Using Visual Studio for Windows Phone Development (part 2)

4. Running the Application

We are now ready to compile and run the project. Press F5 to begin the process. After compilation (and assuming that there are no errors!), Visual Studio launches the emulator. As mentioned earlier, this can take a little while to open, so be patient while this task completes. Subsequent deployments to the emulator will go much more quickly if the emulator is already running.

Once this is all complete, your program will launch. Clicking the button will display the MessageBox, as you would expect (see Figure 5).

Figure 5. The test application in action

To stop the program, click the Stop Debugging button in Visual Studio. The IDE will return to edit mode, and your program will close on the emulator. The emulator will keep running, ready for any additional programs that you start.

Another way to stop the program is to click the Back button on the emulator. The default behavior when this button is clicked is to close the application and return to the phone's main page (although this behavior can be overridden, as we will see later on). This process will also return the IDE to edit mode. The fact that the Back button actually closes the application instead of simply putting it into the background is important, as we will need to hook into this if we want to allow the application to retain its state when it restarts.

5. Running on a Real Device

You will no doubt be pleased to hear that running your application on a real device is no more difficult than running it within an emulator, and it provides an extremely similar experience. There are a few steps that you will need to go through before you can begin working with the device, however. Let's take a look at the details now.

5.1. Registering the Device

Before you can deploy applications to a device, you must first have a Windows Phone developer account. These accounts are not free, though they are relatively inexpensive (currently priced at $99 per year, though this might change in the future). You will need this account before you can publish any of your finished games into the Windows Phone Marketplace, anyway, so there is not really any way to avoid this charge, even if you develop entirely on the emulator.

You can sign up for an account at the http://create.msdn.com web site. You will be required to prove your identity to Microsoft as part of this process and will receive e-mail notification telling you how to do this. The process might take a couple of days from start to finish.

Besides providing your personal details, you will also be able to provide banking details so that you can be paid for applications that you create and sell in the Marketplace.

Once your account is registered and active, the next step is to set the device up to connect to your PC. First, plug the device in and allow Windows to set up its drivers. This should be a completely automatic process.

Next you will need to install the latest Zune client software. An up-to-date version of this software is essential, so if you have an older version already installed, you will need to upgrade. This application is used for all data transfer and synchronization between the phone and your PC, and will need to be running all the time that you are working with the device. Without this, you will receive an error from Visual Studio when you attempt to deploy.

Once the Zune software has launched, you have to sign in to your Marketplace account, which allows the software to identify that you have registered for development and will unlock the deployment facility that Visual Studio needs to use to transfer your games and applications to the device. The device confirmation screens then appear, as shown in Figure 6, allowing you to set up the device for use with your PC.

Figure 6. Configuring the device inside the Zune software for use with the PC

The final step in setting up the device is to run the Windows Phone Developer Registration application on the PC. This is part of the Windows Phone Software Development Kit, and can be found in the Start menu inside All Programs/Windows Phone Developer Tools. When launched, the application displays a screen like the one shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7. The Windows Phone Developer Registration application

You need to enter the username and password of your developer account and then click the Register button. After a few seconds, you should be notified that the phone was successfully registered. At this point you are finally ready to begin working with your phone in Visual Studio.

These steps only need to be performed once for each device that you use.

5.2. Deploying to the Device from Visual Studio

Now we are ready to deploy our project to the device from inside Visual Studio.

First, with the Zune software running in the background on your PC, connect your device to the PC and ensure that it is recognized by Windows. Once everything is ready, choose to deploy your application to the device rather than the emulator. This is done by dropping down the Device combo box in the toolbar and selecting Windows Phone 7 Device, as shown in Figure 8. When you next start your program, Visual Studio will connect to the device and then install and launch the application executable.

Figure 8. Choosing to launch the application on a physical device

Unsurprisingly, the project running on the phone looks and behaves just as it did in the emulator. Congratulations, you have written and deployed your first Windows Phone application!

6. Debugging

Now that you have a simple application written and working, let's take a closer look at some of the debugging features that are available.

The powerful debugging tools that can be used within the Visual Studio IDE make development systems from the past look extremely primitive in comparison. We can use all these tools for Windows Phone development, making tracking down problems simple.

6.1. Breakpoints

First, try setting a breakpoint on the line of code containing the MessageBox function call. Launch the program (on a real device or the emulator), and click the button within the page. As you would expect, the breakpoint triggers just as it would on a desktop application.

From here, you can explore all the usual attributes of your application: the call stack, object property windows, visualizers, and immediate window commands. Everything is present and working.

The one useful feature that is not available, however, is "edit and continue." Unfortunately, because the application is actually running outside of Visual Studio's controlled environment, such changes cannot be applied at runtime and will need to be held back until the IDE returns to edit mode.

6.2. Debug Output

At any stage within your application you can display text in Visual Studio's Output window. This is done in just the same way as for a desktop application—by using the System.Diagnostics.Debug object. To test this, modify the button click handler as shown in Listing 2.

Example 2. Writing text to the Debug Output window

private void button1_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("Debug text");
    MessageBox.Show("Hello Windows Phone!", "Testing", MessageBoxButton.OK);
}

					  

Each time you click the button, you will now see your debug text appear within the IDE, as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9. Debug text appearing in the Debug Output window

7. Getting Help

Sooner or later you will run into a development problem that you cannot solve on your own. A number of great resources at your disposal can provide insight and inspiration to keep you moving. Here are some of them.

7.1. MSDN

As you would expect from one of Microsoft's products, comprehensive and detailed documentation is available for all aspects of Windows Phone development and the .NET CF. Provided you have it installed, MSDN is an excellent source of help and is never farther away than a quick press of the F1 key.

7.2. Search Engines

The Web is, as ever, an indispensible fountain of information. When searching, try to accompany your search phrase with "windows phone" or "windows phone 7" (including the quotation marks).

7.3. Microsoft's Windows Phone Developer Center

The Developer Center can be found at the following URL:

http://create.msdn.com/

The site hosts a large variety of articles, development tips, frequently asked questions, and code samples. Also of particular interest is the Forums link, which leads to a number of very active message forums. There's a good chance that someone will be able to offer you some assistance.

7.4. Community Sites

Some excellent community sites have built up around the XNA and Silverlight technologies used on Windows Phone 7, and they are a good place to read and ask questions if you need assistance.

For XNA, you can visit http://creators.xna.com for one such community. For Silverlight, http://www.silverlight.net provides similar resources. Besides their forums, both sites are packed with information and downloads, and are well worth visiting.