WP7 Tpa 10 Reminders Agents

8/2/2019 WP7 Tpa 10 Reminders Agents

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TPA - Windows Phone

Alarms & remainders, Live tiles

Background agents

Prepared by: Kamil Kowalski


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Agenda

Reminders

Alarms

Live Tiles

Application tile

Secondary tiles

Tiles properties

Background agents Constraints

Q & A


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Reminders

Reminders on Windows Phone are a way to alert user thatsomething needs to be done.

The obvious applications of a reminder are an alarm clock, a calendar,

or a to-do list.

Each Reminder must have a name and this name will be used

during management of events in the future.

Each Reminder should have a unique name for management

purpose.

If the name doesnt matter to you, or you dont plan on managing

remainders, you can use a simple timestamp as name, which should

guarantee a unique name each time.


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Reminders

How to use it Main elements:

Name unique Name for the Reminder.

Title visible title.

Contentcontent for the reminder.

Begin Time start time of the Reminder.

Expiration Time expiration time of the Reminder (not required).

Recurrence Type recurrence type of the Reminder.

Navigation URI on clicking of the application will navigate the user to thenew page (relative path).


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Alarms

Alarms on Windows Phone are other way to alert user thatsomething needs to be done.

Alarms are nearly identical to Reminders, with a couple of

exceptions:

Alarms cant specify a Title property, and they also cant use theNavigationUri property.

They can play a custom sound.

Reminders and Alarms can be managed by

ScheduledActionServiceclass, which allows to: add, edit,

search, delete reminders & alarms as needed.


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Alarms

How to use it Main elements:

Nameunique name for the Alarm

Title visible title

Content content for the alarm

Begin Time start time of the alarm

Expiration Time expiration time of the alarm

Recurrence Type recurrence type of the alarm

Soundsound file to play for the alarm


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Live Tiles

Tile is a link to an application displayed in Start. There aretwo types of Tiles Application Tiles and secondary Tiles.

TheApplication Tile is created when a user pins anapplication to Start by pressing and holding the application'sicon in the Applications List.

Tapping a pinned Application Tile navigates the user to theapplications opening page.

A secondary Tile is created programmatically by anapplication based on interaction from the user.

The application's code provides the Tile with launch parameters to

customize the navigation destination of the Tile.

Application can have secondary tiles for an application on Startwithout having an Application Tile.


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Live TilesApplication tile

Application tile can be created by the user only. When the user taps and holds the application name in the Application

List and then selects pin to start.

Properties are initially set in the Application Manifest.

Application tile cannot be deleted.

The Application Tile may or may not be pinned to Start.

Even if the user has not pinned the Application Tile to Start, it can be

updated programmatically such that its property data will be fresh

should the user decide to pin it.

Application tile can be updated by: ShellTileSchedule APIs

ShellTile APIs - it is always the first item in the ActiveTiles collection,

even if the Tile is not pinned to Start.


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Live TilesSecondary tiles

Secondary Tiles can be created only as the result of userinput in an application.

Secondary Tile can be deleted by:

The user unpinning the Tile from Start.

Calling delete method. Secondary Tile can be updated by:

ShellTile APIs

ShellTileSchedule APIs


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Application TilesTile properties

Starting in Windows Phone OS 7.1, Tiles are two sided. Tilesdisplay information by flipping between the front and

back sides of the Tile.

If none of the properties on the back side of the Tile are set, the Tile

will not flip over and only the front side of the Tile will be displayed.

Front of a Tile:


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The properties of the front of a Tile are: Title - indicates the title of the application.

The Title must fit on a single line of text and should not be wider thanthe actual Tile. Approximately 15 characters will fit in the title beforebeing truncated.

BackgroundImage - image displayed on the front of the Tile. Count (also known as Badge) - integer value from 1 to 99.

If the value of Count is not set or it is set to 0, the circle image and valuewill not display in the Tile.

The properties of the back of a Tile are:

BackTitle - string displayed at the bottom of the back of a Tile.

The BackTitle must fit on a single line of text and should not be widerthan the actual Tile. Approximately 15 characters will fit in the titlebefore being truncated.


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BackBackgroundImage - displayed on the back of the Tile. BackContent - string displayed in the body of the back of a Tile.

Approximately 40 characters will fit in the Tile before being truncated.


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Application TilesImages for tiles

Notes on the images used for the BackgroundImage and theBackBackgroundImage properties: Tile images can be either a .jpg or .png file, but you should use .jpg for

performance reasons.

You should use local images for tiles (because of network variability andperformance reasons).

Using a .png with transparent portions to the image will allow the userstheme color to show through.

Tiles are 173 x 173 pixels. If the image you provide has differentdimensions, it will be stretched to fit 173 x 173.

https is not supported for remote images.

Remote images are limited to 80 KB or less or they will not bedownloaded.

Remote images must download in 30 seconds or less or they will not bedownloaded.

If the BackGround or BackBackGround images fail to load for any reason,none of the other properties set in the update will be changed either.


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Application TilesWorking With Tiles

The the following approches/SDK elements can be used towork with Tiles:

ShellTile APIs Secondary Tiles can be created and deleted with

these APIs. The Application Tile and secondary Tiles can be updated

by using these APIs.

ShellTileSchedule APIs The background images on the front of a Tilecan be updated on a recurring schedule, even if your application is

not running.

