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How to create a settings page for Windows Phone 7

From the VBTeam

I have experienced lot of fun creating Windows Phone 7 applications in Visual Basic and writing about them here. In our last post, I explained how to create a Bing Maps application for Windows Phone 7. In this blog, I want to share a sample that will help you to create a settings page for Windows Phone 7. This application will display two setting pages - one where the setting changes will be updated immediately, and the other where the user will have to confirm the changes.

I will now demonstrate how easy it is to create a settings page for Windows Phone 7, using Visual Basic for Windows Phone Developer Tools. The settings page can be created in 6 simple steps as follows:

1. Create a sample application and add controls
2. Create a settings class
3. Create a settings page that does not require a confirmation button
4. Create a settings page that requires a confirmation button
5. Build and debug the application
6. Rebuild in the release mode before publishing

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ASP.NET Mobile Handset Detection, Redirection & Development Made Easy

 Today almost all web sites are designed to operate on a desktop or laptop computer. Anyone operating marketing, ecommerce, information or entertainment web sites now needs to consider the mobile phone when designing content and services. Mobile web sites development is increasing day by day and so is the number of different mobile devices trying to access the web sites.

Major problems for web developers for mobile website development are following:

    * Detect mobile device and redirect user to mobile website E.g. practical client requirement: Apple users should be redirected to an Apple theme URL, RIM (BlackBerry) users should be redirected to a Blackberry theme URL and all other mobile devices should be redirected to a standard mobile theme URL.
    * Mobile device database to fetch mobile capabilities in order to deliver the best possible experience to mobile users

E.g. does this phone support java or flash, or what kind of entry method is available, such as a qwerty keyboard or a touch screen?

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Handling XML data with Windows Phone 7

 Data storage and access is nearly an eternal topic in all kinds of applications. In Windows Phone 7, data manipulation still plays a fundamental and important role. Regrettably, in the current Windows Phone 7 Series there is no local database API that can be used. Windows Phone 7, though, does support access to data in several ways: XML, Isolated Storage, and Cloud Storage. In this article I will introduce to you how to handle XML data in Windows Phone 7 for Silverlight applications. In detail, we'll explore three cases: how to load and render a local resource-formed XML file; how to abstract components hidden inside an XAML (XML form in essence) file, and how to obtain remote XML data via a simple RSS reader sample.

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Windows Phone 7 Isolated Storage

Isolated Storage aims to enable managed applications to create and maintain local storage. In Windows Phone 7 Silverlight-based applications, all I/O operations are restricted to isolated storage and do not have direct access to the underlying OS file system. Windows Phone application developers owe the ability to store data locally on the phone, leveraging all the benefits of isolated storage, such as providing security and preventing unauthorized access and data corruption from other applications.

As you may image, in Windows Phone 7 programming Isolated Storage manipulation is as important as memory handling in traditional desktop applications. So, in this article we are still going to focus upon the fundamentals associated with Isolated Storage via simple yet typical sample applications.

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