Does WP7 have API feature parity with Iphone and Android with Mango? - Windows Phone 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

So does WP7 have the API`s to create any APP currently on IPHONE OR ANDROID?? and are features now on the same level??? If not whats missing?? and in what areas is Windows Phone ahead if any?

WP7's current API is missing a lot of stuff, mostly sockets. But all of that is coming with Mango and after that, it will be on really high level of integration and possibilities. And if we take in count also the fact that whole .NET (C#) with XNA framework is super easy and super awesome to code with (compared to Java and C++), I think that WP7 will be the best coding platform in here.

XNA will still be missing custom shaders in Mango, right? That would be big for 3D gaming.
There's still no way to handle files between apps (I.e. you can't and won't be able to write an app that would become a default app for a certain file type).
Other than that, native APIs are missing, which makes some apps outright impossible (browsers, codecs, media players), others expensive because virtually no code cam be reused from other platforms (games, Satnav).

vangrieg said:
There's still no way to handle files between apps (I.e. you can't and won't be able to write an app that would become a default app for a certain file type).
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Are you sure about this one? In one of the demo videos, they showed an example of trying to open a PDF file from SkyDrive, and it knew to go to the Marketplace to get the Adobe reader app. And if I remember correctly, they mentioned that the same capability would exist for at least some other file types.

RoboDad said:
Are you sure about this one? In one of the demo videos, they showed an example of trying to open a PDF file from SkyDrive, and it knew to go to the Marketplace to get the Adobe reader app. And if I remember correctly, they mentioned that the same capability would exist for at least some other file types.
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Click to collapse
This is nothing new for PDF. For other file types, I simply see no references in dev tools or on MSDN. If you want to register your app as a filetype handler, you need to have APIs for, say, IE to pass a file to your app, and the capability needs to be declared in a manifest file or something. It's nowhere to be found as far as I see.

Related

[Q] Best architecture for a standalone Windows 7 tablet

We need to develop a standalone application on a Windows 7 tablet (Motion Computing CL900). Initially Java was the language of choice to develop this application. One criteria is that the tablet is not going to be in Wi-Fi range and will have to be on its own in the field.
if I write it in J2EE/JSP, then I would need a servlet container like tomcat loaded on the device itself. Or I think I could go the Swing route to make it standalone.
But then another person thought, Java is an overkill and just plain HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript (Webkit) will get the job done. The application consists of a form, a signature capture and an image capture using the inbuilt camera.
Since this is my first app on a tablet, I thought I would check around for ideas / pointers. Any feedback would be sincerely appreciated. Thanks.
Since you are doing it for W7, how about using Silverlight?
OndraSter said:
Since you are doing it for W7, how about using Silverlight?
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The management wants me to develop in a language that we already have the skillsets for. So there are people who know Java and then there are people who are familiar with HTML/CSS/JavaScript. We do not have any developers who are familiar with Silverlight
There is no difference between this and a standard desktop app. Pick the language based on the familiarity of your developers and the quality of the tools.
Can you do things like image captures in standard HTML5?
PG2G said:
There is no difference between this and a standard desktop app. Pick the language based on the familiarity of your developers and the quality of the tools.
Can you do things like image captures in standard HTML5?
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I don't know much about HTML5, but looks like HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript (library) will form a pretty powerful light-weight combo. I am googling to see if I can do an image capture using HTML5 / HTML & JavaScript

