WP7PUBLISH: best practices for developing content apps

1. WP7PUBLISH: best practices for developing content apps OLEKSANDR KRAKOVETSKYI CEO, DevRainSolutions, @msugvnua

2. DevRain Solutions • 30+ apps for Windows Phone • 5 apps for Windows 8 • Best Windows Phone 8 solutions provider in 2012 • Windows Phone Next App Star contest finalist • 2.5 mlndownloads(April, 2013) • WP7PUBLISH – content platform for Windows Phone and Windows 8 is shortlisted in Ukrainian Startup Contest

3. Digital vs. physical

4. Authentically digital

5. Authentically digital • Cloud Connected • In Motion • Typography • Action http://pinterest.com/chsneo/ui-authentically-digital/

6. Content, not chrome

7. Just call…

8. RSS reader can be written by student this eveningYou may find a lot of such apps in the market!But you can’t use them…

11. WP7PUBLISH is engine for creating content apps

12. Features • Working with RSS, Twitter, YouTube feeds (from the box), custom APIs • Native controls, no web browser (HtmlTextBox) • Feeds • Offline work • Localization, branding • Settings • Opa, Metro style! • Real MVVM, optimization best practices • Ads integration

13. Problems • RSS can be broken, encoding can be wrong or unknown, HTML can be unsupportable (iframe) • Source can be down • Url can be redirected (bash.org.ru -> bash.im) • Native, not web browser • Control size limitation (not more than 2048 px) • Localization • Feeds management • Exception handling • Migration to new versions

14. Size limitation <Grid x:Name="ContentPanel"Grid.Row="1" Margin="12,0,12,0"><ScrollViewer><TextBlock x:Name="textBlock" TextWrapping="Wrap" /></ScrollViewer> </Grid> privatevoidParseText(string value)    {if (this.stackPanel == null)         {return;         }// Clear previous TextBlocksthis.stackPanel.Children.Clear();// Calculate max char countintmaxTexCount = this.GetMaxTextSize();if (value.Length < maxTexCount)         {TextBlocktextBlock = this.GetTextBlock();textBlock.Text = value;this.stackPanel.Children.Add(textBlock);         }else         {int n = value.Length / maxTexCount;int start = 0;// Add textblocksfor (inti = 0; i < n; i++)             {                    TextBlocktextBlock = this.GetTextBlock();textBlock.Text = value.Substring(start, maxTexCount);this.stackPanel.Children.Add(textBlock);                 start = maxTexCount;             }// Pickup the leftover textif (value.Length % maxTexCount > 0)             {TextBlocktextBlock = this.GetTextBlock();textBlock.Text = value.Substring(maxTexCount * n, value.Length - maxTexCount * n);this.stackPanel.Children.Add(textBlock);                                }         }     }

15. RichTextBox privatevoidbtnSetXaml_Click(objectsender, RoutedEventArgs e) {     // NOTE: the paragraphs with the actual content are     // wrapped in a section that defines the namespace so that the elements can be resolved     stringxaml =         @"<Section xmlns=""http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"">             <Paragraph>                 <Underline Foreground=""LightBlue"">Some Underline Text Here!</Underline>             </Paragraph>             <Paragraph Foreground=""Red"">                 <Bold>Some Bold Text Here!</Bold>             </Paragraph>         </Section>"; this.richTextBox.Xaml = xaml; }

16. HtmlTextBlock • HTML parsing (HtmlAgilityPack) • XAML parsing (working with nodes tree) • Detecting size in runtime based on certain text, settings etc. • Exceptions handling • Preprocessors (high level and feed-based)

17. WP7PUBLISH 2.0 • No navigation buttons (just gestures) • Content, not chrome • Animations between pages • One hand reading • Good performance

18. Sync (offline) • Offline is not just caching but sync • Testing is difficult • Multithreading (with all future issues)

19. QA Alex.Krakovetskiy@devrain.com http://devrain.com @msugvnua