Telerik blogs

A couple of months ago we introduced to you the Telerik XAML SDK and we received a lot of positive feedback about it. Once we were sure that you find the new addition useful we decided to move one step further. Although GitHub is a very well-known platform we saw a better and easier approach for reviewing our examples. That is why we put some efforts in developing our brand new SDK Samples Browser. The idea behind the application was to bring a friendly way of browsing through the XAML SDK examples without any user interaction with GitHub.

The SDK Samples Browser is an application that automatically connects to GitHub and downloads the XAML SDK repository locally to a location that could be set by the user. After download is complete the application gives a very convenient navigation between all the available examples and a search functionality which doesn’t simply search by control’s names but also through the example’s names and descriptions.

Some of its key features are:

  • Automatic repository download functionality
  • Manual and automatic checking for new and updated SDK examples
  • Search functionality through the controls names, example's titles and example's descriptions
  • One click examples running
  • One click examples opening in Visual Studio

Getting Started with SDK Samples Browser

Using the SDK Samples Browser has very limited requirements in order to make all of the examples runnable out of the box. You will need to make sure you have downloaded and installed the latest Telerik WPF controls. This is a recommended step but is not 100% required. If there are no Telerik WPF controls installed in the environment when you start the application you will be brought to the Welcome screen of the application where you will be asked to provide a valid location that contains all of the Telerik WPF 4.0 assemblies. In that screen you can also change the Local Repository location. This is the location where the repository will be stored after it is automatically downloaded. After pressing the Start button please be patient while the repository is being downloaded which usually take no more then couple of minutes. We hope you'll grab the idea and take advantage of its possibilities.

Browsing the Available Controls

In the main screen of the SDK Samples Browser you can easily navigate through the available controls in the SDK repository. The controls are represented by tiles in a RadTileList control. Each tile gives a quick glance information about the number of available examples.



Browsing Through Control Examples

After selecting a control from the main screen of the application you will be navigated to the examples screen. In this screen you can easily navigate through the available examples for that control which are displayed on the left side in a RadListBox control. On the other side is the corresponding example’s description, Open Folder, Open in VS and Run buttons.


Building/Running an Example

By clicking the Run button the application will show an indicator that says “Building example’s project”. After a few seconds it will disappear and a new Window will open of the built example.

Changing the Settings

After the browser application has been started and the repository has been downloaded you can access the settings screen by clicking the settings icon on the top right corner. After clicking it you will be navigated to the Settings screen. In that screen you can change the Binaries Source (the location that contains all Telerik WPF 4.0 assemblies), Local Repository Path (the location where the examples are locally placed by the automatic download) and the “Check for Updates at Startup”. If the check for updates checkbox is checked every time the application is started it will check automatically if any new or updated examples are available in the online repository and bring up the updates screen. Checking for updated could be done at any time while the SDK Samples Browser application is running by clicking the "Check for Updates" button in the navigation bar.


We hope that the SDK Samples browser will enhance the XAML SDK repository and make downloading, browsing, checking for new/updated examples and running of example a more easier and pleasant experience. The application is available for download via this link.


VladimirAmiorkov3
About the Author

Vladimir Amiorkov

Vladimir Amiorkov is a Software Developer at Progress. He is currently working with Web, iOS and Android technologies and is a part of the NativeScript team. In his spare time, he enjoys playing computer games such as Diablo and StarCraft.

Comments

Comments are disabled in preview mode.