Here are the slide decks from my recent presentations. There were a few requests for theses so I wanted to make them available publically.

Learn how to program and sell Windows Mobile applications online. The first part of presentation will be an overview of Windows Mobile programming, focused on making developers aware of the capabilities of modern Windows Mobile devices and the latest version of the .NET Compact Framework to created advanced mobile user experiences. The second part of the presentation will be focused on different approaches to publish and distribute our creations online to the world.

Windows Mobile Marketplace

Creating Advanced Mobile User Experiences

Many of us love programming innately. It’s almost in our DNA. Some of my first programming experiences were on a used Commodore 64 that we picked up at a local garage sale. It didn’t come with any software, so if I wanted it to do anything it was up to me to make that happen. It was a lot of work, but it really was a lot of fun for me too. Later I move to QuickBasic, then to Visual Basic, and on and on from there.

I was the only developer who got his start with the Commodore 64. I guess you could consider the Commodore 64 to have used a “Rapid Application Development” programming language, but really it was a “Fun Application Development” language, and I think that went a long way to winning me over.

Most modern programming languages today are about rapid application development, this might help to keep current developers productive, but what will bring in tomorrow’s developers? What is today’s “Fun Application Development” language?

I think Microsoft’s Small Basic is a great answer to that question.

Small Basic

Small Basic Blog

Small Basic is a simple and easy programming language with a friendly environment that provides a cool and fun way of learning programming. From making turtles animations to running a slide show on the desktop, Small Basic makes programming natural and effortless.

• Small Basic derives its inspiration from the original BASIC programming language, and is based on the Microsoft .NET platform. It is really small with just 15 keywords and uses minimal concepts to keep the barrier to entry as low as possible.
• The Small Basic development environment is simple, yet provides powerful modern environment features like Intellisense™ and instant context sensitive help.
• Small Basic allows third-party libraries to be plugged in with ease, making it possible for the community to extend the experience in fun and interesting ways.

Date: Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

Speaker: Chris Eargle

Topic: The Future of Managed Code
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009, is the next meeting of the Pee Dee Area .NET User Group.

Newly minted C# MVP, Chris Eargle, will discuss the future of managed code.  How will your code look next year? This presentation is a demonstration of the new capabilities found in C# 4.0 and VB 10.0 using the Visual Studio 2010 CTP. Learn about the new features in each language, how they are converging, and what sets them apart.

Chris Eargle
Chris Eargle is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional – Visual C# and an independent consultant in the Columbia, SC metro area.  He is currently working as a software architect on the South Carolina Integrated Tax System with Revenue Solutions, Inc. Chris is the president of the Columbia Enterprise Developers Guild and is a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist in ASP.NET
Web Site: www.kodefuguru.com

Here is the tentative schedule:
6:00 PM - 6:20 PM Socializing / Free Dinner
6:20 PM - 6:30 PM Introduction, Sponsor Time, and News.
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Presentations

As a mobile developer, I often find myself in the situation where I have an image that I want to use, but it is not the exact size, or even aspect I need it to be.

Most of the time I can get by using Paint .NET to resize images. Paint.NET is a free image and photo editing program. If you don’t have it, download it. It rocks!

But sometimes it doesn’t matter what I do, I can’t get the image to the size I need. I have tried all of these resizing options:

• Best Quality Resampling
• Bicubic Resampling
• Bilinear Resampling
• Nearest Neighbor
• Maintain Aspect Ration On and Off
• Changing the Canvas Size manually to help things along

But again, sometimes it doesn’t matter what I do. I understand “Garbage In, Garbage Out”. I just hate it when I have “Awesome In, Garbage Out”.

Recently, I heard about Seam carving, or content aware image resizing as it is sometimes called. This is so smart, brilliant even.

Seam carving is an image resizing algorithm developed by Shai Avidan and Ariel Shamir. This algorithm alters the dimensions of an image not by scaling or cropping, but rather by intelligently removing pixels from (or adding pixels to) the image that carry little importance.

Now we know what the problem is, and we have learned about a great possible solution to this common problem, all that is left is to learn how to perform Seam Carving on our images. And that’s where SEAMonster comes in.

Download: Mike Swanson's Blog : SEAMonster: A .NET-Based Seam Carving Implementation

Here is a sample image that has been resized using both Bicubic and Seam Carve techniques. Notice how the Seam Carved version still has all the important “data”, and how Bicubic just squished everything equally?

I saw where Photoshop CS4 was adding Seam Carving, and there is a online flash implementation here: http://rsizr.com/

I wanted to add an application I was working on to my Windows Vista’s System Tray. This is one of those things that is completely trivial once you already know how to do it. It’s actually easy enough that most people find their way thorough it on their own, eventually.

Here’s a quick cheat sheet, if you will, that will show you everything you need to know so you can “knock em out da box”, Luke.

First, you’ll need to add a NotifyIcon to the form.

Here are the key parts of the NotifyIcon we will be concerned with:

NotifyIcon.Text: Gets or sets the ToolTip text displayed when the mouse pointer rests on a notification area icon.

NotifyIcon.Icon: Gets or sets the current icon.

NotifyIcon.DoubleClick: Occurs when the user double-clicks the icon in the notification area of the taskbar.

NotifyIcon.ContextMenu: Gets or sets the shortcut menu for the icon.

The DoubleClick event is a good place to add logic to open a main form, and the ContextMenu allows the NotifyIcon to almost be an application on its own.

Note:

You can change the NotifyIcon’s Icon at runtime as a way to alert users to various things happening.

It’s good to set any forms in the application to ShowInTaskbar = false. This helps keep clutter out of the user’s taskbar.

I thought it would be useful if I did a recap of all of the 31 tips and tricks from the 31 Days of Visual Studio Tips & Tricks. I hope it helps. I’ll post a follow up with all the user submitted tips soon!

Here’s the download link for the for the complete PowerPoint:

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx

PowerPoint Slide	Keyboard Shortcut
	Day 1   Show Shortcut Keys
	Day 2 Open Smart Tag Ctrl + . Open Smart Tag Ctrl + Shift + F10
	Day 3 Navigate Forwards Ctrl + – Navigate Backwards Ctrl + Shift + -
	Day 4   Tools, Options…, Display Line Numbers
	Day 5   Cycle Clipboard Ring Ctrl + Shift + V
	Day 6   Go to Definition F12
	Day 7   Go to Line Ctrl + G
	Day 8 Vertical Block Selection Alt + Mouse Shift + Alt + Right Arrow
	Day 9 View Properties Window F4 View Properties Window Alt + Enter
	Day 10 Comment Selection Ctrl + K, Ctrl + C Uncomment Selection Ctrl + K, Ctrl + U
	Day 11   Toggle Code / Design Views F7
	Day 12 Make Lowercase Ctrl + U Make Uppercase Ctrl + Shift + U
	Day 13   Incremental Search Ctrl + I
	Day 14   Ctrl + Tab Navigator Window Ctrl + Tab
	Day 15   View Object Browser Ctrl + Alt + J
	Day 16   Delete Line Ctrl + L Shift + Delete
	Day 17   Add New Item to Project Ctrl + Shift + A
	Day 18   Close Current Document Ctrl + F4
	Day 19   Toggle Breakpoint F9
	Day 20   Find All References Shift + F12
	Day 21 Move Cursor One Word Right Ctrl + Right Arrow Move Cursor One Word Left Ctrl + Left Arrow
	Day 22   The Rename Refactor Ctrl + R, R
	Day 23   Find All References Shift + F12
	Day 24   Format Document Ctrl + K, Ctrl + D
	Day 25   View Task List Ctrl + \, Ctrl + T
	Day 26   Find in Files Ctrl + Shift + F
	Day 27   Toggle Outlining Expansion Ctrl + M, Ctrl + M
	Day 28   Close All Documents Alt + W, L
	Day 29   Save Any Output Window Ctrl + S
	Day 30   Build Solution Ctrl + Shift + B
	Day 31   Reset Window Layout Alt, W, R

