Windows App Developer Links - 2012-05-03

posted on 02 May 2012 | App Developer Links

Windows 8

  • Cloud services for Windows 8 and Windows Phone: Windows Live, reimagined (Building Windows 8 Blog)

    • "We have talked quite a bit about SkyDrive and using your Microsoft account for the sign-in and roaming capabilities of Windows 8. These are just two aspects of a broad service infrastructure that you can tap into when using Windows 8 (and Windows Phone, Xbox LIVE, and a host of other services and apps). We want to talk more about the capabilities and features of cloud services for Windows 8 and Windows Phone. To get started, Chris Jones, the VP of our Windows Live group responsible for the development and operations of all of the services and apps, authored this post to introduce the reimagined role of cloud services in Windows 8."

Metro App Development

  • Metro Style Applications - Designing for the User (Lazar Nikolov)

    • "It has been months since Windows 8 is available for developers and the need for new applications is growing in a fast pace. And nothing is more exacting than a computer user in 21st century. It's quite difficult to build the right application, moreover - it's even more difficult to stay on top and not to be, metaphorically, stepped over by the big players. They always know what exactly the user wants and have the resources to provide it to him. But that's not always what has to happen after all. You have the power to build what the user wants and even build it so that s/he would feel it so natural to use your Metro application. That is to design the application in a way that using the fingers on the display seems to be a pleasure, but not a challenge."

  • Creating My First Windows Metro-style App (Noel Arlante)

    • "I've blogged last month on how to get started on building metro-style applications. Since then, I've been trying out the sample projects made by the Windows team to help developers be up to speed with Metro-style application development. The official Sample Pack is 306.4MB in size as of this writing. You can even vote a sample request that you would like the Windows team to add in the samples pack - Metro style apps Requests for Samples. The latest completed request is a sample USB Barcode Scanner, nice! After checking on the samples and creating sample projects, I decided to create a basic application with Metro-style. I do not need to look far since one of the article is on how to create a basic Blog Reader. That will be a great app to start with especially if there is a step-by-step guide available."

  • Integrating With Windows 8 Share Charm - Part 1: Sharing Data (Going Metro Blog)

    • "This blog post describes the process of implementing sharing in Windows 8. Windows 8 share charms lets the users share content from within the app with other people or apps, and receive shared content. Below is a snapshot of the Images App that I will be using to demonstrate. The app uses "Bing Image Search" API to search for images based on the keyword provided by the user."

  • Simple Camera Capture in Window 8 Metro Style Application (Jim Blizzard)

    • "During one of my sessions from the Windows 8 Developer Camp I talked about how easy it is for current .NET developers to write Windows 8 Metro style apps. One slide in particular showed how easy it is to interact with devices, etc., through the Windows Runtime in Windows 8 as compared to how difficult it can be when talking to the Win32 API in a traditional desktop application."

  • Connecting to WCF RIA Services in a Windows 8 Metro Style App using Upshot.js and Knockout.js (Dave Isbitski)

    • "After messing around with KnockoutJS inside of Metro Style Apps I decided to dive a little deeper and see what Single Page Applications (particularly Upshot.js) could offer. I've gotten asked by more than a few developers how best to connect to their existing WCF RIA Services inside of Metro Style Apps. The approach I took here is one possible solution to help get your started. For those not familiar with Upshot it is a JavaScript Library that allows you to connect to WCF RIA Services. It is by the same great wizards who wrote ASP.NET MVC4 Single Page Applications. and included already in Single Page App templates!"

  • Creating a Windows Metro style application in C++ (Filip Ekberg)

    • "I am going to step out of my comfort zone a bit and write a post that touches the surface of C++ in Windows 8. Let us start off by looking at an image of what the new WinRT(Windows Runtime) look like... As you can see, there are a lot of powerful ways to create both metro style and desktop applications. Notice that in Metro style applications, XAML is connected to both C++ and C#/VB. During my years of .NET development, the reason for using C# or VB has been; RAD(Rapid Application Development). In a world filled with consultants where the customers only see the end result, it can often be hard to convince that putting down 200% more time using C++ is a great idea."