Maximizing Code Reuse Across Windows 8 and Windows Phone Apps

A common ask among customers and developers is around guidance on how to structure/architect their code to maximize reuse across Windows 8 and Windows Phone apps. This post will explain what is/isn’t reusable across apps, cover some patterns that will help increase code reuse across Microsoft platforms, and puts the theory into practice with a sample that shows common code being used for both a Windows 8 and Windows Phone 7.5 app — available here.

Note: This post focuses on Windows 8 and Windows Phone 7.5 app development. However, the patterns and practices described can be applied to other platforms (i.e. Windows Phone 8 when it’s generally available).

To maximize code reuse across Windows 8 and Windows Phone the best practice is to use the MVVM (Model/View/ViewModel) pattern to architect your code combined with PCL (Portable Class Libraries).

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Windows 8, XNA and MonoGame - Part 3, Code Migration and Windows 8 Feature Support

n Part 1 of this series I introduced you to MonoGame for Windows8, an implementation of the XNA namespace that allows you to get your XNA code running on Windows 8 as a Metro Style App.

In Part 2 I documented how to get your development environment configured using GitHub and Visual Studio 2012

In Part 3 I will cover migrating XNA code to Windows 8.and the Windows 8 features you will need to support in order to make your game Windows 8 Store worthy.

The Shooter Tutorial

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Transposing GridView for Portrait Mode In C#/XAML Windows 8 App

If your landscape mode uses a GridView to achieve a look like this…

… you might be wondering out how to make it look like this:

The trick is not to use a GridView, but rather use a ListView with an ItemsPanel that is a WrapGrid with Horizontal Orientation. That is, replace this:

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How to reduce JIT time during initial start of Windows Metro style apps

When a user installs a Windows Metro style app that is written in Microsoft Visual C# or in Microsoft Visual Basic, there are no native images for the app. Instead, the just-in-time (JIT) compiler runs during app startup. If there is a large volume of code in the startup path, users may experience slower-than-expected performance when they start the app. However, you can reduce the impact of JIT compilation when your Metro style app starts by using the multi-core JIT compilation feature.

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How to Add Common Functionality to the Grid Template (Metro Style Apps Using JavaScript and HTML)

You can extend the Microsoft Visual Studio Grid Application template to include additional core functionality that adds value to your application. This tutorial is meant to be used with Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 RC on Windows 8 Release Preview. You can find the app package for the completed tutorial here.

This is the default Grid Application template landing page.

After completing the tutorial, your app will have multi-sized items that use different templates.


Read full article herehttp://www.codeproject.com/Articles/434181/How-to-Add-Common-Functionality-to-the-Grid-Templa

UPDATED HOWTO: SQLite with Windows 8 apps

The first thing you want to do is install the package.  You can do this from within Visual Studio itself in all editions.  From the Tools menu, choose Extensions and Updates and then choose the Online section (on the left of the dialog) and search for ‘sqlite’ in the search term.  This will show you the SQLite for Windows Runtime package:

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From Soup to Nuts with RadControls for Metro (HTML5)

Introduction

Hello and welcome to one of our first blog posts on “Getting Started” with RadControls for Metro. In this “From Soup to Nuts” post, we are going to specifically target Metro Applications built using HTM5L/JS/CSS3 and RadControls for Metro. We will provide you with the necessary knowledge to get started building your first application. 

Setting up Your Development Environment

Before getting started, you will need to download the following items:

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