Exploring the Built-In Application Bar

The phone’s application bar API is somewhat of a conundrum. It has several serious limitations that make it difficult to work with, and considering that the application bar is such a fundamental element of most phone apps, it is odd that its API did not receive more care and attention during the development of the Windows Phone SDK.

The ApplicationBar class uses an interop wrapper to communicate with the phone’s native application bar. The ApplicationBar is not a UIElement, nor is it a DependencyObject; in fact, it does not reside in the usual UI class hierarchy at all. Furthermore, at runtime, the ApplicationBar exists outside the visual tree of your root visual, making interaction with it awkward.

Several features to which experienced XAML developers have grown accustomed are also missing from the ApplicationBar, such as being able to control a button or menu item’s visibility.