Zandoná Mobile® : Windows Mobile SDK

WM 6 SDK and Cellular Emulator (Can you hear me now?)

fzandona — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:51:00 GMT

You may have noticed that the emulator images shipped in the WM 6 SDKs have no cellular signal, which is very different from the previous SDKs where all images used to be connected to the Fake Network. We had to make this change to introduce the new Cellular Emulator tool. WM 5.0 SDKs’ images use a technology we call FakeRIL, or the Fake Radio Interface Layer, and although it allowed developers to call and send SMS from within the Device Emulator (see Windows Mobile Device Emulator phone numbers for some examples), Cellular Emulator offers more options and it makes it easier to test your applications.

Here is some information on how to run Cellular Emulator and configure emulator image's network settings to browse to the Internet. Once you configure the emulator images, you can save their states (from Device Emulator) to speed up the process.

Cellular Emulator

Cellular Emulator is a software-based emulator to aid developers and testers in developing and testing their software under the Windows Embedded CE and Windows Mobile platforms. The design goal of Cellular Emulator is to replace the radio module in both development and test environments. The advantage of Cellular Emulator is that it provides not only voice but also data connectivity. Moreover, Cellular Emulator is a powerful tool to test various applications under different wireless network conditions in GSM/GPRS and/or UMTS networks.

Running Cellular Emulator

Launch the Cellular Emulator (Start/All Programs / Windows Mobile 6 SDK / Tools / Cellular Emulator ) and the Device Emulator.
Read the COM port configuration from the status bar of the Cellular Emulator main window.
In the Device Emulator, go to File / Configure and select the Peripherals tab.
Map the Serial port 0 of Device Emulator to the specific COM number obtained from step 2
Soft reset the Device Emulator (File / Reset / Soft).

Shutting the Cellular Emulator

The close button of the Cellular Emulator main windows will only send the application to the tray panel. To close the application, right click the tray icon and select Exit.

Cellular Emulator Data Connections

The Cellular Emulator will also provide GPRS connection simulation. Users can create simulated GPRS connections just like common ones. The access point name and user name/password are not checked and thus may be anything. Once the data connection is made, the emulator will just act as if it is connected to the network of the host machine. If some proxy settings are needed for the host machine to set up connections to remote machines, they are also needed on the emulator. Assume a network environment where HTTP proxy is needed to access external web sites. Setting samples on Windows Mobile 6 Standard and Professional are provided in the following sections.

Windows Mobile 6 Standard

Enter Start-Settings-Connections-GPRS-Menu-Add. Create a GPRS connection using the settings as follows.
- Name: PPP
- Connects to: WAP
- Network Access Point: Some Access Point Name
- User Name: Just leave blank for anonymous configuration
(Optional) Enter Start-Settings-Connections-Proxy-Menu-Add. Create a proxy using the following settings.
- Description: Proxy
- Connects from: WAP Network
- Connects to: The Internet
- Address: The proxy in the specified user's network
Enter Start-Settings-Connections-Menu-Advanced.
- Set Internet connection to PPP
- Set WAP connection to PPP
- Leave the others as automatic
Enter Internet Explorer Mobile, and choose Menu-Tools-Options-Connections, then configure the Internet Explorer Mobile settings:
- Automatically detect settings: CHECKED
- Select network: The Internet
Choose the Internet Explorer Mobile icon using the arrow key on the keyboard.
Browse freely using Internet Explorer Mobile.

Windows Mobile 6 Professional

If the user's computer uses a proxy to access the Internet, then the user needs to setup a Work Connection on the Pocket PC, otherwise the user can setup an Internet Connection.
Setup a GPRS connection. Access point and user name can be empty.
(Optional) Setup a proxy. This should be the full name of a working proxy required by the corporate network.
Open Internet Explorer Mobile and browse to a web site.

Makeover

Out of curiosity, Cellular Emulator went through an extreme makeover from the first time I learned about it as an internal tool, to its release in the Windows Mobile 6 SDK.

I hope you enjoy it and let me know your feedback!

