Author Archives: johnvisiomvp

WP8 Looking for Mr SkyDrive

So far, my phone apps have been self contained and did not talk with the real world.  So my latest app involves communicating with a PC. There are a number of articles on using web services, but I wanted to be out of the loop. The user should be able to transfer from their PCContinue reading “WP8 Looking for Mr SkyDrive”

WP7 Multilingual AppBar.

The current phone app I am working on is based around a pivot and to get the most out of the pivot I want to use a different appbar for each pivot item. Luckily, Microsoft has a good article on how to do it. How to use different app bars in a single Pivot controlContinue reading “WP7 Multilingual AppBar.”

MVA is not just for IT guys

For the past month I have been looking at MVA – Microsoft Virtual Academy.  I did check it out when it was first released, but it basically had IT Pro related courses. Though I prefer to wear a dev hat, I did play an IT Pro in the past. My IT Pro experiences were backContinue reading “MVA is not just for IT guys”

WP Developer in a Guilded Cage.

I have been working on Windows Phone apps for several years and I am still having trouble getting traction on creating new apps. Creating a Hello World is not a problem, but creating something more sophisticated requires a lot of effort. There is information out there, but it does take some work sifting through theContinue reading “WP Developer in a Guilded Cage.”

Formatting Debug Writeline

For the past few months, I have been working on a Windows Phone app that uses several tables. Most of the time when I debug, I rely heavily on Debug.Writeline to help me keep track of what is going on as I test an app.  If the app crashes, I can look at Output andContinue reading “Formatting Debug Writeline”

WP7 Thems Mighty Big Words Partner.

During one of the local user groups presentations, I had to send several notes to the presenter and to some of the organizers.  At the time I wrote on a notepad (the old fashion type). Considering my terrible handwriting it was not a great success, so I decided to write a Windows Phone app for that.Continue reading “WP7 Thems Mighty Big Words Partner.”

Watch your language! VS Multilingual Toolkit for Win 8

So I survived using the Multilingual Toolkit with the phone, Windows 8 should be a piece of cake. Unfortunately, the experience could be described as crumby. The documentation is either piecemeal, refers to older methods or different languages or has been deleted. If the Toolkit is the preferred way, the older documentation needs to beContinue reading “Watch your language! VS Multilingual Toolkit for Win 8”

WP7 Problem with Tiles – orphans

I have a new WP app – Banner http://visio.mvps.org/WP7Apps/default.html or http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/banner/696719a5-e1f7-4baa-b4c0-69108a8aae0e that displays a message in the largest possible font for a given orientation as a scrolling banner. Inverted landscape displays a secondary message.  To allow the user quick access to a message, the original design included secondary tiles, but other than text, the tiles wereContinue reading “WP7 Problem with Tiles – orphans”

WP7 Can you translate that for me? VS Multilingual Toolkit

I have done a few apps that support several languages and the basic process was not bad but juggling the translations was far from easy. It required exporting to Excel, merging the English language with the new language. The hint column in the resource file was not bad, but it was easier just merging theContinue reading “WP7 Can you translate that for me? VS Multilingual Toolkit”