XAML Spy

XAML Spy May 2013 Update

Mon, 13 May 2013 10:17:30 GMT

Announcing the May 2013 Update (1.1.9.0) of XAML Spy released on May 13, 2013.

Support for WinForm ElementHost

WPF content hosted in an ElementHost control of a WinForm app is now supported. Just like a regular WPF app, you can now attach to a WinForm app when it contains one or more ElementHost visuals with WPF content.

Inline content editing

XAML Spy now supports inline editing of text files in the isolated storage of your apps. Navigate to the storage section, select your file and edit its contents in the contents tab. Plain text and XML files are currently supported. XML file editing includes syntax coloring and folding support. Save the changes by hitting the new save button in the toolbar at the bottom or press CTRL-S.

Adding new files to the isolated storage is also included; right-mouse click in the treeview or file list view and select the new file option.

Various fixes

A number of issues that occurred in store and phone apps have been addressed in this release. See the release history for an overview and details.

XAML Spy March 2013 Update

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:53:54 GMT

Announcing the immediate availability of the XAML Spy March 2013 Update. Among others this update adds support for Silverlight 5.1.20125.0 and JetBrains dotPeek decompiler.

Decompilation with XAML Spy now supports dotPeek, the free .NET decompiler from JetBrains. Configure your favorite decompiler, whether it's dotPeek, ILSpy, JustDecompile or .NET Reflector, in the XAML Spy settings.

For a complete list of changes see the release history.

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Open sourcing the XAML Spy UI

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 15:50:56 GMT

Are you building WPF apps and do you want your application to look as cool as XAML Spy? You can! Announcing the immediate availability of Modern UI for WPF, a set of controls and styles converting your WPF application into a great looking Modern UI app, just like XAML Spy.

Modern UI for WPF is an open source spin-off of XAML Spy. The entire user interface has been extracted from XAML Spy and is now available as a re-usable open source library.

Want to learn more? Modern UI for WPF is hosted on codeplex at http://mui.codeplex.com.

Why open sourcing the UI?

Take a look at the about page in the XAML Spy settings and you'll notice that XAML Spy heavily depends on a number of open source projects. It's fair to say that without these projects, XAML Spy wouldn't even exist in its current form. Modern UI for WPF is our way to say thank you and to contribute back to the open source community.

Next to that, based on the number of questions received on how to build a XAML Spy like UI, it looks like Modern UI styled WPF apps are in demand.

Support for Windows Phone 7.8 SDK

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:03:40 GMT

Microsoft today released the Windows Phone SDK Update for Windows Phone 7.8. The update adds two new Windows Phone 7.8 emulator images, a 512MB and a 256MB image.

With the Windows Phone 7.8 SDK update installed, you automatically get access to these new Windows Phone 7.8 emulator images in XAML Spy. There's no need to update your existing XAML Spy installation, although using the latest version is always a smart thing.

Configure the default Windows Phone target device (settings > windows phone) and select the new 7.8 emulator images for your Windows Phone 7.x apps as is demonstrated in the image below. Alternatively you can select the Windows Phone target device in the add app wizard.

XAML Spy and PixelSense revisited

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:43:00 GMT

About a month ago I blogged about XAML Spy support for PixelSense. Microsoft PixelSense (formerly called Microsoft Surface) is an interactive surface computing platform that allows one or more people to use touch and real world objects, and share digital content at the same time.

Using the Microsoft Surface 2.0 Software Development Kit, you can create Surface applications with a WPF user interface. Thanks to XAML Spy's support for WPF, you can easily spy these apps running on your local dev machine, as discussed in the blog post of last month.

Last week I had the chance to see XAML Spy in action on an actual PixelSense device, the Samsung SUR40. This machine has a huge 40" high definition screen, which can be placed horizontally or vertically. It is optimized for over 50 unique point of simultaneous touch which makes it an ideal device for multiple users to work with at the same time. I wanted to validate two scenarios, 1) install XAML Spy on the Samsung SUR40 and attach to a running PixelSense app and 2) remote debug a PixelSense app.

1) Attach to PixelSense apps

The operating system on the Samsung SUR40 is Windows 7 Professional (64bit). PixelSense supports the standard Windows user interface (Windows Mode) and the deployment experience (Surface Mode). In order to attach to local PixelSense apps, XAML Spy needs to be installed on the device. This is achieved by switching to Windows Mode and install XAML Spy just like you would on any other Windows machine. Start XAML Spy and navigate to the WPF app manager. All running PixelSense apps build with a WPF user interface will appear automatically in the running section. Double-click or right-mouse click and select attach to process to attach XAML Spy to a running PixelSense app. Once an app is attached, you can explore and modify its user interface and other aspects of the app.

