Related
i reckon a majority of programs/applications here are developed with technologies like c++/java. however, as a 6+ years developers in .NET, i'm wondering if anyone might want to find ppl talking about .NET stuff and developing some stuff with .NET framework?
dunno if this is the right place to say this. sorry if it's bothering.
I could do with a bit of a hand with my first ever vb.NET app if you have a spare minute....
I managed to 'lay my hands on' a copy of VS2008 and have installed the SDK's from M$ and have been messing about with it for about 2 months now with some success.
I've managed to program a simple alarm clock app which uses a SDF database for the alarm functions which works well (but still needs more work before I release it).
The main problem I have right now is that I cannot get the phone to wakeup from a standby state when the alarm is supposed to sound (as all programs are suspended when the device goes into standby).
I found this article on MSDN about the 'CeRunAppAtTime' function and have placed it in my code with a calculation for the milliseconds needed (until wakeup occurs) The milliseconds-until-wakeup are calculated using the hours and minutes between the current time and the set alarm time, converted to Integers using the built in time functions of VB.
The problem is that this does not seem to wake the device from standby when it's supposed to.
I've scoured the web for any info on this but have been stuck at this stage for about 3 weeks now, messing with the code so much I've lost track of what I've tried.
Is there any alternative to this function call or am I stuck trying to work it out?
I would post that section of my code but it's on my other PC which I can't get to right now....sorry.
I think you'll find the answers you're looking for here:
http://www.koushikdutta.com/2008/07/cerunappattime-cesetusernotificationex.html
A while back I found a c# compiler that worked ON THE DEVICE -- it was totally cool to compile and mess around with c# on the phone.
That compiler only supported the compact framework 1.0, and the developer seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth without releasing his source.
It would be cool if someone knowledgeable soul could make a version that supports CF 3.5.
Understand that there was no IDE here, you simply loaded your c# source into it, told it to compile, and you got an EXE.
godefroi said:
I think you'll find the answers you're looking for here:
http://www.koushikdutta.com/2008/07/cerunappattime-cesetusernotificationex.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the link but I'm not quite sure that this gives me what I'm after.
I don't want to have to schedule a system notification to wake the device as other devs on other sites have reported issues with the dialogue and not being able to assign a sound to it other than the default one for notifications.
CeRunAppAtTime would do the job but I just can't get it to work.
Anyone got any working VB code using this API?
...problem finally solved and the Alarm clock is available for download here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=5551369#post5551369
First I would like to thank the whole forum (with few exceptions that I'd like to not mention here) for the past 2,5 years, which have been very educating for me regarding Windows Mobile as a system. During that whole time I have searched for the perfect simple-to-use, lightweight app for storing and retrieving a grocery list, yet unfortunately I have had to come to the conclusion that it does not exist to this date. There are some existing apps but these are either not simple to use or do not accomplish the simple task at all, or they are too heavy (requiring additionally the .NET framework to be installed for example, etc.).
The idea for the simple software is that one has a changeable groups and items of groceries, from which they can select the already saved ones needed at that shopping day (e.g. during a discussion with girlfriend), and later when in shop they can just check the ones they have already put into basket. I would like to see the person who will argue that it does not easily beat archaic mode of storing information, a.k.a. paper and pen.
I have found an app which, with some relatively small amount of effort can be rewritten to accomplish that task, this software is iContact AE. As far as I understand, there is judicially no problem using the source code from iContact AE as long as following the license restrictions (correct me please if I am wrong). Why AE? Just a selection based on the fact that AE has the most appealing interface and most settings. Of course, this could be a point of discussion, but so far it seems like the best choice.
CAB - http://icontactae.codeplex.com/releases/view/28951
Source - http://icontactae.codeplex.com/SourceControl/list/changesets
I created a possible, chronological tasklist in order to get from iContact AE to the shopping app, whatever it will be called (name suggestions also welcome in due time). Also, I already have a pretty clear vision about
Discuss the usability and feasibility of the selected software / it's source code and it's alternatives (as far as I remember there was the original iContact and some other derivate version).
[*]Create, discuss and review static prototypes of the interface (basically screenshots of each view).
