Imagine my surprise when I browsed to the Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit page on Codeplex and discovered a new version was released today.

There are some great new controls in the release:

  • AutoCompleteBox – Very similar to the Silverlight AutoCompleteBox I know and love
  • ListPicker – Similar to a ComboBox control; shows a selected item and allows a user to choose a new item from a list
  • LongListSelector – Like a ListBox on steroids…supports more advanced scenarios such as really long lists with ease
  • Page Transitions – Provides professional looking page transitions that are easy to use

Also, you get the controls released in the September version of the toolkit:

  • GestureService/GestureListener
  • ContextMenu
  • DatePicker
  • TimePicker
  • ToggleSwitch
  • WrapPanel

All of these controls can help you easily build great phone UIs. Get started by…downloading the toolkit here.

Next to use the toolkit controls, add a reference to the toolkit assembly (Microsoft.Phone.Controls.Toolkit) to your project,. Do this by right-clicking your project and selecting Add Reference. Then click the Browse tab and navigate to the toolkit assembly.

You should be able to find it here:

InstallDrive:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v7.0\Toolkit\Nov10\Bin

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Next, map the toolkit namespace in the XAML for your page…something like this:

xmlns:toolkit="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Phone.Controls.Toolkit"

Now when editing the xaml for your page, if you type <toolkit:, you will automatically get Intellisense suggesting controls and types available in the toolkit. Also, the download includes a .chm file with some basic reference documentation to help you get rolling.

These are great controls brought to you by a great team and I can’t wait to get started using them.

Enjoy!

--Cheryl