I'm developing a clock app for the night, that is always visible, and I'm wondering if is there any way to access the number of quick notifications, like on the lockscreen(for ex.: number of missed calls, emails, messenger/viber/whatsapp messages, etc..) So I could display these icons with numbers in my app.
(source: softpedia-static.com)
No, there is no way for an app to access these. They are available only to the lock screen. Apps are generally isolated from the system and from other apps and are unable to access information that could have privacy concerns.
Related
Is there a way for my application to auto-start after some time instead of a notification? Or am I constrained to just notifications?
The difference between Android and Windows Phone (you mentioned Android in your comment) is that Android allows you to do pretty much everything while Windows Phone is a very restricted system. So, unfortunately, the answer is no. (There are ways to launch your app from other places than the app's tile, though. See the end of the answer)
Why am I saying unfortunately? Of course, Windows Phone is a nice and seek operating system that runs wonderful even on low-spec devices like the Lumia 520. But that doesn't mean developers shouldn't get the freedom to interact with the Operating System and do innovative tasks.
But there are reasons Microsoft chose not to allow Autostart (or at least, restrict the area an app can access, not the autostart in particular):
it may irritate customers. Even if you show a message box, many customers just dismiss it without reading it and they wouldn't understand why an app would appear without their interaction
each feature would make the operating system slower and bigger. I don't want to say that an autostart makes the phone unusable, but here's a question: Do you need to run a registry cleaner on you PC from time to time? Yes, you do need to do so You even need to reinstall a PC form time to time. You don't need to do that on a Windows Phone. It just works and will always work (OK, that's maybe a bit too optimistic, but you get it...)
I also don't think an autostart is particularly useful on a mobile. Because each app runs full screen, the system would boot up to your app instead of to the start screen. I don't think the user will always want your app (most of the time, he'll want to look at his start screen or launch another app), so it would just be annoying. On a PC, you can use the auto start for small programs that should run in the background (for example, I've got a progamm that provides Git with my SSH keys that automatically starts up each time).
But as I mentioned above, there are other ways to launch your app. Using url schemes can be surprisingly powerful as you can put a button on a web page that will directly launch your app. Other apps will also be able to launch your app. But as it is not directly what you wanted to know, I won't explain it in detail and instead provide you wiht a gread link to msdn: Auto-launching apps using file and URI associations for Windows Phone 8
For such features you should look into: Windows Embedded 8.1 Handheld instead of the consumer version Windows Phone 8.1.
I am looking for a way to show the number of unread articles from an RSS feed on a live tile on Windows Phone. How can I do that? I know that I can use background tasks, but I want to use them effectively, so I don't drain the battery of the phone by checking the feed over and over again. Also, I want to reset that number when I open the app.
There are 2 ways of updating the tiles.
From within the app (or background agent)
From a remote service, via push notifications
The method with the least impact on the battery is to send push notifications when there is a new article. This does require a backend service capable of identifying when new content is posted and sending the push notifications though.
If you want to do it all on the device using background agents, the important thing is to remember to not pull down all the content each time. If you have control over the backend then add the ability to return how many new articles there are. If not, only pull down the feed if necessary. Look at the If-Modified-Since header for one way to do this.
It's very easy to reset/clear the tile contents from within the app when launched. When you navigate forwards into the main page is normally the best time.
Any chance to make it possible to build special WinRT application that would run in lock screen mode on Windows 8 like it "works" for default Slide show option setting?
I don't think this is possible. The Win 8.1 API lets you provide an rss feed of images that fuel the lockscreen slideshow, but you don't appear to be able to provide your own app to replace the lockscreen background.
I agree this would be really useful. The lockscreen could be used to turn your device into an ambient data source. For example, custom slideshows, streams of social network posts & pictures, graphs tracking stats you care about (stocks, server load etc.), streams of trending headlines etc.
You can do things with Badges, such as outlined here and here. Unfortunately, I don't think you can do exactly what you are asking, aside from possibly disabling the Lock Screen and building a facsimile of your own, though I don't know to what extent this will be allowed in the store, and will likely be largely up to the users settings with regards to things like working on battery or not.
we are creating a windows Phone 7.5 application, this application is developed for specific purpose for company field employes, phones will contain the data sim. No communication allowed like making a phone call, sending sms or chekcing and repling email etc. This application will receive the Push Notifications from our application in the head office.
Is there any way that we can keep this application always on top, regardless what button is pressed by the user we want this application to always stay on top so what ever the notification it receive it will always disply it to the user for futher action.
Thanks
This requirement is not really feasible for a couple of reasons. First, what you are describing actually breaks most of the concepts that a certified app is required to follow. A subset of certification details can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh184840(v=vs.92).aspx
Secondly, even if you planned to override the back button (possible) there really is no way to override the Windows, search or camera button at the OS level.
Best of luck!
Short answer: you can't. Application switching is part of the OS, and you don't have control over it.
Best workaround is to pin the app to start and allow it to do background processing with updates to the live tile.
If it's an absolute requirement, you'll have to jailbreak the phone and install your own OS on it.
I am working on a web project where content security is client's first priority. I need to create a windows app which will track if the user while visiting the website, is running any screen recorder. If he is, I need to log him out. I have knowledge on c#, vb.net. Can you please tell me if it is possible to track if screen recorder is running on user's computer?
You seriously want to prevent access to a web-site being recorded?
The simple answer is no, you can't tell. However, MS does offer some content protection APIs that might be more what you need, IF you are rendering to a DirectX 11 surface:
Direct 3D Video APIs on MSDN has more info.
It might cost colossal resources to implement such solution (that will have holes and must be maintained). Monitoring web site by means of a desktop app sounds like a dirty insecure hack. What if the user has a mobile phone with the camera?
Better, you shall rely upon standard widely accepted security principles of HTTP/TSL, such as proper authentication, authorisation, security policies, encryption, strong passwords etc.