Windows Phone 7 Useful Links for Tile Push Notifications

I’m on holiday break right now which means it’s time to write some code; I tend to go into withdrawal if I go too long without coding.  I’m starting with Windows Phone and moving on to Azure for New Year’s.

I had posted my Tip Calculator application to the marketplace for internal beta purposes, but all the applications were wiped before the phone officially launched.  I’ve now posted the final version which you can download to your Windows Phone device, the formal title is “Tip Express” to avoid name collisions.  This version uses the pivot control to enable a split check feature (so you can split up the check with other people):

     

This version also has persistence of the amounts so that when you re-start the application your data is restored automatically.

I’m currently updating the project to allow dynamic Tile support so I can push the data right to the pinned tile of the application.  This makes it even easier to use as you can simply enter the data once and if the phone times out, your data will be right on the home screen when the server comes back with your credit card.  I think this will be especially handy in Europe where the server brings the remote credit card reader with them to the table and stands over your shoulder as you enter your amount <g>

I’ve come across several decent blog entries and documentation that I thought I’d link to for anyone else looking to do something similar:

• Main MSDN overview on Push Notifications
• Creating a transparent tile design which matches the theme color from Katrien’s MSDN Blog
• Push Notification flow control on codeproject
• Jeff Fansler’s “Really Long Post” with sample code
• XNA Push Notification sample from MSDN

If anyone has some really great tutorials or samples on the subject, please do post the link.  I’m writing up my version for a future post.

Happy Holidays!