visual Studio for editing XAML? Why is Expression Blend so expensive (it's more expensive than I paid for Visual Studio!!) Are there other full-featured XAML editors which are cheaper? (I'm not talking about free ones like kaxaml - those are too limited)
Thanks in advance.
Expression Blend does not come stand alone any longer; it is part of Expression Studio which also provides SketchFlow, Design, and a couple of other tools.
Visual Studio is geared towards the development aspect while Expression Blend is geared towards the design aspect. Building animations and performing binding all within the UI of Expression Blend is possible; not forcing you to modify the XAML by hand. You can however modify the XAML directly within Blend as you can the C# code behind as well.
I typically use Blend to lay out the UI and then make use of Visual Studio for the code behind and tweaking of the XAML. Blend is definitely a nice tool to have within your tool belt and I would recommend you download the trial to get a better understanding on the offering.
I find that the main advantage of Blend is that the UI makes it very, very easy to create complex animations and transitions - really gorgeous user experience things - but you need to spend some time 'learning' Blend to do it. To write the XAML in Visual Studio to create the same effects would be much more difficult - Blend does it much quicker, and you can preview the results instantly. It's not easy (if it's even possible - I've honestly not tried the more demanding stuff) with Visual Studio.
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I have been developing in WPF using VS2010 for a few months now and have just upgraded to VS2012 Professional and noticed it comes with Blend for VS.
Is this expected to replace GUI design in VS or is it for doing "extra" bits that cant be done in VS?
I want to know if I need to spend time learning this new tool?
Blend is primarily used to make designing your app easier. It can be used to replaced the Visual Studio designer but it's better to use VS to create the backend code. Assuming you have the same project opened in VS and Blend, when you make changes in one, the other will ask to reload these new changes.
Blend makes it a lot easier to write your XAML (since it's a WYSIWYG editor) but also provides easy access to some of the more complicated aspects such as data binding. You could do all this in VS, and by hand, but Blend just makes it more efficient. It also has nicer workflow features from a designer perspective such as having the ability to zoom in and out.
You don't have to learn to use it, but I prefer using Blend for the GUI design and VS for the code-behind.
There have been posts on this site in the past that say that programming in WPF is difficult without Expression Blend?
Is this still the case with VS2010, or does this new IDE have features that make WPF a lot easier?
I am a developer, but there is no way I would develop XAML applications of any kind without Expression Blend. The value is far too great and not limited to just pretty graphics. Templates, data binding, resource management, layout, rapid design, visualization, etc. are all vastly superior experiences in Blend.
I really struggle with developer rejection of Blend. Aside from the fact that it isn't free or included with Visual Studio there are no compelling reasons to ignore such a powerful tool. Yes, it is different than Visual Studio, and yes, there is a learning curve, but once you know how to use it Blend is unquestionably the right choice.
I understand developers need help through that learning curve. I also understand that Blend is unlike other tools we have used in the past: believe me, I've been there! That's why I wrote the book "Expression Blend in Action: a developer's guide", to help developers over this hurdle. This isn't meant to be an advertisement so I'm not providing the link, but if you're interested you can find it at Manning.com.
I am not sure why people are comparing the development of WPF apps on Visual Studio and Expression. The Simple answer to this question is when you need to do vector designing for your application, Expression Blend is the resource for it. You can't design a control in WPF as per your requirement. Expression Blend supports the WPF text engine with advanced OpenType typography and ClearType, vector-based 2D widgets, and 3D widgets with hardware acceleration via DirectX.
In essence, it is a user interface design tool developed and sold by Microsoft for creating graphical interfaces for web and desktop applications that blend the features of these two types of applications. It is an interactive, WYSIWYG front-end for designing XAML-based interfaces for Windows Presentation Foundation and Silverlight applications.
Expression Blend supports developing Microsoft Silverlight browser-based Rich Internet Applications providing animation, vector graphics, interactivity and video playback capabilities
It depends what you are using WPF for.
If you are writing a line-of-business CRUD application, then there is no need for expression blend at all.
I've been programming in WPF for years, and was only introduced to Expression blend a month ago.
It definitely makes some things easier, in particular animations or vector graphics.
But, if you've become comfortable typing directly into the XAML editor (as most developers are), then it really isn't necessary to do your job.
