I am creating universal app, but I want to use parts of older app, wroten in Silverlight 8.1. Is there option how to make cooperate these four projects:
MyProject.Windows (Windows 8.1)
MyProject.WindowsPhone 8.1 (Windows Phone 8.1)
MyProject.Shared
MyProject.OldSilverlightCodes(Windows Phone Silverlight 8.1)
I want to avoid migrating Silverlight code to Runtime line-by-line, it is just too complex to my skills. Is possible connect them any way, maybe via some converter class?
No, you cannot include a Silverlight project in a Windows Runtime project, and there aren't any automated converters.
In general, the best way to share .Net code across multiple targets is to use a Portable Class Library. Depending on what code you have in the Silverlight project it may be straightforward to extract the shared code to a PCL and then use the same PCL in both projects.
--Rob
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Is there a way to convert the project to UWP or should I use another approach? I need to deploy a Windows Forms Application written in C# with VS to Windows 10 IOT on a Raspberry Pi 3b. I've seen mention of a converter, but it seems it is used to publish the app to the Windows Store.
You will need to rewrite the app as a UWP app. The converter you mention (the desktop bridge) will allow packaging your Windows Forms app to store deploy to desktop systems but not for IoT.
Windows 10 IoT does not include the UI stack that a WinForms app depends on. This is documented in the Windows 10 IoT Core documentation (emphasis added for your scenario)
No legacy Win32 UI support: IoT Core does not contain APIs to create classic (HWND) Windows. Legacy methods such as CreateWindow() and CreateWindowEx() or any other methods that deal with Windows handles (HWNDs) are not available. Subsequently, frameworks that depend on such APIs including MFC, Windows Forms and WPF, are not supported on IoT Core
If your UI and underlying logic are separate then you may be able to keep all or most of the logic layer (UWP supports .Net Standard 2.0) and just rewrite the UI using UWP's Xaml stack.
I've found a few examples, as I in a Xamarin.Native use a Windows UWP. But that would mean that I a Xamarin.Nativ in a Windows UWP Convert.
I would like convert a finished Windows UWP application to the target Android or iOS. Is that generally supported or needs my UWP application rebuild again with Xamarin?
Links:
Adding a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) App
Getting Started with Xamarin.Forms 2.0’s Windows 10 Preview
Unfortunately asfar as I know there is no converter that allows to convert UWP app to Android app straight forward.
There are few ways to make the whole process a lot much more easier (so you can create your Android app faster).
If you wrote your UWP application and separated common code that can be used in the other applications you can also use it in Xamarin.Android app - the best way is to have PCL with the common code.
It is also important which type of Xamarin app you would like to create:
1) Xamarin Forms - common UI for each app: Windows, Android and iOS.
There is one shared code that can be used by them. Remember that Xamarin Forms apps are generally speaking the best for displaying the data and they are limited with reference to platform specific functionality.
Please see below to read more:
https://docs.xamarin.com/guides/cross-platform/application_fundamentals/building_cross_platform_applications/sharing_code_options/
2) Xamarin.Platfrom (so Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS):
Here you can create native UI foreach of the project (Windows, Android and iOS) and access specific platform functionality.
With reference to the code - you can put common code in one PCL and have access to it from each project.
Please see this site - here you can find different Xamarin options to create cross-platfrom apps:
https://developer.xamarin.com/
Firstly, if you want a shared code, using Portable class library, you can use the same code for all the platforms including WPF, Android and iOS. First of all what you can do is convert the codes that is used again and again in the PCL (Portable Class Lirary). Once you get used to PCL, you can easily work on any platform you want.
As the Android, iOS are different from windows, a lot of .net framework functionality is not supported in PCL. Although, once you create the basics in PCL, you can integrate the class library in android as well as iOS.
I have a Windows 8.1 C# project for windows store ready.
I want to make a copy of it for Windows Phone 8.
Is there any good and easy way to do this?
