Data Binding

Abstract

You’ve learned about the application types available in Windows 8, the controls in the Visual Studio Toolbox, and how to put these elements together to “draw your screen,” but now you have a screen (perhaps even a pretty one, depending on your design skills) that is just an empty shell that does nothing of value. In the next couple of chapters, you will learn how to use one of the most popular features of XAML—its rich binding functionality—to fill that screen with data from your application and add interactive functionality to connect your user with the application. This chapter sets the groundwork by providing an in-depth look at binding. I will cover dependency objects, dependency properties, and value converters. Once you’ve learned what is happening under the covers, you will see how these elements are brought together to tie the application’s data and behavior to the user interface.

Because if you have a strong foundation like we have, then you can build or rebuild anything on it. But if you’ve got a weak foundation, you can’t build anything. —Jack Scalia