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Highlights | What’s New | Code Samples | Walkthroughs | Features
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More Code Samples – There are 22 new code samples covering a majority of the platform features in Mango. These code samples are snackable solutions that allow you to hit F5 and go! Most of the samples are also accompanied by a walkthrough so that you can see how it was specifically built and how to extend it for your own apps and games. New Guided Walkthroughs – We now have over 90 scenario-based walkthroughs for both Windows Phone OS 7.0 and Windows Phone OS 7.1. The Mango specific walkthroughs are listed below. Brand New User Experience Guidelines – There is a new guide to help you follow best practices for Windows Phone user experience design. This documentation collects advice from the experts who created Windows Phone, and from people who were the designers of many of its first applications. There are more than 35 new topics to help you, all of which are integrated deeply into the MSDN documentation set. Refreshed Application Certification Requirements – The application certification requirements are now available online in the MSDN library. The documentation now contains test steps for most requirements. This means that now you can test your applications against the requirements, before you submit them to App Hub for certification. Note that specific updates for Mango will be released later in June with Beta 2. Updates to the Windows Phone Marketplace FAQ – The Windows Phone Marketplace FAQ has migrated from App Hub to the MSDN Library and has been updated with the latest program information. Instead of one long web page it has been broken out into separate pages, each of which focuses on a specific topic area. Content Improvements on App Hub – Leading up to Beta we launched 20+ Windows Phone Developer Resources pages that map to the documentation. We’ve updated Home, Getting Started, Downloads, Application Submission – Artwork, and Game Development pages |
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LEARN WHAT’S NEW
What’s New in Windows Phone Developer Tools Application Compatibility between OS 7.0 and OS 7.1 (new and modified APIs) Known Issues and Breaking Changes
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GO DEEP ON NEW FEATURES
The Execution Model and Fast Application Switching | learn more… The execution model is now updated to include a dormant state before tombstoning. When a user returns to a dormant application, it resumes quickly and without displaying the Resuming… message to the user. Background Agents (Scheduled Notifications and Tasks) | learn more… You can now schedule actions for a future time, and they will occur even if the application is not running in the foreground. The actions that you can schedule belong to two categories; notifications and tasks.
Background Audio | learn more… Your audio applications can now run in the background. Music continues to play while the user launches other apps, and the user has access to the volume controls.
Background File Transfers | learn more… You can now initiate file downloads in your application that continue after the user has navigated away. The file downloads continue to run in the background, even when your application is no longer running in the foreground.
Sensors | learn more… In addition to the accelerometer, your applications can now access the compass and gyroscope sensors, enabling development of apps and games where the physical device itself is a means of user input. There is also now a combined motion API that provides data for attitude (yaw, pitch and roll), device acceleration and rotation rate.
Sockets Support | learn more… Your applications can now communicate over sockets using the TCP and UDP protocols. Sockets allow two-way communication with cloud services, and enable scenarios such as instant messaging and multi-player gaming.
Network Information | learn more… Your applications can now access information about the network and network interfaces. You can determine the mobile operator and network capabilities of a user’s phone, and you can get and set connection preferences and requirements.
Camera | learn more… Windows Phone Developer Tools 7.1 Beta now gives you programmatic access to the camera on Windows Phone devices, including real-time access to raw frames. This enables you to create scanning and augmented reality applications. You can also access the flash and adjust the focus in your applications.
Push Notifications | learn more… The push notification system is now more robust. Toast notifications can now link to specific places within your application, and pass parameters. Tile notifications now support two-sided application and secondary tiles.
Live Tiles | learn more… Application tiles pinned to the start screen now have two sides and they flip periodically, making tiles both more animated and more informative. Your applications can have more than one tile pinned to the start screen, such as tiles for different cities in a weather app.
Silverlight and XNA Integration | learn more… Instead of choosing between Silverlight and the XNA Framework, you can now use both in a single app or game. You can combine the page navigation model of a Silverlight application with the rich graphics power of an XNA Framework application.
Application Profiling | learn more… Windows Phone OS 7.1 now gives you the ability to profile your apps and games. You can measure the use of system resources such as CPU and memory over time, and navigate directly from the results to your code.