The short answer is no, it's not required. But Expression Blend is a great UI design tool that can simplify your UI development. It's a tool, like any other, optimized for doing certain tasks. Developers pick tools based on what they do for us. Think about unit tests. Using a Unit Testing framework saves us a lot of time and effort, as the framework people have optimized their tool for the task.
For me, Blend is my goto tool for these features.
Animations and Timelines
Gradient Editing
Control Templates
Template PARTS
Visual State Manager
Resources and Resource Dictionaries
Styles
Sample Data, with DataBinding
Shape Combining
Paths, Layout Paths
Here is just one example. Setting up an multipart animation in Blend might be a two minute job. Writing the same Animation logic in Visual Studio XAML editor may take 5-10x longer. Plus Blend has an animation preview. In VS I have to compile and run my app to see if the animation works as intended. On big projects that build time eats into my productivity.
It is a bit yes and no, you can do Xaml development without Blend but for somethings Blend is a better solution. Personally I stick with VS2010 unless I know that I'm gonna be doing some custom styling or custom UI in general.
You mentioned programming in WPF so take it that you are not a UI designer. Go with Visual Studio, theres's nothing you cant to in Visual studio that you can do with Expression Blend.
Blend is not required for WPF or Silverlight. However, it makes some things a heck of a lot easier. Specifically:
Animations
Extracting control templates
Styling controls without having to build and run everything
You can do all of these things without Blend, but it's not as easy. For example, you can write a WPF program that extracts the default template for a control and then displays it as text. Or if you use Blend, you can click a button. I find that without Blend, I have to constantly do edit/build/run cycles and that takes time. ("Nope, that color isn't right. What if I just tweak it this way a little bit..." and then I'm off to get a cup of coffee as the whole thing builds and runs just so I can check a color.)
Blend saves me time and makes my life easier -- that's why I use it or any other tool.
In my WPF App, I have designed the Form using Expression Blend. To my surprise, the rendering is quite different when I load the solution using Visual Studio 2008. What is even more surprising, when I run the application, the resulting UI is different from the rendering done by both VS and Blend. Though I have not provided by XAML code, but in general is this a known Issue?
This is most definitely a known issue. Visual Studio uses what's known as the Cider designer to render WPF code. It most definitely renders XAML differently from Blend. Cider in VS2008 is pretty terrible, but gets much better in 2010 (but is still pretty terrible compared to Blend). One of the main differences between Cider and Blend is that Cider will read the code behind file (*.xaml.cs) while Blend will completely ignore it. Another notable difference is that Cider doesn't really understand things like Visual States and Blend SDK Behaviors (especially when you mix the two) while Blend completely understands them.
If you're constructing your view classes where you set your DataContext in XAML and then provide design time data (using Blend or a view model locator), you'll find that there are very few differences between Blend and how something actually looks at runtime.
I am looking at using WPF for the GUI side of an upcoming project.
I know I have a huge decision to make on WPF vs. Win forms, but before I can make that decision I want to have a play around with a few simple WPF programs.
I have read a few posts online that say Visual Studio (2008 at the time of the post) lacked somewhat in editing the XAML and they recommended using MS Expression?
Questions are:-
I have VS2010, Has this fixed the lacklustre XAML editing present in VS2008?
Which product in Expression studio is used instead to edit the XAML?
Is the idea that you build the code side of the WPF in VS and Build up the XAML in Expression the copy the generated XAML into VS?
Any suggestions/tips on combining Expression and VS2010 would be appreciated.
Kind Regards
Ash
VS2010 has a much better enviroment for supporting XAML compared to VS2008 (in VS2008 it really was not the greatest experience) - so it would be possible to play around with some basic projects straight in VS2010...
Expression Blend really shows it power when you get into animations and transitions etc (Expression Blend to me would be the starting space in the Expression suite once you had covered the basics in VS2010).
The approach I would take is to get basic exposure in a tool/ide you are used to like VS2010, and then go through some of the Blend examples/tutorials that are available off the Expression Website to then take it to the next level.
The things that got me sold on WPF/Silverlight were databinding, separation of concerns using the MVVM pattern and commanding... it just seemed easier than what I was achieving in the winforms arena and cleaner... but it took a while before I was sold on it just because I was used to the winforms way of things and was trying to do WPF but with a Winforms approach.