I came, I coded, I compiled. If only Julius Caesar had been a developer, maybe Duke Nukem Forever would be released by now. So you made a quick change and need to build the solution as fast as possible and get it to the QA department now. What is the fastest way to do this?

Build Solution

Ctrl + Shift + B

Note: The preceding image will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

Output is pretty much the bread and butter of any application. Visual Studio has a whole window that is dedicated to dealing with various trace information. Sometime we would like to be able to save and view this information later or in another utility. But it is a real pain to do this process manually. There has to be an easier way…

Save Any Output Window

Ctrl + S

Note: The preceding image will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

So you have all kinds of windows and documents open in Visual Studio, everything from form designers to XML editors. Now you want to close everything and start something else, and you’re in a big hurry. What do you do?

Close All Documents

Alt + W, L

Note: The preceding image will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

Visual Studio allows developers to collapse code into regions, and so on. Sometimes this is helpful, sometimes not so much. But with the power of Visual Studio keyboard shortcuts we can make it less troublesome to manage this feature.

Here’s how:

Toggle Outlining Expansion

Ctrl + M, Ctrl + M

Note: The preceding image will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

It does take long to have a ton of code on your hands, especially when you need to find something in a hurry. What can we do? Do we have a chance? How can we best find something in all of our solutions files?

Here’s how:

Find in Files

Ctrl + Shift + F

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

So, how long is your task list? Do you have a ton of TODO’s? Did you know you can use Visual Studio to track your TODO’s in a task list? All you have to do is mark each TODO as follows:

// TODO: this is an example of something I really need to do

If you do this you can see your TODO’s in Visual Studio Task List dialog, which you can always pull up with the following keyboard shortcut:

View Task List

Ctrl + \, Ctrl + T

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

Have you ever gotten code from someone or somewhere and you were not “thrilled” with how it was formatted. Was it just formatted wrong? Then the “Format Document” keyboard shortcut is for you! It will take the file you have open and format all the code until it is valid. Personally I wish their was a “Format Document for Chris Craft” keyboard shortcut because Visual Studio is a lot more forgiving than I am. But that’s okay it is still a life saver and you will love it one day when it just make the code better, all in one simple keyboard shortcut.

Format Document

Ctrl + K, Ctrl + D

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

Screen real estate is always in short demand. Give us more monitors, give us bigger monitors. What would you say if you could have more screen real estate for coding with a single keyboard shortcut? You can, it is easy. All you have to do is the following:

Toggle Full Screen Mode

Shift + Alt + Enter

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

So is the event’s status Status.Cancelled or Status.Canceled? It is very possible one person will ask that it be changed to “Canceled” only to have another person ask to change it back to “Cancelled”. Instead of wrestling with the code or wearing our your “Find and Replace” feature, take advantage of one of Visual Studio’s features: The Rename Refactor. All you have to do is select an object and use its keyboard shortcut:

The Rename Refactor

Ctrl + R, R

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

How often do you want to move across one of your lines of code? Every day? Every hour? More? I’m sure it is often. And I hope you know and use this shortcut since it will save you lots of effort ever time you use it. Try it today, I bet you’ll love it.

Move Cursor One Word Right

Ctrl + Right Arrow

Move Cursor One Word Left

Ctrl + Left Arrow

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

Let’s say you have a customer class. You know this class is used throughout your solution, but you aren’t sure exactly where it is being used. How can you quickly and easily find out this information?

All you have to do is use “Find All References”, either use the right-click menu item or even better use this keyboard shortcut:

Find All References

Shift + F12

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

Today’s tip is an interesting one. Do you know how to close an application window in Windows? Usually you can press Alt + F4. Visual Studio has similar feature, that comes in handy. The close current document keyboard shortcut works on most documents irregardless of whether they are in code view or design view. Quite useful and allows yours hands to spend more time on the keyboard and less time moving the mouse around everywhere.

Close Current Document

Ctrl + F4

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

Solutions have more and more projects these days, and projects have more and more files. If you are working on a large enterprise level line of business application then you really might want to consider today’s Visual Studio keyboard shortcut. Admit it, you’ve probably added hundreds of file using the mouse and massaging various Visual Studio menus and toolbars. But after today you will probably have a new, better way of doing the same thing. How cool is that?

Add New Item to Project

Ctrl + Shift + A

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

So everyday you possibly write hundreds, maybe thousands, of lines of code. Some of them are perfect, and will continue on to have a long productive life. Others however will be found wanting.

It it for these inadequate lines of code that the delete line keyboard shortcut was designed to deal with. And deal with it does. Instead of having to select a line, or multiple lines, you can simple use the delete line shortcut and wipe away the current line, or the currently selected lines.

Delete Line

Ctrl + L

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

Visual Studio’s Object Browser is a powerful tool that can help developers to better “see” and understand their projects, and projects they may be working with.

Here’s what Visual Studio’s help says about it:

The Object Browser lets you select and examine the symbols available for use in projects. You can open the Object Browser from the View menu, or by clicking the Object Browser button on the main toolbar.

There are three panes: an Objects pane on the left, a Members pane on the upper right, and a Description pane on the lower right. If you resize the Object Browser into a single column, the Objects pane moves to the top, the Members pane to the middle, and the Description pane to the bottom.

View Object Browser

Ctrl + Alt + J

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

A great feature of Windows is the Alt + Tab navigator window. It allows user to quickly toggle between running applications. And Visual Studio has it’s equivalent of this Windows feature. This allows you to see and to navigate Active Tool Windows and Active Files. And you can see a thumbnail of the selected item.

Ctrl + Tab Navigator Window

Ctrl + Tab

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

There is search, and then there is search. So in the beginning we had Quick Find: Ctrl + F. Quick Find worked fine, but wasn’t perfect. For one thing, Quick Find bring up a dialog that always automagically end up covering the most critical sections of your code, always. It has a LOT of options: where to look, match case, match whole word, search up, search hidden text, use regular expressions, and more. In other words, it is a bit unwieldy to use in simple day-to-day searches. I’m sure there are situations where people really need to have two-handed swords, but most of us are happy to make dinner with a simple kitchen knife.