Windows Phone Emulator | learn more… Windows Phone Emulator is now enhanced to simulate sensor data. You can now do initial testing of applications that use sensor data directly in the emulator.
Visual Basic Support | learn more… Visual Basic is now available for both Silverlight and XNA Framework applications. Visual Basic is fully integrated into Windows Phone Developer Tools 7.1 Beta; you do not need to install it separately.
Multi-targeting and App Compatibility | learn more… You can use Windows Phone Developer Tools 7.1 Beta to create Silverlight® and XNA projects that target either Windows Phone OS 7.1 or Windows Phone OS 7.0. When you create a new project you are prompted to select the version that you want to target. You can also upgrade existing Windows Phone OS 7.0 projects to take advantage of the new Windows Phone OS 7.1 features.
WebBrowser Control | learn more… The web browser control now supports Internet Explorer 9 and the benefits of increased performance and HTML5 rendering. You can also programmatically access the cookie collection of a web browser control through the web browser extension methods.
Device Status | learn more… Windows Phone Developer Tools 7.1 Beta now gives you expanded programmatic access to a user’s windows phone device through the DeviceStatus class. You can now determine whether the device is using the battery or external power, whether a keyboard is available or deployed, the device manufacturer, and more.
Local Database | learn more… You can now store relational data in a local database that resides in your application’s isolated storage container. Your applications can use LINQ to SQL to perform database operations. New APIs enable programmatic database upgrade scenarios.
Launchers and Choosers | learn more… Windows Phone Developer Tools 7.1 Beta introduces several new launchers and choosers. From your applications you can now choose an address, invite players to a game session, or save a ringtone. You can also show a location on a map at a preset zoom level, or show directions between two points on a Bing map. The following are the new launchers and choosers. § Address Chooser Task § Game Invite Task § Save Ringtone Task § Bing Maps Task § Bing Maps Directions Task
Contacts and Calendar | learn more… Windows Phone Developer Tools 7.1 Beta now gives you read-only access to the user’s contacts and calendar data. You can now differentiate your applications by querying and interacting with the user’s data in ways such as letting the user choose from a list of their contacts and sending them emails, searching for contacts’ birthdays, and others.
Encrypted Credential Store | No documentation for Beta Windows Phone Developer Tools 7.1 Beta now provides access to a set of cryptography APIs. For applications that require login credentials, these APIs enable you to store the credentials in an encrypted way. Now your users do not have to log in anew each time they use your application.
User Experience Design Guidelines | learn more… There is a new guide to help you follow best practices for Windows Phone user experience design. This documentation collects advice from the experts who created Windows Phone, and from people who were the designers of many of its first applications. There are more than 35 new topics to help you.
Certification Requirements | learn more… The application certification requirements are now available online in the MSDN library. The documentation now contains test steps for most requirements. This means that now you can test your applications against the requirements, before you submit them to App Hub for certification. Several updates have been made to content policies and technical requirements. You can see the change history topic for more information.
Performance | learn more… There are new performance enhancements in Windows Phone OS 7.1. Touch input for certain controls, and image decoding, now happen on background threads. These changes enable the user interface to be more responsive. You do not have to make any changes to your applications to take advantage of the improved performance.
Search Extensibility | learn more… Search Extras are a new way for your applications to seamlessly extend the search experience on Windows Phone. With Search Extras, users who search the web can launch your application directly from Bing search results.
System Tray and Progress Indicator | learn more… The system tray now supports opacity and colors. It also includes a progress indicator that you can use to indicate progress in your applications.
OData Client | learn more… Windows Phone Developer Tools 7.1 Beta now include the Add Service Reference dialog that enables you to generate a client proxy class. You can also use LINQ queries to access OData resources, and perform client authentication to secure OData services with a login ID and password. There is also improved performance when saving client state.
Globalization and Localization | learn more… Windows Phone OS 7.1 adds support for 16 additional cultures. There is now support for East Asian languages, including reading and user interface fonts. |
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One Response to “A Comprehensive Mango Developer Documentation Reference”
Markus
That kind of thinking shows you’re an expret