I have create a Windows Store app which successfully updates its tile (live tile). The thing I hate about this now is that it seems there is no way for me to install this app anywhere except either through Windows Store or using another developer account (see this).
Since I am looking to support only desktop PC with this, can I work with live tiles from a generic NET 4.5 application?
Or to put it differently, is there a way to use / control live tiles from apps other than Windows Store apps?
This is still all too new to me... Finding answers on the web and SO revealed nothing.
Live Tiles are part of the Metro Framework, completely seperated from .NET. Your application is sandboxed when you develop for the Windows Store framework. no one can access your application and you can't access anyone else's application. The only way to update the live tile would be for the application to update it's own live tile. It would be a huge security flaw to allow anyone to update any tile.
If you do NOT intend to ever submit your app to the Windows Store for distribution - you can look at this thread, which talks about methods used to communicate between desktop apps and windows store apps.
Related
Recently, I tried to make a battery app (C#, store app) for Windows 8.1
(I am using VS2013, tried also VS2012 with the same result).
As it turned out, I need to add a Reference to the project - but I cannot add anything in Reference Manager: it says "All of the Framework assemblies are already referenced". And all what I need is to get System.Windows.Forms - when I search for it, nothing appears.
Any ideas, what can I do?
(Please tell me if I forgot something essential)
Windows Store Apps are build, from scratch, on new technology stack , So Windows Form and WPF are not part of Windows Store apps.
Windows store apps and Windows Forms apps has there different set of
APIs.
Windows store apps are used to known as known as Metro apps and Right now they have been merging the stuff(don't want to go into the details).
This will give a basic knowledge about this new Technology
So, above are the just a small hints about the differences. Actually, It is not possible to explain all the stuff here. Just explore.
guys, first time posting -
I'm a newbie to Windows development and VS (Using 2013 on Windows 8.1).
I've created a very simple application by the action of
File->New Project/WPF application.
The application works great, and does exactly what I'd like it to do.
I successfully added a large (128x128) icon and got it to look great on Windows 7's taskbar and start menu by right-clicking my project in the Solution Explorer and specifying my .ico file through there.
I also added the 'Icon' property to my MainWindow.xaml file and it even looks great on the taskbar of Windows 8...
However, it doesn't even display my app's icon on the Start Menu of Windows 8, and I am having a really hard time finding documentation specific to this issue.
I'm sure it's a no-brainer but I'm just stuck.
How do I get a nice icon and tile in Windows 8?
Live tiles are only supported in Windows Store Applications but you can use some third-party solutions that provides a way to add this capability via the interoperation between your Desktop Application and separate Windows Store application (this one is installed on end-users computers and behaves like a server that can provide a Tile for its clients, which actually are the Desktop applications).
For example, DevExpress solution - WinRTLiveTileManager.
Or you can implement this approach itself...
Live tiles are only supported in Windows Store Apps unfortunately.
See this thread...
We have existing Windows Store application which is developed using C# and XAML. We want to port the same to Windows 8 Mobile application. Is there any Guidelines available for this ?
Well at first I would start figuring out the differences
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/jj681690%28v=vs.105%29.aspx
http://blog.markedup.com/2013/07/winrt-windows-phone-8-code-sharing-pitfalls/
When I ported two of my (smaller) apps, I put as much in a PCL (portable class library) as I could. All the stuff that remained in the project itself needed to be rewritten. If you have well-maintainable code, there should be only UI (what you have to adapt anyway) and very few platform specific code (like accessing filesystem, camera or whatever) left. This is the part you must redevelop.
Dnt know how you have made these applications well If you have followed MVVM pattern then it is very easy to port windows and windows phone apps from one to other. You just need to take care of new XAML UIs every thing except some platform specific liberalizes will work. While making any of windows store and windows phone application you should use the liberaries that both platforms can consume. For example you can use LEX.db for the database.
here are very good explanations for it.
sharing code between windows phone and windows 8 app -1
sharing code between windows phone and windows 8 app -2
hope this will help
The answers given so far are quite good. One thing to note is that Windows Phone 8.1 is about to be released, which will share many of the WinRT libraries. This will mean that in a few months (as early as May), the shared libraries between the two platforms will greatly increase. You can download the leaked SDK to see what some of the changes will be.
Not that you should wait until then, and creating a PCL is definitely going to help you (especially if you want to later move to iOS, Android as well). It's just something to keep in mind.
I need to set the Windows 8 Application Launcher to launch my WPF application as guided here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn195617(v=winembedded.81).aspx
Is it possible or does it have to be a Windows 8 App (instead of a regular WPF application)?
If its not possible, how difficult would it be to migrate my WPF application to a Windows 8 App format?
Couldn't i simply package my WPF application with an AUMID?
Important: The Windows 8 Application Launcher also has a KeepAlive option in Windows Embedded. I need it to keep my application alive as well incase its closing so a good solution would include this as well. Of and i'm using ClickOnce for auto-update my WPF application and i would like to keep this functionality too.
your example is for win 8 Embedded and only for apps. There you have the possibility to startup directly an app.
I think there is still startup possibility for your wpf application on normal Windows 8 devices.
Maybe you have to disable metro on startup. Here is a complex tutorial about this. In Win 8.1 there will be a simple option inside the properties of the taskbar.
Judging by the page you linked, it seems you are out of luck. Only Windows 8 apps are mentioned. But maybe there is another mechanims to auto start desktop applications?
The difficulty of migrating a classic WPF desktop application to a Windows 8 ("Store") app depends on the kind and content of the application, ranging from simple to impossible.
Windows 8 apps are sandboxed and cannot do everything a desktop application can, they have a different lifecycle and different UI/UX principles (you probably need to redo your UI from scratch). .NET and XAML for Windows Store Apps look like .NET and WPF for desktop applications, but there are many surprising details and strings attached, possibly complicating a direct port.
Application Launcher is for Windows Store Applications only. However you can achieve the same effect with Shell Launcher for any executable.
Have a look at these two links here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn195623(v=winembedded.81).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn451259.aspx
Let me know if you need additional help.
I am just curious if there is a way to find installed metro applications within an application. I mean, I like to create an app which also shows my other apps and I want to show them as "Get it from store" or "Launch". Thank you...
No, this is not possible. Windows Store apps are heavily sandboxed, and this is one of the things that is disallowed.