Quick Start in Developing app for Windows Phone 8 - windows-phone

i want to learn developing apps for windows phone 8. so I got into this http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff402535(v=vs.92).aspx page
I am assuming that ill be using c# to do apps for wp8, but in the page i mention above I see silverlight and xna. Right now I am confuse, isn't silverlight is like flash? is this the recommended why to do wp8 apps? I did a little research about XNA, and it seems to be all about games but Iam not into developing games but rather some productivity apps.
is c# not for wp8? Please help me if there's anything I am wrong about.
THanks,
james

Silverlight is like flash - but it is also the main technology for writing Windows Phone apps. I wrote a primer for people not from a Microsoft background on this which you might find helpful,
Windows Phone Development for People in a Hurry

You can write C# applications of visual basic if you like.
Look at more examples found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff431744%28v=vs.92%29.aspx

C# is the code-behind language of your apps, while Silverlight (XAML) is the front end UI design language of your apps.
I am not sure if you are familiar with ASP.Net web development or not, but it is just like that where C# or VB.Net are the code-behind languages while the front-end is in HTML/JavaScript.

Related

Creating universal applications for Consoles (PS4/XBoxOne)

I have been looking all over the place for an answer but I haven't found anything on this yet.
I want to create an application (not a game) for PS4 or XBoxOne but so far none of the related websites provides either a good documentation or any answers on such a question. I want to create applications like Netflix and Hulu Plus.
Does anyone have any clue on how to do this either through Unity3D or through other IDE's, any links or tutorials will suffice?
Historically the PS4 and XboxOne have been a partner-only platform. Though Sony hasn't announced plans to make PS4 non-game apps available to indie-developers, I can help point you in the right direction.
Build your apps with WinJS 4.0.1 (or greater) and ES5
Package your Javascript-Based app for Windows 10 Hosted Web App (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/dn705792.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396)
Contact Sony Developer World (https://developer.sony.com/) to request Media Application (non-game) access
Hint: Sony non-game apps support something pretty darn similar to step #2
Good Luck!
Right now Xbox One development is not broadly available. Microsoft announced that with Windows 10, they will be opening up to a much bigger set of developers.
Get the Visual Studio 2015 preview and start learning how Universal Apps work on PC and phone. That will prepare you for when Xbox becomes available as a development target.
For PlayStation there is something called LibJScript. This is used primarily for application making on PS platforms (PS3/PS4/PS Vita). It also contains Canvas2D so if you have made any HTML games before it should feel familiar.
It is probably worth mentioning that you need to have access to a Sony development Platform. The process is detailed at https://www.playstation.com/en-us/develop/

PhoneGap for Windows Store Apps

Can we use PhoneGap for Windows Store Apps that will be developed using C# and Xaml? If so, can it handle all device and resolution dependencies?
I'm not quite sure what you're asking here. If the question is "Can we use phonegap to develop an app for windows 8" the answer is yes : http://docs.phonegap.com/en/edge/guide_platforms_win8_index.md.html#Windows%208%20Platform%20Guide
If you're question is "can I write code for a phonegap application using C#" the answer is no. The whole point of phonegap is that it allows you to write applications for various different platforms in HTML and Javascript.

C++ WebView control in Windows Phone 8?

Is there a web browser or web view control available to Windows Phone 8 applications written in C++? I've found a WebBrowser control but that seems to be only available in Windows Phone 7 written in C#.
There's no way to directly use a WebBrowser control in C++. You'll have to create a mixed C++ and XAML projects and overlay the on top of your DirectX .
Note, using Hybrid XAML & D3D apps has a small performance hit over using pure C++ D3D apps. Even if you never show any XAML, just initializing the full CLR and loading up XAML for is still pretty heavy. Read more about it on MSDN here and here.
On other thing that might be applicable to you is that the WebBrowserTask has been ported over to WinRT so it's accessible from C++. Alongside with the Launcher.LaunchUriAsync() method it allows you to navigate away from your app and open up IE10 to a specific page.

Can we access Windows 8 WinRT API from desktop application and Windows Phone 8 app? If so, are they in different namespaces?

Over the course of time I received a number of comments on my blog in this area. Many questions were asked like “Can you use WinRT from Desktop applications?”, “Can you use WinRT from .NET applications?”, “Can you use WinRT from .NET applications?” etc? If so, how?
Yes, you can and for more information refer to http://kishore1021.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/can-you-use-windows-8-winrt-api-from-net-desktop-applications/
Coming to architecting such applications, the best way to go forward is to develop a Portable Class Library and access the API's that can be used from Desktop, Store and Phone apps. By this kind of design, you don't rewrite the business logic code for each device. For detailed information on PCL, see http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/This+Week+On+Channel+9/TWC9-August-10-2012
The subset of the Win32 and COM API that can be used in a Metro style app is indicated in the header files in the Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Metro style Apps. Look for the following statements in the header files:
#pragma region Application Family
#pragma region Desktop Family
More of that sort:
From CodeProject
From Intel Developer Zone

Does anyone know of a QR Code Reader library for a Windows 8 Metro App?

We're looking to read some QR codes in a Windows 8 Metro app. .NET libraries we've used in the past can't be referenced in WinRT/Metro and porting them won't be easy because they depend on System.Drawing which isn't in the .NET for Metro style apps. We looked at this by Benjamin Soulier but it didn't seem to work. Any other suggestions or something easy we're missing?
Thanks
You can use ZXing.Net:
http://zxingnet.codeplex.com/
For Metro apps based upon HTML5/Javascript I'm currently working on a port of zxing.net for Windows Runtime Components WinMD. You can get the source from here
https://zxingnet.svn.codeplex.com/svn/branches/WINMD
(btw. I'm the creator of ZXing.Net (a port of the java based ZXing))
Based on feedback from MS resources, there is nothing built in and no frameworks they were aware of yet.
Quick way to try is by using Esponce web service. Make a simple HTTP POST request to http://www.esponce.com/api/v3/decode?format=png and send image data in body. Response should contain something like that:
{"content":"here goes content decoded from QR Code"}
Web services are platform-independent (easy to port) and lightweight on client side.
More details in Esponce API documentation