To copy from the emulator’s isolated storage to your computer’s file system use:

ISETool.exe ts xd 11111111-2222-3333-4444-555555555555 “C:\MyApp\DbVersion1″

Where:

• ts – take snapshot
• xd – emulator
• guid – product GUID from WPAppManifest.xml
• desktop dir – where to copy the isolated storage files

To later copy those files from my desktop directory back to isolated storage on the emulator, use:

ISETool.exe rs xd 11111111-2222-3333-4444-555555555555 “C:\MyApp\DbVersion1\IsolatedStore”

In this case rs means restore snapshot.

But the restoring wasn’t working for me.  I would restore the snapshot, run my code and no database would be found so my code would create a new database.  It took me a few times to notice that what I was doing wrong was reusing the take snapshot command line and changing ts to rs.

But the problem with that is that the directory that you specify with ts is different than the one needed for rs.  Notice that rs adds “\IsolatedStore” to the end.

Hopefully this will save you from pulling  a few hairs out.

App Hub – http://developer.windowsphone.com (http://create.msdn.com/en-US/)

• Visual Studio 2010 Express
• Expression Blend for Windows Phone
• Windows Phone Emulator
• XNA Game Studio 4.0
• Silverlight/.NET Framework

Code Samples (Silverlight) – http://create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/article/wp7_code_samples

Code Samples (XNA) – http://create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/?contenttype=4&devarea=0&platform=0&sort=1

Application Bar Icons for Windows Phone 7

• 32-bit computers – C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v7.0\Icons
• 64-bit computers – C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v7.0\Icons  

Theme XAML files

• 32-bit computers – C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v7.0\Design
• 64-bit computers – C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v7.0\Design

Windows Phone Developer Registration

Application Deployment

Capability Detection

GUI – http://mobileworld.appamundi.com/blogs/petevickers/archive/2010/11/02/gui-interface-for-capabilitydetection-exe.aspx

Silverlight Performance Analysis tool – Coming Soon (announced at PDC10) – http://www.shazaml.com/archives/silverlight-performance-analysis-tool-coming-soon

Documentation

Fundamental Concepts – http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff967549(v=VS.92).aspx

Windows Phone Design System – Codename Metro  – http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=189338

Design Templates for Windows Phone 7 – http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=196225

UI Design and Interaction Guide for Windows Phone 7 – http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=183218

Summary – http://www.shazaml.com/archives/summary-ui-design-interaction-guide-for-windows-phone-7

Windows Phone 7 Application Certification Requirements – http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9730558

Summary – http://www.shazaml.com/archives/summary-of-windows-phone-7-application-certification-requirements

Top 10 Tips for a Successful Marketplace Certification – http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jodonnell/archive/2010/10/06/windows-phone-7-top-10-tips-for-a-successful-marketplace-certification.aspx

WP7 Training Course – http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/wp7trainingcourse.aspx

Fiddler and the Windows Phone 7 Emulator – http://blogs.msdn.com/b/fiddler/archive/2010/10/15/fiddler-and-the-windows-phone-emulator.aspx

Presentations

16 MIX10 Videos – http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/2010/03/17/videos-of-mix10-windows-phone-sessions.aspx

Silverlight and Windows Phone 7 Performance Tips (SilverlightTV) – http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/SilverlightTV/SIlverlight-TV-47-Silverlight-and-Windows-Phone-7-Performance-Tips

PDC10 – http://player.microsoftpdc.com/

Silverlight Video Resources – http://www.silverlight.net/learn/videos/windows-phone/

Open Source  & 3rd Party Tools

Open Source

Silverlight Toolkit (WP7) – http://silverlight.codeplex.com/releases/view/55034

• Release (Sept) – http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/2010/09/16/silverlight-toolkit-for-windows-phone-7-released.aspx
  • WrapPanel
  • DatePicker
  • TimePicker
  • ToggleSwitch
  • ContextMenu
  • GestureService/GestureListener
• Release (Nov) – http://lucbei.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/silverlight-for-windows-phone-toolkit-november-2010-release/
  • AutoCompleteBox
  • ListPicker
  • LongListSelector
  • Page Transitions

Json.NET – http://json.codeplex.com/

High performance ProgressBar – http://www.jeff.wilcox.name/2010/08/performanceprogressbar/

Sterling Isolated Storage Database – http://sterling.codeplex.com/

LowProfileImageLoader – http://blogs.msdn.com/b/delay/archive/2010/09/02/keep-a-low-profile-lowprofileimageloader-helps-the-windows-phone-7-ui-thread-stay-responsive-by-loading-images-in-the-background.aspx

DeferredLoadListBox – http://blogs.msdn.com/b/delay/archive/2010/09/08/never-do-today-what-you-can-put-off-till-tomorrow-deferredloadlistbox-and-stackpanel-help-windows-phone-7-lists-scroll-smoothly-and-consistently.aspx

Windows Phone 7 Design Templates – http://wp7designtemplates.codeplex.com/

Turnstile control – http://turnstile.codeplex.com/

MVVM Light Toolkit – http://mvvmlight.codeplex.com/

Caliburn Micro – http://caliburnmicro.codeplex.com/

Fee

Telerik RadControls for Windows Phone – http://www.telerik.com/products/windows-phone.aspx

Perst database – http://www.mcobject.com/june30/2010

Books

Programming Windows Phone 7 (Charles Petzold) – http://www.charlespetzold.com/phone/

101 Windows Phone 7 Apps, Volume I: Developing Apps 1-50 (Adam Nathan) – pre-order

Learn what the future holds for Silverlight at this online event.

