Windows App Developer Links - 2012-08-10

posted on 09 Aug 2012 | App Developer Links

Metro Windows 8 App Development

  • Liven up your app with location and sensors (Windows 8 app developer blog)

    • "If you're developing an app for Windows 8 tablets or convertibles, you have access to cutting edge hardware and software services for sensors and location. By tapping into these hardware capabilities, you can add value to your apps and also make them exciting and useful..."

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

    • "Previously I took a look at incorporating Local and Scheduled Notifications into a Windows 8 application, and with this post I'll move on to the first of what I consider 'external notification' mechanisms - periodic notifications..."

  • How to Make Your Windows 8 App More ...well ... More Windows 8! (Ramez Debbas)

    • "...Some of windows 8 features are new concepts. As developers we need to become familiar with them and learn when and how to use them. Windows 8 has new features such as contracts, personalization, and different views. Using these features will make your app more metro and will help it shine, some of these concepts require mastery to get published in the store. In this post I'm going to give you a checklist of features you should think about during design and development on the Windows 8 platform..."

  • Tips and Tricks for C# Windows 8 developer: Read and write roamed application settings (David Catuhe)

    • "Windows 8 offers a really cool tool to save and load settings for your application: the roaming settings. It is a dictionary container where the name of each setting can be 255 characters in length at most. Each setting can be up to 8K bytes in size. ... today's code is about creating a set of tools to handle application settings. With the following code you can save and retrieve typed settings. If a roamed version exists it will be used else a local version will be used..."

  • Adding Location, Geocoding, and Bing Maps to Windows 8 Apps (Jerry Nixon)

    • "Did you know that the Windows 8 Location service does not require a GPS? It's totally true. So many applications have to use location and so many applications should. With Windows 8, sensors and location isn't a "what if" it's a standard service that "just works"..."

  • Use Expression Design to create a Windows 8 ‘Ratings' control (Jerry Nixon)

    • "If you are not aware of Expression Design, you are missing a powerful tool in your toolbox. Expression Design allows designers and developers to create original vector assets or edit existing, including those created in other tools (like those from Adobe). An update to Expression Design 4 was recently released. ... As the capabilities of Design continue to bloom, in this article we'll use the basic functions to create a vector-based ratings solution that anyone can add to their Windows application..."

  • Using Windows Runtime (WinRT) APIs from desktop applications (Tim Anderson)

    • "After trying out Windows 8 notifications from a Windows Forms application, I did a bit of research into using the Windows Runtime (WinRT) API from desktop applications. It turns out that this is something Microsoft planned for..."

  • CharmFlyout - Supporting sub-flyouts (Phil Muhlenkamp & John Michael Hauck)

    • "If you are supporting sub-flyouts (like the Accounts in the Mail application), then this post is for you. ... In this example, we will create two flyouts, "My Settings" and "My Sub-Settings". Our desired behavior is to allow a settings flyout to open another (sub) settings flyout..."

  • Hello Netflix? This Windows 8, WinJS and HTML5. Can we talk? (Greg Duncan)

    • "Today's Metro (err... um... Windows 8 App) Wednesday project is another kind of common Hello World kind of example application, one that shows that given a public API developers can provide an experience beyond what the API provider might have ever imagined. Oh and it shows other stuff too, like calling an OData service, use HTML5/WinJS, data binding, sharing and more. Now it's up to you to take this and add your imagination, inspiration and... oh, well, you get it..."

  • Synchronous to Asynchronous Explained (Jeremy Likness)

    • "I've posted several articles about the new async and await keywords that are available in Visual Studio 2012, but I still see some people struggle with the concept. How do you make a task asynchronous? When and where do you use the async keyword? The answer is not simple because the need to process asynchronously depends on a variety of factors. There is overhead when you create a thread. It allocates memory and creates a new synchronization context. Having a thread communicate with other threads is even more expensive and adds complexity to your code..."

  • .NET Framework 4.5 Talks from TechEd 2012 and aspConf (.NET Framework Blog)

    • "The .NET Framework team is out at conferences all the time. We love getting to meet with you all to discuss the latest news about what we're building and even better learning about what all of you want to build. Deon Herbert, a program manager on the .NET Framework project management team, pulled together the following article for all of you who couldn't meet us at these conferences..."

  • Windows 8 virtual hackathon, August 2012 (Matt Harrington)

    • "Hackathons are quite popular here in Silicon Valley, but not everyone can make it to one. Maybe you live too far away, or maybe you have family obligations on the weekend. You're in luck! We're running a virtual hackathon where everything takes place online. Here are the details in a nutshell, and more details will be added as questions arise..."