That’s where the keyboard shortcut for incremental search comes in. It is great. No massive dialogs to get in the way. If you have already used Firefox’s incremental search feature then you are familiar with how easy and powerful this method is. If not, fire up Visual Studio now and give it a try. You have a real treat in store for you.

Incremental Search

Ctrl + I

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

Don’t believe me? How long would the following have taken to do by hand?

it is kind of funny how a feature that is easily argued as unnecessary and  superfluous can be a feature you find yourself using over and over. that’s exactly the kind of feature the make lowercase and make uppercase keyboard shortcuts are for visual studio. it might not be a feature you even use every day, but when you do finally end up needing this one it is such an incredibly useful feature.

IT IS KIND OF FUNNY HOW A FEATURE THAT IS EASILY ARGUED AS UNNECESSARY AND  SUPERFLUOUS CAN BE A FEATURE YOU FIND YOURSELF USING OVER AND OVER. THAT’S EXACTLY THE KIND OF FEATURE THE MAKE LOWERCASE AND MAKE UPPERCASE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS ARE FOR VISUAL STUDIO. IT MIGHT NOT BE A FEATURE YOU EVEN USE EVERY DAY, BUT WHEN YOU DO FINALLY END UP NEEDING THIS ONE IT IS SUCH AN INCREDIBLY USEFUL FEATURE.

That’s the power of a good shortcut. Quick, simple, and powerful!

Make Lowercase

Ctrl + U

Make Uppercase

Ctrl + Shift + U

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

Here’s another powerful tip. Almost every application has a UI, and these days most applications have a rich UI. Its a lot easier to work with an advanced UI in an UI design editor. But it’s a lot easier to do something in a code editor. So what’s a developer to do?

You can always tell a keyboard shortcut is powerful and important when it is given a single key.

Toggle Code / Design Views

F7

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

This one is huge. You really need to learn this one, if you don’t already know and use it. Anytime you are working with code you, you will need to comment parts of and uncomment parts of it. It is just a part of a developer’s life. The mechanic will get his hands dirty, the carpenter will get splinters, and the developer will comment and uncomment code.

I guess the worst way you could comment and uncomment your code is to type it all by hand. Next worse would be to use the mouse and go to Edit menu, Advance menu item, then click Comment Selection or Uncomment Selection. Another option that is to use the Text Editor Toolbar (see below).

A little better I guess is to use the keyboard accelerator shortcut: Alt, then E, then V, then M for (Comment Selection), or E for (Uncomment Selection).

That’s four okay ways of comment and uncommenting your code, but what is the best way?

Comment Selection

Ctrl + K, Ctrl + C

Uncomment Selection

Ctrl + K, Ctrl + U

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

This Visual Studio window is so import it has two keyboard shortcuts. Can you guess what window it is? That’s right: it’s the Visual Studio Properties window.

So how many different ways can you come up with to open this window?

View Properties Window

• Use the mouse and show / hide the window
• Use the keyboard accelerators: Alt, then V, then W
• Use the Design View keyboard shortcut: Alt + Enter
• Use the keyboard shortcut: F4

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

Microsoft Word has two “interesting” features. One feature is you can generate random text, for example, =rand(3) will generate three random paragraphs of text. The other feature is that Word allows you to make what I like to call “Vertical Block Selections”. See the following picture for an example of both.

Pretty cool, huh? And did you know you can make vertical block selections in Visual Studio? Here’s how:

Vertical Block Selection

Alt + Mouse

Note: The images above and to the right will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

So a couple days ago we covered how to display line numbers:

“31 Days of Visual Studio Tips & Tricks – Day 4: Display Line Numbers”.

So now how can we take this one step further. How about an easy way to go to a specific line of code? Think about how often as a developer you need to find a line in a large file of code. Sometimes you find out there is an error on a certain line of code and instead of scrolling down to this line manually you could use a special keyboard shortcut.

Go to Line

Ctrl + G

Definitely one of my favorite keyboard shortcuts for Visual Studio.

Note: The image to the right will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

Many times developers will find themselves working with an object, and wanting to know more information about how it is defined and designed.

For example, you are working with a Customer object and you want to look at the Customer.cs file and find out what the Customer object has to offer. What methods, properties, and events does it have for you to work with?

There are several ways for learn more about our Customer class. One you could use the Solution Explorer and manually locate the wanted Customer.cs file. This is a slow process and requires you to already know name and location of the class you want to review. Sometimes it may not be as simple as added a .cs extension the object.

Another approach would be to right click on Customer object and choose Go to Definition. This will take you there automatically, so it is much quicker. But there is an even faster way, and this is the way you wan to use:

Go to Definition

F12

This keyboard shortcut is so important that it is assigned to a function key. This requires only one key press.

Note: The image to the right will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

It is Independence Day today in the US, and we’re in Washington, D.C. to see us some awesome fireworks!

Since today is July, 4th, and we are on Day 4 I figured it would be good to do a VSTT that dealt with numbers. The best one I know is how to display line numbers in Visual Studio:

Display Line Numbers:

Go to the Tools menu, then click on the Options… menu item. Find the Text Editor item in the list on the left. Then I recommend choosing All Languages. Next find and check the Line Numbers checkbox in the Display section on the right.

The image to the right will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

Alright, we’ve more reader submitted tips.  Thanks guys. Yeah, we are now tied. score: Me 4 / Readers 4.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

It happens all the time. You’re working in Visual Studio, and you need to work with an object that is in a namespace you haven’t declared yet. For example, you need to create a WebRequest in the System.Net namespace.

You have a few choices, some easy and some hard: You could add a using or import statement at the top of the class file as in “using System.NET”. You could fully qualify the object as in “System.Net.WebRequest”. You could try to click that tiny, tiny little red rectangle that will open the Smart Tag. You could type “CTRL + SHIFT + F10”. Or you could take the easy road and simply enter “Ctrl + .”.

“Ctrl + .” Rocks! Try it, you’ll love it!

Feedback:

What is your favorite Visual Studio 2008 tip or trick? Tell us all about it in the comments section. I’m keeping score: Me 2 / Readers 0.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

With most things there are two ways to learn them: the easy way, and the hard way. Visual Studio 2008 is know exception. One option, the hard way, is to spend all of your precious time learning and memorizing hundreds of Visual Studio shortcut key combinations.

Quick, what is the shortcut to perform an incremental search, or to convert selected text to lower case, or to comment a selection of code? Everyone one of these has a handy shortcut key combination. Do you know them all? If not, did you know Visual Studio has a feature you can enable so that it will show you, or maybe I should say teach you, the shortcut keys for most commonly accessed menu and toolbar items?

It is called “Show shortcut keys in Screen Tips”. You have to enable “Show Screen Tips on toolbars” for this feature to work. Both items are located on the same screen for easy access.

