USE of XAML not related to WPF or silvelight

Question

Hi,

I am trying to understand the use of XAML instead using it as markup in creating WPF and silverlight applications. Where else could i use XAML. Please provider all the possible uses of XAML.

Could XAML be used as regular XML to provider mapping and related stuff?

Please provider some links where i could learn about XAML.

Thanks.

Answer 1

This writeup can be helpful: http://www.davidpoll.com/2010/07/25/to-xaml-with-love-an-experiment-with-xaml-serialization-in-silverlight/. This article describes a way on how XAML can be used as a serialization format not just for a user-interface, but also for other CLR objects.

Answer 2

XAML is used as the serialization mechanism for workflows in Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), see for example http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WF/XAML_WF.aspx

Answer 3

XAML's a fairly efficient XML serialization format with hooks for namespaces and markup extensions. You don't have to use it purely for WPF applications; as long as the types you're serializing have parameterless constructors you can represent just about any .NET reference type in XAML.

If you're not using markup extensions, it's not really a huge leap past ordinary XML serialization. But the incremental improvements that it offers are useful enough, and the fact that it's a format supported by VS and WPF and Blend certainly doesn't hurt.