Windows 8 Metro Application Development

Introduction

1. Support for both X86 PCs and ARM tablets- As I said, Windows 8 might cause a revolution in the tablet world. Because the same version of the OS works both in PCs as well as in tablets.
2. Touch centric- Windows 8 is enabled with touch (supports for gesture operation).
3. New tile-based UI- Windows 8 introduces a new metro style UI. If you click on the start menu, it will display all applications in a tiles manner. It is compatible with Windows 7 applications.
4. Snap Multi-tasking- "Snap multitasking" is designed to make it easy to run two apps in Windows 8 side-by-side, to resize them, and to switch between them. On the right-hand side of the screen, you can snap an app into place.

1. Grid Application
   This is a metro style application. If you are familiar with panorama and pivot controls of WP7, then you can easily understand it. There are three layers; one will display a group of items.
   
2. Once you click on the collection/item name, you will be presented with the collection of details.
   
3. Further click on item collection details, navigate to a particular item detail.
   
   Default files
   • App.xaml- this file contains a lot of resources used by the application. Fonts, brushes, controls' styles, controls' template, and even the application name is inside.
   • CollectionSummaryPage.xaml- this is the page that displays the details/summary of a collection.
   • DetailPage.xaml- this is the page that displays the details of an item.
   • GroupedCollectionPage.xaml- this is the start page which displays the collections.
   • Package.appxmanifest- this file defines how the application will be displayed in the market place. It looks a lot like a Windows phone manifest file but with a nicer editor.
     Application- This is a plain application template. So you can make/develop either a grid or split application.
4. Split Application- This is just like a Grid application but the mode of the display will be vertical.