New Helper for Downloading from the web

[Vijay-Nirmal]

Downloading from the web is a very common thing to do in Apps but it doesn't have any dedicated control for it. So it would be nice to have one.

Feature request for this control:

• Downloader.URI(URI) should set the item to be Download
• Downloader.GetInfo.Name, Downloader.GetInfo.Size, ... to get the Info about the item to be Downloaded
• Downloader.Start, Downloader.Pause, Downloader.Stop
• Downloader.GetPercentage to get the download compleated percentage so that it can be used for creating ProgessBar
• Downloader.GetSpeed to get the download speed
• Should support Background Download
• Parallel Downloading support like IDM to increase the overall download speed

[hermitdave]

Hi @Vijay-Nirmal thank you for the suggestion. To gauge wider interest, can you please create a uservoice entry with as much detail as possible ?

https://wpdev.uservoice.com/forums/110705-universal-windows-platform/category/193402-uwp-community-toolkit.

[Vijay-Nirmal]

I have created UserVoice

@hermitdave Give a search in StackOverflow. You can see many people trying to use Downloader.

[nmetulev]

Hey @Vijay-Nirmal, what benefits would this helper provide over the BackgroundDownloader?

[Vijay-Nirmal]

@nmetulev Does BackgroundDownloader have are the features I mentioned in my post? Also, this helper makes it easy to create controls for downloading like the example below

<TextBlock Text="{x:Bind downloader.GetSpeed}"/> //To display speed
<ProgressBar Value="{x:Bind downloader.GetPercentage}"/> //To display Progress Bar for downloading

This helper should have built in INotifyPropertyChanged

[nmetulev]

So basically a wrapper around DownloadOperation?

[Vijay-Nirmal]

@nmetulev I think so. This helper will help to implement all the basic functions (Like Start, Stop, Pause, get speed, setting the speed limit, downloading multiple files, name and size of the downloading item) very easily. I don't think it will be a duplicate of DownloadOperation

[Odonno]

@Vijay-Nirmal Seems interesting if you can also create a page example that can easily be replicated in any app.

[Vijay-Nirmal]

@Odonno I didn't get your point but sounds good to me :) What do you mean by "page example"?

[Odonno]

@Vijay-Nirmal A page with some UI controls demonstrating the download of a file. And, another question, if it works with Download, can it work with Upload?

[Vijay-Nirmal]

@Odonno

if it works with Download, can it work with Upload?

That is a good point. I love to see that. If we do this then we should change the name of the helper :)

[Vijay-Nirmal]

From the design point of view. How can we make it easy to create a ListView like Windows Store?

private ObservableCollection<DownloadsItem> DownloadsItemSource = new ObservableCollection<DownloadsItem>();

public class DownloadsItem
{
    public BitmapImage Logo { get; set; }
    public Downloader downloader { get; set; }
}

<Page.Resources>
    <converters:BoolToObjectConverter x:Key="BoolToIconConverter" TrueValue="&#xE102;" FalseValue="&#xE103;" />
</Page.Resources>

<ListView ItemsSource="{x:Bind DownloadsItemSource}">
    <ListView.ItemTemplate>
        <DataTemplate x:DataType="local:DownloadsItem">
            <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
                <Image Name="DownloadLogo" Source="{x:Bind Logo}"/>
                <TextBlock Name="DownloadName" Text="{x:Bind downloader.GetInfo.Name}"/>
                <StackPanel>
                    <TextBlock Name="Downloaded" Text="{x:Bind downloader.Downloaded}"/>
                    <ProgressBar Name="DownloadProgressBar" Value="{x:Bind GetPercentage}"/>
                    <TextBlock Name="DownloadSpeed" Text="{x:Bind downloader.GetSpeed}"/>
                </StackPanel>
                <Button Name="StartPause" FontFamily="Segoe MDL2 Assets" Content="{x:Bind Path=downloader.IsPaused, Converter={StaticResource BoolToBrushConverter}}"/>
                <Button Name="Cancel" FontFamily="Segoe MDL2 Assets" Content="&#xE10A;"/>
            </StackPanel>
        </DataTemplate>
    </ListView.ItemTemplate>
</ListView>

This method contains few problems.

1. How can we manage "downloading multiple files"? like limiting the number of downloads at once
2. There should we a direct way to bind Button click to Cancel, Start, Stop.

[hermitdave]

@Vijay-Nirmal uploading is a very different ball game

[Vijay-Nirmal]

@hermitdave But it will also have the sample controls like start, pause, cancel, ProgressBar