Here’s what you need to do:

• In Visual Studio go to Tools, and then Customize….
• This will open the Customize dialog where you will now need to check both the “Show shortcut keys in Screen Tips” and “Show Screen Tips on toolbars” checkboxes.

From now on when you use Visual Studio it will display shortcut key combinations on menus and toolbar tooltips whenever you use them.

If you’ll click on the included image, you will see a larger more detailed screenshot of the areas discussed.

Feedback:

Do you have a favorite Visual Studio 2008 tip or trick? Then tell us all about it in the comments section. I’m keeping score: Me 1 / Readers 0. Don’t let your teammates down. :D

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

I’ve committed myself to taking the knowledge I have learned, over the years, and sharing it more with others. Last month I did 30 Days of .NET Windows Mobile Applications, and this month I intend to do 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.

The material will come from a presentation I have given many times at different code camps and user groups. One of the goals of the series is to start a “conversation” with my readers. I want to share some of my best tips and tricks for Visual Studio, and in return I hope you’ll share some of yours with us as well.

Another goal I have is for the information to be quick and easy to “digest” and as worthwhile as possible. Give me a few minutes every day this month, and I bet I’ll make a difference in how productive you are every day.

Here’s the introduction from my Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks presentation to set the stage:

“Visual Studio .NET is filled with hundreds of features that make our lives as developers more efficient. The number of features that Visual Studio .NET contains is immense. The Visual Studio .NET Tips and Tricks presentation is a compilation of my favorite, and most popular, tips and tricks for this great IDE. Developers who are unaware of these timesaving features miss out on opportunities to increase their programming productivity and effectiveness. This Visual Studio .NET Tips and Tricks presentation is meant to explain how to use Visual Studio .NET more effectively.”

We only have one more day left in our 30 days of .NET [Windows Mobile Applications]. Where do we go from here?

I’m really happy with the 30 Days of .NET so I do think I will continue that in one format or another for some time. It’s been a blast. And everyone knows my passion for Windows Mobile programming so we keep finding way to work that in there as well.

I haven’t quite decided what I’ll do for next month but I’m sure it’ll only get better as we move forward.

There have been a lot of request for applications that haven’t made it on deck yet, and obviously they aren’t all going to get done tomorrow. But I think I’ll be able to throw in some Bonus Day of .NET or Return of Day of .NET and knock some of them out over time.

My goal is to take all the existing content and clean it up some and make more through and detailed learning materials to really help beginners take off with Windows Mobile.

Hope you’ll join me on the road ahead…

Wow, it’s hard to believe the month is almost over already. So far we have 29 applications done in 29 days! Thank you for all your encouragement.

If you missed the week one recap here it is: 30 Days of .NET [Windows Mobile Applications] - Week One.

If you missed the week two recap here it is: 30 Days of .NET [Windows Mobile Applications] - Week Two.

If you missed the week three recap here it is: 30 Days of .NET [Windows Mobile Applications] - Week Three.

What’s your favorite?

GPS Clock	MobileInfo	Mobile Flashlight	SmartDial

Let see we have a time utility, and device information, call blocker, and lots more!

GeoCash	Repeatr	CallBlocker	What will be next?

Feedback:

Got an idea? Got some feedback? Share it? Thanks!

 A friend, a coworker, and an all-around great guy, Page Brooks, has created a contest for building controls for Silverlight.

Here’s the highlights:

"Welcome to the Silverlight Control Builder Contest! With this contest, we hope to incite the development of many open and free Silverlight Controls that all developers can use in their applications, and what better way to do this than through a friendly contest! This contest is your chance to demonstrate your control building skills to the Silverlight community and win some pretty cool prizes at the same time!"

Check out the prizes:

1st Place

• 1-Year MSDN Premium Subscription (Not for Resale)
• Your choice of one book from the entire O'Reilly catalog

2nd Place

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition
• Your choice of one book from the entire O'Reilly catalog
  

3rd Place

• Essential Silverlight 2 Up-to-Date from O'Reilly
• Your choice of one book from the entire O'Reilly catalog

Great opportunity to build a little fame and win some great prizes. Find out more after the jump: http://gosilverlight.org/

Only One Day Left…

Not too long ago Page Brooks and myself made the three and a half hour drive from Florence, SC to Greensboro, NC to attend the Ineta Carolina Community Leadership Summit '08. This was a great event and there we meet a lot of the local Ineta user group leaders. We also meet Andrew Duthie, aka DEvHammer. One issue that rose to the top of things we wanted to work on improving at the leadership summit was awareness of events that are occurring in the local regional area. That’s when Andrew told everyone about the project he has been working on: Community Megaphone.

I love have information at my fingertips, so I decided to write a tie-in application:

Community Megaphone Reader

Basically, this application connects to the Community Megaphone RSS feed and pulls down event data. Then it takes your current GPS position and calculates your distance from each event. Finally, it takes all the events and sorts then so you can find the event that is the closest to you. This is a great application for the traveling .NET geek. Where ever you are you can find great .NET events to attend.

The UI is paying homage to Andrew’s Community Megaphone site. I tried to match the basic colors to keep it familiar. The hyperlinks are active and will take you the event’s page on Community Megaphone. The menu only has a few options: Refresh, About, and Exit.

An application like this is really exciting, because it is tying the world of mobile together with the world wide web.

These types of mashup applications will contitue to take of for years.

LoadRss Method

               1:
              public
              static DataSet
LoadRss(string requestUriString)

               2: {

               3: HttpWebRequest
feed = HttpWebRequest.Create(requestUriString) as HttpWebRequest;

               4: StreamReader
streamReader = new StreamReader(feed.GetResponse().GetResponseStream());

               5:  

               6:
              string rssXml
= streamReader.ReadToEnd();

               7: rssXml
= rssXml.Replace(@"<?xml version=""1.0""
encoding=""utf-8""?>", string.Empty);

               8:  

               9: StringReader
stringReader = new StringReader(rssXml);

               10:  

               11: DataSet
dataSet = new DataSet();

               12: dataSet.ReadXml(stringReader);

               13:  

               14:
              return dataSet;

               15: }

GetEvents Method

               1:
              public
              static List<Item>
GetEvents(DataSet dataSet, GpsPosition gpsPosition)

               2: {

               3: List<Item>
items = new List<Item>();

               4:  

               5:
              foreach (DataRow
dataRow in dataSet.Tables["item"].Rows)

               6: {

               7: Item
item = new Item();

               8: item.Title
= (string)dataRow["title"];

               9: item.Description
= (string)dataRow["description"];

               10: item.Link
= (string)dataRow["link"];

               11: item.PublishDate
= DateTime.Parse((string)dataRow["pubDate"]);

               12: item.Latitude
= Double.Parse((string)dataRow["lat"]);

               13: item.Longitude
= Double.Parse((string)dataRow["long"]);

               14:  

               15:
              if(gpsPosition.LatitudeValid
&& gpsPosition.LongitudeValid)