Homebrew Bluetooth file sending app

Hi,
exist or someone developing homebrew app for sending files over Bluetooth ?
Thanks.
not at the moment
that's shame
I think it will come only if MS decides to bring this feature to WP. Search this forum there are links where you can vote for it.
Actually, it *might* be possible to implement it using homebrew - there are standard WinCE APIs for BlueTooth. If they are available on WP7 as well as WinMo and Windows Embedded, and aren't security-restricted, then it could be done.
I'd volunteer to take a look but I'm working hard on something else (and far more promising, IMO).
GoodDayToDie said:
Actually, it *might* be possible to implement it using homebrew - there are standard WinCE APIs for BlueTooth. If they are available on WP7 as well as WinMo and Windows Embedded, and aren't security-restricted, then it could be done.
I'd volunteer to take a look but I'm working hard on something else (and far more promising, IMO).
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Would be great if you tried once. What are you working on right now?
btw, your OEM marketplace xaps were great. Keep up the good work
Right now, I'm working on the HtcRoot project, and various offshoots of it. Essentially, I want to add the advantages of a custom ROM into stock ROMs and, where possible, without forcing people to reset their phones. Part of this process involves writing tools for my own use, some of which I also publish. For example, the HtcRoot Webserver has essentially replaced TouchXplorer for me, though TX used to be a standard part of my toolset.
Considering the existence of the Contacts Transfer app in the Nokia store, which uses Bluetooth to transfer contacts from other phones and appears to run on non-Nokia phones (yep, I used my own OEM Marketplace XAPs to get it), I'm pretty sure at least some level of access to Bluetooth is possible from a WP7 app (using native code, of course).
GoodDayToDie said:
Actually, it *might* be possible to implement it using homebrew - there are standard WinCE APIs for BlueTooth. If they are available on WP7 as well as WinMo and Windows Embedded, and aren't security-restricted, then it could be done.
I'd volunteer to take a look but I'm working hard on something else (and far more promising, IMO).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, that's a thrilling news
I'm not sure if you know but there are a lot of users who badly need this.
See here
GoodDayToDie said:
Right now, I'm working on the HtcRoot project, and various offshoots of it. Essentially, I want to add the advantages of a custom ROM into stock ROMs and, where possible, without forcing people to reset their phones. Part of this process involves writing tools for my own use, some of which I also publish. For example, the HtcRoot Webserver has essentially replaced TouchXplorer for me, though TX used to be a standard part of my toolset.
Considering the existence of the Contacts Transfer app in the Nokia store, which uses Bluetooth to transfer contacts from other phones and appears to run on non-Nokia phones (yep, I used my own OEM Marketplace XAPs to get it), I'm pretty sure at least some level of access to Bluetooth is possible from a WP7 app (using native code, of course).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, lot of people miss sending the files via Bluetooth,
So if you can add it as first priority it will be very helpfull
for all of us "geegs" which want to use WP7 platform
as geeg platform.
Will you be able to convert Junos Pulse client for winmo
to convert WP7 to run it in native mode?
Thanks for info.
GoodDayToDie said:
Right now, I'm working on the HtcRoot project, and various offshoots of it. Essentially, I want to add the advantages of a custom ROM into stock ROMs and, where possible, without forcing people to reset their phones. Part of this process involves writing tools for my own use, some of which I also publish. For example, the HtcRoot Webserver has essentially replaced TouchXplorer for me, though TX used to be a standard part of my toolset.
Considering the existence of the Contacts Transfer app in the Nokia store, which uses Bluetooth to transfer contacts from other phones and appears to run on non-Nokia phones (yep, I used my own OEM Marketplace XAPs to get it), I'm pretty sure at least some level of access to Bluetooth is possible from a WP7 app (using native code, of course).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you are right. The Contacts Transfer App is proof that transfer via bluetooth could be possible. And yes, I installed the Contacts Transfer app using your app

