Uk Media Center User Group April 2009

Developing Media CenterPresentation Layer Applications

Andrew CherryDigital Living Solutions Ltd

UK Media Center & WHS User Group 2

A bit about me

23-Apr-2009

Digital Living Solutions Ltd

Hampshire based, specialising in digital home installation, integration, and software development (including Media Center)

Microsoft MVP for Media Center since July 2007

“Community Dev Expert” for the Media Center Sandbox (Microsoft-run developer forum for Media Center)


Purpose of today's session

• Remove the mystery behind Media Center development

• Give you a taster of how straightforward it is to develop for Media Center

• Hopefully inspire you to take the next step and start developing your own add-ins!

23-Apr-2009


Why develop for Media Center?

• Potential reach– Every Vista Home Premium/Ultimate system has

Media Center on it already!

• Cost of entry– All the tools you need are free – Visual C# Express,

Media Center SDK

• You can develop some fun stuff!– Limited only by your imagination and patience!

23-Apr-2009


Media Center Presentation Layer (MCPL)

• Core building block of Media Center– The core UI for Vista Media Center is written in MCML

• XML based Markup Language– Developed (and optimised) specifically for Media Center

• Used in conjunction with “backend” C# code– Applications = code + markup– Code = “application logic”, Markup = UI– Model-View-Controller pattern

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Media Center Markup Language“Code Behind”

• Application logic (code + data)• Managed code language (e.g. C#)• Cannot directly modify view

properties• Can respond to view events

• Non-visual, code only• Known as a “ModelItem”23-Apr-2009

Model View

• Look and behaviour• Media Center Markup

Language• Can read/write model

properties• Can respond to model

changes• Visual + UI logic• Known as a “ViewItem”


Media Center Markup LanguageWhy Model-View Separation?

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RenderingEngine

MessagingSystem

User ExperienceFramework

Managed code (e.g. C#).NET Framework 2.0

Native code (e.g. C++)DirectX 9+


The Bad News

“Windows 1.0 programmers had a straightforward life.

They had almost no choices about how to do things; either there was an application programming interface (API), or there wasn’t, and most of the time there wasn’t. This meant that developers had to build almost everything by hand.”

23-Apr-2009

Windows Forms 2.0 Programming, Chris Sells & Michael Weinhardt

MCPL = Windows 1.0


Media Center Markup LanguageBasics

• “UI” encapsulates the definition of the user interface at a specific level

• All content appears within a Content element, within the UI element

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<Mcml xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2006/mcml">

<UI Name="UI name"> <Content> ... </Content> </UI> </Mcml>


Media Center Markup LanguageVisual Primitives

• Three visual primitives– <Text>– <Graphic>– <ColorFill>

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<Text Content="Hello World!" Color="White" Font="Arial,30" />

<Graphic Content="resx://addin/addin.resources/image" />

<ColorFill Content="Red" />


Media Center Markup LanguageVisual Primitives

• Two “non-visible” container primitives– <Panel>– <Clip>

• Seven layout modes– Form– Anchor– Dock– Flow

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– Grid– Scale– Rotate


Media Center Markup LanguageAnatomy of a button

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Button background – no focus

Button background – with focus

Button text

Play

Dormant Button text

Play

Play



• Use a combination of visual primitives, layouts, and rules to generate effects

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<Content> <Panel Name="Panel" Margins="10,0,10,0" MinimumSize="[Size]" MaximumSize="[Size]" Layout="Anchor"> <Children> <Clip Name="Fade" FadeSize="10" FadeAmount="1.0" FarOffset="-40" ShowFar="true" ShowNear="false" Visible="true"> <LayoutInput> <AnchorLayoutInput Left="Parent,0" Top="Parent,0" Right="Parent,1" Bottom="Parent,1"/> </LayoutInput> <Children> <Text Name="Text" Content="[Description]" Margins="10,8,10,8" Color=“White" Font=“Segoe Media Center,20”/> </Children> </Clip>

<Graphic Name="Background" Content=“[NoFocusImage]" MinimumSize=“[Size]" MaximumSize=“[Size]"/> </Children> </Panel></Content>

Play




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Play




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Play




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Play




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Play




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<Rules> <Rule> <Conditions> <Equality Source="[Input.KeyFocus]“ Value="true"/> </Conditions>

<Actions> <Set Target="[Background.Content]" Value="[FocusImage]”/> </Actions> </Rule>

<Condition Source="[Model.Dormant]" SourceValue="true"> <Actions> <Set Target="[Text.Color]" Value=“[DormantBlue]"/> </Actions> </Condition><Rules> Play




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Media Center Markup LanguageModelItems

• Built-in objects “known” to MCML – can be inherited from

• Can be used safely to interact with View Items(Model Items are created on the application thread)

• Model Items can trigger actions in their associated View (using the FirePropertyChanged method)

• Have special functions in the Media Center environment (e.g. ArrayListDataSet)

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Media Center Markup LanguageBuilt-in ModelItem Examples

• ArrayListDataSet• BooleanChoice• ByteRangedValue• Choice• Command• EditableText• Image

• IntRangedValue• ListDataSet• ModelItem• RangedValue• VirtualList

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The Media Center API

• Access to non-visual elements of Media Center– Transport and volume controls– Launch applications and navigate to pages– Play media– Show dialogs– Control DVD Changers– Access scheduled and recorded TV metadata

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Examples of add-ins for Media Center

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GridSearch for Media CenterTM © JFDI Engineering



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Niveus Weather © Niveus Media, Inc.



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Life|Ware © Exceptional Innovation, LLC



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Niveus Movie Library © Niveus Media, Inc.


Where next?

• Read the SDK help file from start to finish!• Play with the MCML Sampler in the SDK• Install and play with the Q and Z applications• Experiment with creating your own controls• Experiment with creating layouts• Get help from the community

– http://discuss.mediacentersandbox.com

• Start developing!

23-Apr-2009

Documents

Uk Media Center User Group April 2009