[*]List the requirements to be implemented (or removed).
[*]Code in / remove code according the list from previous task.
[*]Create skin and graphics.
[*]Clean up rest of code, remove unnecessary parts of it (to make it more light).
[*]Test and review changes.
I can either take lead, perform or participate actively in the tasks that are listed green. I only need a competent C++ coder who can help and thinks this is a great idea.
The changes needed to the existing source code do not seem to be much at first glance, but of course as I cannot code in C++, I could be wrong. I just looked at the parts of code where to change the tabs and queries to storage files.
So there, got it off my chest. Any C++ gurus missing a simple, convenient grocery app?
OK, I will put this in another way. I will personally contribute $50 (via PayPal or if EU country, via transfer) to the coder - provided that the end result is according to the requirements, which we will agree forehand. If anyone wants to join in with contribution, You are more than welcome.
aiiro said:
OK, I will put this in another way. I will personally contribute $50 (via PayPal or if EU country, via transfer) to the coder - provided that the end result is according to the requirements, which we will agree forehand. If anyone wants to join in with contribution, You are more than welcome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I had money I to would offer some.
It's no wunder WinMo is falling behind no one wants to create apps even when offered a straight cash deal.
Amen to that. I was actually reading this and took a good hour of researching to see just how hard it might be and how time-consuming it might be. I would have loved to take this on...but alas, It would split me way too much. I am already working on my FFP_LS Pro 2.5 Improvements (Major Major improvements...I am practically re-writing the app), I am starting work on a game I plan to release (Its a rather popular game I have yet to find for WIndows Mobile), and I already volunteered to work on the Boggle Clone for WinMo ... so I am already pretty split as it is. heh...if I find free time, and nobody has taken this on, I will probably come back and make this my next project
Sorry though...I do hope some developer comes around to assist!
Thanks for Your support. I thought that I don't need to subscribe to my own threads in order to get a notification if a new post is made, but I was wrong. I certainly didn't get one for Your post. So, sorry for the late reply. I will subscribe to my own thread now
At the moment I'm working on an app called "WP7 Root Tools". I got the registry editor almost finished, but I am also going to add a File Explorer, Certificate Stores and maybe more. When the registry editor is working I will release the first alplha-version. As the title of the app implies, the tool uses root privileges to perform queries and transactions. I let the tools parasitize other processes to get the code executed in the TCB chamber of the device. I have this working stable now on my Samsung Omnia 7. Unfortunately I have to use a little bit of device-specific API's to do this. And I have to make quite a detour to make it work, which has a negative impact on the performance.
So the ultimate goal is that, in the end, this will work with other, more direct API's, which work on all devices. During my research I found some possiblities that need more investagation. I already decided that I will first concentrate on getting this working with my Samsung device, so that I have at least the tools to do further research. But I thought I'd drop some of my findings here that may lead to better device-support and better performance for future-versions of the tools.
There are many ways that may lead to executing code with elevated or root privileges. But in this post I want to concentrate on XML provisioning. A lot of info can be queried and configured through these API's. I have tried to call the native OS functions for XML provisioning. The function you need to call is: DMProcessConfigXML(). And it is declared in: Cfgmgrapi.h. If you call this function it returns errorcode: 0x4ec (or 0x800704ec), which means "Access disabled by policy". If you use a native COM dll and you forget to add ID_CAP_INTEROPSERVICES to the WMAppManifest.xml, you will get the same errorcode when calling a native function through the COM-interop. So when I get the same errorcode when calling DMProcessConfigXML() this may suggest, that I might be missing a capability in the WMAppManifest.xml.
In another thread on this forum some undocumented capabilities were discussed. One of them was ID_CAP_WAP. Since OMA Client Provisioning is also call WAP-Provisioning, I thought that might be the missing capability. I was not able to add the capability from within Visual Studio, because the capability is missing from the corresponding xsd's so it will give an validation error on building the project. But I could add it manually after the project was build. When I deploy it to the device, using the Application Deployment tool, it would return "Access is denied". I thought it might be an invalid capability, but when I changed the capability to ID_CAP_XXXXXX that would return "Install failed. Fix the capabilities." which is the real error message for an invalid. That implies that ID_CAP_WAP is in fact an existing capability, but I'm just not allowed to use it. When I would be able to use it, I would probably have access to the function DMProcessConfigXML(). That part of the app would be impesonated into higher chambers.
