elementalgrace Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 Hey,First off - I don't really know if this is a good place to put this so feel free to move it if there's somewhere more appropriate for it to live A colleague of mine has suggested using WPF/XAML for a new project, rather than HTML/CSS for the front end and .net for the programming. It seems interesting enough but looking on the web for information (from a design point of view) doesn't seem to be particularly helpful as largely they seem to be more focused on the functionality rather than the design interface. As far as I can make out, it's possible to build the basic layout in something like Expression Design or Adobe Illustrator and export the file to XAML and then work on it in something like Expression Blend. Would this be right or am I missing a trick somewhere? The XAML code itself seems similar enough to make sense but just different enough to be absolutely mindbending after HTML and CSS!I wondered if anyone here had any experience with designing for WPF or if you know of any useful tutorials related to the design process. Thanks in advance and really looking forward to hearing what you guys have to say on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boen_robot Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 While you're at it, why not make a fully powered Silverlight site? (sarcasm)All of the above technologies, except HTML and CSS are proprietary - made by Microsoft, running only on Microsoft products. I'd prefer HTML and CSS over any Microsoft technology every day.As for the backend... .NET has its good sides, and may even be necessary at times, but what's wrong with using PHP in your case? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elementalgrace Posted April 3, 2008 Author Share Posted April 3, 2008 While you're at it, why not make a fully powered Silverlight site? (sarcasm)All of the above technologies, except HTML and CSS are proprietary - made by Microsoft, running only on Microsoft products. I'd prefer HTML and CSS over any Microsoft technology every day.As for the backend... .NET has its good sides, and may even be necessary at times, but what's wrong with using PHP in your case?It's an internal project so we have control over how users view the interface and a useful way of testing the technology. The developer I work with is a C# .net developer, not a PHP developer, which determines the backend. The choice of technology isn't mine, but it is a project that I've been assigned and needs to be done whether I agree with it or not. As I currently don't have a lot of experience working with WPF and XAML, I was hoping for anyone who has to respond with their experiences or any good tutorials relating to the design elements of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boen_robot Posted April 3, 2008 Share Posted April 3, 2008 Ah. I see. Well, google it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elementalgrace Posted April 3, 2008 Author Share Posted April 3, 2008 Ah. I see. Well, google it.If Google had come up with anything useful, I wouldn't be asking!!All that seems to be available is centred round developers using WPF. I'm clearly not a developer(!) and need something that is tailored to designers creating user interfaces for WPF, which appears to be quite different from the design process for a front end for a website. It really is frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boen_robot Posted April 3, 2008 Share Posted April 3, 2008 I hate to disappoint you, but WPF/XAML is a lot like Flash/ActionScript in that you have to be both a developer and a designer to use it at its peek. The first tutorial in the Google results above shows examples of creating gradient elipses, fancy buttons and the like, making it the most deisgner centric thing you can find.All else is using Expression Blend, and learning it by its user guide... pretty much the same way Flash is usually learned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elementalgrace Posted April 7, 2008 Author Share Posted April 7, 2008 I do agree that you need a certain amount of development ability to be able to do some of the funkier stuff with it but it's also built to enable designers and developers to interface with each other without so many of the problems that we often have now (for example between non HTML friendly graphic designers/HTML friendly graphic designers and developers in your average website) by incorporating design and development functions into the same application. Anyway, just incase it's of use to anyone else looking to get started with XAML/WPF(from a design perspective), I have found a few useful resources which I thought might come in handy:http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=384http://www.nibblestutorials.nethttp://www.thewpfblog.comhttp://www.contentpresenter.comhttp://blogs.msdn.com/karstenjhttp://blogs.msdn.com/timshttp://wpf.netfx3.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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