Going Deep with the Visual State Manager

July 9th, 2008

In Silverlight, controls (checkboxes, buttons, and most everything else) have a complete separation between appearance and behavior. This allows developers and designers to strip out the visual elements of a control and completely replace them. Without affecting behavior! This show is dedicated to showing you how to completely re-skin controls.

Parts, States, Groups–

There’s a lot of terminology specific to skinning. We explain, in a simple way, what these words are and how they’re used.

Visual State Manager-

The Visual State Manager (VSM) is a critical part of the skinning process. It helps simplify skinning in a way that’s unexpected.

Transitions-

How controls change their appearance is critical. Should you customize how this is done?

Useful links for the show:
Ian Griffiths blog – http://www.interact-sw.co.uk/iangblog/
Ian’s article on visual state in Silverlight control templates – http://www.interact-sw.co.uk/iangblog/2008/06/10/visual-state
Karen Corby 1of 4: Parts and States at a conceptual level – http://scorbs.com/2008/06/11/parts-states-model-with-visualstatemanager-part-1-of/
Karen Corby 2 of 4: Basics of skinning a control – http://scorbs.com/2008/06/18/parts-states-model-with-visualstatemanager-part-2-of-4/
Karen Corby 3 of 4: Parts and States with custom controls and more sophisticated transitions – http://scorbs.com/2008/06/23/parts-states-model-with-visualstatemanager-part-3-of-4/

Music for the show:
Lido In The Morning by General Fuzz from the album Messy’s Place
I Believe In You by YACHT from the album Instrumentals 2007
Sidetrack by Lisa DeBenedictis from the album Fruitless

Podcast: Download

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