Conclusion: installing XAML Spy on the Samsung SUR40 and attaching to running PixelSense WPF apps works just like it does on any other Windows 7 or 8 machine. The XAML Spy metro inspired user interface feels intuitive on a large touch screen.

XAML Spy running side-by-side with a PixelSense app. The app is identified as a WPF app.

XAML Spy looks great on a 40" full HD touch screen. The metro-inspired user interface works well with a touch interface.

2) Remote debug PixelSense apps

The second scenario does not require XAML Spy to be installed on the PixelSense device. In this scenario a PixelSense app is deployed to the Samsung SUR40 where it connects to XAML Spy on another machine. For remote debugging to work the PixelSense app needs to reference the XamlSpy.WPF4 client assembly and have a couple of lines of code where it connects to the remote machine. For step-by-step instructions on manually connecting to XAML Spy see How to connect WPF apps manually.

The machine having XAML Spy installed must have remote debugging enabled and its firewall configured to allow remote socket connections. For more details about configuring remote debugging see the remote debugging topic in the online documentation.

After modifying the PixelSense app to connect to XAML Spy, deploy and run the app on the PixelSense device and the application appears in the XAML Spy explorer of the remote machine. This scenario worked flawlesly as well. The only trick was to enter the correct IP address of the remote machine running XAML Spy.

Conclusion

It just works! Both local and remote debugging of PixelSense apps on an actual PixelSense device work fine. So if you ever need to peek and tweak a running app on a PixelSense device, XAML Spy is your friend.

While running XAML Spy on the Samsung SUR40, a number of minor glitches did appear. I'm happy to announce that all these issues have been addressed in the January 2013 Update of XAML Spy.

Acknowledgements

Massive thanks to Roy Jansen of Semper IT Services for providing access to a Samsung SUR40 device and Dennis Vroegop for introducing me to Roy.

XAML Spy January 2013 Update

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 13:04:57 GMT

Announcing the first update of XAML Spy in 2013. This is a pretty massive update with improvements in security, performance and usability and a number of bug fixes. For a complete list of the changes see the release history. The highlights of this January release are described below.

Password protected connections

As of this update, XAML Spy connections are now protected with a password. When opening a connection with the XAML Spy Service, a password needs to be provided. For automatic connections, the authentication is handled by XAML Spy. When connecting manually, you need to enter the password that can be found in the XAML Spy Services settings page in XAML Spy (settings > xaml spy service). To learn more about how to specify a password for manual connections read the documentation for Silverlight, Windows Phone, Windows Store or WPF apps. A default password is generated when no password exists.

Password protection prevents XAML apps from accessing other connected XAML apps.

Naming convention

The naming convention has changed in this release. Applications are now referred to as apps and the name WinRT is replaced by Windows Store. So, for example WinRT applications are now addressed as Windows Store apps.

Improved performance

Attached dependency properties are by default omitted from the property grid in the User Interface explorer. Given the large amount of attached properties that may exist in a XAML AppDomain, this is a vast performance improvement when exploring the user interface. Attached properties can be included and excluded manually by selected the appropiate toolbar button at the bottom of the property grid.

Usability improvements

Various usability improvements are included in the January Update of XAML Spy:

History navigation is now supported by back and forward buttons available in the Automation and User Interface explorer.

The property grid features a summary pane with details on the selected property in the grid

The new select value source command available in the context menu when right clicking an inherited dependency property value in the property grid, enables quick navigation to the visual that is the source of an inherited property value.

The target Windows Phone device is selectable in the add app wizard when launching a Windows Phone app.

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December 2012 Update

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 12:09:54 GMT

Announcing the December 2012 Update of XAML Spy (version 1.1.6.0). New in this release is support for sensor readings on both local and remote devices and a number of bug fixes.

Sensor readings

Curious what sensors your device supports and need to visualize the current sensor readings? The new sensors page (analyze > sensors) provides access to the readings of the various sensors available on the device hosting the connected XAML application. The sensor readings are presented in real-time, the moment a value changes, its new value is shown in XAML Spy. The blue highlight indicates the sensor reading value has changed recently.

Sensor readings are currently supported for emulators and devices running Windows Phone 7 & 8 and WinRT applications. Sensor information is not available to Silverlight and WPF apps.

Real-time sensor information for both local and remote Windows Phone and WinRT devices is available. Use the remote debugging feature of XAML Spy to access remote devices. The following screenshot of XAML Spy demonstrates the real-time sensor values of a remote Surface ARM tablet.

Other changes

Included in this release are a number of bug fixes. For more details on these fixes and other improvements, see the release history.

