MetroLog - A lightweight logging system designed specifically for Windows Store and Windows Phone 8 apps

MetroLog is a lightweight logging framework designed for Windows Store and Windows Phone 8 apps. Although the API is based on NLog and log4net, the intention is that it's a very basic logging system.

The need for it to be basic comes from the fact that the Windows Store apps API surface area intentionally limited for very specific applications. This project came out of the fact that porting NLog to Windows Store apps is difficult because of it's incredibly rich feature set, most of which is not workable in Windows Store apps.

Read More

Lessons learned porting Wordfeud (an iOS, Android and Windows Phone Game) to Windows 8

Wordfeud is a word game with more than 15 million players on iOS, Adroid and Windows Phone. In this article we will discuss how we ported the Windows Phone 7 (WP7) version of Wordfeud to Windows 8 (Win8), what we did to make the game conform to the Win8 Metro design language, and techniques used to achieve maximum code reuse across WP7 and Win8.


Read full article here

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).

Read full article here

Using a provisional WinRT port of SilverlightSerializer to store state in MVVMLight ViewModels

Over 1.5 years ago I showed how to store your Windows Phone application state (‘tombstoning’) using SilverlightSerializer by Mike Talbot. In my quest to leverage hard-won Windows Phones skills to be usable in Windows 8 I made a provisional port of SilverlightSerializer 1 to WinRT. That is, in C#.

Since my win8nl library port is a bit behind, I’ve stuck the class in a simple project that you can download here and from codeplex

Usage is as follows: in App.xaml.cs, you define two methods: SaveState and RestoreState:

Read full article here

Matthew Baxter-Reynolds' Programming Metro-style Apps Workshop (WINDOWS8-01-01)

Programming Metro-style Apps Workshops are a unique event in the UK designed to help developers get started on the road to building software for Windows 8 and Windows RT. We take you from the point of having done "Hello, world" and the basics and lift you up to the next level where you can start building real retail and line-of-business apps on the platform.

LEARN HOW TO:

We guarantee by the end of the session you'll have a firm understanding of Metro-style development on Windows 8 and Windows RT.

PROGRAMME     

• How and why Windows was "reimagined"
• The fundamentals of moving from .NET
• Asynchronous programming
• Sandboxing and protection
• Unit testing
• Working with SQLite
• Sharing, search, notifications
• Application lifetime and background activities
• Packaging, private deployment, and store deployment
• ...and more

Click here to register

Poll: Is your company(or you) moving into #winRT development or are sticking with #silverlight & #WPF for now. #wpdev #win8dev

Poll: Is your company(or you) moving into #winRT development or are sticking with #silverlight & #WPF for now. #wpdev #win8dev

Submit your poll here

Windows 8 Currency Converter App: XE Currency

XE Currency is a totally free Windows 8 currency converter app that helps you to convert world currencies in Windows 8. This currency converter app is a straight-forward currency converter that helps you to convert any currency rates to other world currencies rates effortlessly.
The interface of this currency converter is full of currencies across the world and that too arranged in an alphabetical order.

This currency converter app for Windows 8 is easy-to-use and converts a currency to other currencies instantly. This smart currency converter updates the currency rates in every minute.

Key Features Of Windows 8 Currency Converter App:

•     Easy-to-use currency converter app.
•     Updates the currency rates in every minute.
•     Automatically converts the currency.
•     Converts a currency to multiple currencies.
•     Simple and user-friendly interface.

Read Full Article Here
Download From Here

Developing Apps for Microsoft Surface, Windows 8, Windows RT and Windows Phone

Microsoft just raised the bar in the tablet market. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 24 hours, you know that Microsoft finally revealed their own tablet device, dubbed “Microsoft Surface”, built independently from its traditional OEMs. This new Microsoft Surface comes in two flavors, running either Windows 8 Pro or Windows RT. You can find all the known details on the new Microsoft Surface site here.

The Microsoft Surface devices are very new and there are still some hardware features we do not know about yet, but the operating systems powering Microsoft Surface are not new. The details about Windows 8 and Windows RT have been known for months, dating as far back as the Microsoft //Build conference last year in September 2011.


Read full article here