Windows Phone 8.1 XAML Jumplist

Windows Phone 8 supported a LongListSelector control which is no longer available for Windows Phone 8.1 WinRT apps. In this tutorial I will show how to use QKit’s toolkit to add a JumpList in your app.

Step 1: Install QKit toolkit from Nuget

Get QKit toolkit from Nuget. Refer to this article if you get struck.

How to integrate a Toolkit or Third party SDK with windows phone app using NuGet Package Manager

Step 2: Add a reference to QKit in your Page

Add Qkit’s reference to the page.

Step 3: Group your list items

Currently it’s just a ListView with its ItemsSource bound to a flat list. The first thing you need to do is group the items so it’s no longer a flat list. This is easy since the JumpListHelper class is included in QKit.

The helper class will spit back a list of JumpListGroups that is compatible with the Generic and AlphaJumpLists.

Step 4: Wrap the ListView or GridView control with a JumpList control

Now, the nextstep is to simply wrap the ListView or GridView control with a JumpList control.

Step 5: Set the List’s ItemSource

If the child ListViewBase‘s ItemsSource is being set programmatically rather than through data binding, you need to call the ReleaseItemsSource method before setting the ListViewBase‘s ItemsSource, and the ApplyItemsSource method after setting the ListViewBase‘s ItemsSource on the JumpList control.

That’s it. Your list will look similar to the screenshot shown below.