Let’s talk about what Microsoft has given us for building ambitious, real-world Windows 8 apps in HTML5 and JavaScript—but also what’s missing, and how we can fill in the gaps.

1. Real-World Windows
8 Apps in JavaScript

2. Domenic Denicola
• https://github.com/domenic
• https://npmjs.org/~domenic
• https://github.com/NobleJS
Things I’ve done recently:
• http://es6isnigh.com
• Promises/A+

3. NOOK Study 2.1
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nookstudy
170K+ LOC

4. The Advanced Basics
IMPORTANT STUFF THAT’S NOT OBVIOUS

5. Windows vs. WinJS
Windows: shared between all app types
Mostly non-applicable stuff: Xaml, JSON, threading, …
Gems you might have to deal with:
• Windows.Graphics.Display.DisplayProperties.resolutionScale
• Windows.UI.Notifications.ToastNotificationManager.createToastNotifier
• Windows.Globalization.DateTimeFormatting.DateTimeFormatter.shortDate.format
Useful-looking namespaces:
• Windows.Devices.Sensors, Windows.Storage.Pickers,
Windows.Networking.PushNotifications, …

6. Windows vs. WinJS
WinJS: JavaScript specific
Good/useful:
• WinJS.Application: application lifecycle
• WinJS.Resources: resource strings
• WinJS.UI: controls
Bad/ugly:
• WinJS.Utilities, WinJS.Fragments, WinJS.Navigation, WinJS.UI.Pages: use other libs
• WinJS.Class, WinJS.Namespace: yet another class library
• WinJS.Binding: one-way databinding, WTF!

7. Let’s talk about those controls
<div data-win-control="WinJS.UI.AppBar">
<button data-win-control="WinJS.UI.AppBarCommand"
data-win-options="{ id: 'cmd',
label: 'Command',
icon: 'placeholder' }">
</button>
</div>
Inert until WinJS.UI.processAll is called:
• Then they morph into fully-functioning controls
• In particular the element gets a winControl property

8. Let’s talk about those controls
The good news:
• Implemented entirely in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS!
• Takes care of so much for you
• You can avoid the inline attributes (which can only refer to global variables) by using
WinJS.UI.setOptions(element) after calling WinJS.UI.processAll(element).

9. Let’s talk about those controls
The bad news:

10. Demo time

11. Cooking with Gas
WHAT REAL APPS NEED THAT STUPID DEMO APPS DON’T

12. It’s 2012. What do we expect?
• A module system
• A package ecosystem
• A way to stop writing raw CSS/HTML/JS
• A build process!
Introducing: WinningJS-build

13. It’s 2012. How do we structure apps?
• We use a MV* framework:
• Angular
• Backbone
• Ember
• Knockout
• …
• BUT! We need to integrate with WinJS controls
• This needs custom solutions
• WinningJS UI is one, but it’s immature and based on Knockout.
• Come up with your own!
• Ditch the WinJS navigation/pages/fragments. We know how to solve these problems.

14. It’s 2012. How do we write code?
First, we write tests.
Too bad there’s no support for running them, at all.
This problem is not solved yet. Ideas:
• Stub everything, including the DOM/WinJS.*/Windows.*, and run your tests in Node.
• Create a “hidden screen” where you can manually run your tests.
• Automate somehow.

15. • We need more open-source efforts:
• Libraries to wrap overcomplicated WinJS/Windows
• Integration into other MV* frameworks
What’s • Sample apps
Next • We need tooling:
• Better scaffolding and build tools
• Improve and extend Visual Studio…
• … or branch out and make it work in a text editor
• We need to solve the testing problem!
Talk to me. Let’s build something.