In my previous post, I introduced my FlexibleApplication template. In this posts, I offer a couple tips & tricks. Determing the App Model at Compile Time or Runtime Depending on your application, you may want to do different things in the standalone and XBAP version. The Flexible Application template adds some goo (i.e. compilation constants & static helpers) to make doing this easier for you. Conditional compilation: #if XBAP //  XBAP specific code #else //  Standalone specific code #endif Runtime switching: if (MyApp.IsXBAP) { //  XBAP specific code } else { //  Standalone specific code } XAML switching: <Grid> <Grid.Resources> <BooleanToVisibilityConverter x:Key=”BoolToVis” /> </Grid.Resources> …

In WPF, we support two main app models: standalone and XBAP. Standalone apps are akin to traditional Windows apps. They run in their own window. They tend to be fully trusted (unrestricted access to the computer and its resources). And they are installed (either via an MSI, ClickOnce, or EXE distribution). XBAPs, on the other hand, are browser hosted applications. They’re cached (using ClickOnce) and sandboxed. Users navigate to them (promptlessly) in the browser like they do any other website. (XBAP whitepaper & sandbox whitepaper) What’s great then is, if you’ve written your app in a security & navigation friendly …