Before:

After:

WM 6 SDK Install Issue: Common7\IDE\ProjectTemplates?

fzandona — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 20:07:00 GMT

If you are installing the WM 6 SDK on Windows Vista you may hit an error that blocks the installation. The error message is:

Could not access network location Common7\IDE\ProjectTemplates

This issue is related to a Custom Action (VBScript) we were using to install the Project Templates for Visual Studio - Vista may be blocking VBScript (through security policy, for example) which then causes our installation to fail. If you log the SDK setup, you will see something like:

DEBUG: Error 2738: Could not access VBScript runtime for custom action

While we work on that for the SDK Refresh, here is a simple workaround that will allow you to install the SDKs:

Click on Start / All Programs / Accessories;
Right click on Command Prompt and click on Run as administrator;
Click on Continue in the User Account Control pop-up;
In the Command Prompt window run the following command: regsvr32 %SystemRoot%\system32\vbscript.dll
Close the Command Prompt window and install the SDKs normally.

Please, let me know if that works for you (and yes, we don't like VBScript CAs anymore too! :-)

See you at MEDC 2007!

Windows Mobile 6 SDKs are now available!

fzandona — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 15:44:00 GMT

The button was pushed and the Windows Mobile 6 SDKs are now available – you can download both “Windows Mobile 6 Standard SDK” and “Windows Mobile 6 Professional SDK” here!

Please, read carefully the download page details to learn about the new naming and emulator images, requirements and know issues. Make sure to also read the What's New for Developers in Windows Mobile 6 white-paper.

The table shows which SDK must be used when targeting the old Smartphone and Pocket PC categories:

Previous Categories	New Categories	Windows Mobile SDK
Windows Mobile for Smartphone	Windows Mobile Standard	Windows Mobile 6 Standard SDK
Windows Mobile for Pocket PC	Windows Mobile Classic	Windows Mobile 6 Professional SDK
Windows Mobile for Pocket PC Phone Edition	Windows Mobile Professional	Windows Mobile 6 Professional SDK

What’s new in the Windows Mobile 6 SDK?
Here is a quick overview of the new SDKs.

Better discoverability
Everything is installed (by default) under C:\Program Files\Windows Mobile 6 SDK. We also “share” the common content from both SDKs, for example, there will be only one help collection, only one set of common samples, tools, etc., even if you install both SDKs. Readme files are also better, go to Start Menu, Programs, Windows Mobile SDK and check the main readme file as well as the tools and samples ones.

Help Collection
The help is now integrated with DocExplorer, but you can still access it through the Start Menu if you want/need to.

Samples
We have samples! A lot of them! Check the Samples readme file to learn about all sample collection.

New Tools
There are also a nice number of new tools with this release. Here is a quick list with a brief explanation of each one:

Cellular Emulator v1
Cellular Emulator is a software-based emulator to aid developers and testers in developing and testing their software under the Windows Mobile platforms. The design goal of Cellular Emulator is to replace the radio module in both development and test environments. The advantage of Cellular Emulator is that it provides not only voice but also data connectivity. Moreover, Cellular Emulator is a powerful tool to test various applications under different wireless network conditions in GSM/GPRS and/or UMTS networks.

In other words: it is your own Mobile Operator running on your desktop :-). You can call your device emulator, send and receive SMS, play with AT commands, SIM cards, etc. How cool is that?

Device Emulator v2
Yes, it is here – install the SDK and have Device Emulator v2 up and running on your machine.

Local Server Framework
The Local Server Framework allows users to develop custom server applications running over localhost. Components of Windows Mobile powered devices must communicate with external services running on external servers. Lack of control over the external server inhibits the ability to comprehensively test client side code. Additionally, varying network conditions in build labs introduce multiple points of failure in test code that are often unrelated to code under test. The server framework allows development of test application servers that run locally over localhost on the device, alleviating these problems. The Local (or Fake) Server Framework allows users to develop either full-featured servers or application-specific servers that communicate with their respective clients.

