More good times for app developers?

I think this is mainly down to the fact that it was an attempt to spread some good news for developer who develop .net applications using XAML and c# or VB.

As of now there are 20K+ applications for windows phone 7 and this list is growing at quite an impressive rate. This rate of growth is because of the ease at which these developers can write applications. People who work for large corporates developing enterprise applications using .NET can now become app publishers and can deviate from writing anonymous code that drives a cog of large enterprise systems.

These people I have met at our growing local user group. They are loving the application development platform that Microsoft have put together for them and have a hunger for more.

If you are a developer that has been developing code for Android or iPhone then you will have started with a single form factor in which your code runs on and found that that the available form factors has increased and you now not only develop for the phone but your apps can be made to run on the new and emerging tablet based devices.

Microsoft have made great strides with Windows 8 to ensure that it has the capabilities to run on a multitude of form factors. It is here that they are hedging their bets on windows running anywhere.

So where will we stand when it comes to Tablets and native development when can we start re-using our code from within those 20K+ applications so that we can start reaping the benefits of the next set of platforms.

Well from what Microsoft have disclosed in regards to the Windows 8 developer experience so far that just won’t be happening.

There has just been no message from Microsoft that states that don’t worry we still do native, and it will work within this snazzy new UI.

It’s all been HTML and JS as a brand new application development platform.

If this stays the case then once you are a Windows Phone developer you will be staying a Windows Phone developer and if you have a great app then you will have to port it.

Right now the message is that people will have to wait for the Build conference to actually find out what the developer story will be. And of course more and more FUD will enter the mind of us developers as time goes on.

One item that may enter peoples heads is that Microsoft are shifting their developer strategy and application platform to HTML and JS even on Windows Phone (ARM and SOC means that Win 8 can power a phone at some point – phones are mentioned in the Intel article).

If people start experiencing this kind of fear and uncertainty they are going to stop developing apps and the rate at which the marketplace is building will slow down if not stop.

We so need to know what’s happening and we need to know sooner rather than later.

Hi, I just added a new post that expresses my disappointment in the messages that have come from the Windows 8 launch:

http://mikehole.com/2011/06/06/an-end-to-the-good-times-before-they-even-start/

Just a short post to get something that has just started swishing about in my head out.

I just read the following article:

http://www.businessinsider.com/intel-exec-spills-the-beans-on-microsofts-tablet-plans-2011-5?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

In this article the beans are spilt in regards to Windows 8 running on ARM processors (by an Intel exec of all people).

Microsoft has targeted the ARM processor architecture because Win8 will have version that will run on all sorts of platforms that require low power consumption such as Tablets, Smartphones (although this is unlikely as we have WP7) and small form factor PC’s. This then is a big enabler for MS to finally get into the tablet market big time.

But there is one other point that is mentioned, and that is that legacy applications won’t run on the Arm architecture. The author even states ‘Developers may also face challenges writing their apps for both platforms’.

Urm no! – Yes we have to lament that great applications that you use every day won’t run but if you really need to run those applications then you can always stick to Intel based kit (and I am sure Intel will love you for it).

But us developers have Silverlight and I will bet my left arm that the Arm based Win8 is going to run that (This is another sign of why that shift in priorities that people saw as the death of SIlverlight was mentioned).

So what is SIlverlight? It’s an enabler for the write once run anywhere (pc, phone tablet, set top box etc.). Something that us app developers will cherish.

If you like me also follow the rumour mill then you will know that Microsoft are looking to create an app store (can I use those words without being sued?). The backbone of this considering the different architectures that Win8 is going to support has to be Silverlight based I am sure.

What this means for us developers is that there is yet another eco-system on it’s was (people are going to want applications and right now there isn’t any).

So if I was you I would start learning Silverlight and building your app ideas because it looks like there are some good time ahead for those who get in first. 

What are your thoughts? Feel free to leave a comment.

Cheers,

Mike

In some cases the user is forced to press an area on the page that does not include a text control to take the focus away from the text box. Once the SIP is hidden then the user can click the control they want to enter text into.

This is mainly because the controls do not support the concept of tab order because the SIP does not include a tab control to move between controls.

One solution to this is to look for the enter key to be released and move the focus on to the next control:

private void txtUsername_KeyUp(object sender, System.Windows.Input.KeyEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.Key == System.Windows.Input.Key.Enter)
        txtPassword.Focus();
}

This could prove to be a pain for developers and forces additional code within the page code file that can be said to be quite untidy.