Android apps on windows phone

Hi guys,
I'm currently using an iPhone as my primary phone and android as a secondary one. I want to shift to windows phone (mango) but there are a few apps on the android not available on winmo which I can't live without. Is there any way to run android apps on the windows mobile the same way(or ANY way) its done on the blackberry play book?
Thanks
I don't think there's any. But there are alternate apps.
Android apps on WP7 would be incredibly difficult, though theoretically it could be done with enough effort.
Most Android apps use Dalvik (a dialect of Java). This is totally incompatible with the Silverlight/C# that WP7 apps use, but there are enough similarities between them that it might be possible to build a tool that either translates the Dalvik instructions to MSIL (the binary that compiling C# produces) at launch, or dynamically interprets it (the latter would be very slow, though).
However, even with purely Dalvik apps, there are other problems. WP7 apps are limited to a very restrictive sandbox, with no access to the vast majority of the filesystem (for example). Android apps, by comparison, have a great deal of access to the device they run on, so even a very simple app may expect to have permissions that wouldn't be available on WP7. Instead, attempts to access restricted parts of the filesystem would have to be "virtually" redirected within the sandbox. This is possible in many cases, but a *lot* of work to code and has all kinds of weird edge cases.
Additionally, Android apps have a very different runtime model from WP7 apps. The biggest change is in how they handle leaving the foreground; WP7 apps are either suspended or dehydrated, while Android apps often just keep running (they can elect to suspend, but aren't required to). WP7 does support background tasks (with strict limitations, at least if you stick to the official APIs), but moving the Android app runtime into those background tasks would be quite difficult.
Finally, there's the issue of hybrid apps (apps that use native code in addition to managed runtimes like Sliverlight or Dalvik). These are much more common on Android than on WP7 (at least, than on WP7 outside this webite). Android runs on a Linux kernel, using POSIX system calls and APIs. WP7 runs on a CE kernel, using win32 system calls and APIs. There's a very loose mapping from one to the other (see the Wine project for running Win32 apps on desktop Linux) but it adds a lot of overhead and would be another layer, at least as tricky as the managed part, to the difficulty of this project.
Short version: nope, sorry.
GoodDayToDie said:
Android apps on WP7 would be incredibly difficult, though theoretically it could be done with enough effort.
Most Android apps use Dalvik (a dialect of Java). This is totally incompatible with the Silverlight/C# that WP7 apps use, but there are enough similarities between them that it might be possible to build a tool that either translates the Dalvik instructions to MSIL (the binary that compiling C# produces) at launch, or dynamically interprets it (the latter would be very slow, though).
However, even with purely Dalvik apps, there are other problems. WP7 apps are limited to a very restrictive sandbox, with no access to the vast majority of the filesystem (for example). Android apps, by comparison, have a great deal of access to the device they run on, so even a very simple app may expect to have permissions that wouldn't be available on WP7. Instead, attempts to access restricted parts of the filesystem would have to be "virtually" redirected within the sandbox. This is possible in many cases, but a *lot* of work to code and has all kinds of weird edge cases.
Additionally, Android apps have a very different runtime model from WP7 apps. The biggest change is in how they handle leaving the foreground; WP7 apps are either suspended or dehydrated, while Android apps often just keep running (they can elect to suspend, but aren't required to). WP7 does support background tasks (with strict limitations, at least if you stick to the official APIs), but moving the Android app runtime into those background tasks would be quite difficult.
Finally, there's the issue of hybrid apps (apps that use native code in addition to managed runtimes like Sliverlight or Dalvik). These are much more common on Android than on WP7 (at least, than on WP7 outside this webite). Android runs on a Linux kernel, using POSIX system calls and APIs. WP7 runs on a CE kernel, using win32 system calls and APIs. There's a very loose mapping from one to the other (see the Wine project for running Win32 apps on desktop Linux) but it adds a lot of overhead and would be another layer, at least as tricky as the managed part, to the difficulty of this project.
Short version: nope, sorry.
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That was quite disheartening for the OP
But I liked the thorough explanation.
for curiosity, which apps are you looking for?
Thanks a million for the detailed reply. I can give up on this now otherwise would have gone crazy searching. As for the apps I wanted to use Rako which basically controls the lighting in my house and creston media which controls my theatre. These I can't live without.
Additional ones would be anonymous email and sms bomb.( to bug my friends)
as for the lighting you got me..
but for media the xbox (if you have one) companion controls my whole xbox media experience from audio (zune), movies (integrated movie player streaming from my pc)..
What about this - http://wp7mapping.interoperabilitybridges.com/Library?source=Android
Can't this be used?!
buffalosolja42 said:
but for media the xbox (if you have one) companion controls my whole xbox media experience from audio (zune), movies (integrated movie player streaming from my pc)..
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Crestron controls my theater as a whole i.e lights, projector, blu ray etc. I just need to press 1 button and lights dim, screen comes down, blurry starts playing and so on. For the xbox controller its only for the xbox
buffalosolja42 said:
but for media the xbox (if you have one) companion controls my whole xbox media experience from audio (zune), movies (integrated movie player streaming from my pc)..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
drupad2drupad said:
What about this - http://wp7mapping.interoperabilitybridges.com/Library?source=Android
Can't this be used?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay im a noob and i have noooo idea what that is
drupad2drupad said:
What about this - http://wp7mapping.interoperabilitybridges.com/Library?source=Android
Can't this be used?!
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Click to collapse
That is just for developers who want to port their app.
jessenic said:
That is just for developers who want to port their app.
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Exactly! So yes, Android app can come to WP, only if developers are hard working to port it.
However, I haven't done more than making ROMs for WM, Themes for Android, but I am currently porting 2 apps from Android to WP. Honestly, all porting is made so dead easy that a little bit of English and Bing at hand, and you are off to a great start! It's slow process but anyone can port if they want to.

These Android apps for WP7???

