What's new in Windows Phone Mango for Developers

Highlights of What’s
New in Windows
Phone Mango
Glen Gordon
Developer Evangelist, Microsoft
http://glengordon.name

Topics
 Fast Application Switching
 Background Agents
 Live Tiles
 XNA/Silverlight integration

Windows Phone

Demo

Demo 1:
Fast Application Switching

Application Lifecycle - Dormant App Resume
Fast

running
State preserved!
e.IsApplicationInstancePreserved Save State!
== true

activated deactivated

dormant Phone resources detached
Threads & timers suspended

Windows Phone

Application Lifecycle - Tombstoned ..
Resuming
.
Restore state!
e.IsApplicationInstancePreserved
running
== false

activated deactivated

Tombstone Tombstoned dormant Phone resources detached
the oldest Threads & timers suspended
app
Windows Phone

Methods & Events

Windows Phone 6

Finding the Resume type
private void Application_Activated(object sender, ActivatedEventArgs e)
{
if (e.IsApplicationInstancePreserved)
{
// Dormant - objects in memory intact
}
else
{
// Tombstoned - need to reload
}
}

 The Activation handler can test a flag to determine the type of resume taking
place

Windows Phone

Deactivation Resource Management
MediaPlayer.Pause
MediaElement.Pause
SoundEffectInstance.Pause
VibrateController.Stop
PhotoCamera.Dispose
Save page/global state

XNA Audio Paused
Sensors Notifications suppressed
Networking Cancelled
Sockets Disconnected
MediaElement Disconnected
Camera Disposed

Windows Phone

Activation Resource Management

MediaElement.Source/Position/Play
Socket.ConnectAsync
new PhotoCamera/VideoCamera

Restore app state if tombstoned

XNA Audio Resumed
Sensors Notifications resumed
Networking Completed with Cancellation
Sockets -
MediaElement -
Camera -
Windows Phone

Isolated Storage vs State Storage
 Isolated storage is so called because the data for an application is isolated from
all other applications
 It can be used as filestore where an application can store folders and files
 It is slow to access, since it is based on NVRAM technology
 It can also be used to store name/value pairs, e.g. program settings
 State storage is so called because it is used to hold the state of an application
 It can be used to store name/value pairs which are held in memory for
dormant or tombstoned applications
 It provides very quick access to data

Windows Phone 10

Captain’s Log

Demo
• With No Storage
• With Storage
• Fully Working

Multitasking Capabilities

 Background Agents
 Periodic
 Resource Intensive
 Background Transfer Service
 Alarms and Reminders
 Background Audio

Windows Phone 14

Background Agents
 Agents
 Periodic
 Resource Intensive
 An app may have up to one of each
 Initialized in foreground, run in background
 Persisted across reboots
 User control through Settings
 System maximum of 18 periodic agent
 Agent runs for up to 14 days (can be renewed)

15 Windows Phone

Generic Agent Types
Periodic Agents Resource Intensive
 Occurrence Agents
 Every 30 min  Occurrence
 Duration  External power
 ~15 seconds  Non-cell network
 Constraints  Duration
 <= 6 MB Memory  10 minutes
 <=10% CPU  Constraints
 <= 6 MB Memory
16

Background Agent Functionality
Allowed Restricted
 Tiles
 Toast  Display UI
 Location  XNA libraries
 Network  Microphone and Camera
 R/W ISO store  Sensors
 Sockets  Play audio
(may only use background audio APIs)
 Most framework APIs

17 Windows Phone

Demo

Demo1: Captain’s Location Log

Debugging a Background Task
#if DEBUG_AGENT
ScheduledActionService.LaunchForTest(taskName, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(60));
#endif

 It would be annoying if we had to wait 30 minutes to get code in the agent
running so we could debug it
 When we are debugging we can force service to launch itself
 Such code can be conditionally compiled and removed before the production
version is built

Windows Phone 19

Debugging the Agent Code
 When you use the Back button or Start on the phone to interrupt an application
with an active Background Task ,Visual Studio does not stop running
 It remains attached to the application
 You can then put breakpoints into the background task application and debug
them as you would any other program
 You can single step, view the contents of variables and even change them
using the Immediate Window
 This is also true if you are working on a device rather than the emulator
 The same techniques work on ResourceIntensiveAgents

Windows Phone 20

File Transfer Tasks
 It is also possible to create a background task to transfer files to and from your
application’s isolated storage
 The transfers will continue to work even when the application is not running
 An application can monitor the state of the downloads and display their status
 Files can be fetched from HTTP or HTTPs hosts
 At the moment FTP is not supported
 The system maintains a queue of active transfers and services each one in
turn
 Applications can query the state of active transfers

Windows Phone 22

Background Transfer Policies
 There are a set of policies that control transfer behavior
 Maximum Upload file size: 5Mb
 Maximum Download file size over cellular (mobile phone) data: 20Mb
 Maximum Download file size over WiFi: 100Mb
 These can be modified by setting the value of TransferPreferences on a
particular transfer

