Taking WPF for a ride – Now Playing with MVVM

This is the first in what I plan to be a multi-part series on my experiences with getting started in WPF development using the MVVM platform. In this series of posts I will aim to reproduce the Now Playing screen of the Zune software, pictured below.

I think the Zune software’s Now Playing screen lends itself well to this type of experiment. It offers a chance to play with:

• Complex Layout – figuring out how to organize the album covers should prove to be an interesting challenge.
• MVVM and Data binding – what will the best approach be for binding a collection of albums to my interface?
• Animations – album cover transitions and the colored overlay
• Efficiency concerns – how can I manage all those image assets without consuming an inordinate amount of memory?

I plan to blog while I develop the application, so I expect my implementation to go through a number of changes. Because of this approach, some of the code I produce along the way will not be best-in-class, and some of the technical approaches will probably change. The idea is to document the journey, not to take a position on what the best approach may be. I’m learning as I go…

Ok, enough lead in, let’s get to it.

 

Table of contents

• Part 2 – M-V-VM Breakdown & Quick implementation
• Part 3 - Separating View Models and Services
• Part 4 - Replicating the Zune Now Playing layout
• Part 5 – Fetching Sample Album / Artist / Song Data
• Part 6 – Animating Cover Transitions