Register today: http://www.silverlight.net/news/events/firestarter/

1. Cannot Search by Keywords

When I submitted the Cousin Calculator app to the marketplace, I was able to enter keywords that would make finding the application easier:

But when I search for the app using one of the keywords, the application doesn’t show in the results:

Currently it is going to be more difficult to find some apps.

2. Cannot Search for Subgenre

Multiple genres in the marketplace have subgenres, but it is not always easy to remember which subgenre goes with each genre.  If I explore the SHOPPING subgenre under LIFESTYLE, there are currently 27 apps.  If I do a search for “shopping” I only see 6 apps:

3. Missing Genres or Subgenres

Compared to iTunes, the marketplace is missing some categories such as:

• Education
• Games
  • Arcade
  • Dice
  • Role Playing

So if I am looking for flash cards, the periodic table, or other educational tools and games where in the marketplace should I currently look?

4. Cannot Filter Results Based on Language

Browsing the apps in the marketplace, currently I see applications for languages that I don’t read. The name of the app is in a foreign language and so are the description and screen shots:

I should be able to specify the languages of apps that I want to see in my results.

5. Cannot Sort by Top Rated

You can sort applications by Top selling and Release date and you can see the number of stars for their rating, but you can’t sort by Top rated.

6. Sort by Release Date Doesn’t Group by Date

When browsing the marketplace, if you sort by Release date, the only way to see the release date is to click to see the app details.  It would be nice if the results showed the apps grouped by date.

7. Missing Counts when Browsing Genres

When “window shopping” in the marketplace, it would be nice to see the number of apps in each genre and subgenre.

I am hopeful that we will soon see some of these changes coming to the marketplace.

What issues do you see with the marketplace?

What things do you really like about it?

At first it appeared that Marketplace was missing four more categories than it was because of its use of nested categories.  It turns out that Marketplace is more fine-grained when it comes to Business and it has a Communication category that App Store doesn’t.  But Marketplace is missing categories for Education and Medical.  I think it is a huge oversight to not have a top-level Education category in Marketplace.

Now let’s compare the Games categories between the two stores:

It is surprising to see that App Store has 5 more categories than Marketplace with Classic being the only category that Marketplace has that App Store doesn’t.

I suspect that as more applications are developed for (or ported to) the Windows Phone 7 that developers will be asking Microsoft to add categories to Marketplace.

Download and copy the Caliburn.Micro.WP7.zip file to the following directory on your computer: \Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Templates\ProjectTemplates\Silverlight for Windows Phone

Start up Visual Studio and create a new project.  You will see an option for Caliburn.Micro (WP7):

After the project is created, you will see the following project structure:

Fix the reference to Caliburn.Micro (download from CodePlex), set a breakpoint in the constructor of MainPageViewModel, and run the application.  You will see that when navigation happens to MainPage, that MainPageViewModel is created. 

Continue execution to view the app in the emulator:

I like Rob’s idea of doing View-first for pages and ViewModel-first for components on a Page.  I have chosen the following naming: MyPage/MyPageViewModel (pages) and MyView/MyViewModel (user controls).

The user is shown multiple views of the same item side by side using the Pivot control. The buttons on the Application Bar remain consistent across Pivot pages.

Example: E-mail (all, unread, urgent, flagged); Appointment (details, attendees)

(video)

The user is presented with a panorama containing multiple pages of content. The first is a list that acts as a menu. Clicking on a list items takes you to another panorama with the specific content. The Application Bar is not used.

Example: AP Mobile

(video)

The July 2010 release of the UI Design and Interaction Guide for Windows Phone 7 is a document that all designers and developers of Windows Phone 7 applications need to become thoroughly familiar with.  It is a beautifully laid out 101-page document that discussed the phone’s capabilities, controls, and interactions.  As I read the guide, I took notes that I could refer to quickly as needed.  The result is a 10-page summary of the UI Design & Interaction Guide for Windows Phone 7.  I hope others find it useful.

Now there are rumor leaks of new Dell phones: Flash, Thunder & Lightning. But what do their buttons reveal?

According to Engadget and pocketnow.com, the Dell Flash will run the Android Froyo OS. The posted image shows 3 buttons that might be similar in functionality to the 3 Windows Phone 7 buttons:

Another phone leaked to run the Android OS is the Thunder and its buttons match the icons on the Flash:

The Lightning icons more closely match what you might expect on a Windows Phone 7 namely the Windows button and the Search button:

It is interesting that the 2 Android phones have 3-button designs. The first appears to be a Back button and the second a Home button. On the Windows Phone 7, the third button is Search which will bring up Bing. The Android phones’ third button appears to be a Menu button although some could argue that it represents search results.

Why has Dell chosen to have 3-button designs on phones for two different operating systems that mostly do the same thing?  I wonder how Microsoft feels about this dual usage of the 3-button design?