Windows Presentation Foundation is a technology provided by .Net framework to develop a client application with a variety of multimedia capabilities. It basically simplifies your programming work and provides you a rich graphic interface kind of application. Two dimensional and three dimensional graphics can be easily accomplished using this technology with a minimum of effort.

How to develop WPF application?

A WPF application can be developed using either of the programming languages in .Net framework - C# or Visual Basic. Two programming methods should be used to develop the application.
  • Markup Programming - Markup programming is generally used to design the user interface for the WPF application. It contains various components like pages, dialog boxes, buttons and other types of controls. Each element defined in the markup programming will have one WPF class.
  • Code Behind Programming - it's generally used to provide the functionality for the various elements available in the user interface. Generally event handlers play a vital role in implementing the functionality for each element.
Types of Application that WPF Provides
  • Desktop Applications - desktop applications are also called standalone applications which will be installed in your desktop.
  • Web Applications - web applications developed here is also called a XAML a browser application which runs in web browser.
To develop the desktop or web based application you need to create three types of files.
  • Deployment manifest - Its just an XML file which references the click once application deployment which shows the current version and the other deployment settings. The following picture shows an example of Deployment Manifest XML file.

    WPF1.gif
  • Application manifest - it's just another XML file which identifies the shared and private side by side assemblies that an application should bind at run time. The following picture shows an example of Application Manifest XML file

    WPF2.gif
  • Executable code
These applications are not subjected to any kind of security restrictions and they can access many kinds of system resources.

Why WPF and Why Not default Windows Application
  • Data binding is better in WPF when compared with windows application
  • Easier and require simple steps to develop
  • Rich internet application through WPF
  • Graphical and Interactive User Interface
  • 2D and 3D graphics can be done through minimal code
  • Business applications are much easier to develop using WPF with all functionalities
Hope the above article covers the overview of WPF programming and its advantages.