It is because of this that I have created my own solution using a behaviour that can be attached to a control. One advantage of this is that it will be possible to set the values using Blend therefore reducing the reliance on the developer.

The OnEnter Behaviour:

The XAML below gives an example on how the behaviour can be attached to a text box

The additional namespaces that I have added to the page are:

xmlns:i="clr-namespace:

System.Windows.Interactivity;assembly=System.Windows.Interactivity"
xmlns:mh="clr-namespace:

MikeHole.WindowsPhone.Behaviors;assembly=MikeHole.WindowsPhone.Behaviors"

You can download the project from here. (if you have any problems downloading this then please send me an email at: mike [at] mikehole [dot] com and I will send it on).

If you can think of any ways that the behaviour can be improved or know of any better solutions then feel free to leave a comment.

Cheers,

Mike

With MS using the new catch phrase ‘To the cloud’ and saying things like ‘three screens and the cloud’. You would think that they would consider their cross device support even if those devices are all Microsoft based ones.

We all can see that they have the cloud sussed with their Azure platform and services based offerings and this excites me greatly and makes me wish that I can start thinking about those three screens.

So the third screen is my TV right? How do I get to use my TV as the third screen well that would be with my Xbox surely. But do I really have to use XNA to realise this dream especially since I have all my design assets within XAML right now.

There have been all sorts of rumours regarding SL on the Xbox without any sort of foundation or demonstration from MS.

For yesterdays Future of Silverlight Keynote I was hoping that we would see some more regarding the platforms that Microsoft are targeting specifically hoping that one of those would be the xBox.

What I actually saw was how Silverlight Is concentrating on adding abilities that are mainly PC based along the lines of pInvoke and even remote control devices (surely this has been added because of a specific supplier request not because the public have asked).

It is about time they made things clear so that they can either quash or realise my hopes.

And you have just read that the Pano Pivot and Bing maps controls are finally being released too.

And now your thinking ‘I can’t wait till then’. Well here is what to do.

Well for Pano and Pivot use this codeplex project: http://phone.codeplex.com/

For the Bing maps follow this post: http://www.silverlighthack.com/post/2010/03/21/Using-the-Silverlight-Bing-Maps-control-on-the-Windows-Phone-7.aspx

I can tell you with great confidence that these things work well with the tools beta as Sequence has compiled an app that is functionally rich and runs without glitch. So don’t skimp on functionality because you don’t have what we have been promised.

I am glad that we haven’t taken a different approach for our UI and am really looking forward to getting my hands on the final version.

Just make sure you allow yourself half a day to move your code into the official controls. I get a feeling that it’s not going to be hard to move but it may be fiddly.

On another note how cool is it that 300K copies of the tools have been downloaded. People really are going to have to make sure their App shines above the rest to make money. The game is on peeps lets make the new WP7 platform a big success.

If you find yourself looking at error responses from the WCF data service  that only tell you ‘An error occurred while processing this request’ from a WCF Data Service then…

Just add:

            config.UseVerboseErrors = true;

to the method:

public static void InitializeService(DataServiceConfiguration config)

And you will get the full details of why your data service isn’t doing what you want it to.

If you want you can also override the HandleException method to capture the exception on the server:

        protected override void HandleException(HandleExceptionArgs args)
        {
            base.HandleException(args);
 
            //Do something to handle the exception.
        }

Hope this helps – sure has helped me!

29/72010: Sorry but I am going to be dropping this series because my software focus has change to developing Windows Phone 7 applications. Maybe re visit this in the future (hopefully before CRM 5 is released

Hi, this is part 1 of a series of posts giving an introduction to extending Microsoft Dynamics using Silverlight.

In this post I will outline how to add a custom Silverlight control to any of the entity forms.

For these articles I will be using Visual Studio 2010 Professional with All of the usual Silverlight (version 4) tools installed.

At Sequence the company where I work we make use of the eService accelerator this allows our customers to log cases via an extension to our web site.  For this series of posts I am going to create a new tab in the contact entity screen that will display details of the contacts log in details that are stored in a separate ASP.NET authentication database.

How it works

The CRM 4 entity forms allow administrators to customise forms in many different ways but the one way that makes things handy for us is the ability to add IFRAME elements into a form. We will use this customisation to display a Silverlight control inside the form.

