Porting business apps to Windows PhoneMichele Capra aka @piccoloaiutante
What is this talk about ?
‣ My personal experience on porting a business App from Android to Windows Phone 8.
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Agenda‣ The App
‣ Development tools
‣ Mockup
‣ Code and development (UI, component, languages)
‣ Integration with OS
‣ App lifecycle
‣ App publish and store
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
The MDC clientIntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
The MDC clientThe case study:
‣ Mobile Data Collection (M.E.A.P.)
‣ create mobile application from a Web interface using a series of widgets
‣ deliver Apps to Android Tablet and Phone, iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Phone 8, Windows 8 RT/Pro
‣ developed by Gulliver, an italian company.
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Mdc architecture
App2
App1
App n
Mdc Client
App1App2Appn
Data sync Activated client
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Available control in MDC‣ Close acquisition (checkbox, radio)
‣ Free acquisition (textbox, maps,
nfc, barcode/qrcode)
‣ Free Grid acquisition
‣ Lookup acquisition
‣ Touch screen acquisition
(signature, draw)
‣ Media (picture, video)
‣ Messages (show text)
‣ Control flow (if, loop)
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Android client exampleApplications Add new customerSalesman visit app
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Android client exampleProposed product Visit outcome Notes
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Windows phone client exampleApplications Add new customerSalesman visit app
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Windows phone client exampleProposed product Visit outcome Notes
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
MDC client
‣ Native clients (no Phone Gap)
‣ Proprietary protocol
‣ Occasionally connected
‣ Several different widget (picture, signature, position, textbox..)
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
First big questionIntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Which Windows Phone version to support ?
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
First big questionTo support Windows Phone 7 or not?
We chose not to support it:
‣ Clear Microsoft intent to dismiss Windows Phone 7
‣ Some of the components we needed were only for Windows Phone 8.
Android support from 2.3
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Development toolsIntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Visual Studio 2012
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Android IDE
‣ AndroidStudio
‣ Intellij Idea
‣ Eclipse
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
IDE
Both support:
‣ Code completion
‣ Emulator
‣ Debugging
‣ Visual designer
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
IDE
Jet Brains solution could help you:
‣ Intellij Idea keyboard scheme and shortcut are available for Visual Studio through ReSharper plugin
‣ Code navigation, refactoring shortcuts…
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
MockupIntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Mockup‣ UI + Controls + Navigation - Logic
‣ Didn’t look at Android app code
‣ Just investigate
‣ Trying to figure out how to translate App flow from Android to Modern UI
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Mockup
‣ Windows phone app
‣ Navigation between pages
‣ No SketchFlow
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
MockupAndroid Windows Phone
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
MockupAndroid Windows Phone
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
MockupAndroid Windows Phone
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
MockupAndroid Windows Phone
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
MockupAndroid Windows Phone
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Mockup
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
ComponentIntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Component App capabilities:
‣ Take picture
‣ Read BarCode/QR Code
‣ Read NFC
‣ Get GPS coordinate
‣ Take signature
‣ Use web view
‣ Store data in a database
‣ Multi-language support
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Component
‣ Take picture (Intent → Request CameraTask)
‣ Read BarCode/QR Code (ZXing → ZXing.net)
‣ Read NFC (Intent → Microsoft library to do the job)
‣ Get gps coordinate ( LocationManager → GeoLocator)
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Component
‣ Take signature (Canvas & Path → InkPresenter)
‣ Use web view (WebView → WebBrowser)
‣ Store data in a database (SQLite → SQLite)
‣ Multilanguage support (Xml file → Multilingual App toolkit)
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Component - Database
‣ We had to make a choice between:
‣ LocalDb
‣ SQLite
‣ SQLite won because of the experience with other platform
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
So let’s start developingIntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
CodeIntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Java vs C#Academic answer for similarities:
‣ Statically strong typed
‣ Class-based, Object-oriented
‣ Semi-interpreted
‣ Garbage collection
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Java vs C#‣ convert basic type
‣ change data structure:
‣ Vector<T> → List<T>
‣ HashTable<Integer,Integer> → Dictionary<int,int>
‣ change method name i.e: string.startWith() → string.StartsWith()
‣ StringTokenizer → String.split(string)
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Java vs C#
Different pattern:
‣ Android: Model-View-Presenter pattern but View and Presenter highly coupled.
