This is the second edition of this book. We wanted to improve upon the first edition and become the market leader in providing practical knowledge on the fast-coming, latest-and-greatest technology of Windows Phone.
While this second edition was being written, Microsoft and Nokia formally announced their partnership and signed mutual agreement to seal their commitment. It is expected that this partnership between Microsoft and Nokia will bring Windows Phone 7 into the major player arena. We hope that this book will provide developers with the practical knowledge that we gained by developing real world applications; we also hope it will inspire developers to seek growing markets with Windows Phone.
This book assumes that you have basic C# and .NET knowledge. This book will provide you with basic fundamentals and skills that you need to be successful in developing a Windows Phone applications. You don't need previous experience in developing a mobile application—the only thing you need is a desire to learn new technology.
In order to write Windows Phone applications and to test out the examples in this book, you'll need to download the tools listed here. All of these are available at no charge from Microsoft. You'll find additional information on how to install and use these tools in Part 1 of this book.
Windows Phone Developer Tools RTW at
http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/7/7/177D6AF8-17FA-40E7-AB53-00B7CED31729/vm_web.exeZune Software at
www.zune.net/en-us/products/software/download/Windows Phone 7 UI Design and Interface Guide at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=183218Windows Phone 7 Marketplace Certification Requirements at
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9730558Microsoft SQL 2008 R2 Express at
www.microsoft.com/express/Database/Azure Tools for Visual Studio 1.2 June 2010 at
http://download.microsoft.com/DOWNLOAD/1/F/9/1F96D60F-EBE9-44CB-BD58-88C2EC14929E/VSCLOUDSERVICE.EXEAzure SDK June 2010 at
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/sdk/Windows Azure Platform Training Kit September—for the latest update, please check at
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=413e88f8-5966-4a83-b309-53b7b77edf78
The book contains 19 chapters broken into two major parts. In Part 1, we will walk you through the development life cycle of the application. You will go from coding the simplest possible "Hello World"-style Windows Phone 7 application to building a full-blown, modern n-tier application that uses both the Windows Phone development platform and the unique cloud services that support it. The section concludes with step-by-step instructions on how to gain certification from Microsoft and offer an application to the public through the Windows Phone Marketplace.
In Part 2, you will learn how to use specific features of Windows Phone devices in your applications, including the accelerometer, location service, application bar, reactive extensions, application hub integration, application life cycle events, isolated storage, Silverlight, XAML, skinning controls, web browser controls, media elements, photos, push notifications, internalization, and security. While each of its chapters is a tutorial, you can also use Part 2 as a reference. Each chapter focuses on a single phone feature and provides step-by-step instructions on how to incorporate it into your application.
The source code of all of the examples is available at www.apress.com/ and wp7apress.codeplex.com.
We value your input. We'd like to know what you like about the book and what you don't like about it. When providing feedback, please make sure you include the title of the book in your note to us.
We've tried to make this book as error-free as possible. However, mistakes happen. If you find any type of error in this book, whether it is a typo or an erroneous command, please let us know about it. Visit the book's web site at www.apress.com/9781430235965 and click the Errata tab. Your information will be validated and posted on the errata page to be used in subsequent editions of the book.
You can contact us directly at the following e-mail addresses:
Henry Lee: [email protected]
Eugene Chuvyrov: [email protected]