Demystifying the Windows 8 Grid Application

If you’re looking to “re-imagine” your apps on the Windows 8 platform in Metro style you can start with the Grid Application template that’s provided in the Visual Studio 2011 preview.

From Visual Studio choose New Project and select Grid Application under Windows Metro Style in the template tree:

When you start you’ll get a fully blown Windows 8 Metro application, ready to begin filling in with your own content.

How did all that stuff get there and where does it go?

First open up the Sample Data folder in the solution. In there you’ll find a file called SampleDataSource.cs. This contains some sample data to work with and is bound to the Xaml pages in the solution at runtime. You’ll of course replace this with runtime data but the sample helps you visualize your app along with understanding where stuff goes on the screen.

Or does it? The default app is all in Lorem Ipsum speak and while this is great for visualizing a fully populated application, I thought it was a little confusing to know how it fit together. To make it clearer where everything goes I’ve modified the first collection and item in the SampleDataSource.cs calls with more descriptive labels. Here’s a better picture of the GroupedCollectionPage.xaml, the “Home” page in the app:

Read more: Fear and Loathing
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