‣ Windows Phone: Model-View-ViewModel pattern, Binding mechanism.
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
FrameworkCaliburn as framework:
‣ Screen-conductor mechanism
‣ Screen: a stateful unit of work existing within the presentation tier of an application. It’s independent from the application shell.
‣ Conductor: Conductors manage the life cycle state of one or more screens.
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Framework
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Conductor
(ViewModel, Page)
Screen
(ViewModel,UserControl)
FrameworkCaliburn as framework:
‣ EventAggregator: messaging between classes
‣ PhoneBootstrapper: custom bootstrapper designed to setup phone applications.
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
UIIntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
XML vs XAMLSimilarity:
‣ LinearLayout → StackPanel
‣ TextView, TextEdit → TextBlock,TextBox
‣ ScrollView → ScrollViewer
‣ Radio Group, RadioButton → RadioButton
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Values vs Xaml style
Android Values:
<color name=“white”>#FFFFFFFF</color>
!
Windows Phone Xaml control style:
<Color x:Key="white">#FFFFFFFF</Color>
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Integration with OSIntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Integration with OS
‣ Make a phone call
‣ Send an email
‣ Open Map
‣ Navigate to a place
‣ Open link in browser
‣ Open pdf/office file
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Integration with OSIn Android you do this by intent and activity.
!
Intent callIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_CALL);
callIntent.setData(Uri.parse("tel:0377778888"));
startActivity(callIntent);
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Integration with OSIn Windows Phone you use Tasks.
!
PhoneCallTask phoneCallTask = new PhoneCallTask();
phoneCallTask.PhoneNumber = "2065550123";
phoneCallTask.Show();
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Integration with OSSending email in Android.
!
Intent emailIntent = new Intent(android.content.Intent.ACTION_SEND);
emailIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_EMAIL, new String[]{to});
startActivity(emailIntent);
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Integration with OSSending email in Windows Phone.
!
EmailComposeTask emailComposeTask = new EmailComposeTask();
emailComposeTask.To = “[email protected]”;
emailComposeTask.Show();
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
App lifecycleIntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Android activity lifecycle
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Windows Phone lifecycle
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Be careful
From Microsoft docs:
“It is possible, however, for an app to be tombstoned after the user navigates away. In this case, the app is not preserved in memory, but some information about the app is stored – most importantly for this topic, the State dictionary of the PhoneApplicationPage object is stored”
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Be careful
‣ Serialised and deserialise the app state that is not a part of the page
‣ Rebind all the dependencies
‣ Update UI value (i.e: something typed from user before tombstoning)
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Be careful
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
StoreIntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
App package
‣ Xap file which includes everything needed from the app.
‣ It’s almost like an apk file.
‣ You cannot install xap out of store.
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Google Play store
‣ Generate key pair and certificate and keystone
‣ Sign your app and verify signed app
‣ Upload and publish to Play store
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Windows Phone store
Validation
‣ Package verification
!
Certification
‣ Sign and encryption
!
Publish
‣ Ready to be published
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Windows Store Test Kit
The Windows Phone Windows Phone Store Test Kit (formerly named Marketplace Test Kit) provides a suite of automated and manual tests to help prepare your apps to be accepted in the Windows Phone Store the first time you submit them.
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Testing for tombstoning
‣ Before upload your xap to store simulate tombstoning and test your app manually.
‣ Tombstoning could be forced manually by Visual Studio.
IntroductionThe AppDevelopment toolsMockupCodeIntegration with OSApp lifecycleApp publish & store
Recap‣ The App
‣ Development tools
‣ Mockup
‣ Code and development (UI, Component, languages)
‣ Integration with OS
‣ App Lifecycle
‣ App publish and store
My personal experience
‣ Java is not far from C#
‣ Build a mockup in order to explore new platform
‣ Keep an eye on app lifecycle
My personal experience
‣ No object mapping SQLite-net is too slow
‣ I doubt that i would reuse a framework
‣ I would rather use a toolkit
My personal experience
‣ MVP gave to Android app the possibility to have full access and control of the UI
‣ MVVM gave to Windows Phone 8 a partial access to the UI
‣ ViewFirst approach was a part of the problem
grazie! @piccoloaiutante
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