101 Windows Phone 7 Apps, Volume I Developing Apps 1-50

Learn how to create and sell winning Windows Phone 7 applications through 50 polished, fully-functional examples! The full-color, example-driven guide to Windows Phone 7 development - written by renowned Microsoft developer Adam Nathan. No unnecessary theory: focuses on the practical skills and code that working developers crave. Hands-on, easy-to-adapt examples for everything from accelerometer and multi touch support to networking and gaming. This full-color book teaches Windows Phone 7 the best way possible: by walking developers through building 50 complete, end-to-end applications. Timed to catch the growing wave of excitement about Windows Phone 7, this book is authored by one of the world's most respected Microsoft development experts: Adam Nathan, author of the best-selling WPF Unleashed and classic .NET and COM: The Complete Interoperability Guide. This extraordinarily practical book doesn't focus on what the Windows Phone 7 SDK makes easy, or unnecessary theory. Instead, Nathan shows developers exactly what it takes to build the kind of apps people will actually want to buy. He brings expert insider's insight to every facet of Windows Phone development, including app and interface basics, navigation, vibration, popups, transforms, animations, storing and retrieving local data, pivots and panoramas, audio and video, the microphone, touch, multi-touch, the accelerometer, and much more. Readers will build apps ranging from to-do lists to e-book readers, radio tuners to weight trackers. As they do, they'll learn all the skills - and get all the code - they need to build their own winning mobile apps, right now!.

Adam Nathan is a principal software development engineer for Microsoft, a best-selling technical author, and arguably the most prolific developer for Windows Phone. Adam previously cofounded Popfly, Microsoft’s first product built on Silverlight, named one of the 25 most innovative products of 2007 by PCWorld magazine. He is also the founder of PINVOKE.NET, the online resource for .NET developers who need to access Win32.

 

Adam has created several top apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace that have been featured on Lifehacker, Gizmodo, ZDNet, ParentMap, and various Windows Phone enthusiast sites. Many of them are identical to or based on apps in this book. Chapter 36’s Sound Recorder app was featured on MSDN’s first Channel 9 “Hot Apps” show. With the purchase of this book, the same app is now yours to tweak and sell!

 

Adam’s books have been considered required reading by many inside Microsoft and throughout the industry. Adam is the author of Silverlight 1.0 Unleashed (Sams, 2008), WPF Unleashed (Sams, 2006), WPF 4 Unleashed (Sams, 2010), and .NET and COM: The Complete Interoperability Guide (Sams, 2002); a coauthor of ASP.NET: Tips, Tutorials, and Code (Sams, 2001); and a contributor to books including .NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference, Volume 2 (Addison-Wesley, 2005), and Windows Developer Power Tools (O’Reilly, 2006). You can find Adam online at www.adamnathan.net or @adamnathan on Twitter.

Introduction     1

 

Part I: Getting Started

Chapter 1: Tally     17

The Application Manifest

Capabilities

Icons

Splash Screen

XML Namespaces

Status Bar

Phone Theme Resources

Naming XAML-Defined Elements

Button

Chapter 2: Flashlight     39

Application Bar

Timers

Brushes

Message Box

Chapter 3: In Case of Emergency     61

Orientation

On-Screen Keyboard

Hardware Keyboard

Text Box

Input Scopes

Scroll Viewer

Size Properties

Margins and Padding

Emulator-Specific Code

Chapter 4: Stopwatch     89

Grid

StackPanel

User Controls

Alignment

Progress Bar

Visibility

Orientation Lock

Chapter 5: Ruler     123

Canvas

Vector Graphics

Slider

Repeat Button

Hardware Back, Start, & Search

Buttons

Hit Testing

Content Controls

Chapter 6: Baby Sign Language     153

Page Navigation

Data Binding

Data Templates

List Box

Image

Resource Versus Content Build

Actions

Chapter 7: Date Diff     185

Silverlight for Windows Phone

Toolkit

Date Picker

Chapter 8: Vibration Composer     191

Vibration

Wrap Panel

Running While the Screen is

Locked

Getting Coordinates of an

Element

The Tag Property

Line Breaks

Chapter 9: Fake Call     207

Resources

Styles

Time Picker

Text Line Height

Disabling Automatic Screen Lock

Chapter 10: Tip Calculator     235

Application Lifecycle

Control Templates

Routed Events

Theme Detection

Toggle Button, Radio Button,

& Check Box Controls

List Box Items

Data Binding to a Named Element

Chapter 11: XAML Editor     271

Dynamic XAML

Popup

TextBox Manipulation

Background Worker

Copy & Paste

 