Hi guys, today I saw Nokia WP7 Lumia 800, before myself.
No doubt WP7 looked Beautiful. I mean Android is far better in definition of smartphone, for e.g. True multitasking, etc. but I never found Android OS beautiful.
I had Android in my hand (CM7 with complete ICS look, also ICS status bar), and my friend had WP7, and WP7 looked amazingly beautiful.
Personally I would love an OS which is beautiful, since I look at it (the OS), and I'm not a huge app user. Also I'm not a user who does not need apps running in background. Here are the apps that I use on Android (only these apps)----
1) App Lock - Prevent unauthorized access for any person to any of my apps (Very useful)
2) Calculus Tools
3) Handy Calc
4) Concise Offline Dictionary (Very useful)
5) Moon Reader (epub reader ebook reader) (Very Very useful)
6) MX Player (Very useful, plays any video format)
7) Opera Mini & Opera Mobile (Very useful, saves data cost, but IE10 does same, opera saves 97% how much IE10?)
8) USB Tunnel (Reverse Tether, very useful)
So, I want to ask, are these apps ( or there replacement apps )are available on WP7 market, or WP8 market???
I'm looking forward to buy WP8 in future. Please reply if you know these apps or replacement apps are available for WP7 orWP8?
Also, Windows is major PC OS, and I'll always have Windows ( Mac never ), and Windows PC has many software, so there is great possibility that WP8 will see many new apps in market, ( WP8 ports of the PC softwares ). Also looking for full integration with my PC. ( like iOS and MAC).
"App Lock" sounds like something that should be provided by the OS. On WP7 you can easily set a PIN or password, and configure the phone's lock behavior in other ways. That said, I don't know of a way to lock apps without also locking the rest of the phone (although some behaviors, like taking pictures or placing calls using voice, can be enabled even while the phone is locked if you want them to be).
The calculator that comes with the phone is very good, but if you want something more like a graphing calculator (or otherwise intnded for calculus) you'll need an app. I don't know how good they are, since I just tend to use the Scientific and Programmer calculator modes (which are built in), but such apps do exist.
There are a number of offline dictionary apps, for sure. English is well-supported, but quite a few lenguages are in the offline dictionary app list.
There are many Ebook reader apps. I personally use the Kindle app (which takes minor hacking to use with ebooks not from the Kindle store, and uses .MOBI or .PRC files) but there are several free apps for EPUB as well.
Not sure about media player apps. Most of them just support the codecs built into the phone (which are a good selection, but hardly all-encompassing). Apps are allowed to implement additional codecs, but I have never personally used any that do. Zune software on the PC can transcode most codecs to something the phone can read when you sync the files from your PC, though.
Opera (mini and mobile) for Windows Phone is currently only available on fully-unlocked custom ROMs, though it may be made to work on root-unlocked stock ROMs soon. I don't know about the data savings of Windows Phone IE.
USB Tunnel is for letting the phone connect through the PC's Internet connection? That feature is built into the OS. When the phone connects to the Zune software on the PC, it automatically enables Ethernet over USB.
Please bear in mind that nobody knows anything much about what will be available for WP8 right now. It was ony just announced, is still months from release, and there's very little meaningful and reliable information about it available yet.

Developing WP7 file Transfer app

Hi, I'm a final year Computer Science Student. My Final year project is to design a windows phone 7 app for transferring files from a remote database /sever to the windows phone device.
I have never been taught any C# or windows phone development. So far I have developed a windows phone 7 client app which connects to an SQL Server 2008 database, I can query the database from the app and return and display the text stored within the database tables. I am also able to store a picture in the database as binary data.
Can anyone advise me is it possible to store pdf and office documents within the SQL server database and download them to the windows phone 7 client and then open/view these files on the device. I believe that any files must be downloaded directly to isolated storage on the device but that there are restraints where that these files cannot be accessed by any other apps on the phone.
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated..
It's possible to open supported media and documents (pictures, PDFs, etc.) from an app, I'm pretty sure (for example, see the SkyDrive app). I know that it's possible using native code and a couple of other mildly undocumented features. Using only official APIs... never tried, but I think it can be done (I'm just not sure how).
Unless you use the undocumented ID_CAP_FILEVIEWER capability in your app (or use one of a number of available hacks), your app will not have write permissions anywhere except in its isolated storage. Officially, one app can't access the isolated storage of another app, although the Office stuff may bend the rules somewhat.

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