               16: item.Distance
= GeoCodeCalc.CalcDistance(gpsPosition.Latitude, gpsPosition.Longitude, item.Latitude,
item.Longitude);

               17:  

               18: items.Add(item);

               19: }

               20:  

               21: items.Sort(delegate(Item
item1, Item item2)

               22: {

               23:
              return item1.Distance.CompareTo(item2.Distance);

               24: });

               25:  

               26:
              return items;

               27: }

Display Events Method

               1:
              public
              static
              string DisplayEvents(List<Item>
events)

               2: {

               3: StringBuilder
stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();

               4:  

               5:
              foreach (Item
item in events)

               6: {

               7: stringBuilder.Append(@"<span
style=""color: #FFFFFF;font-weight:bold;"">");

               8: stringBuilder.AppendFormat(@"<a
href=""{0}""
style=""color: #DBB94F;"">{1}</a><br/><br/>",
item.Link, item.Title);

               9: stringBuilder.AppendFormat(@"{0}<br/><br/>",
item.Description);

               10: stringBuilder.AppendFormat(@"<b>Distance:
<span style=""color: #DBB94F;"">{0}
miles</span></b><br/>", item.Distance.ToString("0.00"));

               11:
              //
stringBuilder.AppendFormat(@"<b>{0}</b><br/>", item.PublishDate);
            

               12:
              //
stringBuilder.AppendFormat(@"{0}<br/>", item.Latitude);
            

               13:
              //
stringBuilder.AppendFormat(@"{0}<br/>", item.Longitude);
            

               14: stringBuilder.AppendFormat(@"<br/><br/>");

               15: stringBuilder.Append(@"</span>");

               16: }

               17:  

               18:
              return stringBuilder.ToString();

               19: }

Possibilities:

Andrew recently added iCalendar file support to Community Megaphone. This would be a great feature to add to a Windows Mobile application, and it is totally doable. The HTML could be a little more fancy maybe even use a few 16x16 fonts for a little personality.

Download executable: communityMegaphoneReader.cab

Download Source Code: communityMegaphoneReader.zip

Feedback:

Want more? What else would you like to see? Time’s running out only one more day. Be sure to get your ideas in soon!

Only 2 Days Left…

Today’s application is CallBlock. It is designed to watch incoming calls, and check and see if they match any on the block phone numbers list. If they do match then the phone is “blocked”.

CallBlock

The first thing you should notice is the flashy logo at the top of the form. I create this logo with an online 3D logo generator. The one simple touch adds a lot of professional polish to the application. I really like red and white so I didn’t change the background color this time. But I am starting to wish I had. It seems a little “blah” to me now.

Next we have our phone number input text box. The user enters the phone number here, and presses the Block menu item to add it to the block number list below. On the main menu we also have options to Unblock, and Unblock All. And we have our almost universal About and Exit menu items.

There are two main pieces to this application. One part is the State and Notification Broker code to give us an event to catch incoming phone calls.

I actually got myself painted into a corner, I assumed you could just programmatically ignore of phone call but it isn’t that simple. Fortunately, a good friend of mine, Lou Vega, came up with a very slick workaround for this. And that is the second part which is the keybd_event method that allows us to send keypresses to the OS to Ignore the phone call.

CallBlock Core Code

               1:
              const
              int KEYEVENTF_KEYDOWN
= 0x0;

               2:
              const
              int KEYEVENTF_KEYUP
= 0x2;

               3:  

               4: [DllImport("coredll.dll",
EntryPoint = "keybd_event", SetLastError
= true)]

               5:
              internal
              static
              extern
              void keybd_event(byte bVk, byte bScan, int dwFlags, int dwExtraInfo);

               6:  

               7: SystemState
phoneIncomingCall = new SystemState(SystemProperty.PhoneIncomingCall);

               8:
              private
              void frmMain_Load(object sender,
EventArgs e)

               9: {

               10: phoneIncomingCall.Changed
+= new ChangeEventHandler(phoneIncomingCall_Changed);

               11: }

               12:  

               13:
              void phoneIncomingCall_Changed(object sender,
ChangeEventArgs args)

               14: {

               15:
              string phoneNumber
= RemoveText(SystemState.PhoneIncomingCallerNumber);

               16:  

               17:
              if(listBoxBlockedNumbers.Items.Contains(phoneNumber))

               18: {

               19: keybd_event(115,
0, KEYEVENTF_KEYDOWN, 0);

               20: keybd_event(115,
0, KEYEVENTF_KEYUP, 0);

               21: }

               22: }

Possibilities:

It would be easy to add support for blocking SMS text messages as well. We’ve done all the code for this already in previous applications. Also the application could really use a persistent data store to remember number to block in case the user closes the application. It would be nice to allow user formatting of entered phone numbers for increased readability.

Download executable: callBlock.cab

Download Source Code: callBlock.zip

Feedback:

Want more? What else would you like to see? Time’s running out on submitting ideas. Be sure to get yours in soon!

So Page Brooks was talking with me earlier this week and he had a great idea for another Windows Mobile application. He wants an application that will repeat alerts for missed phones and text messages. I have to admit this is something I could use myself. So I figured I take a crack at it today, since it would make for a fun, simple, Friday app.

Repeatr

I decided to change up the naming format and play of the popular Web 2.0 naming conventions giving us the name: Repeatr. I have to admit, it is kind of catchy.

I searched for “Web 2.0 Logo Creator” and pretty much went with the first one I saw. This gave me a pretty slick logo in less than 5 minutes. I also decided to make the background a “tooltip” yellow, which I think looks really good.

Other than that everything is rather straight forward. We have checkboxes allowing the user to choose what events we will monitor. And we have a menu with a couple options, namely About and Exit. There is a “Clear Alerts” menu item, as well, that allows users to acknowledge they have responded to the alert(s).

The application allows user to select the number of minutes between alerts up to 60 minutes.

Of course we are using the State and Notification Broker to make all this happen. Using it means we hardly have to write any code ourselves!

State and Notification Broker setup code

               1: SystemState
phoneMissedCalls = new SystemState(SystemProperty.PhoneMissedCalls);

               2: SystemState
messagingSmsUnread = new SystemState(SystemProperty.MessagingSmsUnread);

               3: SystemState
messagingTotalEmailUnread = new SystemState(SystemProperty.MessagingTotalEmailUnread);

               4: SystemState
messagingVoiceMailTotalUnread = new SystemState(SystemProperty.MessagingVoiceMailTotalUnread);

               5:  

               6:
              private
              void frmMain_Load(object sender,
EventArgs e)

               7: {

               8: phoneMissedCalls.Changed
+= new ChangeEventHandler(phoneMissedCalls_Changed);

               9: messagingSmsUnread.Changed
+= new ChangeEventHandler(messagingSmsUnread_Changed);

               10: messagingTotalEmailUnread.Changed
+= new ChangeEventHandler(messagingTotalEmailUnread_Changed);

               11: messagingVoiceMailTotalUnread.Changed
+= new ChangeEventHandler(messagingVoiceMailTotalUnread_Changed);

               12: }

The way we alert a user to having missed a monitored event is by playing a sounds which is easy to do.

