Innovate from India (Development Center)

Office Move!

2008-05-01T12:15:00Z

Who likes to move? Its painful and not very exciting most of the time. Well, entire IDC is moving to building #3 within the campus. Many people are excited but I'm not. I've one of the best views from my cube and I know for sure that I'm not getting any kind of view from my new office. Below pictures speak for themselves

View of Parking Area from my window

View of Cricket Ground

View of Infosys campus and upcoming Golf Course

Manav

Accelerate your Mobile App Development with WM LOB Accelerator 2008

2008-03-17T08:14:00Z

This is exciting news for Smart Device developers. Now you can use Windows Mobile Line of Business Accelarator 2008 to learn and develop great applications for Windows Mobile Phone. The accelerator presents the best of the development techniques and highlights the cool new features that we shipped in Visual Studio 2008, .NET Compat Framework v3.5 and SQL Server Compact v3.5 and Microsoft Sync Services for Devices. The accelerator is a working supply chain application with over 5,000 lines of commented code plus over a hundred pages of helpful documentation. Download it from here http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=428E4C3D-64AD-4A3D-85D2-E711ABC87F04&displaylang=en

Highlights:

Adapt your App :: Create a single binary that runs unchanged on Windows Mobile Standard or Pro, Portrait or Landscape, Rectangle or Square. No more wasting time building separate executables to accommodate different screen sizes or input methods.

Sync Services for ADO.NET :: Synchronize your data between SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server Compact 3.5 using the new Sync Framework. Keep all your occasionally-connected mobile workers on the same page.

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Store and Forward :: Reliably push messages to servers or other devices via Exchange Server 2007. Programmatically notify peer devices that they have new orders waiting for them and need to sync.

MapPoint :: Guide delivery drivers to their customers via either the shortest or quickest route. Integrated mapping means you’ll never get lost again.

LINQ :: Use the new Language Integrated Query to filter results from Generic Object Collections. Query both your objects and XML using a familiar, SQL-like syntax to boost developer productivity.

Custom Controls :: Capture signatures and dazzle your end-users with 3D and Alpha-blended controls that alter their behavior depending on the platform they’re running on.

Managed Stored Procedures and Triggers :: The pluggable data layer allows you to say goodbye to compiling Dynamic SQL inside your code and fires events to react to INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE operations.

Notifications and Online Help :: Formerly only supported on Pro, say hello to Popup Notifications and Online Help on Standard. Popup Notifications, also known as “toast,” display an HTML message and then disappear after a pre-determined amount of time. Using Online Help on every screen reduces your applicationtraining costs.

Language Switching and Localization :: Change Language/Regional Settings inside your app and watch text and Online Help speak a different language. Don’t wait until your application is finished to realize that it needs to be world-ready.

Time to Market :: Stop reinventing the wheel and use this Accelerator as the foundation for your next Windows Mobile development effort. If you don’t want to use the whole thing, pick and choose the components that are the best fit for your project.

CTP of Sync Services for Devices Available

2008-03-06T10:24:00Z

This was one of the most important features that we just couldn't get done in time for Orcas. VSD team along with Sync team continued the journey and today we're proud to announce the 1st CTP download of Sync Services for Devices.

Download the bits from here.
Post your questions on MSDN Forum here.

The MSI contains Sample and a ReadMe on getting started. The device bits are fully integrated into Visual Studio and supports full F5 deployment and debugging. VSD team is working on designer experience and we'll be releasing it along with upcoming service pack of Visual Studio 2008. Stay tuned.

Cheers,

Manav

VS2008 Smart Device Project Conversion Scenarios

2007-12-05T11:55:00Z

This post summarizes the various combinations of project conversion scenarios when a VS2005 Smart Device project is opened inside VS2008.

1. When a user opens a VS2005 project inside VS2008 Visual Studio Conversion wizard is automatically launched.

2. User is presented with below messages on what will be converted. Items marked in Yellow are specific to Smart Device projects.

If the solution or project is under source control, it will be checked out automatically during the conversion. Be sure the correct Source Control Plug In is active, and no files are exclusively checked out by other users.

The Upgrade Wizard upgrades projects that target the .NET Compact Framework 1.0 to target the .NET Compact Framework 2.0.

.NET Compact Framework 2.0 applications will remain unchanged.

SQL Server Mobile 3.0 and SQL Server Compact Edition 3.1 references will be upgraded to SQL Server Compact 3.5 reference.

