Beginning Windows Phone 7 Development (Books for Professionals by Professionals) [Paperback]

Henry Lee (Author), Eugene Chuvyrov (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 2010 | ISBN-10: 1430232161 | ISBN-13: 978-1430232162 | Edition: 1

Microsoft is injecting new energy into the smart phone marketplace with the sophisticated Windows Phone 7. This new energy equates to new opportunities for you, the mobile developer. Beginning Windows Phone 7 Development has been written specifically to help you seize these opportunities and begin creating applications for this exciting new mobile device platform.

Beginning Windows Phone 7 Development starts with the basics, walking you through the process of downloading and setting up the right development tools, including Visual Studio, Expression Blend, Silverlight SDK, and Windows Phone SDK. The book then takes you step-by-step though the development process as you build and deploy a complete application with a highly sophisticated user interface. Finally, you'll receive step-by-step instructions on selling your applications through the Microsoft Phone Marketplace.

What you’ll learn

• Create effective networked applications
• Leverage your phone’s GPS capabilities from within your application
• Interact with the phone’s built-in functionality (camera, contacts, maps, accelerometer, video and web browser to name but a few)
• Construct highly graphical and responsive user interfaces quickly and easily using the features that Microsoft has provided for you
• How to package and distribute your applications both for personal distribution and through the Windows Phone Marketplace

Who this book is for

This book is for anyone interested in developing applications for the Windows Phone 7. You might be an existing .NET developer looking for a new creative angle or perhaps an iPhone or Android developer looking for a new opportunity.

If you have an understanding of basic .NET coding practices then this book if for you.

Table of Contents

1. Introducing Windows Phone 7 and the Windows Phone Platform
2. Building Windows Phone 7 Applications
3. Using Cloud Services As Data Stores
4. Catching and Debugging Errors
5. Packaging, Publishing, and Managing Applications
6. Working with the Accelerometer
7. Application Bar
8. WebBrowser Control
9. Working with Controls and Themes
10. Integrating Applications with the Windows Phone OS
11. Creating Trial Applications
12. Internationalization
13. Isolated Storage
14. Using Location Services
15. Media
16. Working with the Camera and Photos
17. Push Notifications
18. Reactive Extensions for .NET
19. Security

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Henry Lee, founder of ToeTapz.com and NewAgeSolution.net, is passionate about technology. He works with various Fortune 500 companies, delivering mobile applications and rich Internet applications. He is focusing his energy on delivering mobile applications on Windows Phone 7, Android, and iPhone. In his spare time, he dedicates his efforts to helping his communities by delivering sessions at technology events. He enjoys speaking with other technologists about current trends in technology and sharing business insights with fellow colleagues. Often, you'll find Henry at a local cigar bar, enjoying a cigar and a drink, trying to come up with the next big mobile application.

A bio is not available for this author.

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (November 30, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430232161
• ISBN-13: 978-1430232162
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,188,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good content, could do with some refining December 5, 2010

By D. JANSCAK

Format:Paperback

Beginning Windows Phone 7 Development by Lee and Chuvyrov is aimed at developers new to the Windows Phone 7 platform (which is probably most of us). This book expects a basic understanding of C#, the .NET Framework and XAML so if you have no prior programming experience, an introductory text is a pre-requisite. .NET developers without Silverlight or WPF experience shouldn't find the content too challenging as it is either explained sufficiently by the authors or fairly easy to grasp in its own right.

Part 1, The Essentials of Windows Phone 7 Application Development, starts with a high level introduction to the Windows Phone 7 platform and then drills into some examples ranging from the obligatory Hello World through to a thorough Windows Azure-based cloud services end-to-end scenario. There are plenty of step-by-step instructions and loads of screenshots in these five introductory chapters making them a easy read.

Part 2, Using Windows Phone 7 Technologies, comprises the remaining fourteen chapters and the vast majority of the book. The meat of the book is in these chapters and provides a reasonable grounding for developers looking to discover the breadth of the Windows Phone 7 platform without getting bogged down in too much detail.

The book is organised reasonably well and covers the material well enough for someone new to the platform to become productive relatively quickly. The tone of the book is light without trying too hard to be humourous, which I was thankful for. However, I have two complaints to make, resulting in a less than perfect score.

First, there are a number of inconsistencies in the example code printed in the book. For example, in Chapter 2, the book refers to a TextBlock called textBlock1 in the description of the subsequent code but then goes on to use a TextBox called txtMessage in the actual code listing. There are plenty of similar errors in this section. Its easy enough to understand where the book has gone wrong and correct for it but it may be frustrating for beginners.

Secondly, and far more annoying for me, was the volume of grammatical errors. The authors' command of English is obviously good but between the frequent errors, odd turns of phrase, and some repetitive wording, I found the writing to be a distraction (there's something about code being referred to as codes that really irritates me). Thankfully I perservered through to Part 2 of the book where either the writing improved or I became too desensitised to care anymore.

The book is fine as a survey of the important areas of Windows Phone 7 which will likely require your attention as a developer. If you don't mind the occasional superficial inconsistencies in code examples or if the quality of the writing doesn't get in your way, you could do far worse. Some work by the editors at Apress should result in a much improved second edition as it really only needs polishing rather than a rewrite.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Absolute waste, I can't believe this was even published April 8, 2011

By DChaworski

Format:Paperback

This has got to be one of the worst development books I've ever read. Ever.

To start, it requires a base understanding of C# and XAML, which is all fine and good. However, it doesn't take the reader any farther than that base understanding. Its pretty much just a really long, drawn out "Hello World" tutorial, taken straight from www.silverlight.net (which is free, by the way). So really, they're charging money for a book full of freely available online tutorials, re-written in such a way as to make the entire process excruciatingly dry and depressing.

To top that off, the authors of this book have a horrible grasp of English. Spelling mistakes, strange phrases ("Like I am use codes to illustrate what to begin." -- WHAT??), and other grammar errors make it difficult to comprehend what these authors are trying to teach. I hope they aren't professors somewhere, because their students are getting a raw deal.

Overall, I'm truly surprised that this garbage made it to the press. Don't waste your money, just do what the authors did and find some free Silverlight tutorials online.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing October 27, 2011

By Larry Boeldt

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

A-Press has generally been a good publisher of technical books. The ability to download sample code and attain low cost PDF versions of the book were two of my favorite features of A-Press books I have ordered in the past. On top of those nice amenities the books I have ordered on C#, .NET, MVC and SQL Server have all been top notch and kept me on the leading edge of development. This book is not the case.

First of all no source code is available online and there is no option to download/purchase a PDF. Having to type a bunch of XAML is really a crappy way to learn WP7 development. I found it to be of no help at all.

This book has beginning in the title however it doesn't give you any form of well rounded start to Windows Phone 7 development. It seems to give a bunch of sparse parts but doesn't provide any value in terms of providing enough knowledge to develop a valuable Windows Phone 7 application. Furthermore the content can be found for no cost on through the Channel Nine videos that are posted online. In fact the Channel Nine videos go much more in depth at no cost than this book does for the purchase price.

What I believe is missing from this book is a primer on Silver Light development, Data binding, and for seasoned .NET developers what to expect when moving from the full .NET framework down to the compact framework on WP7.

If I could rate this book zero stars I would, it really is that poor. Worse yet a publisher that I trust to sell good, informative and educational books that I rely on to stay cutting edge has let me down.