               1: [DllImport("aygshell.dll")]

               2:
              static
              extern
              uint SndPlaySync(string pszSoundFile, uint dwFlags);

               3:  

               4:
              void PlaySound()

               5: {

               6:
              string path;

               7: path
= Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().CodeBase);

               8:  

               9: SndPlaySync(Path.Combine(path, "alert.wma"),
0);

               10: }

Other than a little plumbing to make everything work together that is basically the entire app in a nutshell.

Possibilities:

This is a pretty spiffy application. But software can always be better. An option to allow the phone to vibrate would be great. Another option to allow the user to select the alert sound would be nice too.

Download executable: repeatr.cab

Download Source Code: repeatr.zip

Feedback:

Want more? What else would you like to see? Time’s running out on submitting ideas. Be sure to get yours in soon!

4 Days left…

Today on twitter, Glen Gordon was telling me that Brendon Schwartz had an idea for today’s application:

glengordon @cjcraft here's an idea for a mobile app that @brendonschwartz will like - record $ spent during the day and where it was spent (with GPS) about 13 hours ago from Wittyin reply to CJCraft

It’s a really good idea. Probably a better idea than we will be able to do it tonight, but we are all about taking the first small steps to accomplishing great things.

GeoCash

I love the name, it is a play on GeoCaching. Somehow it adds a lot of “buzz” to the application already.

The application is designed to be easy for the user to use and understand. The user only needs to enter the amount they spent along with a note, and then simply press log and it will be added to the GeoCash log.

We are using our own NumericTextBox to be sure the user doesn’t enter in any invalid amounts spent. We have another standard TextBox for the note input. Below this we have the log information. This is done using a WebBrowser control, and setting its DocumentText property.

The main reason to use the WebBrowser control is to be able to do a little better text formatting. This allowed us to easily markup our text in bold and color.

 

HTML formatted output:

                 1: sb.AppendFormat(@"<b>Date:</b>
{0}", DateTime.Now).Append("<br/>");

                 2: sb.AppendFormat(@"<b>Amount:</b>
<span style=""color:red"">{0:c}</span>", decimal.Parse(textBoxAmountSpent.Text)).Append("<br/>");

                 3: sb.AppendFormat(@"<b>Note:</b>
{0}", textBoxNote.Text).Append("<br/>");

                 4: sb.AppendFormat(@"<b>Latitude:</b>
{0}", position.Latitude).Append("<br/>");

                 5: sb.AppendFormat(@"<b>Longitude:</b>
{0}", position.Longitude).Append("<br/>");

                 6: sb.Append("<br/>");

                 7:  

                 8: documentText
+= sb.ToString();

                 9: webBrowser.DocumentText
= documentText;

Possibilities:

I love this app. It has so many cool possibilities. You could easily save this information to a text file or sent it as an email. I think this is perfect data to do a mashup on for example create a heatmap etc for it so you can see the “dangerous” side of town you need to avoid taking your money into from now on.

Download executable: geoCash.cab

Download Source Code: geoCash.zip

Feedback:

Want more? What else would you like to see? Time’s running out on submitting ideas. Be sure to get yours in soon!

5 Days Left…

So when you are talking Windows Mobile Applications you are usually talking about a cell phone device. We have looked at text messages using SMS, but one thing we haven’t look at so far is programmatically making phone calls. Today we will take a look at creating our own phone dialer application. It’s easier than you think!

SmartDial

I think the UI is pretty nice, not the best, but good overall. It is bright and clean. I found a web site that allowed me to create buttons in a snap and used it for the numbers. At the top of the screen, I added a label to display the number to dial. The menu only has a few options: Dial, Menu, Clear, About, and Exit.

Since we only allow users to enter numbers using our custom buttons, we don’t have to worry about anyone entering invalid characters.

So how much code did we as Windows Mobile application developers have to write to actually dial a number? See for yourself.

               1:
              private
              void Dial()

               2: {

               3:
              new Phone().Talk(labelPhoneNumber.Text);

               4: }

Possibilities:

I think this has the potential to be an absolutely great application. One thing I think would be cool is if the application supported skinning. In a way it does, since I decided to leave the image resources as external files to the executable. So a user could edit any of the files themselves. Another great enhancement would be to have mousedown images for each button to give a nice “animated” touch to the application. What about quick soft sounds for when each button is pressed?

Download executable: smartDial.cab

Download Source Code: smartDial.zip

Feedback:

Want more? What else would you like to see? Time’s running out on submitting ideas. Be sure to get yours in soon!

Today I am in Atlanta, GA with Brian Hitney and Glen Gordon. We are presenting Mobility Roadshow: Programming for Windows Mobile. We had a long drive last night, and will have another long drive back to Florence, SC tonight. So I choose not bite off anything too intense today.

Many people today carry mini-flashlights on the end of their key chain. Apparently there is a need for this type of device because many stores sell them near the cash registers in the checkout lines. I wonder why these mini-flashlights are so popular when almost everyone has a mobile phone today. Maybe it is because the phone’s back light is not bright enough.

Hmm, this got me thinking. Most Windows Mobile devices have large powerful screens, maybe there is a way we could reuse our device as both a mobile phone and a mini-flashlight.

Mobile Flashlight

The UI is simple but the task is simple. I considered using a watermark image for the background or add a gradient to the background. With a goal of having as much of the screen as bright as possible I think the simple solid color background was the choice to make.

We only have a few menu options: Burn, Menu, Settings, About, and Exit. I decided to use the term “Burn” like you see on road sign saying “Motorcycles must burn lights”. We only have a few screens: Main, Settings, About. The settings screen you should see to the left, and the main screen should be to the right of this text.

On the about screen we let the user choose the color they would like the screen to “burn” at. By default we have chosen white to maximize brightness.

We used NumericUpDown controls to maximize usability, this allows user to choose the soft input panel or the control directly to set the color amounts.

Save Color Values

               1:
              int red
= (int) numericUpDownRed.Value;

               2:
              int green
= (int) numericUpDownGreen.Value;

               3:
              int blue
= (int) numericUpDownBlue.Value;

Get Color Values

               1: numericUpDownRed.Value
= (int) Global.Color.R;

               2: numericUpDownGreen.Value
= (int) Global.Color.G;

               3: numericUpDownBlue.Value
= (int) Global.Color.B;

Possibilities:

The biggest need this application has is a way for the user to save their color preference. Right now if the application is closed the color will go back to the default color of white. Another great feature would be to make the application to go full screen and hide both the title bar and the menu. One last addition would be code to maximize the screen brightness setting in Control Panel.

Download executable: mobileFlashlight.cab

Download Source Code: mobileFlashlight.zip

Feedback:

Want more? What else would you like to see? Time’s running out on submitting ideas. Be sure to get yours in soon!

