Introduction to the VSM

The Visual State Manager handles the logic of states and transitions for controls. Controls are not limited to custom controls or control templates. The VSM works equally well for managing the state of pages and user controls as well. The target of the VSM is always an element that derives from the control, and the location of the VSM should always be the root of the template for the control (for example, when you create a user control, the default root is a Grid element named LayoutRoot).

One way to understand the VSM is to decompose an existing control. You can download the examples in this chapter from the book’s website: http://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0321810414.