Application Manifest File for Windows Phone The initial properties

for an Application Tile can be set in the application manifest file.

Tile Notifications Tile properties can be updated by using the

Microsoft Push Notification Service. (check next lecture for details

concerning Push Notification)


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Application TilesWorking With Tiles

Things to remember: Each time that you create a secondary tile, the user will be taken to

their home screen to view it.

You cant create more than one secondary tile at a time.

Cluttering up your users home screen is not always a good idea.

Dont give them a secondary tile unless theres really a reason for

one. It will get annoying.


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Background Agents

Multitasking capabilities in Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) arecomprised of several features:

Fast Application Switching

Background Agents

Background File Transfer for detail check here

Background Audio Playback for detail check here

Scheduled Notifications (check next lecture for details)

Background agents allow an application to execute code in

the background, even when the application is not running in

the foreground.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Background agents are not supported on

256-MB (Tango) devices.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh202953(v=vs.92).aspxhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh394039(v=vs.92).aspxhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh394039(v=vs.92).aspxhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh202953(v=vs.92).aspx


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Background Agents

There are two types of Background Agents: Periodicand ResourceIntensive. Periodic agents run for a small amount of time on a regular recurring

interval.

Typical scenarios for this type of task include uploading the devices locationand performing small amounts of data synchronization.

Resource-intensive agents run for a relatively long period of time whenthe phone meets a set of requirements relating to processor activity,power source, and network connection.

A typical scenario for this type of task is synchronizing large amounts of datato the phone while it is not being actively used by the user.

An application may have only one background agent. This agentcan be registered as a PeriodicTask, a ResourceIntensiveTask, orboth. The schedule on which the agent runs depends on which type of task it is

registered as.


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Background AgentsConstraints

There is a set of APIs that cannot be used by any BackgroundAgents. Using these APIs either will cause an exception to be thrown at run time

or will cause the application to fail certification during submission toWindows Phone Marketplace.

For the list of restricted APIs, see Unsupported APIs for BackgroundAgents for Windows Phone.

Periodic agents and resource-intensive agents can use no morethan 6 MB of memory at any time. Audio agents are restricted to15 MB. If a Scheduled Task (one of agents) exceeds this memory cap, it is

terminated immediately.

When running under the debugger, memory and timeout restrictions aresuspended.

You can use the ApplicationMemoryUsageLimit API to query the memorylimit for both foreground applications and background agents.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh202962(v=vs.92).aspxhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh202962(v=vs.92).aspxhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh202962(v=vs.92).aspxhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh202962(v=vs.92).aspx


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Background AgentsConstraints

Background Agent requires reschedule every two weeks. When the application associated with the task is run in the

foreground, it may reschedule the task and reset the expiration time

to up two weeks from the current time.

Both periodic and resource-intensive agents are unscheduled

if they exit two consecutive times due to exceeding the

memory quota or any other unhandled exception.

Then agents must be rescheduled by the foreground application.


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Background AgentsConstraints for Periodic Agents

Periodic agents typically run every 30 minutes. To optimize battery life, periodic agents may be run in alignment with

other background processes and therefore the execution time may

drift by up to 10 minutes.

Periodic agents typically run for 25 seconds.

However there are other constraints that may cause an agent to be

terminated early.

Battery Saver mode can prevent execution

Battery Saver mode is an option that the user can enable on the

device to indicate that battery life should be prioritized. If this mode is enabled, periodic agents may not run, even if the

interval has elapsed.


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Background AgentsConstraints for Periodic Agents

To help maximize the battery life of the device, there is a hardlimit on the number of periodic agents that can be scheduled

on the phone.

It varies per device configuration and can be as low as 6.

There is another limit, which is lower than the hard limit, after which

the user is warned that they have multiple background agents

running and may, therefore, experience faster battery consumption.

If you attempt to add a periodic background agent when the devices

limit has been exceeded, the add operation will throw an

InvalidOperationException.

Because the per-device limit on periodic agents is low, it is likely that

your application will encounter this exception.


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Background AgentsConstraints for Resource-intensive Agents

Resource-intensive agents typically run for 10 minutes. Thereare other constraints that may cause an agent to beterminated early.

Resource-intensive agents do not run unless the device isconnected to an external power source.

Resource-intensive agents do not run unless the device has anetwork connection over Wi-Fi or through a connection to aPC.

Resource-intensive agents do not run unless the devices

battery power is greater than 90%. Resource-intensive agents do not run unless the device

screen is locked.


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Background AgentsConstraints for Resource-intensive Agents

Resource-intensive agents cannot change network to cellular. If a device reaches a state where all of the required

conditions are met and a resource-intensive agent is

launched, and then the device state changes so that any of

the conditions are not met, the resource-intensive agent isterminated immediately.

Due to the constraints on the device that must be met for

resource-intensive agents to run, it is possible that the agent

will never be run on a particular device.


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Background Agents

How to create background agent: Background Agents have their own project in VS, which should be

added as a project reference to the application that will start the

agent.

Adding this project as the reference will automatically updates

WMAppManifest.xml file with special entry. In your agent class you need to override OnInvoke() method.

When your task is completed you need to call NotifyComplete() or

Abort() method.

Background Agent Best Practices for Windows Phone.
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Q & A

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Documents

WP7 Tpa 10 Reminders Agents