I am working on creating a Windows 10 Universal app. My goal is to have the app run in the background and periodically display a status notification to the user.
I've seen a few articles that talk about creating a background task within the app (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/launch-resume/run-a-background-task-on-a-timer-), is this the best design pattern I can follow? I'm fairly new to Windows Universal apps and any recommendations on how to do this would be appreciated.
Look at the IBackgroundTask docs. In addition, you can easily implement notifications via the OS with Adaptive Toasts
Since the story around notifications can get complex depending on how you want to control UX, don't be afraid to research building an RT component if you can't find a UWP API that meets your needs. For instance, you can package an RT component with your UWP app that calls into native C++ libraries or more low-level Windows APIs to curate the notification experience for your user.
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I am new to Xamarin and not sure if chose Xamarin.Forms to create a application for ios and android platform has a problem or not.
The application has some features below:
The application will be able to running some code in background without launching application by user.
The application can be launched by a href link or a notification.
The application is able to launch a builtin Camera application, and receive picture data from Camera application.
Thanks,
Bo
The features you are mentioning can be done with both. Actually, anything you can do on Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android can be done with Forms. Because Forms is only an abstraction layer for the UI which is installed by a NuGet package.
Now, having that said when to use Forms or when to use iOS/Android? It is mostly about UI. Are you going to do some advanced or platform specific stuff is is easier to implement that with the platform specific project.
If you UI will be the same in both platforms and mostly consists of some lists and input fields, then that is a very good candidate for a Forms project.
Notice how I said it is easier to do in the platform specific projects. Again here, you can do anything in Forms as well by the means of Custom Renderers, it is just a bit harder to do.
Ideally try it out yourself and see what suits you best.
In regard with your need to execute code in the background. This will be tricky and is very dependent on the platform that you're on. You will definitely have to write platform specific code for that for which you can use the DependencyService to abstract it to your shared code.
However like AlancLui mentioned executing code in the background isn't something that is easy to do on mobile. On iOS it is restricted to accessing location data or playing music, but still your app needs to be running (in the background). Android has something called Services for this, which makes it a bit easier.
I believe these statement are true:
1) All Universal Apps Work As Holograms
2) Universal Apps can be built using HTML/JS
Does this mean I can build a holographic universal app using web technologies? For example a holographic visualizations dashboard in D3.js?
It's still too early to say definitively, but here is some info I could find.
UPDATE: There is now a library called HoloJS which allows devs to write apps in html.
First your assumptions 1 and 2 are correct. There are ways to build UWP (Universal Windows Platform) apps in javascript/html. This means you could write a UWP JS app which can run webgl in a 2D window placed somewhere in your environment. You could also run your app on Microsoft Edge.
So if all you want to do is display a 2D dashboard in a 3D room, yes it looks very possible. If you want the application to render 3D objects all around the user, there are some problems you will need to work around.
Quoted from https://forums.hololens.com/discussion/80/is-it-possible-to-use-webgl-with-hololens-repost#latest:
"Holographic apps are powered by the same graphics stack as the rest of the Windows 10 ecosystem. That means that just like the Xbox and Win32 games, apps for HoloLens are built on top of DirectX."
So you're kind of stuck with either Unity or DirectX if you want 3D visualizations that surround the user. BUT there could be a way...
A user at the bottom of this page http://forums.hololens.com/discussion/80/is-it-possible-to-use-webgl-with-hololens-repost said:
"That is interesting idea. If I understand correctly, you are trying to hook your Edge browser with your HoloLens and project 3D graphics with WebGL on your Edge browser based on the REST APIs available from HoloLens"
So, you could perhaps fullscreen your app or find some way to ensure it is in front of your user's face and then use a server to direct API calls from the hololens to your web-app in order to transform your geometry around the user.
It might be worth it to look into integrating D3 visualizations inside a threejs app if you want the holographic visualizations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWjn1N4SJsk
If you just want a 2D screen in the environment then develop as normal and use Edge inside the hololens.
I am an WPF developer with little knowledge for the way "mobile" apps work but in general I believe that they work in some sort of sandbox way (meaning they should not be able to access each others process, info etc., I might be totally incorrect on this one). So I am wondering if such "limitations" are applied to the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps?
The reasoning for my question is that I would like to write and app that checks if another Universal App is in process and use some of its information. In WPF there are ways of doing just that but in UWP apps I am not sure if it is/should/will be possible.
Thanks.
There are a couple of solutions in Windows 10. Firstly, if you are building an enterprise app and can also side-load normal Desktop apps, you can use this technique to build your UI as a UWP but also be able to break out of the sandbox and do other things on the desktop.
Secondly, if the app you want to read from is cooperative (ie, is designed to provide information; you're not just grabbing it without permission) then you can use App to App services to send and receive information between two consenting applications.
Both links are to //build videos but you can download the slides too that should contain code samples.
Is there such a thing as a Spotify remote control API? I want to write an app which lets the user control the Spotify desktop client (play, pause, volume, playlists, etc.) but I can't seem to find any documentation anywhere.
There are iOS and Android remote control apps out there so I'm just wondering how they do it if there isn't an API.
On Mac OS X, Spotify can be controlled 'remotely' (i.e. from other apps) using AppleScript, either using the bundled API or the System Events service.
Here's an example of using the bundled API: https://github.com/activars/spotify-applescript/blob/master/spotify_control.applescript
And another one using System Events (it isn't quite as elegant): http://www.jacktams.net/2010/04/28/spotify-applescripts-version-0-4-3/
Official documentation is a bit thin, although you should be able to use the AppleScript editor's library feature to find out more about the methods offered.
I am new to both window hooks and Windows 8 metro apps..
I would like to develop a background service/process that:
Checks the "properties" of the metro app that a user just tapped to start (e.g. app that plays music, text document creator app, ...)
Based on the properties found, activate other applications (i.e., before starting the text creator application that the user just tapped, make him select the font face from a popup list)
I am planning on using window hooks to do 1 and 2..
Is this possible?
Thanks!
It is not possible to hook Windows or intercept the launching of a Metro style app from within a Metro style app itself. While it may be possible to do so with a service installed on the machine in a classic way, doing so would be totally undocumented and unsupported. You would have to reverse-engineer the app launching process to have any chance at making it work.
Check this out..
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/wcf/thread/43df6c8f-f1e3-4aba-af0a-7c4e1db477b6
You can only write client applications using Metro, not server applications.
In your scenario, if you want inter-app communication, recommended way is to use 'Contracts' which are explicitly started by the user.
I'm taking a blind guess here using your 1 and 2 points. Do you intend to handle a specific file type ? say .txt or .wmv ?
If this is your intention, please check here http://tozon.info/blog/post/2011/10/11/Windows-8-Metro-declarations-File-Type-Associations.aspx
There's also a good set of MSDN documentation about this.
You may use API hooking. Check this thread:
http://forum.nektra.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=6228