 

 

Getting Started

Create a new Silverlight application as normal ensuring that you enable RIA services and create a test web project.

NOTE: In future when you will want to make this live you will need a server available that you can add the .Net framework 4 and host the web site or virtual directory.

Identifying the Entity

So that the Silverlight application knows what entity it is using it will need to be passed the Id of the entity that is being displayed in the entity form. To ensure that this works when you add an IFRAME customisation to an entity you will need to ensure that the I frame is passed the record ID and type:

This results in the following URL:

http://localhost:40363/ContactDashboard.aspx?type=2&typename=contact&id={299390EB-049E-DE11-A280-00155D801211}&orgname=Sequence&userlcid=1033&orglcid=1033

To get these values into my Silverlight application I have decided to use Silverlight parameters. To do this I first added the following code to the ASPX page that displays the application:

public string SilverlightParams

{

    get

    {

string sRes = string.Format("id={0},type={1},orgname={2},typename={3}",

            Request["id"], Request["type"], Request["orgname"], Request["typename"]);

   return sRes;

    }

}

Then in the page mark-up I added the following to the params for the Silverlight application:

<param name="initParams" value="<% = SilverlightParams %>" />

So we get this:

<object data="data:application/x-silverlight-2," type="application/x-silverlight-2"

   width="100%" height="100%">

    <param name="source"   

      value="ClientBin/Sequence.CRM.SilverlightExtensions.MainDashboard.xap"/>

    <param name="onError" value="onSilverlightError" />

    <param name="background" value="white" />

    <param name="minRuntimeVersion" value="4.0.50303.0" />

    <param name="autoUpgrade" value="true" />

    <param name="initParams" value="<% = SilverlightParams %>" />

    <a href=http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=149156&v=4.0.50303.0

        style="text-decoration:none">

   <img src=http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=161376

       alt="Get Microsoft Silverlight" style="border-style:none"/>

    </a>

</object><iframe id="_sl_historyFrame" style="visibility:hidden;height:0px;width:0px;border:0px"></iframe></div>

Making the App Know the entity Id

In the Silverlight application project I added the following to the App class code:

 

private Guid? m_ContactID = null;

 

public Guid? ContactID

{

 

    get

    {

 

        return m_ContactID;

    }

}

In the Application_Startup method:

 

private void Application_Startup(object sender, StartupEventArgs e)

{

 

    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(e.InitParams["id"]))

        m_ContactID =

new Guid(e.InitParams["id"]);

 

   

    this.RootVisual = new MainPage();

}

We can now access the ContactID anywhere in the code like this:

((

App)App.Current).ContactID

 

Just checking

Here is a screenshot of a simple app in an I frame just to show it works:

In part 2 I will show how to hook this app up to the ASP.NET authentication database.

 

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Somehow I missed it but Microsoft launched a new phone platform recently (Kin). This comprises of two phones that have quite different factors but have one main purpose, to be the users social hub.

To promote the new phones Microsoft have put together a web site that gives the usual brochure-ware details about the product etc.

The Kin web site has been created using  Flash as a method of delivering the rich experience rather than Silverlight.

This has created the usual mutterings from people on Twitter with as you can guess the word ‘Fail’ being used quite a bit.

This really does rattle my cage. I for one can see why Microsoft have used Flash for the front end of the site and yes it is because of the market penetration that Flash currently has over Silverlight.

Imagine if you had a brand new product and you wanted to sell it to the masses but you told the people at the top that although 60% of the web population will get to see it straight away the other 40% will have to download an app first. You have to agree that the people at the top would ask you what pills you have been taking recently. You so have to go with market share on this one.

I am however reserving my bets for the fact that Kin Studio will be written in Silverlight. Kin Studio is the online face of the social aspect of the phones and it looks to be a good showcase of what can be achieved with the Microsoft technology stack including Azure, Silverlight and the new Windows Mobile 7 (platform). If Microsoft have used Silverlight for Kin Studio they will be increasing their penertration of silverlight and you never know maybe oneday they will have enough of a share that they will launch a new product / site with silverlight as the 1st thing people see.

I just hope I am not let down!

BTW: I imagine I will get some flames from this but hay I am sure it won’t be as much as Microsoft themselves.

Tomorrow we see the launch of Visual Studio 2010 and Silverlight V4.

I for one can’t wait as it will give me loads to blog about!