Top Controls in the Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit You Should Be UsingThe Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit extended the built-in control set for Windows Phone developers, adding polished, ready-made UI elements and utilities that saved time and improved user experience. Even though Windows Phone is no longer an active platform, many of these controls remain instructive for building responsive, touch-friendly interfaces and for maintaining legacy apps. This article walks through the most useful controls from the toolkit, when to use them, practical tips, and short code examples to get you started.
Why the Toolkit mattered
The toolkit packaged community-vetted controls that followed platform conventions and performance patterns. Instead of hand-crafting common elements (date pickers, toggles, panoramic layouts), you could drop in a control that handled touch interactions, visual states, localization, and accessibility concerns. That meant faster development, fewer bugs, and a more consistent user experience.
1) Panorama and Pivot controls
- What they are: Panorama provides a wide, horizontally panning canvas used for immersive home screens; Pivot is a tab-like control optimized for quick category switching.
- When to use: Use Panorama for visually rich, content-driven landing pages (think magazine or catalogue screens). Use Pivot for logically separated sections where users need to switch context quickly (settings, grouped lists).
- Tips:
- Keep panorama content lightweight — large images affect performance and memory.
- Use Pivot for discoverability and quick navigation; avoid nesting Pivot inside Panorama.
- Example (Pivot skeleton):
<controls:Pivot Title="My App"> <controls:PivotItem Header="Recent"> <!-- content --> </controls:PivotItem> <controls:PivotItem Header="Favorites"> <!-- content --> </controls:PivotItem> </controls:Pivot>
2) LongListSelector
- What it is: A highly optimized list control supporting grouping, jump-to-letter, variable item sizes, and incremental loading.
- When to use: Large data sets (contacts, messages, product catalogs) where smooth scrolling and grouping are essential.
- Tips:
- Use grouping with a good key (e.g., first letter) and provide a jump list for long collections.
- Enable UI virtualization to keep memory usage low.
- Example (grouped):
<toolkit:LongListSelector ItemsSource="{Binding GroupedItems}" IsGroupingEnabled="True" GroupHeaderTemplate="{StaticResource GroupHeaderTemplate}" ItemTemplate="{StaticResource ItemTemplate}" />
3) DatePicker and TimePicker
- What they are: Native-feeling, touch-friendly pickers for dates and times with built-in validation and culture awareness.
- When to use: Any form or workflow where users enter dates/times — appointments, reminders, filters.
- Tips:
- Prefer the toolkit pickers over custom text input to avoid parsing issues and locale bugs.
- Ensure min/max date limits when relevant to guide users and prevent invalid values.
- Example:
<toolkit:DatePicker Value="{Binding SelectedDate, Mode=TwoWay}" /> <toolkit:TimePicker Value="{Binding SelectedTime, Mode=TwoWay}" />
4) ToggleSwitch
- What it is: A touch-friendly on/off control following platform conventions (visual thumb and labels).
- When to use: Binary settings, enabling/disabling features, quick mode toggles.
- Tips:
- Provide clear labels and ensure the meaning of on/off is obvious.
- Use two-way binding to sync with your view model.
- Example:
<toolkit:ToggleSwitch Header="Notifications" IsChecked="{Binding NotificationsEnabled, Mode=TwoWay}" />
5) ContextMenu and MenuItem
- What they are: Lightweight contextual menus for actions related to list items or UI regions.
- When to use: Secondary actions (delete, share, pin) that don’t deserve primary screen space.
- Tips:
- Trigger context menus via right-tap/hold or an ellipsis button.
- Keep menu entries short and action-oriented.
- Example:
<toolkit:ContextMenuService.ContextMenu> <toolkit:ContextMenu> <toolkit:MenuItem Header="Edit" Click="Edit_Click" /> <toolkit:MenuItem Header="Delete" Click="Delete_Click" /> </toolkit:ContextMenu> </toolkit:ContextMenuService.ContextMenu>
6) ToastPrompt, InputPrompt, and MessagePrompt (Prompt controls)
- What they are: Prebuilt lightweight dialogs and prompts for transient messages, confirmations, and simple text input.
- When to use: Quick confirmations, short notifications, or in-place text input without navigating away.
- Tips:
- Use ToastPrompt for non-blocking feedback; MessagePrompt for confirmations; InputPrompt when you need one-field input.
- Avoid overusing prompts — too many modal dialogs harm UX.
- Example (InputPrompt):
var prompt = new InputPrompt { Title = "Enter name", Message = "Please provide a display name" }; prompt.Completed += (s, e) => { if (e.PopResult == PopUpResult.Ok) SaveName(e.Result); }; prompt.Show();
7) TransitioningContentControl and Navigation transitions
- What they are: Controls and helpers to animate content transitions (slide, turnstile, fade) during navigation or content swaps.
- When to use: To make navigation feel fluid, reinforce spatial relationships, and emphasize state changes.
- Tips:
- Use subtle transitions to avoid performance hits.
- Prefer platform navigation patterns (turnstile for pages, slide for content swaps).
- Example:
<toolkit:TransitioningContentControl Transition="SlideLeft"> <!-- content --> </toolkit:TransitioningContentControl>
8) AutoCompleteBox
- What it is: Text input with suggestion dropdowns and filtering logic to help users enter known values quickly.
- When to use: Search boxes, tagging interfaces, fields with finite possible values.
- Tips:
- Provide a meaningful item template showing more than just text if items have metadata (icons, descriptions).
- Debounce text changes in code-behind/view-model to avoid expensive lookups on every keystroke.
- Example:
<toolkit:AutoCompleteBox ItemsSource="{Binding Suggestions}" ValueMemberPath="Name" />
9) GestureService and GestureListener
- What they are: Helpers for detecting touch gestures (tap, double-tap, flick, hold) and wiring up handlers declaratively.
- When to use: Custom touch interactions beyond simple taps — e.g., detecting swipes on list items or pinches.
- Tips:
- Use built-in gestures where possible; custom gestures should be discoverable and consistent.
- Keep gesture handlers lightweight to maintain responsiveness.
- Example:
<Grid toolkit:GestureService.GestureListener="{StaticResource MyGestureListener}"> <!-- content --> </Grid>
10) BingMaps and Map-related controls (where included)
- What they are: Map controls and helpers to integrate maps and location-aware features into apps.
- When to use: Location-based services, route display, map pins and geofencing visuals.
- Tips:
- Cache and throttle location updates; respect user privacy and battery.
- Use clustering for many pins to avoid clutter and performance issues.
Performance and best-practice checklist
- Prefer virtualization (LongListSelector) for large lists.
- Minimize heavy visuals in Panorama pages; compress images and lazy-load.
- Use data-binding and MVVM patterns to keep UI code clean.
- Test on low-spec devices (if supporting older phones) to catch memory and responsiveness problems.
- Follow platform UX conventions for consistent look-and-feel.
Migrating lessons to modern platforms
Many of the UI patterns represented by these controls are still relevant: grouped lists, autocomplete, pickers, and subtle transitions. When migrating to modern frameworks (Xamarin.Forms, MAUI, UWP, or native mobile toolkits), look for equivalent controls or libraries that offer:
- Virtualized lists (RecyclerView, CollectionView)
- Picker components with localization
- Toggle/switch controls with accessible labels
- Contextual menus and toasts
The Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit packaged battle-tested UI building blocks that accelerated development and produced more consistent apps. Even today, studying these controls offers practical patterns and trade-offs valuable for building responsive, mobile-friendly interfaces.
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