Free ebook: Programming Windows 8 Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (Second Preview)

672611 eBook.inddWe’re happy to release the Second Preview of our free ebook Programming Windows 8 Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, by Kraig Brockschmidt, today. Here’s a description of the ebook from Kraig:

Kraig here. Hello again! Now that the RTM build of Windows 8 is out and available to developers, along with upgraded tools, I’m delighted to offer the next preview release of my book, Programming Windows 8 Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Since the first release in June, we’ve added eight more chapters, bringing the total to 12 out of a planned 17. The new chapters cover collection controls (everything you wanted to know about ListView!), layout (especially view states), commanding UI (app bars, message dialogs, and their friends), the all-important topic of managing state, a close look at input and sensors (a form of input, really), media, animations, and contracts (share, search, the file pickers, and contacts). The earlier preview chapters (1-4) have also been updated and refined.

Writing a book like this has always been a journey of exploration for myself, and I’m truly grateful that I also have the opportunity to share the results with you. The process has involved many discussions with the Windows engineering team who created the platform, often taking me into far-off corners of the galaxy, so to speak. I’ve also been doing my best to follow app-building discussions both within Microsoft, on the MSDN forums, and StackOverflow so that I can try to anticipate and answer questions that will likely arise in your own mind. And with this over-abundance of information and experience, my goal has been to pull together a narrative story from start to finish, blazing a single trail through what can seem at times like a thick jungle. I would love to hear from you how successful I’ve been at this endeavor.

As evidenced by its title, this book is about writing Windows 8 apps in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The earlier chapters are indeed very specific to that particular choice of language and presentation layer, along with the Windows Library for JavaScript.

Somewhere around Chapters 7 and 8, however, we really begin to transition more into the WinRT APIs that are applicable to apps written in any language. I’m finding this especially true as I’m writing Chapter 13 on live tiles and notifications—very little of it, other than the code snippets, is unique to JavaScript, especially when talking about tile-updating web services written with server-side technologies like PHP and ASP.NET! My point in saying this is that while I’ve written this book ostensibly for web developers who are and will be looking to create apps for Windows 8 and the Windows Store, much of this book will also be very helpful to Windows 8 developers in general. And since it is now and will be a free ebook, you can’t lose!

As the release date for Windows 8 has been set for October 26th, we’re now on the home stretch toward the final release of this full ebook, which we plan to have ready in time for the Build conference in Redmond (October 30- November 2). I hope to see many of you there! And for those who cannot attend in person, keep an eye on https://buildwindows.com because the conference will also be presented online.

Happy reading, and coding!

DOWNLOAD LINKS:

THE FINAL EBOOK IS AVAILABLE HERE: https://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2012/10/29/free-ebook-programming-windows-8-apps-with-html-css-and-javascript.aspx

You can download the Second Preview (PDF only) here (13.5 MB).

And you can download the Second Preview’s companion content here (64.9 MB).

(We’ll release the final version of this free ebook in PDF, EPUB, and MOBI formats.)