The user interface of Windows Store applications - Build Windows 8 Apps with HTML5 and JavaScript - page 122

FIGURE 6-1 Choosing the layout of a new application.
Choosing the project type is important, but it is not an essential step. The template basically serves
the purpose of giving you (for free) the skeleton of an application with the layout that you are looking
for. Most of the project choices come down to whether you want to build a single page or a multiple
page application.
For all the sample applications you've built so far, you have used the Blank App template. The
Blank App template just gives you an empty HTML page that you can fill up with whatever content
and behavior you like. In this regard, the Blank App is the most flexible approach. It doesn't give you a
complex page layout, but it does give you a fully functioning project, ready to compile and run.
Defining the layout of the application
Nearly any Windows Store application requires users to navigate between pages. Sometimes, the
application explicitly provides a navigation menu so users can find and return to a list of available
pages quickly. The Navigation App template that you see in Figure 6-1 addresses that scenario.
In other cases, an application doesn't have a clearly visible navigation bar but still sets up a form of
navigation as the user clicks to expand an item from a list into a more detailed view. This is the type
of application skeleton you get if you opt to use the Split App or the Grid App template. In upcoming
chapters, you'll work on examples using the Grid App template, but for now you'll stick to the Blank
App project template.
examining the project structure
Open up Visual Studio and create a new Blank App project; name it TodoList . The main purpose of
the exercise is to create an input form to collect information about an activity to track. Figure 6-2
shows the entire content of the newly created project in Solution Explorer.