Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is a graphical computer platform built and distributed by Microsoft to create rich client applications for Windows systems. With WPF, you can build rich interfaces with animations and amazing graphical effects as easily as you can build minimalist and corporate user interfaces for line-of-business (LOB) applications. Unfortunately, because WPF is such a powerful and complex technology, it requires some initial effort to understand its mechanisms. Moreover, for a newbie, the XAML markup used to create the user interfaces can be tough to come to grips with.

Creating a WPF application and, more generally, creating any type of application with a user interface is a rather convoluted task; it comprises a number of phases and the final result is likely to be of a certain complexity. A standalone application built using WPF is usually made up of various “components” that are used to encapsulate the “modules” of the software. You might have, for instance, a component to access the data, a component to include a logical function, a component to render the user interface, and so on.

In this book, I will show you how to create and implement WPF, using best practices to create a realworld application. At the same time, I’ll also show you how to structure and architect a WPF application made up of different components that you’ll be able to recycle for future applications. By the end of the book, you should have a working knowledge of WPF and know how to architect a WPF application using the tools provided by Microsoft, such as SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition, the Entity Framework, Window Communication Foundation (WCF), and more.