Windows Phone

DoUNo / Tips 'n' Tricks / UI / Windows Phone — No Comments
8
Jan 12

DoUNo: ApplicationBar in WindowsPhone is not bindable

ApplicationBar is not a FrameworkElment and is not bindable. Which implies that if you are so much used to MVVM and wants to bind things to ApplicationBar, its not easy; you need to create your own ApplicationBar.

This sounds pretty lame and I really don’t know why Microsoft is not interested in creating an ApplicationBar that is bindable.

DoUNo / Tips 'n' Tricks / Windows Phone / Windows Phone — No Comments
29
Dec 11

DoUNo: You can tombstone an app using Windows Phone Emulator

Property page of a WP project

Property page of a WP project

You cannot predict when an app would be tombstoned in Windows Phone. But still you can simulate it by enabling a settings in the Property page of the Windows Phone project.

  1. Browse to the Property page of the Windows Phone project.
  2. Select the Debug tab.
  3. Select the Tombstone upon deactivation while debugging.
  4. Build and Run the project.
  5. After the app launches, click on the Windows key to deactivate the app, there by tombstoning it.
General Programming / Windows Phone — No Comments
29
Dec 11

Life cycle model of Windows Phone apps and Tombstoning

Life cycle of program instances differ greatly between desktop and mobile and Windows Phone is no exclusion.Its essential to understand the application life cycle model before writing apps. Of course there are quite a few article explaining this but none pointing out the difference between SDK7.0 and SDK7.1. This article, briefly lets you understand the different states and the life cycle model changes between SDK7.0 and SDK7.1.

States

In Windows Phone (WP), every app goes thru’ three different states after its instantiated. Continue reading →

General Programming / Windows Phone — No Comments
29
Dec 11

Starting off with Windows Phone 7 Programming

Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone 7 - Wikipedia

As I had mentioned earlier that I am planning to start off with Windows 8 programming, I also thought it would be logical to start off with Windows Phone 7 programming. I know, Windows Phone 7 has got nothing to do with Windows 8 programming, except for the UI and thats the reason. User Experience is really important, especially for handheld devices.

Here are a few things you need  before you kick start with Windows Phone 7 programming.

  • .NET and Visual Studio – you ought to be familiar with .net and Visual Studio.
  • WPF (xaml to be precise) – at least the fundamentals. The book that I have linked underneath lets you learn the basics but still I suggest a book that talks just about xaml (?!?).
  • **Silverlight – not necessarily; ifyou know WPF, well, thats enough.
  • Visual Studio 2010 with SP1 and Windows Phone 7.1 SDK.
  • Book or some kind of tutorial – obviously we start off with a book. Programming Windows Phone 7 by Charles Petzold is what I am currently learning.
  • Windows Phone – even though you get an emulator with Visual Studio Windows Phone 7 SDK, the emulator is every simple and you might not find it useful if you are planing to write complex applications involving multi touch gestures, notifications, etc.

I just started off with Windows Phone 7 programming last week and is really cool. I am finding it very simple as I have been working on .NET, C# and WPF for quite some time now. If you are new to WPF, I suggest you learn it and get acclimatized to the XAML fundamentals and syntax before you start off with WP7 programming. I will also try and write about things which I find notifiable, out here.

So long, lets write some Windows Phone apps ;-)