Information is power. And with the .NET Compact Framework we can have all the information we want. Windows Mobile has many ways to get details about the device our application is running on. Hands down my favorite is the State and Notification Broker. In a word it ROCKS! You can use it to find out any number of things and you can use it to notify us when information we care about change state.

There are pieces of information that are so important in their own right, they could be used to create an application just to monitor and read that one detail. The first one that comes to mind is battery state.

MobileInfo

I thought of a few ways I could make this application flashy, but decided that might get in the way of the facts. Sometimes a simple notepad like application is the most beautiful application. Form and function were meant to be together, but sometimes forms steals the show, and function is what everyone came to see.

So instead we have a WebBrowser control with a simple text listing of the device’s most important details. I decided to use a WebBrowser control in case I ever did want to use more advanced text format.

We stick to our guns about keeping control simple and intuitive. We have a great menu with only a few options: Refresh, About, and Exit.

RefreshData Method

               1:
              private
              void RefreshData()

               2: {

               3: StringBuilder
sb = new StringBuilder();

               4:  

               5: sb.Append("<b>Active
Application:</b>").Append("<br/>");

               6: sb.AppendFormat("'{0}'",
SystemState.ActiveApplication).Append("<br/>").Append("<br/>").Append("<br/>");

               7:  

               8: ...

               9: }

Possibilities:

You can never have too much of a good thing. We have twenty pieces of information here for users to enjoy. How about a hundred? Or how about a quick and easy search bar? And the UI needs to be simple but it could be better.

Download executable: mobileInfo.cab

Download Source Code: mobileInfo.zip

Feedback:

Want more? What else would you like to see? Time’s running out on submitting ideas. Be sure to get yours in soon!

Yeah, we have made it through week three of my 30 Days of .NET challenge. So far, we have 22 applications for 22 days. Thanks for your support!

If you missed the week one recap here it is: 30 Days of .NET [Windows Mobile Applications] - Week One.

If you missed the week two recap here it is: 30 Days of .NET [Windows Mobile Applications] - Week Two.

What’s your favorite?

Mobile SMS Remote	SMS Logger	Lunch-O-Matic	Mobile Weather

We get around, don’t we? SMS, RSS, GPS, Camera API, and more!

Mobile Speedometer	Mobile Altimeter	Mobile Sketcher	What will be next?

Feedback:

Got an idea? Got some feedback? Share it? Thanks!

I couldn’t resist creating another GPS related mobile application. One of the neat pieces of data you get from your GPS device is time. This is great. It is like having one of the clocks that can update itself over the air by reading data transmitted from various atomic clocks throughout the world. Many phones today have the ability to update their time by connecting to the OEM’s time servers, but not all. And there are still lots of Windows Mobile classic devices in the world that do not have cellular capabilities.

Vista has the ability to update its time by using a feature called Internet Time. Basically Vista connects to time.windows.com and reads a Network Time Protocol server.

GPS Clock

Our user interface is simple and direct. We are using a nice graphic to adds some visual zing to the application. At the top of the screen we show the user their current device time and their current GPS time.

This allows the user to tell at a glance if they need to update their device’s time using the Update menu option.

On the menu we have added some simple settings features: GPS Start, GPS Stop, About, and Exit.

This is one of those Web 2.0 ideas where an application does one thing but does it very well. Sometimes these are the best apps. In this case, our application provides a bride for GPS time data to become device time data.

Somtimes that’s all it takes to make a user happy.

UpdateData Method:

               1:
              void UpdateData(object sender,
System.EventArgs args)

               2: {

               3:
              if (gps.Opened)

               4: {

               5:
              if (position
!= null)

               6: {

               7:
              if (position.TimeValid)

               8: {

               9: gpsTime
= position.Time;

               10:  

               11: labelCurrentGpsDate.Text
= gpsTime.ToLongDateString();

               12: labelCurrentGpsTime.Text
= gpsTime.ToLongTimeString();

               13: }

               14: }

               15: }

               16: }

UpdateTime Method:

               1:
              private
              struct SYSTEMTIME

               2: {

               3:
              public
              short Year;

               4:
              public
              short Month;

               5:
              public
              short DayOfWeek;

               6:
              public
              short Day;

               7:
              public
              short Hour;

               8:
              public
              short Minute;

               9:
              public
              short Second;

               10:
              public
              short Milliseconds;

               11: }

               12:  

               13: [DllImport("coredll.dll")]

               14:
              private
              static
              extern
              bool SetSystemTime(ref SYSTEMTIME
time);

               15:  

               16:
              private
              void UpdateTime()

               17: {

               18: DateTime
idag = gpsTime.ToUniversalTime();

               19:  

               20: SYSTEMTIME
s = new SYSTEMTIME();

               21: s.Year
= (short) idag.Year;

               22: s.Month
= (short) idag.Month;

               23: s.DayOfWeek
= (short) idag.DayOfWeek;

               24: s.Day
= (short) idag.Day;

               25: s.Hour
= (short) idag.Hour;

               26: s.Minute
= (short) idag.Minute;

               27: s.Second
= (short) idag.Second;

               28: s.Milliseconds
= (short) idag.Millisecond;

               29:  

               30: SetSystemTime(ref s);

               31: }

Possibilities:

How about changing the color of the date and time if they are more than five minutes off? Simple feature to add but really helps the user. And that’s what matters.

Download executable: gpsClock.cab

Download Source Code: gpsClock.zip

Feedback:

Want more? What else would you like to see? Time’s running out on submitting ideas. Be sure to get yours in soon!

The main goal of 30 Days of .NET was to create a series of applications, any of which, a reader could take and use as a springboard to creating their first application. Well that, and to have some fun along the way and get more people excited about mobile development. A secondary goal of mine has been to show off various capabilities of mobile devices like GPS, Bluetooth, and multimedia features. One feature we haven’t covered so far is using a built-in camera.

Today we will mark that item off our list…

Mobile Sketcher

The goal is to create a basic drawing application, but add a mobile twist to it. On the menu, I have added a menu item for selecting a picture using the select picture dialog. The nice thing about the select picture dialog is it allows you to use your camera to take a picture and then select it as your picture.

In a way this application is a lot like the mobile signature capture application we did a while back, but there are some important differences: picture selection support, camera support, save file dialog support, and more. The business case for this application is something like the following: an insurance agent arrives on the scene of an automotive accident, she takes a picture using Mobile Sketcher and then adds notes and sketches to the picture for claims processing.

So users can select a picture from their device or take a picture and use it for their background. And then they can draw and edit the picture using Mobile Sketcher. At the bottom of the screen we allow user to select different colors for the pen’s ink: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, brown, white, and black. Well okay, white is really a light gray since white on white is hard to see.

SelectPicture Method:

               1:
              private
              void SelectPicture()

               2: {

               3: SelectPictureDialog
selectPictureDialog = new SelectPictureDialog();

               4: DialogResult
dialogResult = selectPictureDialog.ShowDialog();

               5:  

               6:
              if (dialogResult
!= DialogResult.OK)

               7:
              return;

               8:  

               9: pictureBox.Image
= new Bitmap(selectPictureDialog.FileName);

               10: }

Possibilities:

There is lots of room for improvement with this application. Just think of all the features most drawing programs have and there’s your list for improvements.