FakeGPS & GPS Settings
Do you want to develop a GPS-enable application but don’t have a real GPS device? FakeGPS is the answer! Just drop and install the FakeGPS.cab file into your emulator or device and you are ready to go. FakeGPS will set the GPS Intermediate Driver to read the NMEA strings from a text file instead of using a real GPS device.

And what happens if you want to sell your GPS-enabled applications to WM 6 Standard users? You can use GPSSettings to enables Windows Mobile 6 Standard users to configure the GPS intermediate driver, it works in the same way as the built-in GPS settings applet on Windows Mobile 6 Professional and Windows Mobile 6 Classic – better yet, you can even redistribute GPSSettings.exe with your applications!

Hopper
Hopper is a software test tool that simulates input stress on Windows Mobile powered devices. Hopper will stress all applications that are available through the menu system by rapidly sending keystrokes and screen taps in a random fashion. By sending a large number of user inputs very rapidly, Hopper can quickly isolate troublesome scenarios and find bugs in your applications.

It works like this: you setup Hopper to test your application and let it run. It keeps clicking around randomly on your application going through “code paths” that you would not usually test, and of course, it finds bugs!

New Emulator Image
A brand new “Windows Mobile 6 Professional Square QVGA (320x320 pixels - 128 dpi)” emulator image!

CabSignTool
CabSignTool signs a .cab file and all its executable content (.exe, .dll) with the specified certificate – it unpacks the .cab file, signs all .exe and .dll files, pack the .cab file again and sign it, in one single pass.

How do you like it? Stick around as I will continue posting about the SDK, tips and tricks, issues, etc. And let me know your comments and feedback.

Enjoy the new Windows Mobile 6 SDKs!

Certificates in Windows Mobile 6

fzandona — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 12:02:00 GMT

Scott Yost talks about the certificate changes that we made in Windows Mobile 6:

It gives me great pleasure to announce the following changes that we made in WM6:

Certificate Installer built into the platform

Installs CER, P7B, and PFX files
No more Access Denied messages.
Installs certs to the ROOT, Intermediate, and MY store

Wildcard Certificate support for SSL

Full post here.

Windows Mobile 6 SDK

fzandona — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 02:39:00 GMT

With the Windows Mobile 6 announcement it is time to start talking about the new SDK we put together for this release (and I can finally tell you what I’ve been working with since I arrived here). We have been working hard on it and we all hope you'll enjoy it as much as we do :-)

What’s new for developers?

Great application compatibility for Windows Mobile 5 applications
.NET Compact Framework v2 SP1 in the ROM!
SQL Server Compact Edition in the ROM!
New APIs

New Sound APIs
WISP Lite (Yes, the same WISP technology from the TabletPC!)

Several new tools:

Cellular Emulator (kind of having your own Mobile Operator ;)
Local Server Framework (aka FakeServer)
FakeGPS
Hopper
CabToolSigner
Security Configuration Manager

New emulator images
Platform improvements
Integrated documentation

Overall Windows Mobile 6 SDK makes it easier to develop, build, test and deploy your applications.

I’ll drill down into the SDK details on my next posts – so stay tuned!

ScreenLib for Windows Mobile - no resolution/orientation headaches any more!

fzandona — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 20:22:00 GMT

Mel has developed and posted a great library for those of you developing native code - on his own words:

I'm proud to announce ScreenLib, a new library for native Windows Mobile developers. It takes away a lot of the pain of designing user interfaces for multiple screen sizes, orientations, form factors etc. It lets you create a user interface once and have it automatically adapt to whatever the device’s screen size is at runtime. By doing this, it offers basic docking & anchoring support for native development and can do a lot of UI plumbing work with just 1 or 2 lines of code.

ScreenLib works on Pocket PC and Smartphone devices, so it's a great step towards creating single binaries that will run on both platforms.

I highly recommend watching a video tutorial that explains how ScreenLib works and why it should be used. To download the video, please visit:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a908dd7f-71c0-4cea-b97d-b9ffe985f903&displaylang=en.

