Windows App Developer Links - 2012-08-08

Metro App Development

• Reminder: BUILD 2012 registration begins Wednesday at 8:00 AM PDT (Microsoft Press)

  • "Register here tomorrow!: http://www.buildwindows.com/ BUILD 2012 will be on the Microsoft Redmond Campus, October 30-November 2. Learn how to design and build beautiful Windows 8 apps and how to sell those beautiful apps in the Windows 8 Store. And, in addition to Windows 8, BUILD 2012 will cover the latest on Windows Azure, Windows Phone 8, Windows Server 2012, Visual Studio 2012, Xbox, and much more..."

• Windows 8 Notifications: Local Notifications (Jim O'Neil)

  • "In this fifth post of my series on notifications, I'll start looking at each of the notification delivery mechanisms (local, scheduled, periodic, and push) in turn. The structure and mechanics of creating notification content, which I covered in a previous post, are for the most part independent of the delivery method, so the posts that follow assume a basic understanding of accessing and customizing the various types of notification templates. Let's kick it off with Local Notifications! ..."

• UPDATED HOWTO: SQLite with Windows 8 apps (Tim Heuer)

  • "I've previously posted a few things about SQLite including a HOWTO on how to build from their source code. If you still want to build your own DLL from their source code that is totally fine, but not necessary in most every single case I've seen in app usage. One of the challenges I noted is that since SQLite is a native component and if you are a managed (.NET) app you can't be architecture neutral anymore (AnyCPU). What this means is that you have to build your app for each architecture you want to support: x86, x64 and ARM. The flow of this using SQLite3.dll was that you would have to package, change the DLL, re-package. Not anymore..."

• Maximizing Code Reuse Across Windows 8 and Windows Phone Apps (Alnur Ismail)

  • "A common ask among customers and developers is around guidance on how to structure/architect their code to maximize reuse across Windows 8 and Windows Phone apps. This post will explain what is/isn't reusable across apps, cover some patterns that will help increase code reuse across Microsoft platforms, and puts the theory into practice with a sample that shows common code being used for both a Windows 8 and Windows Phone 7.5 app..."

• To Metro and Back Again: A Developer's Tale (Part 1) (David Davis)

  • "As most of you know Microsoft is about to release a new operating system. If you have not heard then you should crawl out from under the rock and embrace the future of Windows. With the new operating system they are releasing a new type of application. These Metro application deliver rich, immersive experience. One of the benefits that Microsoft keeps emphasizing is that with Windows 8 you have a full Windows operating system and a tablet operating system all in one device. You will be able to use the desktop applications you use today, while gaining access to a whole new set of apps. This type of device should be ideal for the enterprise..."

• To Metro and Back Again: A Developer's Tale (Part 2) (David Davis)

  • "In my last post, I started a journey to see if I can share data between a WPF application and a Windows 8 Metro application. We left off with the data in the Metro application. According to the map the way back to the WPF application is through the Documents folder. Only when the data makes it back to the WPF application will our journey be complete. The WPF application can insert any data modified by the Metro application back into the database which is then synced back to the server. This demo shows a way to work with WPF and Metro applications in a disconnected environment. Enterprises may have legacy systems that work nicely disconnected. Now they can start migrating functionality to Metro applications and don't have to abandon they stable desktop apps right away..."

• Windows 8 Audio Player Demo (Geoff Webber-Cross)

  • "I need to include a podcast player in the app I'm writing, so I decided to write a prototype app to demo the Windows 8 audio capabilities..."

• Tips and Tricks for C# Windows 8 developer: Try to catch the famous ‘It works for me' bug (David Catuhe)

  • "As an experienced developer, you do not have bug. Never. At least on your computer. And when sometimes (so rarely that you can barely remember) a bug appears, it is never on your computer. And in this case, it is a true hell to find at least where in your application the bug is (because as you never have bugs, you do not need to integrate an error log system). The first solution can be to decline the responsibility with a "It works for me, you should have a problem with your drivers". But you can also try to locate it :P This article presents you some tips to find some information about a bug on a non-developer computer..."

• Windows 8 and HTML Part 3: Using the Simulator (Jeff Brand)

  • "Continuing with Part 3 of building Metro-style applications with HTML and JavaScript. ... When debugging a Windows 8 Metro application, you are not limited to running and debugging the app on your local machine. If you look closely, you will see that the toolbar button that says "Local Machine" by default (the button with the green arrow) can also act as a drop down. This drop down allows you to select different targets to deploy and debug your application. Perhaps in a future blog post I will over the "Remote Machine" option, but for now, let's click the drop down and set it to "Simulator"..."

• Easily share status with your WinRT App (AKA Share Source Charm) (Shawn Kendrot)

  • "There are two types of way to share use the Share Charm win Windows8. Your app can be a Share Source, or a Share Target. Think of Share Target as your email or Twitter/Facebook apps. Share Source is everything else. I was trying to add in the ability to share status within an app and thought it would be a pretty easy thing to do. It was easy, but took me awhile searching the web to find out how to do it. I'm hoping to make that a little easier for you..."

• Get the version of your WinRT Package (Mark Monster)

  • "It might sound strange, but I couldn't find any place on how to get the version number of the WinRT Package. I want to use the Major and Minor version number parts as part of a HTTP Request. It's simpler than in the Windows Phone world..."

• Secret little hack to get the os version in windows 8 (Michiel Post)

  • "WinRT does not have an API method to get the OS version. Metro apps run in a sandbox and shouldn't care about the OS version. Microsoft's guidance is to make your apps independent of the OS version and rather look at the capabilities needed for your application (like specific sensors). But maybe you still want to know the OS version. For example for logging exceptions, or to keep statistics when an API is used by different platforms. So I figured out a way to do this..."

• Windows 8 apps for the PhoneGap developer (Glen Gordon)

  • "Windows 8 apps can be designed and coded using HTML/CSS/JS just like PhoneGap apps can. And with very little effort you can use your skill and existing resources to crank out a sleek, modern looking Windows 8 style app in no time..."

Windows Phone 8

• Meet the Windows Phone Dev Center (Windows Phone Developer Blog)

  • "Today I'm happy to announce the debut of the Windows Phone Dev Center, the new online home for Windows Phone developers. The site, an evolution of our retired App Hub developer portal, is designed to provide everything you need to build, publish, and manage apps for Windows Phones around the world. The result of months of careful planning and attention to your feedback, it has new features to help make Windows Phone app development faster and more profitable..."

Other

• Introduction to MonoGame (John Sonmez)

  • "I've been playing around quite a bit with MonoGame lately and thought I would take some time to write a bit about it and talk about how to get started. I'm also currently working on a Pluralsight course on cross platform development with MonoGame..."