Part II: Transforms & Animations

Chapter 12: Silly Eye     301

Animation

Event Triggers

Named Resources

Settings Page

Color Picker

Clipping

Chapter 13: Metronome     327

2D Transforms

Animating Rotation

Animation Completed Event

Frame Rate Counter

Chapter 14: Love Meter     347

Keyframe Animations

Animating Scale

Checking Storyboard Status

Chapter 15: Mood Ring     361

Color Animations

Property Paths

Gradient Brushes

Object Animations

Point Animations

Drop Shadows

Chapter 16: Lottery Numbers Picker     377

Sharing Animations

Creating Animations in C#

Looping Selector

Chapter 17: Pick a Card Magic Trick     395

3D Transforms

Opacity Masks

Image Brush

One-Time Actions

Chapter 18: Cocktails     413

Quick Jump Grid

Dependency Properties

URL Encoding & Decoding

Storyboards as Timers

Indeterminate Progress Bars

Long List Selector

Chapter 19: Animation Lab     441

Custom Controls

Visual State Manager

Bitmap Caching

Tilt Effect

 

Part III: Storing & Retrieving Local Data

Chapter 20: Alarm Clock     463

Isolated Storage

Settings

Settings Page Guidelines

Toggle Switch

Using Custom Fonts

Runs

Chapter 21: Passwords & Secrets     493

Encryption & Decryption

Password Box

Value Converters

DateTimeOffset

Observable Collections

INotifyPropertyChanged

Chapter 22: Notepad     527

Reading & Writing Files

Chapter 23: Baby Milestones     545

Reading & Writing Pictures

Serialization

Two-Way Data Binding

Chapter 24: Baby Name Eliminator     565

Local Databases

Shipping Data with Your App

Chapter 25: Book Reader     587

Pagination

List Picker

Stretching List Box Items

 

Part IV: Pivot, Panorama, Charts, & Graphs

Chapter 26: TODO List     611

Pivot

Context Menu

Data Contract Attributes

Chapter 27: Groceries     649

Panorama

Chapter 28: Alphabet Flashcards     675

Filmstrip-Style Swiping

Chapter 29: Weight Tracker     681

Charts & Graphs

 

Part V: Audio & Video

Chapter 30: Cowbell     711

Playing Sound Effects

Composition Target’s Rendering

Event

Chapter 31: Trombone     719

Sound Manipulation

Sound Looping

SoundEffectInstance

Chapter 32: Local FM Radio     731

Radio Tuner

The

NetworkInterface.InterfaceType

Property

Chapter 33: Subservient Cat     743

Playing Video

MediaElement

 

Part VI: Microphone

Chapter 34: Bubble Blower     759

Sound Detection

Reversing a Slider

Chapter 35: Talking Parrot     775

Microphone Audio Playback

Chapter 36: Sound Recorder     797

Saving Audio Files

Playing Sound Backwards

Multi-Selection List Box

 

Part VII: Touch & Multi-Touch

Chapter 37: Reflex Test     827

The Touch.FrameReported Event

Touch Points

Chapter 38: Musical Robot     839

Multi-Touch

Tracking Individual Fingers

Chapter 39: Paint     847

Ink Presenter

Manual Serialization and

Deserialization

XmlSerializer

DataContractSerializer

DataContractJsonSerializer

Undo & Redo

Chapter 40: Darts     875

Gesture Listener

Manipulation Events

Flick Gesture

Direct Hit Testing

Chapter 41: Deep Zoom Viewer     897

Pinch & Stretch Zooming Gestures

Double-Tap Gesture

MultiScaleImage

Chapter 42: Jigsaw Puzzle     913

Drag Gesture

Image Cropping

WriteableBitmap

Taking Phone Screenshots

Chapter 43: Spin the Bottle!      945

Rotate Gesture

Simulating Inertia

 

Part VIII: Accelerometer Tricks

Chapter 44: Boxing Glove     951

Accelerometer Basics

Chapter 45: Coin Toss     965

Throwing Detection

Chapter 46: Noise Maker     981

Shaking Detection

Chapter 47: Moo Can     993

Turning-Over Detection

AccelerometerHelper

Data Smoothing

Accelerometer Calibration

Chapter 48: Level     1007

Determining the Phone’s Angle

Chapter 49: Balance Test     1019

2D Motion

Chapter 50: Pedometer     1035

Analyzing Walking Motion

 

Part IX: Appendices

Appendix A: Lessons Index     1049

Appendix B: XAML Reference     1059

Appendix C: Theme Resources Reference     1073

Appendix D: Animation Easing Reference     1083

Appendix E: Geometry Reference     1089

Index     1097