First steps with Windows 8 development - Build Windows 8 Apps with HTML5 and JavaScript - page 108

Widget Description

Displays a simple popup message that disappears only when the user touches (or clicks)
anywhere on the screen.

Flyout

Arranges a collection of items in a variety of layouts; for example, as a grid or as a list.

ListView

Displays any content provided in the HTML format. HtmlControl

Displays a flyout that looks like a standard menu list. Menu

An aggregate of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS that can be embedded as in a view or navigated
to as an external page. You use the PageControl element to define the aggregate.

PageControl

Enables the user to zoom between two different views of the same content. One
view is the zoomed-out representation of the content; the other instead provides the
zoomed-in view.

SemanticZoom

Enables the user to select a time in a graphically appealing way.

TimePicker

Displays a standard user interface for users to turn an item on or off. ToggleSwitch

Displays a pop-up view that can incorporate rich content, such as images and formatted
text. The purpose of a tooltip is to provide additional but optional information over a
data element in the view.

Tooltip

Elements displayed within a ViewBox automatically scale to fill the available space. The
ViewBox widget also reacts to changes in the size of the container, such as after a screen
rotation or a window resize.

ViewBox

These visual components cover a good number of common scenarios; you can expect to find more
readymade Windows Store visual components from third-party vendors, open-source projects, and
blog posts. As you get more and more familiar with Windows 8 development, you can even start
creating your own widgets. Having a widget to provide a given functionality just makes it far easier to
reuse it across multiple pages and applications.

Important You mostly write Windows Store applications using HTML and CSS to define
the user interface. Anything you can do with HTML and CSS is fine. Stock visual elements
listed in Table 5-1 just help you in making available useful components and in giving your
applications an overall consistent look and feel.

On-demand user interface
It should be clear by now that Windows 8 provides a few standard ways for users to access features
in an application. There are static commands bound to fixed elements in the user interface (such as,
buttons) and dynamic commands that become available on demand.

By using the principle of on-demand UI, you aim at leaving the real estate of the application
as clean and tidy as possible and not at all overloaded with visual items. At the same time, items
required to trigger commands and start operations show up on demand when the user seems to
need them. The App bar and the system's Charms bar are the mechanisms provided by Windows 8
for on-demand UI. The App bar is a repository of an application's commands that pops up as the user
moves towards the bottom of the screen. The Charms bar slides in from the right edge.