Getting Started with the Toolkit

The Toolkit is hosted on CodePlex.com. CodePlex is a site dedicated to open-source software. Projects hosted on CodePlex must include source code. This means that, unlike the rest of the Windows Phone FCL, the toolkit source code is freely available and can even be modified by you under the MSPL license.

Add the Windows Phone Toolkit library to your project via NuGet by opening the package manager console. In Visual Studio, select Tools/Library Package Manager/Package Manager Console. At the PM prompt enter the following command:

Install-Package WPtoolkit

You can find more information about the Toolkit at http://phone.codeplex.com.

Downloadable from the Toolkit site are myriad examples that you may find worth exploring. The Toolkit and samples get updated frequently, so be sure to get the latest version from NuGet using the packager manager console command:

Update-Package WPtoolkit

This chapter also provides examples for each control, but often with a twist, and most examples seen here employ the MVVM pattern when demonstrating the functionality of each component.

To use components of the toolkit in XAML, add the following namespace definition to the top of your XAML file:

xmlns:toolkit="clr-namespace:
    Microsoft.Phone.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Phone.Controls.Toolkit"

Subsequent sections look at each of the following components within the Toolkit (excluding those that have been described elsewhere in other chapters):

ListPicker

AutoCompleteBox

ContextMenu

DatePicker and TimePicker

LoopingSelector

Page transitions (presented in Chapter 4, “Controlling Page Orientation”)

TiltEffect

ToggleSwitch

WrapPanel

GestureService (presented in Chapter 12, “Processing Touch Input”)

GestureListener (presented in Chapter 12)