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XAML Spy and PixelSense

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 12:25:42 GMT

Did you know that XAML Spy works great with Microsoft PixelSense applications? Microsoft PixelSense (formerly called Microsoft Surface) is an interactive surface computing platform that allows one or more people to use touch and real world objects, and share digital content at the same time.

Create applications for Microsoft PixelSense using the Microsoft Surface 2.0 Software Development Kit. The SDK works with Visual Studio and targets the .NET Framework 4.0 running on Windows 7. Using the Surface SDK you can create Surface applications with a WPF user interface. And thanks to XAML Spy's support for WPF you can then easily spy on these applications.

When debugging a Surface application on the local machine you can use the attach-to-process feature to connect XAML Spy to your app. Support for applications running on an actual PixelSense device is also included thanks to the remote debugging feature of XAML Spy.

Want to see for yourself? Go download the Microsoft Surface 2.0 SDK and use XAML Spy to inspect the app at runtime.

The following screenshot demonstrates XAML Spy providing statistical information related to the Surface ScatterView control.

XAML Spy discount and NFR licenses

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 20:23:27 GMT

Celebrating the release of both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, XAML Spy is now available at a 16% discount! The discount applies to both personal and professional licenses and is on top of any upgrade or volume discount that may apply.

Act now! Offer expires on November 8, 2012. The 16% discount is applied automatically, no need to enter a coupon, just purchase your XAML Spy licenses before the offer ends.

Update: this XAML Spy discount offer has expired and is no longer available.

Microsoft MVPs and RDs

Are you a Microsoft MVP or Regional Director? No need to purchase a license! You are eligible for a free Personal License of XAML Spy. To apply, please send a message providing your RD details or MVP Profile.

User group support

Are you running a user group related to Silverlight, Windows Phone, WinRT or WPF development? We do provide NFR licenses of XAML Spy for you to give away at your events. To apply, please contact us providing details about your user group.

Announcing Windows Phone 8 support

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 18:05:53 GMT

First Floor Software proudly announces XAML Spy support for Windows Phone 8. Microsoft released its Windows Phone 8 SDK moments ago at the Build 2012 developer conference. Windows Phone SDK 8.0 contains the tools that you need to develop Windows Phone apps. XAML Spy is the visual runtime debugger tool that provides detailed information about your Windows Phone application at runtime.

Support for Windows Phone 8 is available immediately. The XAML Spy October 2012 Update, released today, includes everything you need to spy on Windows Phone 8 applications. Be sure to check out the XAML Spy october 2012 Update post for more in-depth technical details on Windows Phone 8 support and other new features and fixes.

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Download Windows Phone 8 SDK

About XAML Spy

XAML Spy is the visual runtime inspector for Silverlight, Windows Phone, WinRT and WPF applications. It provides unprecedented access to all aspects of any running XAML application. Interact with the UI visual tree, monitor events, extract XAML, explore the contents of the package and isolated storage, view statistics and more, much more.

No more secrets with XAML Spy!

XAML Spy October 2012 Update

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 18:01:22 GMT

Announcing the October 2012 Update of XAML Spy (version 1.1.5.0). This release includes a number of exciting new features and fixes including support for the new Windows Phone 8 SDK and performance monitors.

Windows Phone 8 support

First Floor Software proudly announces support for Windows Phone 8. Windows Phone applications created with the new Windows Phone 8 SDK are fully supported by XAML Spy. Spying on a Windows Phone 8 application is not different from spying on Windows Phone 7 apps. You can either select a phone XAP from disk and have XAML Spy connect automatically or you can reference the new XamlSpy.WP8.dll client assembly and connect manually.

Remote debugging

Windows Phone 8 emulators are actual Hyper-V virtual machines with their own IP address. This is a new feature in the Windows Phone 8 SDK and different from Windows Phone 7 emulators sharing the IP address with their host machine. This implies that XAML Spy uses the remote debugging feature to connect Windows Phone applications running in a Windows Phone 8 emulator. Make sure you have remote debugging enabled and configured properly. See the remote debugging documentation on how to configure and use remote debugging for more details.

Phone configuration

In the XAML Spy configuration for Windows Phone (accessible via settings > windows phone) you can now select your target Windows Phone device that includes both Windows Phone 7 and 8 devices.

Performance monitors

XAML Spy includes real-time performance monitor graphs providing an insight into how your XAML application behaves in terms of memory usage, CPU usage, and more. The performance monitors are accessible in the new analyze option in the main menu. The performance monitors are extremely useful for quick feedback on how your application is using the available system resources.

