Question

I don’t know what exactly this feature is, but I would like to simulate this in my Silverlight project. I am a C# developer and am moving to Silverlight and Expression Studio (Blend) for richer UX. Let’s say I have some user controls and would like them to come into the screen (slide-in and out) as shown in the following site I found:

http://www.templatemonster.com/silverlight-templates/28722.html

On the menu, as one clicks on the menu item, the ‘screen’ slides to the left and then a new ‘screen’ slides in from the left to right.

I really want to learn this stuff, but don’t know what these ‘features’ are called? For example what are these ‘screens’ called in the xaml world? Also, what is the ‘slide-in/out’ called in the xaml world? Can someone point me to a good article/whitepaper?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Answer 1

Firstly Silverlight/WPF is really good at this kind of stuff. The framework guys did a great job engineering xaml to be as flexible as possible.

That being said admittingly there’s a lot to get before attempting these sort of things
like ResourceDictionaries, Triggers, Actions, Storyboards, Animation (Keyframe/Double…) , Templating, Styles
but once you get these metaphors its way easier.

Heres the rundown with some primers.

• Keyframe animation is what this is mostly relying on with some
• Triggers and Actions to orchestrate the
• Visual States which is what the panel looks like ‘Open’ / ‘Closed’

Heres a sample for you pulling this stuff together.

<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot">
    <VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
        <VisualStateGroup x:Name="CentrePanelStates">
            <VisualStateGroup.Transitions>
                <VisualTransition GeneratedDuration="00:00:00">
                    <Storyboard>
                        <DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames BeginTime="00:00:00" Duration="00:00:00.0010000" Storyboard.TargetName="grid" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(FrameworkElement.Width)">
                            <EasingDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="00:00:00" Value="350"/>
                        </DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                    </Storyboard>
                </VisualTransition>
                <VisualTransition GeneratedDuration="00:00:00.3000000" To="Open">
                    <Storyboard>
                        <DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames BeginTime="00:00:00" Storyboard.TargetName="grid" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(FrameworkElement.Width)">
                            <EasingDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="00:00:00" Value="350">
                                <EasingDoubleKeyFrame.EasingFunction>
                                    <PowerEase EasingMode="EaseIn"/>
                                </EasingDoubleKeyFrame.EasingFunction>
                            </EasingDoubleKeyFrame>
                            <EasingDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="00:00:00.6000000" Value="800">
                                <EasingDoubleKeyFrame.EasingFunction>
                                    <QuarticEase EasingMode="EaseInOut"/>
                                </EasingDoubleKeyFrame.EasingFunction>
                            </EasingDoubleKeyFrame>
                        </DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                    </Storyboard>
                </VisualTransition>
                <VisualTransition From="Open" GeneratedDuration="00:00:00.3000000" To="Closed">
                    <VisualTransition.GeneratedEasingFunction>
                        <BounceEase EasingMode="EaseOut"/>
                    </VisualTransition.GeneratedEasingFunction>
                    <Storyboard>
                        <DoubleAnimation Duration="00:00:00.6000000" Storyboard.TargetName="grid" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(FrameworkElement.Width)" BeginTime="00:00:00">
                            <DoubleAnimation.EasingFunction>
                                <QuarticEase EasingMode="EaseInOut"/>
                            </DoubleAnimation.EasingFunction>
                        </DoubleAnimation>
                    </Storyboard>
                </VisualTransition>
            </VisualStateGroup.Transitions>
            <VisualState x:Name="Open">
                <Storyboard>
                    <DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames BeginTime="00:00:00" Duration="00:00:00.0010000" Storyboard.TargetName="grid" Storyboard.TargetProperty="(FrameworkElement.Width)">
                        <EasingDoubleKeyFrame KeyTime="00:00:00" Value="800"/>
                    </DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                </Storyboard>
            </VisualState>
            <VisualState x:Name="Closed"/>
        </VisualStateGroup>
    </VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
    <Rectangle VerticalAlignment="Stretch" 
               HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"
               Fill="#A1808080" />
    <Grid Name="CentrePanel" VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Width="800" Height="500">
        <Border CornerRadius="3"
                Background="LightGray" HorizontalAlignment="Left">
            <Grid x:Name="grid" Width="350" Margin="2">
                <Grid.RowDefinitions>
                    <RowDefinition Height="*" />
                    <RowDefinition Height="40" />
                </Grid.RowDefinitions>
                <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                    <ColumnDefinition Width="350" />
                    <ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
                </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
         
                <Rectangle Fill="Beige" /> 
                <Rectangle Grid.Column="1" Fill="#FFDDDCF5" />

                <Button  
                    Content="Close"  
                    Width="79"
                    HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="94,130,0,0" Height="33" VerticalAlignment="Top" >
                    <i:Interaction.Triggers>
                        <i:EventTrigger EventName="Click">
                            <ic:GoToStateAction StateName="Closed"/>
                        </i:EventTrigger>
                    </i:Interaction.Triggers>
                </Button>   
            
                <Button  Content="Open" Width="81"
                    HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="92,85,0,0" Height="32" VerticalAlignment="Top" >
                    <i:Interaction.Triggers>
                        <i:EventTrigger EventName="Click">
                            <ic:GoToStateAction StateName="Open"/>
                        </i:EventTrigger>
                    </i:Interaction.Triggers>
                </Button>
            </Grid> 
        
        </Border>
    </Grid>        
    
       
</Grid>