How to convert a wpf/silverlight app so it will run on a dvd.
We have wpf app which is used for learning purposes we would like to create dvd version of this app and give it to our users so they could go home and use them.
Any suggestions will be appreciated.
We have looked at WPFMediaKit but it appears to be opening media files and displaying them.
But our requirement is to actually play the wpf app on dvd just like a normal dvd.
Just wondering if it is possible.
Thanks
N
This will not be possible. DVD navigation (on which interactive DVDs are built) are a completely different environment / framework / format to WPF or Silverlight.
WPF/Silverlight use XAML and the .Net framework, the DVD format uses a combination of motion menus and navigation controls to achieve interaction, all packaged in a format unique to DVDs and as different to WPF/Silverlight as oil is to cheese I'm afraid.
If, however, you want to distribute your WPF/Silverlight application on a data DVD for users to insert into their Windows PCs and run on their desktop, that will be very easy.
DVD-Video players run a special virtual machine to run byte-code specifying how the navigation of a DVD-video disc should work. This site gives a detailed account of this format and how to program for it.
The bottom line is that if you want your WPF/Silverlight app to run on a DVD-Video disc on a consumer DVD-player, not on a Windows PC, you will need to completely rewrite it from scratch using this format.
Related
I was asked to develop a software in vb.net and one of it's features should be the possibility to take photos on a tablet PC. I already played around with the MediaCapture API which returns me a photo, but as it seems that it's not possible to show a preview or anything else outside of ModernUI apps. It's just pure photo capturing.
I thought for a little while how this problem could be solved. I got some inspiration from my Android phone then. My idea was to call some sort of API to open up the regular Windows 8 camera app in ModernUI mode, let the user take the photo and then receiving that through a "return value", just like you usually do it in Android apps.
Now my question is, if there is a way to start up the Windows 8 default camera app, let it take a photo and receive that back into my WPF desktop application.
I could develop my software as ModernUI app as well, but I never did that and it also seems like you must publish it over the web store then, but I only want to use that inside my company.
My other (simple stupid) idea would be to ask the user to open the camera app by himself, take some photos and come back to my software later. I could then receive the images from the folder they were stored in. I guess that would work as well, but I don't really like that idea because it's not very intuitive and seems just stupid.
If you have an idea (or an alternative), I would be really happy if you could share it with me.
Thanks in advance!
Unfortunately, there are no .NET classes that allow you to access a webcam or integrated camera on your computer. This means that you have to take a look at the native Windows API and call it from your application. I cannot point you to the right methods that you have to use, as I just have used Microsoft Media Foundation to capture a continuous stream of images from a webcam and encode it to a video file.
There are some sites that encapsulate this native functionality in .NET classes, but I don't know if they are good or not:
http://dotnet.dzone.com/articles/using-webcam-wpf-application
http://www.yiigo.com/guides/vbnet/how-to-process-image.shtml
(just google for more if you'd like to).
In Windows Store Apps, this task can be performed relatively easy with the media capture API you've mentioned. You can also side-load Windows Store Apps if you have Windows 8 Pro or Enterprise - then you do not have to publish your app in the Windows Store.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask.
I have a winforms application and was wondering whether I should attempt to move it to Windows store app (and WPF) or not. I would expect metro style apps to have the same potential as desktop apps, but what got me wondering is the fact that VS 2012 is not a metro app. It doesn't really surprise me much as every metro app I've seen so far look like a phone app that can't really do much and I can't imagine how VS would look like as a metro app.
Seems to me like Microsoft wants to slowly move everything to metro, otherwise I don't see the point on introducing a whole new visual experience just to get stuck with having to switch between metro and desktop, but even Notepad is still a desktop application. So my question is, basically, is every kind of application supposed to be movable to metro or is metro only for small phone-like applications?
I don't believe that Microsoft is intending every application to end up Metro. I see more lightweight types apps going to Metro. Heavy duty line-of-business apps will stay on the desktop side of things.
I do see an opportunity for writing both desktop and Metro style apps in enterprise environments though. Imagine this hypothetical scenario:
In an enterprise, I can see Accounts Receivable running the full-blown, monolithic, desktop application on their desktops just like they run them under Win7 because they’re needs are pretty extensive.
The receptionist will run a touch enabled laptop with a Metro app that is tied into just the corporate appointments.
The guys on the loading dock will be running Win8 phones that have the intake/outtake app showing schedules for deliveries and what not.
Managers and executives have Metro tablets that have an app that shows metrics: lots of pretty charts and graphs showing the current condition of what and how the company is operating in it’s different lines of business.
For the users that need the complexity, it’s desktop mode, but for the users that perform smaller, specific computer tasks, touch-enabled Metro apps for them.
Metro-style apps are for content consumption, like you would find on a tablet.
Classical desktop apps are for content creation.
I think metro apps are an additional feature and I do not think, that they are a serious replacement for desktop applications. If you want to deploy your apps to tablet PCs, phones or any other touchscreen/handheld devices, metro style would be a good choice. At the moment there are just not many consumers for metro apps as Windows 8 has not even come to the markets.
