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.
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.