So the big question is what is keeping me from using the ID_CAP_WAP? Why am I not allowed to use it? I tried to attach a debugger to XapDeploy.exe, but it does not throw any exceptions at all. The errorcode is generated in the phone. Getting this fixed will give a big boost to getting closer to root access on all devices. Any help or insight on this will be appreciated.
Heathcliff74
I sent some tweets to da_g, chris, chevron, julien schapman, and a few other devs to let them know this is going on...I'll try tom hounsell too he may know a bit more about this
I'm notifying notebookgrail too because he has been doing some work with dell venue pro devices
Good luck
At a wild guess, it's probably looking for a signature. Using signed code for trusted functions is the kind of thing MS likes to do. :-/
All that said, if you have ProvXML working on Samsung, I would *love* to take a look at it. I'm maintaining a cross-platform Homebrew library. Currently I have at least partial ProvisionXML on HTC and LG, but none on Samsung. I don't have a Samsung device to test with, which is making it hard to try things out...
ID_CAP_WAP isn't a capability you can assign yourself. A higher up has to assign it to you.
<!-- Account loaded from: W:\WINCEROOT\temp\oakcopy28570\Release\x86\XDE\Policy\cb659c75-eac9-4db7-afd8-055632acf233.policy.xml(292,2) -->
<Account Id="S-1-5-112-0-0X71-0X49445F4341505F574150" Description="Autogenerated group for capability ID_CAP_WAP" FriendlyName="ID_CAP_WAProvides access to WAP API" Type="Group">
<!-- MemberOfGroup loaded from: W:\WINCEROOT\temp\oakcopy28570\Release\x86\XDE\Policy\cb659c75-eac9-4db7-afd8-055632acf233.policy.xml(293,2) -->
<MemberOfGroup GroupAccountId="S-1-5-112-0-0X71" />
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
(BasePolicy.xml)
domineus said:
I sent some tweets
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks.
GoodDayToDie said:
All that said, if you have ProvXML working on Samsung, I would *love* to take a look at it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, the whole ProvXml stuff will become irrelevant, when I finish the tools. Because ProvXml is not really user-friendly and my tools will provide that functionality in a user-friendly fashion. So at this moment I want to concentrate on finishing the first alpha-version. Later on, I will probably clean-up the code and release it. But it's quite complex, because I added async multithreading to keep it all smooth.
WithinRafael said:
ID_CAP_WAP isn't a capability you can assign yourself. A higher up has to assign it to you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this info. But what I read from this is that you just need to be able to impersonate. Has anyone tried CeImpersonateToken() with this SID?
Abstraction of the ProvXml capabilities is awesome, assuming that we can fully use them and/or extend them if needed. It's useful for a ton of stuff. I've written a small amount of abstraction for registry writes and such, but having the full functionality exposed through a clean API would be fantastic.
A lot of people I spoke to whilst leaning programming didn't want to help with the Visual Basic side of things and started moaning about me not using C# - but that was my choice to make. So I make this post with similar minded people in mind - maybe there is someone else out there that doesn't want to learn C# to code apps?!?
A while back I started learning about Windows Mobile development but I left it a bit late in the OS's lifecycle and sadly lost my motivation for producing apps for it.
Now that I have left my Windows Mobile development behind I am willing to contribute my, slightly messy but, working code to anyone that might find a use for it.
I am willing to donate my code to the community in the hope someone will finish it off - if they can decypher my workings - or make use of it in their own projects.
It's an Alarm Clock in the Metro UI style (see attached screenshots) which wakes the device at the set time and sounds an alarm and is written in VB and is for Windows Mobile 6 and above. Most of the functionality is already in place.
It requires the Smart Device Framework libraries to be installed on the PC used to code it.
Working Features:
One working alarm which wakes the device when required
Snooze function
Customisable colours - working selector screen with 46 colours to choose (you can even use a custom hex colour if the XML settings file is manually edited)
Selection of different date formats
Rotation support for WVGA devices works...sort of but could probably be tweaked.