As you already mentioned, on desktop PCs metro apps are very uncomfortable and do not provide the full functionality as desktop applications can do.
So my question is, basically, is every kind of application supposed to be movable to metro or is metro only for small phone-like applications?
I don't think so, as this means automatically that many customers who have used previous versions of Windows would have to learn working with the metro interface.
Metro apps provide much more functionality than desktop gadgets have done in Vista, as they can be programmed using C# or other .Net languages, but metro apps use up too much space to be controlled with a simple mouse.
I'm interested in making a desktop application which I would want to use as a Desktop Manager. This kind-of goes to Desktop Enhancement Category. My requirements are:
Application has to be visually rich, with panels sliding,fading,wiping,rotating and etc.
It should also support flash playback. (swf, flv)
Animations/Transitions should run smoothly.
Lower CPU Usage.
My question is which is a better option to build this application. Microsoft's "WPF" or Adobe Flex(running in Adobe Air to run on desktop). And also respond as why it is better.
Be suspicious of anyone who will give you an answer like "Definately use xyz" to this question. There are pros and cons to both sides.
First, I think you might be confusing what WPF and Air are... WPF is a presentation layer on top of the .Net framework, where Air is a framework by itself. Apples and Oranges. If you want an analog to what Air is for the .Net stack, you probably want to look at Silverlight Out-Of-Browser, which is a much closer comparison to Air.
What is the difference, then, between WPF and Sliverlight OOB? Again, WPF sits on top of a very large .Net framework where Sliverlight OOB is a very light framework (in comparison) like air. It is the difference between a 200 MB download/install and a 12 MB download/install.
So, that being said, I think you should also ask what platforms this needs to run on. Silverlight OOB runs on Mac and Windows where WPF only runs on Windows. Air runs on Mac, Windows and Linux.
The next thing that I see is that you need to do SWF and FLV playback. This will be easier to achieve with Air, since it is native. You CAN do this with Silverlight OOB but you will find yourself rigging something up where you host an HTML control and run the flash movie inside the HTML control. It is a bit more clunky, but it will work.
Other than that, Air and SLOOB are very similar in features. It then comes down to your team and the expertise, IMO. If they are already familiar with the WPF/Silverlight, then a SLOOB app is well suited with minimal ramp-up. If your designers are more familiar with the Adobe suite of tools, then it might be easier to build a shiny app using Air.
In all, the decision between Air and Silverlight/WPF really comes down to preference. That is, once you get past any particular techincal limitations like the flash playback or OS support.
Hope this helps,
Brian
I'm looking at a scenario where I need to create a single "master" Silverlight application and then add "child" applications for an out-of-browser Silverlight application.
The scenario is something like this.
A user will visit a gameboard web site
and choose a game to play. Let's call
it Checkers. He likes it, so then he
installs the out-of-browser app to his
desktop. He then finds Chess, and
installs that too. For both games,
while played on the site, he has stats
(games played, win/loss records,
etc.). For each game on the site, he
navigates to a different page.
But now he wants to play offline and
view his stats and other cross-games
information. He wants to have a single
app to launch to play either game.
From his single out-of-browser app, he
sees that Go is also available, and he
places a checkmark against it to
download on his next connection.
Does anyone have any experience at developing multiple out-of-browser Silverlight apps that reside within a single master app? What considerations need to be had for this type of design? How would this work in terms of install experience from different web pages?
What you need is MEF (which will be included in the CLR of the upcoming Microsoft .NET Framework 4)
You Can read more about it here , here & there's an example here
Is there a reason why every game must be a separate application? It would be much easier to just install the master application as an OOB app and then have it load new XAPs from IsolatedStorage at runtime depending on what games the user has downloaded (installed). Or perhaps I am misunderstanding your scenario?
I'm starting a hobby project in which I would like to have a graphical, touchscreen interface for interacting with a kiosk-like device running on top of Windows XP Embedded. For development of a rich UI experience, I was considering using WPF. However, a number of demonstration videos that I have come across have used Silverlight, while I haven't seen a single WPF demonstration.
It was my understanding that Silverlight was targeted towards website developers, while WPF was more targeted towards desktop development.
So this question has two parts. Firstly, what is the recommended graphical subsystem for development of a rich UI experience on a kiosk-like device hosted on the Windows XP embedded platform? Secondly, if it is Silverlight, which version is suggested (1.0 or 2.0) and why?
It seems that WPF works fine on embedded. See here the second comment.
I think that your choice should be dependent on the type of kyosk you want to build. Some kyosks are just an open browser page. And then you have stuff like Microsoft Surface that can be used like an horizontal kyosk :-)
I would recommend also WPF, have done few kiosk apps using it.
also I would recommend http://fpscomponents.com/Product.aspx?id=8 as a virtual touch screen keyboard software component. it's done in WPF and very flexible and customizable.
User can define custom theme(skin), layout and language of keyboard. guys are working with customers and hear theirs voice so any suggestions might be accepted.