I am happy to see that Microsoft are working on an updated version of their 70-540 exam for Windows Mobile 5.0 application development. -It’s given the certification number 70-580 and is named TS: Windows Mobile 6.5, Application Development. It currently ”in development” and due as i understand it for release March 18, 2010.  From the list of “Skills being measured” in this exam it looks like Microsoft has put a bit more thought into what you actually need to learn before you venture into compact framework development.  If they at the same time upgrade the Microsoft Mobile Developer Handbookboth the exam and book will be a great starting point for new mobile application developers.

I hope that there will be a certification upgrade possibility for those of us that already has the 70-540  certification.

At work we are in the process of evaluating enterprise mobility platforms.  An unified platform that help make enterprise data available to mobile devices or computers.  When i evaluate candidates begin to have a look at the integration engine. How will the integration engine help me get hold of the data i require. At a minimum the engine must have connectors to the most common back-end systems like SAP, Dynamics, Agresso, Siebel and/or Oracle and also provide ways of more generic  connectors through web services, XML etc. If you don´t have this; you´ve failed!

If you got step one – integration, you´ve come a very long way! You now need to make sure that the system is capable og keeping the flow of data to and from the devices. Handle distribution of software and updates, Manage the devices within the enterprise and keep it secure in an integrated manner.  Oh, software..That is important! The software  must be possible to develop without too much of a hassle. Don´t constrain the possibilities within an already constrained mobile platform (ie javaME or .NET Compact Framework). Don´t force the look and feel.

A few days ago i picked up a tweet by Rob Tiffany at Microsoft, he blogged about Microsoft MEAP – Mobile Enerprise Application Platform. MEAP is a platform where you design toghether a set of well known Microsoft technologies, and together they make up a unified mobile application platform. Continue Reading

If you are in Oslo, and you’re a developer that do Windows Phone software development, or are curious about what’s in it you should come to the December meetup for Windows Phone Developer Community.

WPDC has it’s first meetup next Thursday on December 3rd.  at 6 pm. The meeting will be held at NITH, located in Grønland.

View Schweigaards gate 14 in a larger map

In this first meetup we want to use more as a “constitutional” meeting. Getting to know those who are interested in Windows Phone development and most importantly find others who are interested in being “driving forces” and help build the community. Continue Reading

Today was a cool day!

Finally the Windows Phone Developer Community is announced and started. I was attending a developer presentation for Windows Mobile 6.5 and Microsoft Marketplace today and just before we broke for lunch i was called to stage to “tell the world” that on Thursday 3. December 2009 we´ll host the first meeting.

This first meetup will be mostly about getting to know each other, and find out who´s interested in becoming driving forces. It is not to be taken lightly that if this is to have any form of success it needs to have support and contribution from developers.

For the occasion we have set up a meetup.com group to handle “members” and announcement of meeting events, so check it out at http://www.meetup.com/Windows-Phone-Developer-Community/. Continue Reading

Finally! There is something on the move here. In May i was writing about that I was looking for a Norwegian Compact Framework User Group or something like a dedicated compact framework development forum for us .netcf developers here up north. With no luck finding one I have been brewing on the idea of trying to start a compact framework community, trying to gather some people that are willing to help promote and arrange.

Myself I am quite happy (and lucky) being able to work dedicated in a mobility department for mobile solutions. From designing enterprise back-end systems that can be used by mobile devices, to client applications interacting with existing business systems. Not to mention being a mobility consultant helping organizations streamline their work flow and processes to mobilize the workforce.  This has been both industrial applications running on dedicated ruggedized devices, one which is out running on 9000 windows mobile devices today and general business applications delivering back-end data to windows mobile devices within a company.

As i said, i am quite happy, but also I feel quite isolated. It’s no community feel to it, and there isn’t much buzz around it, for instance when was the last time you went to a Norwegian convention and anyone talked about mobility and development for devices? The closest thing is going to TechEd Europe. Continue Reading

Here´s a short how-to for getting started with gestures in your Windows Mobile applications. First how you set up your device project, and then i explain how it works using the managed gesture wrapper from MSDN.

First of all you need to consider if you would like to do it the “hardcore” way? by doing all the P/Invoke native calls yourself (then this documentation on MSDN is really useful) or if you just want to get gestures working and use the managed wrapper available in the MSDN code library, - You can also find the source code for the  wrapper there if you later need to find out how it really works. I haven´t  investigated the wrapper library yet, so I am not sure if it  encapsulates all the native functionality that is available.

First of all; Start Visual Studio 2008 and create a new device application solution. There is no specific Windows Mobile 6.5 application template so you just choose a Windows Mobile 6 project. Next you need to do is to add a reference to Microsoft.WindowsMobile.Gestures.dll (assuming now that you have downloaded the dll file) in your WYSIWYG in VS08.

1. Right click on the General tab in the toolbox and select “choose items…”
2. In the “Choose toolbox items” dialog select the browse button in the “.NET Framework Components” tab
3. Browse to where you extracted the Gestures dll file and select it.
4. A component called “GestureRecognizer” has it´s checkbox checked and selected.  Click the OK button.

Continue Reading

On Thursday, October 15. (09:00 – 14:30). Microsoft Norway invites developers to Lysaker for a day of  Windows Mobile 6.5 and Marketplace development information. This is a free seminar aimed at developers. This is not only for those already working with mobile development, but also useful for anyone curious about what this is and how to get started.

The first part of the day will be about about WM 6.5, where Director for Windows Phones Norway, Camilla Viken Teigre gives a demo on the new UI and talks about what’s new and improved in this release.

From Finland Vesa-Matti Paananen will be walking us through Marketplace. What is Marketplace and why create Windows Phone applications. Continue Reading

It’s friday and time for some fun, and having a look at the gesture and physics engine of WM 6.5 qualifies as such . Googling for developer references i found that on august 26th and september 2nd 2009 Microsoft through Alex Yakhnin and Ron Buckton hosted two developer webcasts (level 400) on the gesture and physics engine of Windows Mobile 6.5.

This was a really useful intro on how to implement this your own .netcf applications. Gestures are supported in the existing standard ListView, Listbox, WebView, TreeView and Tab controls. and you get this characteristics just by running the application on a WM 6.5 device. But to programmatically control the gestures you need to handle the Select, Scroll, Pan, Hold and DoubleSelect events.

A detailed guide on how for the gesture apithis can be found on MSDN here. To fully understand this you need to be familiar with P/Invoke and native calls. Continue Reading