Subodh Pushpak

Windows Azure with Windows Phone 7

2012-01-03T19:25:4205:30:00

I presented two talks on windows azure recently. One among them was focusing on Windows Phone 7 app development. The other one was on MVC3 ASP .Net app. The idea was to introduce how Windows Azure can be leveraged in both these exciting platforms.

The talk was demo centric; below are the slides and the demo / webcasts recordings links for the same.

Talk one- Building Windows Phone Applications with Windows Azure Platform and Visual Studio 2010

Demo included:

Creating a Demo application from VS 2010 Azure template
Showcasing ASP .Net membership store
Demonstrating the Push notifications
Demonstrating the storage capabilities
Demonstrating the Queues
Showcasing ACS
Leveraging various providers like LiveId, Google, yahoo

Here are few of the snapshots of the session

Using the WP7 – Azure toolkit

enabling Push notifications from Cloud (Even for Apple!!)

using the ASP .Net membership and the device emulator for WP7

Push notifications in action (toast, tile and raw)

Manage Blobs, Queues and azure table from WP7 !!

Using the windows Azure Access control Service to leverage LiveId, Yahoo, google as providers in WP7 app

Logging into WP7 app using google, live, yahoo etc…

Here is the slide deck and the webcast

Your comments are welcome

Windows Azure with Windows Phone 7

2012-01-03T19:09:5105:30:00

The talk was demo centric; below are the slides and the demo / webcasts recordings links for the same.

Talk one- Building Windows Phone Applications with Windows Azure Platform and Visual Studio 2010

Demo included:

Creating a Demo application from VS 2010 Azure template
Showcasing ASP .Net membership store
Demonstrating the Push notifications
Demonstrating the storage capabilities
Demonstrating the Queues
Showcasing ACS
Leveraging various providers like LiveId, Google, yahoo

Here are few of the snapshots of the session

Using the WP7 – Azure toolkit

enabling Push notifications from Cloud (Even for Apple!!)

using the ASP .Net membership and the device emulator for WP7

Push notifications in action (toast, tile and raw)

Manage Blobs, Queues and azure table from WP7 !!

Using the windows Azure Access control Service to leverage LiveId, Yahoo, google as providers in WP7 app

Logging into WP7 app using google, live, yahoo etc…

Here is the slide deck and the webcast

Is Silverlight dead?

2011-12-16T15:52:1705:30:00

As someone who works a lot on Silverlight and as someone who have presented lots of trainings / talks over Silverlight; i am been getting a lot of questions based on future of Silverlight.

Is Silverlight dead?
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/will-there-be-a-silverlight-6-and-does-it-matter/11180

These are often from end-clients, managers, architects or even consumers. Sometimes also from guys who have little exposure to Silverlight; but still want to engage in the conversation as it is "happening" talk :D

Let me address that by admitting that i am a techie who view any technology as it is irrespective of whether it is from Open Source / MS/ Adobe etc. I have no stakes in the conversation except my view towards it.

But First:
Why change? Why Silverlight might not required?
Silverlight works as a plug in to browsers.
Plugin model works very well (think flash / Flex / Silverlight) on a desktop environment. Suddenly we are in a world of smart phones/ tab devices where plug-ins are evil. Well, at least IPad / IPhone consider these as evil. So as plugin Silverlight / Flash may not have bright future as it does not scale well to form factors like phones and tabbed devices.

Desktop v/s Tab devices / phones
Silverlight is supposed to be a cross browser / cross platform. It does works well on Windows / Mac machines; but that is related to desktops only. Now-a-days cross-platform have all together a different meaning. It not only means cross OS it also means across devices like IPad, IPhones, tabbed devices, etc.

There is a better alternative to plug-ins - HTML5 / CSS3
Html5 have changed the game. Its not only MS, who have changed the strategy, hugely successful plugins like Flash are also discontinues in favor of Html5. See this: Adobe to More Aggressively Contribute to HTML5 http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2011/11/flash-focus.html

The world now need "Apps", No programs, no suits, no installers.
The devices are smart with gyroscope, motion sensors, GPS etc. There is a need and a huge untapped market for Applications which can use these features for something useful. Application model have worked wonders for Apple.

Ok agreed, World needs a change, where is my Silver Bullet???

