Windows Phone Mango adds few more task over initial Windows Phone (RTM) release. This post will cover new task (launchers and choosers) added to Windows Phone Mango Beta and Beta 2.
To introduce those features I’ve created sample application which looks very simple, yet have all those new tasks:
Before we are starting, one very important note about tasks in general. Some of them works on emulator as on real device (Bing maps, Bing directions, etc.), some of them works but doesn’t produce any “visible” output and cannot been verified (Save Ringtone) and some of them are not working at all. In order to take full advantage of task please consider using windows phone mango developer enabled device.
Let’s see the new tasks one by one. GameInviteTask used to display game invite screen to invite users into a multiplayer game session. This task works also for non-game scenarios, and in this case serves as application promotion:
private void btnGameInvite_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
GameInviteTask gameInviteTask = new GameInviteTask();
gameInviteTask.SessionId = "SomeSessionID";
gameInviteTask.Completed += new EventHandler<TaskEventArgs>(gameInviteTask_Completed);
gameInviteTask.Show();
}
void gameInviteTask_Completed(object sender, TaskEventArgs e)
{
if (null == e.Error)
{
MessageBox.Show(string.Format("Invite {0}sent!", (e.TaskResult == TaskResult.Cancel ? "not " : "")));
}
else
MessageBox.Show("Error sending invite!");
}
This code snippet presents the following UI:
Next the Bing-related tasks. Many time you application want to present some geographic location without including Bing maps control into the application. In such case in Mango we can leverage BingMapsTask. This task uses search term to locate the point of interest and optionally zoom level and geographical position for centering the map and shows it on separate screen:
private void btnBingMaps_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
BingMapsTask bingMapsTask = new BingMapsTask();
bingMapsTask.SearchTerm = "Eiffel Tower, Paris, France";
bingMapsTask.ZoomLevel = 21;
bingMapsTask.Show();
}
Executing the task leads to the following result:
If you application needs to provide driving/walking directions it can be achieved using BingMapsDirectionsTask:
private void btnBingDirections_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
BingMapsDirectionsTask bingMapsDirectionsTask = new BingMapsDirectionsTask();
LabeledMapLocation start = new LabeledMapLocation();
GeoCoordinate startLocation = new GeoCoordinate(48.51489, 2.1767119);
start.Label = "Eiffel Tower, Paris, France";
start.Location = startLocation;
LabeledMapLocation end = new LabeledMapLocation("Louvre, Paris, France",
new GeoCoordinate(48.516396, 2.2026199));
bingMapsDirectionsTask.Start = start;
bingMapsDirectionsTask.End = end;
bingMapsDirectionsTask.Show();
}
Note: Your application can use GeoCoordinateWatcher class to resolve current device position and set it as start location for directions task.
The result presented as navigation sequence supported by voice directions:
Last Beta task is SaveRingtoneTask. This task enables your application to add custom ringtones to your device. The sound files should be placed in application data or isolated storage. In this sample I’ve added sample MP3 file as a content resource to my application and copy it into my application IsolatedStorage before executing the task:
private void btnSaveRingtone_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
using (IsolatedStorageFile iso = IsolatedStorageFile.GetUserStoreForApplication())
{
Stream str = Application.GetResourceStream(new Uri("Sound/Sound.mp3", UriKind.Relative)).Stream;
IsolatedStorageFileStream outFile = iso.CreateFile("Ring.mp3");
outFile.Write(ReadToEnd(str), 0, (int)str.Length);
str.Close();
outFile.Close();
}
SaveRingtoneTask ringtoneTask = new SaveRingtoneTask();
ringtoneTask.Source = new Uri("isostore:/Ring.mp3", UriKind.Absolute);
ringtoneTask.Show();
}
private static byte[] ReadToEnd(System.IO.Stream stream)
{
long originalPosition = stream.Position;
stream.Position = 0;
try
{
byte[] readBuffer = new byte[4096];
int totalBytesRead = 0;
int bytesRead;
while ((bytesRead = stream.Read(readBuffer, totalBytesRead, readBuffer.Length - totalBytesRead)) > 0)
{
totalBytesRead += bytesRead;
if (totalBytesRead == readBuffer.Length)
{
int nextByte = stream.ReadByte();
if (nextByte != -1)
{
byte[] temp = new byte[readBuffer.Length * 2];
Buffer.BlockCopy(readBuffer, 0, temp, 0, readBuffer.Length);
Buffer.SetByte(temp, totalBytesRead, (byte)nextByte);
readBuffer = temp; totalBytesRead++;
}
}
}
byte[] buffer = readBuffer;
if (readBuffer.Length != totalBytesRead)
{
buffer = new byte[totalBytesRead];
Buffer.BlockCopy(readBuffer, 0, buffer, 0, totalBytesRead);
}
return buffer;
}
finally
{
stream.Position = originalPosition;
}
}
Note: this is one of those tasks, which actually works on emulator, but cannot be verified – the emulator simply have no interface to check the ringtones.
Now let’s see Beta 2 additions. In Beta 1 we got an ability to search for contacts (I’ve blogged about it here). Now we can populate a new contact data and enable user simply saving it:
private void btnSaveContact_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
SaveContactTask saveContactTask = new SaveContactTask();
saveContactTask.Company = "Sela Group";
saveContactTask.FirstName = "Alex";
saveContactTask.LastName = "Golesh";
saveContactTask.JobTitle = "Senior Consultant, Mobile Division Manager";
saveContactTask.WorkEmail = "alexg@sela.co.il";
saveContactTask.Website = "http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/alex_golesh/";
saveContactTask.Nickname = "@DevCorner";
saveContactTask.Completed += new EventHandler<SaveContactResult>(saveContactTask_Completed);
saveContactTask.Show();
}
void saveContactTask_Completed(object sender, SaveContactResult e)
{
if (null == e.Error)
{
MessageBox.Show(string.Format("Contact {0}saved!", (e.TaskResult == TaskResult.Cancel ? "not " : "")));
}
else
MessageBox.Show("Error saving contact!");
}
User presented with the following UI which enables him to change any suggested values and save the contact:
Last two are about social features. They enabling to share user status and link (on Windows Live, Facebook, etc. for example):
private void btnShareStatus_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
ShareStatusTask shareStatusTask = new ShareStatusTask();
shareStatusTask.Status = "My phone just turn fruit!";
shareStatusTask.Show();
}
private void btnShareLink_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
ShareLinkTask shareLinkTask = new ShareLinkTask();
shareLinkTask.Message = "Visit my blog for new Windows Phone ‘Mango’ content!";
shareLinkTask.Title = "My Blog";
shareLinkTask.LinkUri = new Uri("http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/alex_golesh/", UriKind.Absolute);
shareLinkTask.Show();
}
ShareStatusTask enables to change current status line and ShareLinkTask enables sharing some link along with title and description:
Note: those two launchers doesn’t works on the emulator – they are not producing any changes since there is no way to connect the emulator to the Live/Facebook accounts. You will need real Mango device connected to Facebook in order to check it.
Sources for this sample hosted here.
Stay tuned for more to come.
Alex