How to approach a modern GUI development in Windows Mobile 6.5. I can see in .NET CF 2.0/3.5 only legacy common controls, no alpha blended controls, no fading etc. Comparing to Android or Symbian, Windows Mobile 6.5 look-a-like of applications is very elderly.
Is there support for WPF in Windows Mobile 6.5?
Thanks and Regards
Dominik
WPF is not supported. Silverlight is not supported in current phones but will be supported with Windows Phone 7. XNA will be supported on Windows Phone 7.
For the current phones on the market you really have to abandon the idea that you're going to get a decent UI by simply dragging controls out of the toolbox. That simply is not going to happen. You can still create compelling UI, but you have to do custom/manual drawing of your controls.
Never heard of WPF development for WM.
But there is Silverlight 4 and (theoretically) Windows Phone 7... So if you want to develop for Windows platform you'd probably target Silverlight technology, not WPF. And Windows Phone 7, not WM 6.5
Related
I'm starting to get really confused by the different ways to recognizer text. Some are ancient and some are for Windows Forms or WPF ...
Today, if I only need to traget Windows 10 what Ink technology should I use?
I've been trying to use InkCanvas and all the docs talk about InkPresenter.
However InkPresenter is not a member of InkCanvas ...
InkPresenter
Any ideas please?
InkCanvas is a WPF control and InkPresenter is a UWP control. Which one to use depends on what kind of application you are developing.
These are different kind of applications. A classic WPF desktop application runs on all Windows PCs including Windows 10 machines while Universal Windows Platforms (UWP) apps have the potential of running across all Windows 10 devices including phones, HoloLens and XBox: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/get-started/universal-application-platform-guide.
I have a Windows Phone 8.1 Silverlight application which is in the store now. Since i see that Microsoft is moving all the attention towards WINRT and Universal Apps, i suspect that there will be limited or no support for Silverlight Apps in Windows 10.
There might be a tablet project that i might roll out for the same project in the future. So i am in the dilemma to convert the Silveright projects in my solution to WINRT or convert them into Universal Apps.Also, i hear that converting to Universal projects are pretty hard as well.And I understand that the bulk of the work will be in porting the UI to Hub Style UI.
Any ideas? Comments on the best approach to take here.
A WinRT app is a Windows only app (not for Phone). Other than that, WinRT and Universal apps are quite similar. They have the same namespaces, classes, controls... almost everything. You can use many WinRT libraries in Universal apps without any problem. And so, porting to them is generally the same, too.
Windows Store and Windows Phone apps generally need different UI anyway, so you would have to work on that, no matter what you do.
One difference is that a WinRT app would work on Windows 8.0 and up, and a Universal app would require Windows 8.1 (or WP 8.1 for phones). Actually, a Windows 8.1 app IS a Universal app. Just like a Windows Phone 8.1 app (not the Silverlight variation) is a Universal app.
I'd recommend porting to a Universal app as you would get used to working with these apps, and they work on both platforms (Windows and Phone). For any future project, that's the way to go.
In the company I work for, we switched to Universal apps a few months ago. Figuring out what UI we would use on both platforms and how to do it properly, as well as porting our existing libraries did take some time (not too much), but now making a new app and supporting both platforms is very easy. So, for me, that's the way to go.
It is quite unlikely that Microsoft will stop supporting Silverlight Apps in the Windows 10 version for phones. Even WP8.1 still supports XNA Games from the WP7.0 era.
Depending on the APIs you are using in your libraries the majority of changes when converting from Silverlight to WinRT will be on the UI side, e.g. if your Silverlight App already uses the LocalStorage-APIs instead of the IsolatedStorage-APIs that won't even have to be changed.
My advice would be the following:
evaluate wether all functionality you need is supported in Universal Apps (some functionality is currently only available in Silverlight Apps)
evaluate wether the actual APIs you are using are supported in Universal Apps or need to be replaced (IsolatedStorage => LocalStorage, etc.)
Armed with that knowledge I'd guess you will be able to better plan on when to port your App to the new APIs. If a tablet version is likely in the future and all required APIs are supported in the Universal App Model porting sooner will likely require less effort than porting later.
I begin to use windows phone 8.1 SDK but there are some strange things i don't understand, one of this complicated things why there are different frameworks Silverlight and the default xaml, also what is the difference between them and when i use this or this ?
One huge difference is of course that the Store Apps supports Universal Apps, where you can easily share almost all all of the code across WP8.1 and Windows 8.1 (including XAML).
But it is Worth noting that there are several features which some apps might require which is only available for WP8.1 Silverlight apps, such as:
VoIP support
Act as Lock screen background provider
Act as a Lens app
Let app extend search results using search extras
Provide ringtones
And a few other listed here along with a feature mapping from WP8 to WP8.1 Silverlight and Store Apps: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/dn642486(v=vs.105).aspx
If you are starting a new app and will not need any of these features a Store app is probably the better choice though.
If I understand your question correctly, let me put some sentences from MSDN...
why there are different frameworks Silverlight and the default xaml,
also what is the difference between them and when i use this or this ?
In Visual Studio 2013 Microsoft has come up with an approach where you can build Apps for
Phone as well as for Desktop and tabs simultaneously. A unique concept of Universal Apps.
Build an app for Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 at the same time,
and share code, user controls, styles, strings and other assets between them
So if you are going to develop an Apps targeting both the platform, then Universal apps concept is good.
But if you are targeting only the new features of Windows Phone 8.1 then you should start with Silverlight "Blank App (Windows Phone Silverlight)"
As in MSDN its clearly mentioned.
The names of some templates have (Windows Phone Silverlight) appended
to the end. Consider using these templates if you've previously developed
for Windows Phone 8 and just want to access some of the new features available
to Windows Phone apps without having to significantly modify your existing
code. You can use these templates to create apps only for Windows Phone 8.1
More details MSDN Link
Windows Phone Silverlight is Windows Phone 8 deployments where obviously the WP 8.1 is deployment for WP 8.1
The main difference is that the WP 8.1 can use the cross platform DLLs where as WP 8 can not. There are many other framework differences but this is a huge one.
Is there any future of winform and wpf app in smart phone or tablet market. will we be able to develop applications for window store on winform or wpf. Or are they a dead technology
Thanks
I don't think they will be dead so soon. may be yes for Winforms. but still there are tons of applications that are running on Winforms and even on consoles.
you can use XAML for smart phones as well as tables. even WinRT supports XAML. also there are new libraries out there you can write programs targeting multiple platforms such as Portable Class Library
The new standard for building desktop applications is WPF. This is currently not deprecated and will not be for the foreseeable future. When developing for Windows phones and tablets there is an API very similar to WPF in structure/feel (using XAML).
I have a Windows Mobile 6 application, written in C# and I want to port it to Windows Phone 7.
What modifications do I have to do to the original application? Do I have to modify only the user interface or are there any other things I need to modify in the backgroung code?
You can not use native API in Windows Phone 7 applications.
You should recompile your dlls from wp7 environment.
UI should be re-written with XAML.
All interaction with network should be acync.
WebBrowser is different from WinMobile6 one.
You can not use sockets (should wait for Mango update).
It is likely you will need to make a decent number of changes. The framework changed from .NET Compact Framework 3.5 to Silverlight Phone Edition, aka almost-but-not-quite Silverlight 3. And the guidelines for submission to the app store are much stricter in terms of user experience, e.g. time taken to load the app, behavior of background processing, etc.