Download executable: mobileSketcher.cab

Download Source Code: mobileSketcher.zip

Feedback:

Want more? What else would you like to see? The managed API for using a Window Mobile camera is a great feature that is very powerful and very easy. Use it in your next mobile application or your first.

Yesterday, I had a really hard time between choosing to do a Mobile Speedometer or a Mobile Altimeter. But another day gives us another opportunity, and today we shall create the Mobile Altimeter.

Mobile Altimeter

This will make the third application in the 30 Days of .NET series that has had targeted GPS capabilities. We have created a compass, a speedometer, and now a altimeter. And there are still dozens of applications we could create with the GPS capabilities of Windows Mobile.

This time I decided to a little more with the UI. We have a background that symbolizes “altitude” which is appealing to end users. Plus it gives the program a lot of style and class. On the left side of the screen if you look carefully, you will notice we have an attitude ruler, which has a marker that rises one pixel for every foot higher the device travels up to 180 feet.

This simple feature really takes our application up to the next level. :D (Yeah, I know: I’m terrible.)

At the bottom of the screen we are allowing the user to read all the main stats off the GPS so the application is even more useful. We show altitude in a large bold font in the middle of the screen for impact.

The main event: UpdateData

               1:
              void UpdateData(object sender,
System.EventArgs args)

               2: {

               3:
              if (gps.Opened)

               4: {

               5:
              if (position
!= null)

               6: {

               7:
              if (position.SeaLevelAltitudeValid)

               8: {

               9: labelAltitude.Text
= position.SeaLevelAltitude.ToString("0.00ft");

               10:
              if (position.SeaLevelAltitude
>= 0 && position.SeaLevelAltitude <= 180)

               11: pictureBoxArrow.Top
= 173 - (int) position.SeaLevelAltitude;

               12:
              else
            

               13: pictureBoxArrow.Top
= 173;

               14: }

               15: }

               16: }

               17: }

Possibilities:

I think a more realistic UI would be a great improvement. And the ability to switch from miles to kilometers would be good too. If the odometer would track miles traveled that would be an awesome enhancement.

Download executable: mobileAltimeter.cab

Download Source Code: mobileAltimeter.zip

Feedback:

Want more? What else would you like to see? There’s been a lot of demand for GPS related applications. Does that help?

After the last GPS related application, GPS Compass, I’ve been wanting to do another GPS focused application. This time I figured we’d get in the driver’s seat with our friend: SPEED.

Gentlemen, start your engines…

Mobile Speedometer

The application is built off of  Windows Mobile 6 SDK included a GPS Application in the samples folder, C:\Program Files\Windows Mobile 6 SDK\Samples\PocketPC\CS\GPS.

This uses the GPS Intermediate Driver. If you are writing a location aware application for Windows Mobile this is definitely the way to go. ;)

The main UI is located at the top of the screen. We have a simple speedometer graphic in the background to add some flair to the application. On top of this we overlay the current speed based off of information returned from the GPS device. We can also use Fake GPS to simulate a GPS device.

Below this we have a readout of various GPS statistics that are updated continuously.

One thing to note is Speed may be return in knots which you will likely want to convert to either miles or kilometers.

We just need to create a method something like UpdateData below.

               1:
              void UpdateData(object sender,
System.EventArgs args)

               2: {

               3:
              if (gps.Opened)

               4: {

               5:
              if (position
!= null)

               6: {

               7:
              if (position.SpeedValid)

               8: {

               9: labelSpeed.Text
= (position.Speed/1.15077945).ToString("0.00");

               10: }

               11: }

               12: }

               13: }

Possibilities:

I think a more realistic UI would be a great improvement. And the ability to switch from miles to kilometers would be good too. If the odometer would track miles traveled that would be an awesome enhancement.

Download executable: mobileSpeedometer.cab

Download Source Code: mobileSpeedometer.zip

Feedback:

Want more? What else would you like to see?

How'd we make it this far without a weather application? I must admit its hard to buy anything these days that doesn’t have a weather feature built in. But does everyone understand the basic of writing such an application? That’s what we will explore today.

Mobile Weather

UI is a little plain. I really think a weather application needs to have a top notch exciting UI, but we’ll keep it simple this time. We have an input section at the top that takes the user’s ZIP Code, and we have an output section at the bottom.

In the output section we have some basic factoids like current conditions and temperature. We also have a forecast for the next day showing date, description, with high and low temperature. And finally we have a graphic to add a little something to an otherwise drab application.

How did we mine this information. Basically I connected to a public weather RSS feed that takes zip code as an URL parameter, using an HttpWebRespone object. I then parsed out the data I need using regular expressions.

There are other ways of doing this type of thing, but I thought this would allow us to use a lot of neat Window Mobile technologies we haven’t explorer before.

Our friend the HttpWebResponse:

               1:
              private
              void RefreshData()

               2: {

               3:
              string lcUrl
= "http://weather.yahooapis.com/forecastrss?p=" +
textBoxZipCode.Text.TrimEnd();

               4:  

               5:
              //
*** Establish the request 
            

               6: HttpWebRequest
loHttp = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(lcUrl);

               7:  

               8:
              //
*** Set properties
            

               9: loHttp.Timeout
= 10000; // 10 secs

               10:  

               11:
              //
*** Retrieve request info headers
            

               12: HttpWebResponse
loWebResponse = (HttpWebResponse)loHttp.GetResponse();

               13:  

               14: Encoding
enc = Encoding.GetEncoding(1252); // Windows default
Code Page

               15:  

               16: StreamReader
loResponseStream = new StreamReader(loWebResponse.GetResponseStream(),
enc);

               17:  

               18:
              string lcHtml
= loResponseStream.ReadToEnd();

               19:  

               20: RefreshScreen(lcHtml);

               21:  

               22: loWebResponse.Close();

               23: loResponseStream.Close();

               24: }

Last but not least the Regex object:

               1:
              string conditionsEx
= @"<yweather:condition text=""(?<desc>[^@]+)""
code=""(?<code>[^@]+)""
temp=""(?<temp>[^@]+)""
date=""(?<junk>[^@]+)""
";

               2:  

               3: Regex
regEx = new Regex(conditionsEx);

               4:  

               5: Match
m = regEx.Match(input);

               6:  

               7:
              if(m.Success)

               8: {

               9: desc
= m.Groups["desc"].Value;

               10: temp
= m.Groups["temp"].Value;

               11: }

Possibilities:

The UI needs more polish, but it is useable. There is even more data in this RSS feed than I’m exposing so that is another way to expand on this project and make something awesome.

Download executable: mobileWeather.cab

Download Source Code: mobileWeather.zip

Feedback:

How could we make this application even better? Share your ideas with the community.