Mark Arteaga

Previously I posted about TechDays Canada 2008 and the Windows Mobile developer sessions I'll be doing across Canada.

Here are the sessions I will be doing:

Developing Windows Mobile-Based Applications using Visual Studio
Are you looking to dive into development on Windows Mobile using Visual Studio? Do you want to know how to use Visual Studio to develop Windows Mobile-based applications? Do you want a jump start in developing Windows Mobile-based applications? During this session we will see what is available to developers wanting to develop software for Windows Mobile using Visual Studio 2008. We will take a look at all the tools available, new features available in .NET Compact Framework 3.5 such as WCF and Compact LINQ. We will also take a look at what’s available in the Windows Mobile 6 SDKs and some APIs available for mobile developers.

A Platform in Your Pocket: Windows Mobile for Developers of Windows
Are you a desktop developer looking to extend an application to Windows Mobile? Have you already written an application for Windows Mobile and want to leverage some existing desktop code? Whether you have never written a Windows Mobile-based application or have already done so, this session will teach you about what devices you can develop for, what are the major differences from the .NET Compact Framework and the full .NET Framework and how to share your code assets between the two platforms.

The Toronto date for TechDays Canada 2008 is fast approaching so make sure you register!

Way back in February I spoke about a 'Windows Mobile Developer Tour' that I was putting together with Microsoft Canada.   Well, nine months later this has finally come.  It's not a Windows Mobile Developer Tour as I said before but I will be delivering all Windows Mobile Developer content across all of Canada for TechDays Canada 2008.  This is a paid conference so you are guaranteed to get real content and not just marketing fluff.

Here are the cities and dates we will be hitting:

Dates

• Toronto: Oct 29th and 30th
• Montreal: Nov 6th and 7th
• Vancouver: Jan 21st and 22nd
• Calgary Dec 10th and 11th
• Ottawa: Nov 27th
• Winnipeg: Dec 4th
• Halifax: Dec 17th

and here is the cost:

Cost

• 2 Day Conference
  Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver
  Early Bird Price: $ 249.99 (By Oct 15th)
  Regular Price: $ 499.99 (After Oct 15th)
• 1 Day Conference
  Winnipeg, Halifax, Ottawa
  Early Bird Price: $ 124.99 (By Oct 15th)
  Regular Price: $ 249.99 (After Oct 15th)

If you think the price is expensive it will be worth it.  There are 5 tracks so there is something for everyone including developers and IT pros:

• Windows Development
• Web Development
• Virtualization
• Data Management
• Infrastructure

And if that is not enough check out the attendee bag:

• 6-month TechNet Plus Subscription
• Visual Studio 2008 Professional – Full Package Product
• Expression Web – Full Package Product
• Visual Studio 2008 Team Suite – Evaluation Software
• Expression Studio – Evaluation Software
• Virtualization Resource Kit
• 30% off certification voucher – Applicable to All MS Certification Exams
• TechEd 2008 DVD Set
• $100 Discount Coupon for DevTeach/SQLTeach

So go to the TechDays Canada 2008 site and register! Hope to see you there!

There has been a lot of talk about how the Windows Mobile user interface is just not up to par with mobile devices such as the iPhone.  As developers we cannot change the Windows Mobile user interface but we do have the opportunity to differentiate our applications from the competition or to just add a little "eye candy" to improve our applications user experience. 

So how do we get this done on Windows Mobile?

Well not being a graphics expert I decided to search the web. First thing I did is figure out how to implement a 'glass effect' using Paint.Net and found this post on how to make 'glass buttons'.  Now that I had the knowledge on how to create a glass button using a graphics program I could try and implement in code.

Before I did that I searched for any existing code on the desktop.  I found an article on Code Project which uses GDI+ on the desktop to create a glass button and works great.  Using the knowledge form Alex Feinman's article on Using GDI+ on Windows Mobile I was able to port the desktop code to Windows Mobile.

The glass button sample accompanying this post just draws on the main form and uses a panel for the bounds of the 'button' and checkboxes to set different states for the button.

In the interest of time, I did not implement a full glass button control and I'll leave it up to you to implement a control possibly using the gradient button for Windows Mobile available on MSDN as a starting point.  Now that you have the knowledge (and code) on how to paint a 'glass effect' on Windows Mobile this should be straight forward.

The code results in the following:

Glass Button with Enabled State
 

Glass Button With Hovered State (or Focused)
 

Glass Button with MouseDown State
 

Although this will add some eye candy to your Windows Mobile application, there are a few caveats:

1. The glass button sample code doesn't really create a button control but just draws and blits to the screen
2. GDI+ is only support on Windows Mobile 5+ with touch screens which means this code will not work on SmartPhone (or non-touch screens :) )
3. GDI+ on Windows Mobile is too slow IMO but caching the bitmaps should help.

So there you have it, glass effect on Windows Mobile.  I'll be following up with some more posts on some techniques I've used in the past to give Windows Mobile applications a nice UI instead of the standard 'grey controls'.