Things left to finish:
Add additional alarm(s)
Allow naming of alarms
Put dialogue in place to select a sound for the alarm(s)
Put an 'if -> then' statement in place in the alarm sounding procedure to vibrate the device if vibration is enabled
Graphics are minimal to reduce on memory usage but I think it looks quite good...even if I do say so myself (Please see the screenshots attached)
The program was never finished due to changing my main OS on my phone from Windows Mobile to WP7 and Android and I don't think I'll be returning to Windows Mobile 6.5 development.
The following imports are required:
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Threading
Imports System.Media
Imports OpenNETCF
Imports OpenNETCF.WindowsCE
Imports OpenNETCF.AppSettings
...and the following references in the project references:
OpenNETCF.AppSettings
OptnNETCF.WindowsCE
The app creates an XML file for the settings which is stored in the program folder and in its current state it works for 1 alarm with one alarm tone ('alarm.wav' in the resources folder).
Any questions...feel free to ask. There is one menu template which is configured in various procs to create the menus for alarms and preferences so it can look more complicated than it actually is in the code.
Glad to see some people may have found this useful! Keep me updated with any developments, it'd be interesting to see if this goes anywhere....I ask for no credit.
Hi thank you for the source code. I prefer C# syntax wise but they share the same runtime environment and get compiled into the same MSIL language so in theory they are the same. Just some things are done differently. Cheers again.
sb.oddworld said:
Hi thank you for the source code. I prefer C# syntax wise but they share the same runtime environment and get compiled into the same MSIL language so in theory they are the same. Just some things are done differently. Cheers again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem at all. Some of the form layouts can be a little confusing so if you need a hand just yell. Glad that it might be of use to someone.
Thanks welki1979 being a non C programmer I fully appreciate how hard it is to find suitable code to get examples from. Even if it turns out to be totally useless it is still a very nice gesture.
Ok got it up and running (didn't need the Smart Device Framework listed above as I already had Microsoft .NET Compact Frameworkwork 3.5 installed).
First impressions... It's really cool (especially the random item close), haven't had much chance to go through the code yet as it threw up an exception when I first ran it that needed to be sorted out first.
What I was hoping to see was the application being triggered from one of the menus items but instead it just fires up on load.
I was hoping to learn how to code it so it could be fired off the start menu icons, but I can't seem to work out how those applications are triggered.
Not sure what value I can add to the program, but given enough time to learn a bit more about mobile coding I might be able to add something.
Hello everybody,
I got a WP7 Samsung Focus and I want to port my old application to this device and join native forces for WP7
My plan is simple: I'll convert my app into a dll, rewrite new gui in C# (or whatever the way to do it on WP7). I saw multiple posts about calling native code (original from Cris Walsh: http://goo.gl/2Tjks). Then I saw a few posts mentioning that it's impossible etc etc.
So, a few questions:
0) can I do it for my app (I don't need marketplace exams etc, I don't care for that)? I know that some WinAPI could be unavailable/broken, all I ask at this point if it's possible to load and run native dll without changing or re-flashing ROM.
1) ms wants 100$ out of my pocket to be able to deploy to my own device (WTF?!). What can I do to deploy to my phone without paying the crooks? (VS2010 tell me to register there and registration askes for 100$).
2) Is there a sample project I could D/L and run, I have zero experience in C# and I have no idea how to load and call native DLL from managed code in WP7? All these half broken samples are totally useless to me, I simply wanted to working HelloWorld app that loads and runs simple dll.
thanks
0) Yes, what you describe is possible. There are lots of limits, though - WP7 applications have very low permissions, and calling native code doesn't fix that. Unless you need to edit something outside the app's own iolated storage, though, you're probably OK.