And more

The content viewer for plain text, XML and XAML content has been upgraded and now includes line numbers and support for folding as is demonstrated in the following image.

The list of applications in the application managers features a small question mark. When clicked, a tooltip appears displaying a useful list summary.

WPF has support for multiple UI threads, which means that a WPF window can be created with its own dedicated UI thread. As of this release, XAML Spy fully supports multiple UI threads in WPF.

For the full list of new features and changes see the release history. Go get the latest XAML Spy release in the download section.

XAML Spy September 2012 Refresh

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 12:32:08 GMT

An update of XAML Spy (September 2012 Refresh, v1.1.4.0) is now available in the download section. This is an out of band release fixing two critical issues that may have prevented you from working with XAML Spy properly. For more details on the fixes in this release, see the release notes.

Thanks to everyone reporting the issues and filling out the error reports. Much appreciated.

XAML Spy September 2012 Update

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 10:45:59 GMT

Wouldn't it be nice if you could use XAML Spy on a WinRT application running on an ARM device? Or spy a Silverlight application running on MacOS? With the new remote debugging feature of XAML Spy included in this September 2012 Update you can! Remote debugging enables a number of exciting scenarios. Learn more about how to configure and spy on remote XAML applications in the online documentation.

The September 2012 Update also includes a new add application wizard, which makes spying a XAML application super easy. With a few mouse clicks your application is up and running and spyable in XAML Spy. The add application wizard is launched by selecting the add application command in the application managers.

Other improvements included in this release are support for deploying and running Windows Phone applications on an actual phone device and various fixes. For the full list of new features and changes see the release notes. Go get the latest XAML Spy release in the download section.

XAML Spy to sim-ship with Visual Studio 2012

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 10:37:21 GMT

First Floor Software proudly announces XAML Spy to sim-ship (simultaneously ship) with Visual Studio 2012. Visual Studio 2012 is launched on September 12, 2012. Visual Studio is available for download today.

XAML Spy supports LightSwitch 2012, Windows 8 and WPF 4.5 applications, created with Visual Studio 2012. An evaluation version of XAML Spy is available for free.

XAML Spy August 2012 Refresh

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 13:06:44 GMT

An update of XAML Spy (August 2012 Refresh) is now available. This release addresses the following reported issues;

On some non-US operating systems, the XamlSpySvc windows service failed to install suggesting to 'Verify that you have sufficient privileges to install system services'
Inbrowser Silverlight 3 applications fail to automatically connect to XAML Spy
Desktop deployed LightSwitch 2011 and 2012 applications fail to connect to XAML Spy in some scenario's.

The latest release is available in the download section.

XAML Spy August 2012 Update

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 10:41:21 GMT

Announcing the August 2012 Update of XAML Spy (v1.1.0.0). This is a fairly major update of XAML Spy, and contains a significant number of new features and fixes. Please be aware that this update includes a breaking change when you manually reference the client XamlSpy.dll library for Silverlight, Windows Phone or WinRT apps. Read on to learn more about this breaking change.

Windows 8 RTM

This release adds support for Windows 8 RTM (OS version 6.2.9200.0), while maintaining support for Windows 8 Release Preview.

Breaking client library changes

In order to cope with new releases of XAML platforms in the future (such as the impending Windows Phone 8 SDK release), it has been decided to rename the XAML Spy client libraries for all platforms. The file name now includes the platform and version. This also prevents same name confusion, and clearly identifies the target XAML platform. These are the new client file names;

Silverlight: XamlSpy.dll renamed to XamlSpy.SL5.dll
Windows Phone 7: XamlSpy.dll renamed to XamlSpy.WP7.dll
WinRT: XamlSpy.dll renamed to XamlSpy.WinRT45.dll
WPF: unchanged, already named XamlSpy.WPF4.dll

These client libraries are still found in the Libraries sub folder of the XAML Spy installation folder. When you manually connect your XAML application to XAML Spy, you'll need to update your XamlSpy references.

WPF application manager

The previous XAML Spy release added support for WPF. This release adds a full WPF application manager, enabling WPF app management and support for attaching XAML Spy to running WPF processes. The screenshot below show the running processes and allows for attaching to any process.

Massive thanks to Cory Plotts for generously allowing re-use of the Snoop injection logic in XAML Spy. To learn more about the WPF application manager see the online documentation.

The attach-to-process feature requires the Visual C++ 2010 runtime to be installed (which is the case if you have Visual Studio 2010 installed). The x86 version is required when attaching to 32 bit applications, the x64 version of the C++ runtime is required for 64 bit applications. When XAML Spy detects that the C++ runtime files are missing, it displays a dialog as shown in the image below.