I use Visual Studio Ultimate (2012 and 2013).
There's no simple/automatic way to do it, but the code will be mostly compatible. The UI will probably need to be adjusted significantly.
If you target Windows Phone 8.1 WinRT you will find more of the code will work (Windows Phone 8.0 does not support WinRT, which is what Windows Store 8.1 apps use).
A possibly better way would be to create a new Universal Windows 8.1 WinRT project and copy your existing project code in, placing as much as possible in the shared project (or in class libraries), then create a new UI for the phone version (you can keep most of the actual code behind in the shared project - see my blog post here: http://grogansoft.com/blog/?p=760 - to minimise duplication. Note that this must target WP8.1, not 8.0.
If you absolutely must target WP8.0 then you may have no better option than to just copy in the code and adjust it where necessary. This will be relatively easy for a simple app, but relatively messy for a complex app that happens to use APIs that don't match up.
Well, they are different platforms, so you'll still have to adjust your code for that, but maybe converting your portable code to a portable class library will help you:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/gg597391(v=vs.110).aspx
I have updated my code to WP 8.1 and wanted to organise it better by using Class Libraries.
The doubt comes when I find there are 2 Class library project templates for Windows Phone:
Class Library (Windows Phone)
Class Library (Windows Phone
Silverlight)
If i select template 1, i see the assemblies referenced by default are .NET for Windows Store Apps and Windows Phone 8.1
If i select template 2, i got asked the target version of the Windows Phone OS (8.0 or 8.1) and the assemblies references by default are .NET for Windows Phone and Windows Phone.
Do you know the differences between them?
I have looked into the matter and seems it depends if you want to load the .NET runtime namespaces or not, am i correct? Are there any more differences?
The class library type will depend on whether your main app will be a Windows Phone 8.1 Silverlight app, or Windows Phone 8.1 XAML app.
The advantage of WP8.1 XAML app is that it is converged with Windows 8.1 - you can even create an Universal App that shares almost all code and xaml between the Win8 and WP8.1 apps.
The advantage of WP8.1 Silverlight app is that it is more closer to the old WP8.0 app - less changes are required, and also it has access to some APIs not available to WP8.1 XAML apps.
Usually it is recommended to have two projects for both wp7 and wp8 platforms. Wp7 project contains .cs and .xaml files, and WP8 project contains links to that files.
I think that there is no reason to compile non-platform specific business logic code twice, since it can be referenced to WP8 project.
I'm thinking about following solution structure:
Business logic dll compiled for wp7 (not a PCL)
UI comliled for wp8
UI comliled for wp7
Such application can be compiled and I can deploy it to device/emulator.
The question is: will this app pass certification in Windows phone store? Or it is necessary to recompile shared dll?
UPD:
My crazy idea was born after this steps:
Create new WP7 app (WindowsPhoneApplication1)
Create class library targeted to WP7 (WindowsPhoneClassLibrary1) Use it in WindowsPhoneApplication1
Use Upgrade to WP8 menu. WindowsPhoneApplication1 will be updated to WP8, but the referenced project will be still targeted to WP7!
Such app can be deployed to WP8 devices.
Unless you use a Portable Class Library, you'll need to have separate project files, and compile separately for WP7 and WP8.
Thanks to Claus,
I made some research, and it looks like the answer is - you can use such solution.
I didn't find related information in documentation, but here is a proof from one of MSFT tech. evangelists from Netherlands: link to blogpost
The basic idea is to move all our code that can be used from both our existing Windows Phone 7 app as well as the Windows Phone 8 build, which we will add soon, to a Common project in the solution. The bad thing about this approach is that we have to create the Common project as a Windows Phone 7 class library, which will be used in our Windows Phone 8 build. I haven’t really noticed any negative impact of this decision in my existing apps, but note that you will be referencing a Windows Phone 7 library in your Windows Phone 8 build.
So it is a possible, but not the best solution.