1) Aside from the official marketplace account ($100), there are a few options:
a) if you've got an LG phone, they come with a built-in registry editor that can be used to dev-unlock your phone. I forget the exact key you need, though.
b) if you've got a student email address (ends in .edu) you can try registering through DreamSpark. This is free.
c) if you don't mind rolling back to pre-NoDo (7004 or 7008) you can use ChevronWP7 Unlock (instructions available on this forum). If you don't have a restore point that far back you can flash an official ROM for that version.
d) if you don't mind waiting, ChevronWP7 Labs will be available at some point (no ETA that I've seen, but it's been talked about for months) and will provide dev-unlock (but not marketplace account) for a nominal fee.
2) There are lots of apps distributed with source, and most of them will use some native code. You could do a search on this forum for subject lines including the tag "[SOURCE]" and find several (I release source for all my apps). However, I suspect what you'd find most useful is Heathcliff74's guide to WP7 apps that use native code, which is on this forum at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1299134. It includes step-by-step instructions.
Hope that helps! I look forward to seeing your app. Also, don't hesitate to ask for help with the actual development; I suck at GUIs and Silverlight but am fairly proficient at C# if you need somebody who knows that language, for example.
There is an ETA for the new ChevronWP7 unlocker:only a few weeks away from launch!
Hi GoodDayToDie
GoodDayToDie said:
0) Yes, what you describe is possible. There are lots of limits, though - WP7 applications have very low permissions, and calling native code doesn't fix that. Unless you need to edit something outside the app's own iolated storage, though, you're probably OK.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At this point I want to make a DLL from my simple app and call a few functions that interact with filesystem and network. FS is needed only for simple stuff (loading config file etc) from installation folder and creating some temporary files for local storage. Network is tcp/udp, I guess network should be available.
GoodDayToDie said:
1) Aside from the official marketplace account ($100), there are a few options:
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did some search, it seem that I've done that part. Chevron dev unlock was pulled out from their site, but the old version remains scattered all over the board. There is a good thread a good thread on how to do it. It happens that my phone is 7004. Where can I get old ROM in case if something goes bad and I need to re-flash? Is it easy, am I risking to brick and loose my phone?
I just tried to run sample phone app and it runs on the phone. Initially it said that it was revoked by MS, I run dev-unlock one more time and now it works.
GoodDayToDie said:
2) There are lots of apps distributed with source, and most of them will use some native code. You could do a search on this forum for subject lines including the tag "[SOURCE]" and find several (I release source for all my apps). However, I suspect what you'd find most useful is Heathcliff74's guide to WP7 apps that use native code, which is on this forum at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1299134. It includes step-by-step instructions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try to search, hope I'll be up and running soon. Too bad WP7 is DOA. They always had much better tools than all these ghetto Symbian/Android/Xcode crapware tools... WTF is wrong with these guys, at the point when they were surpassed at speed of light by newbies iPhone and Android they made some backward steps to cut off most of the devs (but they added all these 500K Silverlight newbie devs...). I'm so disappointed with Android, seems like they hired all these retards who were fired at symbian: same **** tools
I downloaded a few samples and it seems that all of them contain prebuild dll's and all of them are COM dlls or something like that.
What I'd like to find is simple sample that contains src code to native WinMo dll and C# project that it uses.
As far as I know native dll cannot be build with latest tools (am I right?), but I can use cegcc or VS2008 to build native DLL's.
stuff like:
Code:
if (ComBridge.RegisterComDll("ComFileRw.dll", new Guid("EEA7F43B-A32D-4767-9AE7-9E53DA197455")) != 0)
is totally unknown to me. I would really like to avoid to even elarning anything about COM related stuff. I prefer not to mess up with code that isn't portable.
HI mtlgui,
unless Heathcliff finishes his WP7 Root Tools SDK, you don't have any other way to access native c++ code besides using COM. DFT (The DarkForcesTeam) released a firmware loader, that allows you to flash customized unsigned firmware. They were also able to do some native c++ coding with the WM API. However the used firmware for that is not public and it is limited to HTC devices.
Did you already consider to write your application in c#? Mango has now TCP/UDP socket support for outgoing connections. Incoming connections or services running on the phone aren't possible without using native code, at least for the moment.
Hi rudelm,
if the only way to use native is to build COM dll, then I'm OK with that. My app code is old and I'd rather throw my WP7 device to trash can than trying to rewrite my app in C#.