THE BIG QUESTION- Is Silverlight dead?
Silverlight as plugin in desktop is alive and kicking.
We now have a Silverlight 5. The investments done on this is safe as it continues to grow. The thing which changes is that before choosing Silverlight; consider Html5 very seriously. Silverlight works very well in scenarios where Rich Media is required or there is a need for 3D / or frictionless install(Silverlight can run out-of-browser)

Silverlight has out grown itself
Silverlight is used for developing rich web apps, out of browser apps (works very well for in-house intranet applications), SharePoint controls and it is the PLATFORM for developing applications on Windows Phone 7.

It may not be not Silverlight, but it’s Silverlight spirit survives and now is natively supported by the operating system to boot
All Principles of Silverlight, including the use of XAML as a markup language, C# and VB .NET as programming languages, a streamlined .NET CLR (Common Language Runtime) profile, XAP packaged deployment over HTTP and a sandboxed security environment, are fundamental to WinRT; the new runtime in windows 8.
XAML is “a first class citizen” and the native approach to developing Metro-style apps on Windows 8.
All my r&d and people who deeply work on Silverlight have successfully compiled existing SL code against WinRT just by changing names of namespaces

Silverlight developers - Rejoice
The skills as SL developers can be used to develop app on Windows Phone.
It can be used to develop applications on web (desktop environment)
It can used to develop Metro apps on Windows8
Windows Phone 7 and Metro Apps works on Application platform methodology which provides very good monetization opportunities

Silverlight is far from dead. Trust me, If you are a Silverlight developer your hands are full; others have a big learning curve ahead before they catch up.

Update:

SL5 is now officially supported till Dec 2021. Here is the link...
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifean45#top
”Silverlight 5 will support the browser versions listed on this page through 10 Dec 2021, or though the support lifecycle of the underlying browsers, whichever is shorter. As browsers evolve, the support page will be updated to reflect levels of compatibility with newer browser.”

Is Silverlight dead?

2011-12-13T16:49:4105:30:00

As someone who works a lot on Silverlight and as someone who have presented lots of trainings / talks over Silverlight; i am been getting a lot of questions based on future of Silverlight.

Is Silverlight dead?
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/will-there-be-a-silverlight-6-and-does-it-matter/11180

Ok agreed, World needs a change, where is my Silver Bullet???

Silverlight is far from dead. Trust me, If you are a Silverlight developer your hands are full; others have a big learning curve ahead before they catch up.

MVC .Net, WebMatrix talk presentations and webinars

2011-11-28T19:49:5405:30:00

I presented sessions on MVC .Net and webmatrix. I covered stuff like what’s new in MVC .net and the architecture goodness of MVC pattern. I also demonstrated how MVC 3 / MVC 4 harness HTML 5 / mobile along with Jquery and Modernizr. PHP coding using MVC and Webmatrix and other advanced stuff like hosting PHP on windows or porting MYSQL Db to MSSQL is also is also part of the demo in the sessions.

The slide decks are available at below link and all the demo is recorded and also shared at below link.

WebMatrix

View more presentations from Subodh Pushpak.

WebMatrix2

View more presentations from Subodh Pushpak.

The recordings / Demo can be accessed at and

If you have any suggestions / ideas / comments; please do post.

Windows Phone 7 Application development

2011-08-27T11:29:0005:30:00

A few days back I had the privilege to demonstrate the capabilities of WP7 at an event. I jointly presented the session with Bijoy Singhal, distinguished speaker with a knack of simplifying even the most complex technical stuff into something which audiences connect to immediately.

WP7 Day

VIEW SLIDE SHOW

DOWNLOAD ALL

The idea of the session was to quickly build an application ON THE SPOT and hence the name “From idea to money”.

The session included the whole life cycle of an application from idea incubation to building it using tools available and then to monetize it.

The session was build on WP7 Mango build and I even deployed and demonstrated the application on my device which was running WP7 Mango beta.

Since, most of the audiences travelled to the venue from Delhi Metro; they suggested that we build an application based on Delhi Metro, which will not only guide them the best route along with the price but also provide the last mile connectivity by suggesting which is the nearest metro real-time based on the current GPS location. It will also suggest restaurant, places to visit, etc, from the current GPS location if required.

The Demo app included Live Tiles, Bing Maps integration, GPS tracking and Bing search tasks.

