In our earlier article we have seen an overview on what a Windows Store App is all about and also on the basic requirements that are to be taken into consideration while setting up your development environment “Learn Windows Store App Development in 31 Days – Part 1–Overview and Requirements of Windows Store App Development”. Now we will start with seeing the different templates that are available predefined while creating our application and also we will see which language we can select based on the knowledge and understanding of developing the Windows Store Application using Visual Studio 2012 IDE.        [more]

Traditionally as a developer we will be choosing between VB.NET and C#.NET as the code behind to start developing our application in any forms like Windows, Web, Service etc. But with the Windows Store application we have the feasibility to develop application with XAML with C# or HTML with JavaScript as the base option. So here basically a Web developer who has experienced over developing traditional websites as well start developing application for Windows Store by selecting the HTML with JavaScript template.

What Languages are supported for Windows Store App Development?

As mentioned we can choose from the wide range of available languages with the different templates and options available to start developing your application. So the options are Visual C#, Visual Basic, JavaScript and Visual C++ which has the Windows Store templates pre installed while installing the Visual Studio IDE on to the Windows 8 RTM Operating System as shown in the screen below.

So a developer or an architect who is familiar with their respective technology can very well step forward and start developing the application from the scratch with ease. Here in this series we will see Visual C# with XAML based application development and in some cases we will also look into the HTML with JavaScript app development to give the readers few idea on using these templates.

What are the Templates available for the developers?

As we have seen many language options available to select with each of the language has a few set of templates which makes the development very much easier. Lets us see each of the category language and the set of templates available with each of them.

Visual C# Templates:

Visual Basic Templates:

JavaScript Templates:

C++ Templates:

So out of the above 4 languages we can see 3 common templates that is available in all the languages which are Blank App, Grid App and Split App. These 3 templates are going to be most used by any of the developers which makes easier for developing the applications in a particular design perspective as suggested by Microsoft which we will be seeing in our upcoming articles in detail.

• Blank App – An empty project with a base page (1 Page Project)
• Grid App – Project with a group of data in a grid format (3 Page Project)
• Split App – Project with a Master/Detail list (2 Page Project)

Let us see how each of these project templates looks like with the list of default files and folders that are created with the project.

Blank App:

Grid App:

Split App:

Microsoft has some of the design principles which makes the Windows Store app more attractive (As per MSDN)

• Content before chrome. Content is at the heart of Windows Store apps, and putting content before chrome is fundamental to the design of Windows Store apps.
• Fast and fluid. User interactions and transitions are quick and intuitive, and animations are deliberate and purposeful.
• Support for multiple states. Windows Store apps support a full-screen, immersive state, and a minimal, snapped view that runs while a second app takes up the majority of screen space.
• Support for the right contracts. App contracts provide a way for apps to work together that lets users search across apps or choose to share content from one app to another. Their experience improves as users add more apps that support contracts to their PC.
• Live tiles. Useful information appears on the app’s tile on the Start screen even when the app isn’t running.
• Settings and user context roam via the cloud. Users get a great, continuous experience, regardless of where they sign in.

That’s it for today, Let us see in our next tutorial on how to start developing the application straight away with these templates.

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