Windows Phone 23

Transfer Management
 An application can find out how many file transfers it has active
 It will have to do this when it is restarted, as file transfers will continue even
when the application is not running
 It can then perform transfer management as required
 There is a good example of transfer list management on MSDN:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh202953.aspx

Windows Phone

Scheduled Notifications

 Time-based, on-phone notifications
 Supports Alerts & Reminders
 Persist across reboots
 Adheres to user settings
 Consistent with phone UX

Windows Phone 26

Alarms vs Reminders?
Alarms Reminde
rs

• Modal • Rich information
• Snooze and Dismiss • Integrates with other reminders
• Sound customization • Snooze and Dismiss
• No app invocation • Launch app
• No stacking • Follows the phones global settings
27

Creating a Reminder
using Microsoft.Phone.Scheduler;
...
eggReminder = new Reminder("Egg Timer");

eggReminder.BeginTime = DateTime.Now + new TimeSpan(0, eggTime, 0);
eggReminder.Content = "Egg Ready";
eggReminder.RecurrenceType = RecurrenceInterval.None;
eggReminder.NavigationUri = new Uri("/EggReadyPage.xaml", UriKind.Relative);

ScheduledActionService.Add(eggReminder);

 This code creates a reminder and adds it as a scheduled service
 The value eggTime holds the length of the delay
 This code also sets the url of the page in the application
Windows Phone 28

Reminder Housekeeping
Reminder eggReminder = ScheduledActionService.Find("Egg Timer") as Reminder;

if ( eggReminder != null )
{
ScheduledActionService.Remove("Egg Timer");
}

 Reminders are identified by name
 This code finds the “Egg Timer” reminder and then removes it from the
scheduler

Windows Phone 29

Audio Playback Agents
 It is also possible to create an
Audio Playback Agent that
will manage an application
controlled playlist
 The mechanism is the same
as for other background
tasks
 The audio can be streamed
or held in the application
isolated storage

Windows Phone 31

Background Audio
 Playback
 App provides URL or stream to Zune
 Audio continues to play even if app is closed
 App is notified of file or buffer near completion
 Phone Integration
 Music & Video Hub
 Universal Volume Control (UVC), launch app, controls, contextual info
 Contextual launch – Start menu, UVC, Music & Video Hub
 App Integration
 App can retrieve playback status, progress, & metadata
 Playback notification registration

Windows Phone 32

Consumer Experience
 Windows phone has the unique
ability to provide the end user
glanceable access to the
information they care most
about, via Live Tiles
+
 Push Notifications offer
developers a way to send timely
information to the end user’s
device even when the
Windows Phone

Tiles 101
 Shortcuts to apps
 Static or dynamic
 2 sizes: small &
large
 Large only for 1st

party apps
 End-user is in
Windows Phone

Data Driven Template Model

 A fixed set of data properties
 Each property corresponds to a UI
element
 Each UI element has a fixed position on
screen
 Not all elements need to be used
Background Image
(173 x 173 .png)
Title Count

Windows Phone

Scenarios/Popular Applications
 Weather Apps  Send to WP7
 Weather Tile  Link Tile
 Warning Toast  Link Toast
 Chess by Post  AlphaJax
 Turn Tile  Turn Tile
 Move Toast  Move Toast
 Beezz  Seattle Traffic Map
 Unread Tile  Traffic Tile
 Direct Toast

Windows Phone

Primary and Secondary Tiles
 Application Tile Front

 Pinned from App List
 Properties are set initially in the
Application Manifest Bac
k

 Secondary Tile
 New in Windows Phone 7.5!
 Created as a result of user input in an
application
Windows Phone

Live Tiles – Local Tile API
 Local tile updates (these are *not* push)
 Full control of all properties when your app
is in the foreground or background
 Calorie counter, sticky notes
 Multi-Tile!
 Deep-link to specific application sections
 Launch directly to page/experience

Windows Phone

Live Tiles – Local Tile API
Continued…
 Back of tile updates
 Full control of all properties when your app
is in the foreground or background
 Content, Title, Background
Content Content
string is Background
bigger
Title Title

 Flips from front to back at random interval
 Smart logic to make flips asynchronous
Windows Phone

Demo

Demo 1: Live Tiles – Local Tile API

Tile Schedule
 Periodically updates the tile image without pushing message though
 Updates images only from the web, not from the app local store
 Sets up notification channel and binds it to a tile notification
 Few limitations
 Image size must be less than 80 KB
 Download time must not exceed 60 seconds
 Lowest update time resolution is 60 minutes
 If the schedule for an indefinite or finite number of updates fails
too many times, OS will cancel it
 Update recurrence can by Onetime, EveryHour, EveryDay,
EveryWeek or EveryMonth
Windows Phone

Scheduling Tile Update
public partial class MainPage : PhoneApplicationPage {
private ShellTileSchedule _mySchedule;
public MainPage() {
InitializeComponent();
ScheduleTile();
}

private void ScheduleTile() {
_mySchedule = new ShellTileSchedule();
_mySchedule.Recurrence = UpdateRecurrence.Onetime;
_mySchedule.StartTime = DateTime.Now;
_mySchedule.RemoteImageUri = new
Uri("http://cdn3.afterdawn.fi/news/small/windows-phone-7-series.png");
_mySchedule.Start();
}
}