To download ScreenLib for free, please click: ScreenLib.zip

He has presented it here a couple of weeks ago and I was impressed by its simplicity and how it can increase your productivity when dealing with screen orientation/resolution, etc. And as Mel says, we’d like to hear your feedback!

Thanks Mel!

Check out the new Windows Mobile Network Analyzer PowerToy!

fzandona — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 00:09:00 GMT

Network Analyzer for Windows Mobile was released today as a PowerToy:

Overview
Network Analyzer for Windows Mobile runs network utilities, for example ping and ipconfig, on a Windows Mobile powered device. Network Analyzer for Windows Mobile facilitates the troubleshooting of network connectivity issues. You can extend the harness. You can add user-defined tests (DLLs) to the list of tests to be executed. An xml input file defines the list of tests to execute. You can use Network Analyzer to send information about network traffic to a .cap file. You can then view the .cap file with the Network Monitor tool or the Ethereal tool. See the readme file below for more information.

You can download it here.

Enjoy it!

Windows Mobile 5.0 SDK and Windows Vista? Some tips available...

fzandona — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 09:03:00 GMT

Some people have been experiencing issues when installing/running Windows Mobile 5.0 SDKs on Windows Vista. Most common issues are:

SDK complains about lack of Activesync
SDK seems to install but there is no project template available when you try to create a new project
Unable to create native (C++) projects (you can't to go through the wizard).
Cannot deploy/debug to a device over Activesync in Vista

We have identified these issues and while teams are working on possible fixes, I would like to purpose workarounds to unblock some scenarios for testing Windows Mobile application development on a Windows Vista machine. Let me try to briefly explain each issue and propose an unsupported workaround:

Workaround 1: Activesync requirement during install & Vista
As you may know, Windows Vista comes with device synchronization technology in the box and it does not require Activesync to be installed to synchronize your device with the desktop - it is called Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC).

WM 5.0 was designed to be supported only on Windows Server 2003 & Windows XP (no Vista at that time :-), and for those platforms, Activesync is required to allow application deployment to the device. The good thing is that it was implemented as a soft requirement: just click "ok" in the popup window and continue installation. You do not need to install AS on Vista.

Workaround 2: No Windows Mobile 5.0 Project Templates
During SDK installation, one of the scripts is requiring "elevated privileges" to execute correctly. If you have "User Account Control" (UAC) turned on, this script will silently fail and, although installation will apparently finish successfully, the project templates will not get installed.

How to work around it? Simple, just turn off UAC (Control Panel, User Accounts, Change Security Settings) and install or repair the SDK. You can turn UAC back on after installation.

Workaround 3: Unable to Create Native (C++) Projects
VC++ Project Wizards are pretty much HTML files + scripts - Visual Studio uses IE to render and present those "web pages" as a wizard. The problem is that, due to the new security model, IE7 does not trust some of those scripts; as a result you keep getting the "New Project" dialog and can't move forward on the wizard. The workaround here is to let IE know that the smart device VC++ wizard is a nice guy and ok to run.

You will need to open the registry entry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\PreApproved

And add a new entry named: {D245F352-3F45-4516-B1E6-04608DA126CC}

Workaround 4: Unable to deploy/debug over Activesync
This is the issue I like most :-) As we saw on item 1, Windows Vista comes with WMDC which substitutes Activesync - it acts like AS but it is not AS! That means there is "no information" about AS in a Vista box, in particular, the registry key that identifies Activesync as installed is not present - Visual Studio checks for that registry key before loading the appropriate component to deploy the application to the device, the registry is not there and the deployment fails - all components are ok, we are just missing the registry info...

So guess what? Let's create the missing registry entry!

Open the registry entry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows CE Services

And add the following entries:

MajorVersion (DWORD) = 4
MinorVersion (DWORD) = 0

These hints will help you on beta testing Vista as a development platform for Windows Mobile. However it is important to note that these are unsupported workarounds to let you test the "Visual Studio 2005 + Windows Mobile 5.0 SDK + Windows Vista Beta" combo. Don’t try them on your production system ;-)

Have fun!