Eventually, down the road while hacking maybe I'll learn c# well enough to do anything with it other than GUI and calling native/COM dlls.
So, just to confirm my understanding. I need to write COM dlls that access native API (socket, filesystem, wavein/waveout etc) and then load these COM dlls and call their functions from C# (or whatever is the closest lang to c/c++ in the WP7 world).
@mtlgui:
You've pretty much got it. A few thoughts, though:
There is a webserver project available on this site. It includes source for its C++ native component (the library is called NativeIO; I can probably send you the source if you can't find it). It exposes registry, filesystem, and TCP server and client sockets to COM. Note that because this library was built for pre-Mango phones, just compiling it and shipping it may not work on Mango phones as many deprecated libraries were removed in Mango and if the DLL contains any references to them, it won't load.
Generally speaking, what you're asking for with TCP/UDP is possible, though you may have to code against the winsock API directly. It sounds like you're doing as little as possible with C#, so even if the Socket API that is available with Mango were sufficient for your app's needs, you wouldn't be using it.
Filesystem access... even if you have read access to your app's install folder (I haven't checked, though you should), you almost certainly won't have write access. Each app does have a writable "isolated storage" though, under \Applications\Data\{GUID}\Data\IsolatedStore\. I've only ever tried writing to it using C# though, so I don't know for sure if it's writable using the native APIs directly (should be, though).
It's probably perfectly OK to write your app as one big native DLL (hell, it *might* work to just change the build type from Application to Library, then rename main() or something like that). You will need to expose the library to COM, but that's easy. You can then write a very simple C#/Silverlight app (see Heathcliff's instructions, or just post the COM interface and soembody could write it for you). All the C# app needs to do is use ComBridge to access the native DLL, and call a "run()" function or something similarly simple.
For what it's worth, C# is very close to a superset of C++, at least on the desktop. The phone version is crippled a little by not allowing the use of pointers - everything has to be done with strongly-typed references instead, which can make network code a little annoying but is otherwise rarely a problem - but with a little experimentation you may find your disdain for C# to be misguided. It's a useful language to know it today's job market, if nothing else.
Why is your phone still on 7004? That's the launch retail build, something like eight months out of date. On the plus side, this means that things like ChevronWP7 Unlocker still work for you, as you found. On the minu side, it means you're putting up with bugs and missing features that you needn't be. Have you tried updating at all? If/when you do update, make sure to back up the restore points that the Zune software generates (they got in %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows Phone Update\). That way, if you ever need to roll back to 7004, you can do it. Normally, only the most recent restore point is kept.
Flashing ROMs is safe so long as you don't try something like flashing the wrong one for your device. Unless your bootloader is unlocked (only possible on HTC), you can only flash official ROMs anyhow, which saves you from most of the risks. On the other hand, you're already on as old a ROM as you will find, and so long as you keep your restore points, you can return to it any time you want to, easily.
I'm googling now the board to find NativeIO and that webserver app. So far only references to it, but no src code.
I'm ok with isolated read/write access. All I care is persistent fs storage.
My phone is still 7004 because I just bought it so I can do some WP7 development. I don't want to mess up with updates at the moment.
As I understand from another post ComBridge is C#->COM->native c++ dll or any other dll that can be used, right? I'm just learning some COM to learn enough to start actually programming for the phone. I see that I can pass whatever data I want, but I don't seem to be able to see a way to register callbacks so that native/COM could call back to C#
mtlgui said:
I'm googling now the board to find NativeIO and that webserver app. So far only references to it, but no src code.
I'm ok with isolated read/write access. All I care is persistent fs storage.
My phone is still 7004 because I just bought it so I can do some WP7 development. I don't want to mess up with updates at the moment.
As I understand from another post ComBridge is C#->COM->native c++ dll or any other dll that can be used, right? I'm just learning some COM to learn enough to start actually programming for the phone. I see that I can pass whatever data I want, but I don't seem to be able to see a way to register callbacks so that native/COM could call back to C#
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Basic introduction to native code and COM, including references to more background info: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1299134.
Callback from C++ -> COM -> C# can be done. Decompile the WP7 Acrobat Reader app. You'll see how it works.
Ciao,
Heathcliff74