Windows Phone

Updating Tiles from a Background
Agent
 In Windows Phone OS 7.0, only way of updating Live Tiles was from a Tile
Schedule or from Notifications
 Tile Schedule needs to fetch images from
a web URI
 Notifications require you to implement a
backend service
 To have control of shell tiles when the app is not running without using Push
Notifications, a good solution is a Background Agent
 Use the ShellTile API to locate and
update tiles
Windows Phone

Demo

Demo 2: Updating Tiles from a Background
Agent

Push Notifications

 Server-initiated communication
 Enable key background scenarios
 Preserve battery life and user
experience
 Prevent polling for updates

Windows Phone

Push Notification Data Flow
2 URI to the service:
"http://notify.live.com/throttledthirdparty/01.00/AAFRQHgiiMWN
3rd party
Push enabled TYrRDXAHQtz- service
applications AgrNpzcDAwAAAAQOMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDA"
3
Notifications
service HTTP POST the
4 message
Send PN
Message
1 Push endpoint is established. URI is created
for the endpoint.
Microsoft
hosted
server

Windows Phone

Three Kinds of Notifications
 Raw
 Notification message content is application-specific
 Delivered directly to app only if it is running
 Toast
 Specific XML schema
 Content delivered to app if it is running
 If app is not running, system displays Toast popup using notification message content
 Tile
 Specific XML schema
 Never delivered to app
 If user has pinned app tile to Start screen, system updates it using notification message
content

Windows Phone

Push Notifications – New Features
 Multi-Tile/Back of Tile Support
 Multiple weather locations, news categories,
sports team scores, twitter favorites
 Can update all tiles belonging to your application
 No API Change for binding tiles
 BindToShellTile now binds you to all tiles
 Send Tile ID to service and use new attribute to
direct update
 Three new elements for back of tile properties
Windows Phone

Toast Notification

 App icon and two text fields
 Time critical and personally relevant
 Users must opt-in via app UI

Windows Phone

Response Custom Headers
 Response Code: HTTP status code (200 OK)
 Notification Status
 Notification received by the Push Notification Service
 For example: “X-NotificationStatus:Received”
 DeviceConnectionStatus
 The connection status of the device
 //For example: X-DeviceConnectionStatus:Connected
 SubscriptionStatus
 The subscription status
 //For example: X-SubscriptionStatus:Active
 More information
 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff402545(v=VS.92).aspx

Windows Phone

XNA and Silverlight
integration

Xna and Silverlight combined

 It is now possible to create an application that
combines XNA and Silverlight
 The XNA runs within a Silverlight page
 This makes it easy to use XNA to create
gameplay and Silverlight to build the user
interface
 Possible to put Silverlight elements onto an XNA
game screen so the user can interact with both
elements at the same time
Windows Phone 57

Creating a Combined Project

 This project contains both Silverlight and
XNA elements
Windows Phone 58

A combined solution

 A combined solution contains three
projects
 The Silverlight project
 An XNA library project
 The content project
 These are created automatically
by Visual Studio
Windows Phone 59

The XNA GamePage
 The XNA gameplay is
displayed on a specific
Silverlight page that is
added to the project when it
is created
 When this page is
navigated to the XNA game
behind it will start running
 However, the Silverlight
system is still active around
Windows Phone 60

Starting a Combined Application
 When the combined
application starts the
MainPage is displayed
 It contains a button that can
be used to navigate to the
game page
 You can build your own
Windows Phone 61

Navigating to the game page
private void Button_Click(object sender,
RoutedEventArgs e)
{
NavigationService.Navigate(new Uri("/GamePage.xaml",
UriKind.Relative));
}

 This is the button event hander in
MainPage.xaml.cs
 Navigating to the page will trigger the XNA
gameplay to start
Windows Phone

The game page
protected override void OnNavigatedTo(NavigationEventArgs e)
protected override void OnNavigatedFrom(NavigationEventArgs e)
private void OnUpdate(object sender, GameTimerEventArgs e)
private void OnDraw(object sender, GameTimerEventArgs e)

 These are the methods on the game page that contorl
gameplay
 OnNavigatedTo will do the job of the Initialize and
LoadContent methods
 OnNavigatedFrom is used to suspend the game
 OnUpdate is the Update method
 OnDraw is the Draw method
Windows Phone

Combining XNA and Silverlight


 The default combined project does not contain
any XAML content for the XNA page
 If XAML elements are added to this page they will
not be displayed without some extra code
 The Silverlight page is rendered to a texture
which is drawn in the XNA game
 We have to add the code to do this
Windows Phone

Summary

 Get the new tools at
http://create.msdn.com
 Windows Phone Mango Jumpstart

Windows Phone 66

What's new in Windows Phone Mango for Developers

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