Visual experience

Are you a fan of dark themes? Here is some good news; XAML Spy now includes a dark theme as well. To enable, navigate to settings > general and select the dark color theme. By default XAML Spy is configured to use the light theme. Please note that the dark theme option is only available when .NET 4.5 is installed. .NET 4.5 is pre-installed on Windows 8, for Windows 7 you'll need to install .NET 4.5 manually.

And last, but not least, XAML Spy now includes the option to use small fonts. If you want to squeeze as much information on your screen as possible, or simply if you have limited screen estate, using the small font is highly recommended. Configure the font in the general settings page (settings > general).

XAML Spy July 2012 Update

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 20:21:15 GMT

Announcing the July 2012 Update of XAML Spy. New in this release is support for WPF applications. Reference the WPF XAMLSpy client dll in your WPF project and you get full access to the package, storage, automation and user interface elements of your WPF application. See the tutorial How to connect to XAML Spy for WPF to learn more.

Other improvements included in this release are an updated XAML Spy client menu and a number of fixes and minor UI updates. For more details about this July 2012 Update see the release history.

Silverlight Spy upgrade path

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:54:54 GMT

Now that XAML Spy has been released, here are the details for upgrading Silverlight Spy to XAML Spy. If you have purchased Silverlight Spy less than one year ago, you can even upgrade for free!

As a licensed Silverlight Spy user you can upgrade to XAML Spy. If your license has not expired, you can use your Silverlight Spy license key in XAML Spy and XAML Spy will work as a full version. A license has expired when its issue date is more than year before the XAML Spy release date. For the XAML Spy RTM release all Silverlight Spy licenses issued on or after June 15, 2011 are valid.

If your Silverlight Spy license has expired, contact us for an upgrade discount. Please include the reference number of the original purchase in your message.

What's new in XAML Spy

Need to know how XAML Spy is different from Silverlight Spy? Read the documentation on What's new for Silverlight Spy users. Make sure you give XAML Spy a spin. You can try XAML Spy before you buy. A fully functional evaluation version of XAML Spy is available and can be used for 21 days.

RTM Release XAML Spy

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 15:23:25 GMT

First Floor Software is proud to announce the RTM release of XAML Spy. XAML Spy is the visual runtime inspector for Silverlight, Windows Phone and WinRT XAML applications. This v1 XAML Spy release marks the end of the preview release cycle. As of today you can purchase XAML Spy licenses in the store.

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A special note for licensed Silverlight Spy users; XAML Spy happily accepts your Silverlight Spy license (as long as your Silverlight Spy license has not expired).

Decompilation support

Silverlight Spy used to integrate with .NET Reflector by Red Gate Software for decompilation services. XAML Spy now integrates with the open source ILSpy, JustDecompile from Telerik and .NET Reflector for decompilation of .NET assemblies and types. You can now use your favorite decompiler in combination with XAML Spy. Decompilation support is configured in the XAML Spy settings.

User interface explorer enhancements

In order to improve access to your XAML application's visual tree, XAML Spy now supports 'collapse all but this' and 'explore from here' commands. Use the 'collapse all but this' command to quickly collapse all visual elements that you are not interested in. The 'explore from here' makes the selected visual the root of the tree and hides all other nodes. You can now easily navigate a branch of the visual tree, without being distracted by other visual elements.

Both commands are available when right-clicking a visual in the explorer tree.

Data context scope visualizer

Another new feature is the so-called data context scope visualizer. Whenever XAML Spy detects a new DataContext in the visual tree, it renders a dotted border. This border highlights the scope of the DataContext within the visual tree and is very useful in quickly identifying where a new data context value starts in the visual tree of a live XAML application.

Other updates

This release also addresses a dead-lock issue that occurred in XamlSpyService.StartService for WinRt applications.

XAML Spy Preview 4

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 20:41:18 GMT

Announcing a new update of XAML Spy with support for Windows 8 Release Preview (released on May 31). Support for Windows 8 Consumer Preview has been dropped. If you need to use XAML Spy on Windows 8 Consumer Preview, do not install this release.

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Collection editor

New in this release is support for editing collections and DependencyObjects. Whenever XAML Spy detects an editable collection of objects it enables the collection editor with support for adding, removing and setting collection members. The collection editor works on any object collection, even your custom viewmodel collections as the following screenshot demonstrates.

DependencyObject editor

Previously DependencyObject property values could not be modified, now XAML Spy provides a dropdown editor for creating new DependencyObject instances on the fly. The following screenshot demonstrates the use of a Brush dropdown to create a new Background brush.

For a complete tutorial on editing properties and collections with the property grid, see the new tutorial How to use the properties pane,