For basic projects you could build the code and XAML all directly in VS2010. In fact for someone learning XAML for the first time who comes from a code centric perspective, coding XAML directly in VS2010 might be beneficial so that you get used to the basic syntax before you work in a tool like Expression Blend where that can be hidden from the developer.
use VS2010, it has much better intellisense support for XAML (and better support for large solutions >50 projects).
also you dont copy over files between Expression blend and VS2010, both open the same solution work on the same solution (Blend now has support for source contorl as well), you can flip to show the C# in Blend and vice versa in VS2010
I was wondering how programmers chose to edit XAML. Most of the programmers I speak to seem to edit the raw XML, but that seems nuts to me since it is such a natural thing for a more visual editor (of course you often have to get down to the raw code ultimately, but isn't there a better way to lay out a grid, or edit a template, or add non c# triggers or manage commands? The one that really set me off was editing a menu -- Visual Studio 1.0 had a better menu editor for C++ than the raw XAML editing experience.)
When I edit .aspx files I use a visual editor much of the time, and then for the raw stuff I get into the html code.
I am aware of Expression Blend, but that seems far more focused on artistic types and GUI experts rather than programmers.
Does anyone have recommendations for a better editor for XAML than VS? Especially so since VS seems to have real nasty problems with XAML editing too, like bugginess and poor performance?
Appreciate your helping this XAML newbie.
I must agree that Blend has the best XAML editor I've tried. While VS2010 has made some significant improvements over 2008, it's not at the same level as Blend, and still feels a little clunky and is prone to freaking-out.
A good option for doing quick and dirty XAML editing is Kaxaml, a small editor which can be thought of as NotePad for XAML. It's fast(er than VS), has syntax-highlighting, auto-completion and an in-editor preview. I find it quite useful to use alongside VS, although it is limited for serious work.
The Visual Studio 2008 visual editor for XAML is still fairly primitive as you've encountered. When it comes down to wanting a true visual editor for XAML files, Blend is your best bet.
Like you, I originally thought Blend was targeted more for designers, but after using it for awhile now, I've found that Blend is clearly the best tool to visually edit XAML files. And since Blend integrates with Visual Studio Team System, you are able to switch between Visual Studio and Blend fairly seamlessly.
I use Blend when I'm doing visual tweaking or setting up Storyboards. I'll sometimes use it when first laying out a window, as well, but I've found that it's often easier to just hand-code the XAML rather than relying on Blend to guess the layout I want. I use Visual Studio when I'm doing XAML editing by hand, as it has better Intellisense and automatic formatting than Blend. I never use the visual editor for WPF in VS.
Part of the challenge here is that XAML layout is much more sophisticated than WinForms, so simple drag and drop doesn't quite cut it anymore. Blend does a pretty good job of guessing what I want, but if I really want to clarify how the visuals should be laid out, it's easier to express by typing the XAML, now that I'm familiar with it.
My typical workflow:
Create the initial layout by entering XAML in Visual Studio for the Grids, StackPanels, DockPanels and what have you that will lay out the window or control. I may also drop in some of the other controls as well, if the layout is simple.
Open up Blend and use it to place smaller controls, edit control properties and create/associate any styles I need. If I need custom control or data templates, I'll create them from Blend and then repeat the VS/Blend process on those templates.
Go back to VS and edit the XAML to set up my designer data context and manually code the data bindings.
Use Blend to verify the look of the finished window or control with the designer data context, tweaking and styling as needed to polish the UI.
I go back and forth a lot, but I'm typically also approaching it from a different mindset with each tool. If I was working with a larger company, I suspect most of what I do in Blend would be handled by a graphical designer, which is I think the intention. I don't mind wearing both hats, though and I've become accustomed to using both tools, as needed.
Visual Studio 2008 isn't the tool to edit WPF window. It falls in error usually if you uses a complex xaml type or some advanced styles.
Visual Studio 2010 has added a lot of new features in editing and specially designer for binding and IntelliSense for xaml too.
Blend is true that is oriented for designers like Microsoft want to sell it but I find it more like the missing feature of the designer of VS.
Blend has an advanced editor for styles and animation and helps a lot to generate.
But Blend lacks terribly in editing raw XAML, it has no IntelliSense at all.
My choice is to use both VS 2010 and Blend specially for styles and animations.
Expression Builder is a good free tool