Additionally, managed Smartphone 2003 projects are upgraded to target Windows Mobile 5.0.

Conversion type: In-place with backup to user specified location.

Backup location for projects: <location-of-backup-project>

Solution to be converted: <name-of-solution>

Projects:

<name-of-project>

3. User is presented with a project conversion report once finished.

What Gets Converted?

4. The conversion wizard upgrades projects that target the .NET Compact Framework 1.0 to target the .NET Compact Framework 2.0.

5. .NET Compact Framework 2.0 applications will remain *unchanged* i.e. they’ll continue to target NETCF 2.0

6. SQL CE 2.0, SQL Server Mobile 3.0 and SQL Server Compact Edition 3.1 references will be upgraded to *SQL Server Compact 3.5* reference.

o User app will now target SQL Server Compact 3.5 instead of 3.0 or 3.1 or 2.0

o SQL Server Compact database file (SDF file) will be converted to be compatible with SQL Server Compact 3.5 from SQL Server Mobile 3.0 or SQL Server Compact Edition 3.1. See below for further details. MSDN Ref: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb892923(VS.90).aspx

o SSCE 2.0 SDF file won’t be upgraded to SSC 3.5 SDF format. User must run upgrade.exe tool on the device to do the necessary conversion.

7. Additionally, managed Smartphone 2003 projects are upgraded to target Windows Mobile 5.0.

SDF File format conversion related special cases:

1. Scenario: SDF file in the original project is not password protected.

a. SDF file is upgraded to SSC 3.5. Pressing F5 will result in success at runtime.

2. Scenario: SDF file in original project is *password protected* and encryped

a. SDF file is *not upgraded to SSC 3.5*. Pressing F5 will result in runtime errors.

b. User must manually perform the SDF file upgrade by removing the connection & re creating the connection to the SQL Server Compact 3.5

3. Scenario: SDF file in original project is *password protected* and password is part of connection string

a. SDF file is upgraded to SSC 3.5. Pressing F5 will result in success at runtime.

Visual Studio 2008 Beta2 Available!

2007-07-27T09:07:00Z

Visual Studio 2008 Beta2 is available for download from http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa700831.aspx. So, what's new in Visual Studio 2008 for device developers?

Unit Testing for Devices - You can write your smart device managed application, generate unit tests using wizard, implement your testing logic and run them on device/emulator using various different configurations and simulate real world behaviour. You can tweak the security settings on the device/emulator via device security manager.
Device Security Manager - You can view the security settings of your real device - tier 1, tier 2 and such, apply different security configurations, view the certificates on device.
Device Emulator v3.0 - Many new features including performance improvements, support for accessing emulator via automation interfaces, dynamically reconfigure the emulator and tweak its properties and simulate your real life scenarios such as battery life.
Core Connectivity Framework - You can now use core connectivity framework to write your remote tools like remote registry editor, process viewer, file viewer and such.
.NET CF v2 SP2 and v3.5 - Loads of new features including LINQ, WCF, profilers, compression etc. More details on http://blogs.msdn.com/netcfteam/archive/2007/03/13/net-compact-framework-2-0-sp2-released.aspx and http://blogs.msdn.com/netcfteam/archive/2007/01/28/net-compact-framework-3-5-included-in-orcas-january-ctp.aspx
Development support on Windows Mobile 6 including emulator images.
Windows Mobile 5.0 PPC and SP SDKs are now in the box. You don't have to download them separately.
SQL Compact Edition v3.5 - Support for writing device applications targeting SSC 3.5 which includes support for new data types, large SDF file, encryption. For additional details see http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlservercompact/
Updated Compilers, MFC libraries and toolset for native developers.
Side-by-Side support - Yes, you can install Visual Studio 2008 along with your Visual Studio 2005 SP1 without worrying about either of them interfering with eachother. You can now try out VS 2008 without uninstalling VS 2005.

I request all of you to download the Visual Studio 2008 Beta2 and send us your feedback.

Cheers!

Manav

VSD Team Signsoff on Visual Studio 2008 Beta2 - Literally

2007-07-16T11:31:00Z

Visual Studio for devices team officially signsoff on Visual Studio 2008 Beta2 literally. Amit and Anand, two of our Program Managers did the honour for the team.

(Above: Anand looks on while Amit is busy signing)

Manav

Step-by-Step guide to writing Smart Device Data Synchronization App

2007-06-29T11:49:00Z

I am often asked this question "I'm a Smart Device developer, I want to write a data application and I need to synchronize my data with my back-end SQL server - how do I do this?"