I liked the idea so much that I will be releasing the app to marketplace soon; once I add more functionality to it…

if you have some more ideas around some cool apps; do share…

World Cup 2011 WP7 Application

2011-02-11T15:12:3505:30:00

I recently posted an Windows Phone Application on marketplace. Actually, the application is combination of two of things I like – Cricket and windows phone 7!!

Cricket world Cup 2011 is about to start and its going to be full of action. Just that I don’t miss (and you don’t miss) the excitement I decided to build a WP7 app. The app has schedule of all the 49 matches and it provides all important information about each match / venue / group and even team members along with their pics. See below pics for an understanding:

The above pics shows the app in action in both dark and light modes!!!

The application is free to download from market place. Please do share your thoughts / ideas to make it better…

Let the game begin…..

Windows Phone 7 Silverlight / XNA development talk

2011-02-01T14:16:5105:30:00

Hi,

I presented on Windows Phone 7 app development using Silverlight. Here are few pics from the event

Windows Phone 7 development

VIEW SLIDE SHOW

DOWNLOAD ALL

I demonstrated the Visual studio, emulator capabilities/ features. An demo on Wp7 app communication with an OData Service, along with a demo on XNA app.

There was lot of curious questions; I am listing them here because these keep on popping up again and again:

1. What tools does it takes to develop Wp7 app? Are they free?

A typical WP7 app can be developed either using Silverlight or XNA. For developers, Visual Studio 2010 is a good choice as it provides an integrated development environment with lots of useful project templates; which makes the task really easy. For designers, Blend may be used to develop the UI in XAML. Both the tools are FREE (express version) to download and very intuitive to use.

2. What about the learning curve?

If you know C#, (or any other programming language), learning curve is really flat. XAML (used for UI) may be new for you, but trust me; its very intuitive. Also you can use Microsoft Blend to generate the UI (XAML) for you.

3. How can I develop /test app without using actual device? How can I be sure my app runs as expected on actual device?

The WP7 SDK comes along with an excellent emulator; which you can use for development/ testing on a computer. Later you can just change a setting and deploy the application on WP7. You will require Zune software for deploying the application on phone along with Developers key from WP7 marketplace. You can obtain key from marketplace by filling a form. The whole process for registering is easy; just follow the steps on the site.

4. Which one should I use? Silverlight or XNA?

Use Silverlight for enterprise/ business / utility apps. Use XNA for Games app. While each platform is capable / strong and may be used in conjunction as well; The methodologies used for development in these platforms are very different. XNA works on typical Do..While loop where as Silverlight works on event based methodology.

5. Where are the learning resources? Are they free?

There is lots of stuff on WP7. Most of them are free. There is a excellent free book by Charles Petzold to download and http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone is full of demos /todos / vidoes.

All the exciting stuff was captured live and you can view it here; in case you were not able to catch it live!! @ http://livestre.am/AUfx. My talk starts from 3:19:00 timeline in the video!!

Is there an app you miss on WP7? Do let me know about it and I may work on it for free !!!

Keep discovering. Keep is Simple. WP7.

Subodh

What does my blog says about me?

2011-01-16T20:28:2905:30:00

Somebody said that “a person is as good as he/she THINKS”. Recently, over conversation, one of my close “blog friend” remarked that a blog post revealed so much about the person who has written it; and though we never met physically / or even talked over phone… (we have only exchanged technical talks over chats and blogs); this friend of mine correctly predicted my personality and even my habits!!

I also came across with this site http://www.typealyzer.com/?lang=en. Just put a blog address and it will predict the bloggers mindset!! Here is what I get when I put across my blog ..

very flattering… I must say.

Why don’t you discover yours?? Do share the results with me..

BTW.. now a days I am working on Windows Phone 7 and am loving it. Have lots of gotchas to blog but simply no time (only 14 hrs a day )

Slide decks of Windows Phone 7 talk @ MoMo

2011-01-10T14:46:3605:30:00

Hi,

I presented a talk on Windows Phone 7 @ MoMo and got awesome response, even though WP7 is quite new still.

I also demoed 2 applications on both emulator and the actual device. It enjoy the look on audience faces when they see the app actually work on actual device. I see a great opportunity on WP7 and everyone I met agrees on the fact the WP7 has a very bright future ahead. The Ecosystem which WP7 has (developing/ debugging tools, emulator, almost flat learning curve, office/sharepoint integration a lively forum, marketplace) makes it a major player in mobile, already.