Windows Presentation Foundation, or WPF, is a subsystem for rendering user interfaces in Windows-based applications.
Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF, previously known as “Avalon”) is part of the Microsoft .NET Framework used to create rich client user experiences for Windows applications. It is also considered as the successor to winforms
It features a diverse set of controls, layout options, 2D and 3D graphics, media and text handling and enables data binding and style-driven templates.
It uses a combination of XAML, an XML-based markup language, and any of the Common Language Runtime languages to define user interface elements. A fundamental aspect of WPF is to separate the user interface definition from the business logic, which enables developers and designers to work concurrently on a single project much more easily. It enables the users to build a loosely coupled application with the use of data bindings effectively. WPF also moves UI rendering off to the video hardware through the use of directx. Doing so allows computers to utilize their GPU, which frees the CPU to handle more of the logic-oriented tasks.
WPF runtime libraries are included in all versions of Windows, since Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
To learn more, visit the WPF portal on MSDN. See also the Wikipedia entry on WPF.
WPF employs XAML, an XML-based language, to define and link various UI elements. WPF applications can also be deployed as standalone desktop programs, or hosted as an embedded object in a website. WPF aims to unify a number of common user interface elements, such as 2D/3D rendering, fixed and adaptive documents, typography, vector graphics, runtime animation, and pre-rendered media. These elements can then be linked and manipulated based on various events, user interactions, and data bindings.
Microsoft has released six major WPF versions:
- WPF 4.6 (July 2015)
- WPF 4.5 (August 2012)
- WPF 4 (April 2010)
- WPF 3.5SP1 (Aug 2008)
- WPF 3.5 (Nov 2007)
- WPF 3.0 (Nov 2006)
In future, the WPF runtime libraries will be provided by Microsoft as nuget packages known as "App Local" in order for updates to be released independently of .NET Framework releases.
Breaking Changes
On December, 2018 WPF, WinForms and WinUI frameworks became another part of open source community, as announced by Microsoft.
WinForms and WinUI are already open, and WPF is starting with System.XAML, and more changes will be announced during the 2019.
Resources
- Repository - Official page
- KAXAML — Open source XAML Editor.
- Snoop — UI Inspection Tool.
- WPF Inspector — UI Inspection Tool.
- WPF Performance Suite — Performance Profiling Tools for WPF.
- Recommended books.
Visual Studio Extensions for WPF Controls
- Telerik UI for WPF.
- DevExpress WPF Controls.
- Infragistics WPF Сontrols.
- Actipro WPF Controls.
- MahApps - Toolkit for creating Metro / Modern UI styled WPF apps.
- Material Design - Material Design theme and control library for the Windows desktop.