There is no single answer to this question. There are several techniques that can be employed today a) RDA b) Merge Replication c) Write your own custom solution using Web Services or d) ADO.NET synchronization services - this is going to be released in future.

SO, whats the starting point? This MSDN article (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa454892.aspx) is a step-by-step guide to developing a Smart Device data application that synchronizes with back-end database using RDA and Merge.

Cheers!

Manav

Thank you Mumbai!

2007-06-25T09:33:00Z

Thanks for all who attended my presentation on "Using LINQ with Compact Framework". You can:

Download the presentation (here)
Download the Demo project (attached)
Watch the video on on www.techmela.com.

Manav

Worst Presenting Techniques!

2007-06-04T08:48:00Z

Rob, Loke and others talk about worst presenting techniques in this video. This is hilarious. New speakers should watch this video!

Enjoy!

Manav

TechMela 2007 - Are you coming?

2007-05-31T14:26:00Z

Its been a while since I've visited my blog. I was heads down shipping Orcas Beta 1 (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa700831.aspx) and finishing up Orcas Beta 2. Today we hit our zero bugs count for Beta2 - yeah!!

Many of the VSD team members are presenting sessions on various device features we're enabling in Orcas in upcoming Tech Mela in Mumbai - June 13th to Jun 16th 2007. Some of the topics we're presenting are:

What's New for Device Developers in Visual Studio "Orcas" - Aarthi Ramamurthy
Using LINQ with the .NET Compact Framework - Manav Gaur (yep! thats me)
Device Emulator for Mobile Application Developers - Mukund Bhoovaraghavan
New and Improved .NET Compact Framework Diagnostic Tools - Srinivas Nadimpalli

Visit http://www.techmela.com to register and meet the VSD team. We look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers!

Manav

VS2005 SP1 Vista Update Now Available

2007-03-07T07:50:00Z

VS2005 SP1 update for Vista is now available on download center. You can download the update from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=90e2942d-3ad1-4873-a2ee-4acc0aace5b6&displaylang=en. You've to apply VS2005 SP1 before applying this update on Vista

Manav

SQL Server Compact Edition 3.1 launched

2007-01-16T08:11:00Z

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition is the next version of SQL Server Mobile adding the desktop platform. SQL Server Compact extends the SQL Server Mobile technology by offering a low maintenance, compact embedded database for single-user client applications for all Windows platforms including tablet PCs, pocket PCs, smart phones and desktops. Just as with SQL Server Mobile, SQL Server Compact is a free, easy-to-use, lightweight, and embeddable version of SQL Server 2005 for developing desktop and mobile applications.

SQL Server Compact Edition 3.1 (SSCE in short) being successor to SQL Server Mobile Edition offers same capabilities as SQL Mobile and lot more. You will need VS2005 SP1 to take advantage of its integration with Visual Studio.

TechNet: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/technologies/sqlcompact.mspx

Manav

LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __GSHandlerCheck

2006-12-21T15:26:00Z

If you're a native C++ smart device developer and recently downloaded VS2005 SP1 you may find that some of your existing programs and some of the samples that ship with Windows Mobile SDK will fail to compile. Even if you're able to make them compile they may issue a warning like "warning LNK 4099: PDB 'libbmt.pdb was not found".

This is because VSD has updated the compilers for VS2005 SP1 to be on par with WinCE 6 compilers which included /GS support. So, for projects that don’t include libc/msvcrt or turn off /GS, you will run into these errors on pre-WinCE 6 platforms

As a workaround you should explicitly include "libcmt.lib" in the list of additional libs to link against and turn off the linker warning (/nowarn:4099).

Manav.

VS2005 SP1 RTM

2006-12-15T11:43:00Z

Yeah!! We've done it. VS 2005 SP1 is RTM. There are significant improvements for Smart Device development. You can read device development improvements here http://blogs.msdn.com/mgaur/archive/2006/09/26/772519.aspx. and general SP1 information here http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/support/vs2005sp1/default.aspx and about VS 2005 on Vista at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa948853.aspx.

Manav

Windows Live for Mobile Devices!

2006-12-04T13:39:00Z

Now you can access your Windows Live information on your Mobile devices. Live is available on your favourite Windows Mobile phone as well as on any Java enabled phone. Checkout the screen shots for searching local, weather information, driving directions and much more.

Manav