Windows Phone App :: List of app bar icons

The app bar icon which includes 192 styles are listed here.

Windows Phone App :: Windows App UI Components :: Controls

Windows App Testing :: Windows App UI Components :: Tiles & Notifications

In this article I am sharing my knowledge about the Tiles and Notifications used in the Windows Phone app. To know about the components of Windows Phone app which I have shard in my last post,  please click here

TILE

App tile which is used for launching the app is present in the device home screen (if pinned to home screen) and app list screen. The tiles are of different types

• Live
• Static 
                   

Live Tile

Live tile are used for updating the current event occurrence to the user.  It comprises of Notifications, Logo, and Badges. Different sizes are applied to the tile set up. They are Small, Medium, Wide, Large.

The tile can contain text, Images or both. It can also contain badge and logo or a name. The badges are shown at the lower right corner of the tile. Name or Logo will be placed at the right end corner of the tile.

Example: Weather report app, Sports.

Static Tile

Static tile show the default content. When your app is not intended to share the live content then a static tile could be preferred.

Example: Game app.

Secondary Tile

They are pinned to the Start screen to provide a user with a consistent and efficient way to launch directly into a frequently used area of the parent app.

Splash Screen

The first screen that appears when the app was launched by the user is called as splash screen.

NOTIFICATION

Notifications can be sent to the tile by the app when it is running, retrieved periodically from a specified Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), or sent by a cloud-based service associated with the app. In the latter case, notifications are routed through the Windows Push Notification Services (WNS).

The different kinds of notifications used are

• Periodic
• Push
• Raw
• Scheduled
• Toast

Periodic

By polling a cloud service for new content, periodic notifications updates tile and badges in a fixed interval of time. At the start of each interval, windows send a request to the service, download the content provided by the service and display a new content in the app tile. Periodic notifications are well suited for the app that is updated at a fixed interval. For example, Weather app context can be updated once in 30 mins.

Push

This is used to send a notification at any time even when the app is not running. For example breaking news, emails can be implemented with the push notifications.  The push notifications could be used while sharing the time sensitive alerts or scheduled alerts.

Scheduled

The scheduled notifications are used when the app tile is updated regularly or when the toast needs to be send within the app.  

Example:  Calendar app

Raw

Raw is a type of push notification without any associated UI. Raw notifications could be used for multiple purposes like

• Triggering the app to run a background task
• To inform the user when there is a data available for download from its cloud service.

For more information, refer the URL given below:

 URL: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh779721.aspx

My next blog post will contains the information about the “controls” used in windows phone app.

Contact information

E-mail: ktg.pradeep@gmail.com

Mobile: 08748887074

Skype: pradeep.lingan

Twitter: pradeeplingan1

Windows App Testing :: Overall Representation of Windows App components

This post contains the overall representation of "Windows Phone App Components". I will be sharing details about individual components in the upcoming blog series. Here is the list of components in pictorial representations. I  am just sharing my knowledge(what I have learnt so far) through this blog .It would be really helpful for me when you share your thoughts about my learning approach. "I share because I care.I hope the same from your end too" :).

Windows App Testing :: Windows Phone Supported devices - Part- 6

Windows Phone (7, 8 and 8.1) Supported Devices:

Windows Phone 7

• Dell Venue Pro
• HTC 7 Pro
• HTC 7 Surround
• HTC 7 Trophy
• HTC 7 Mozart
• HTC HD7
• LG Optimus 7
• LG Quantum
• Samsung Focus
• Samsung Omnia 7

Windows Phone 7.5

• Acer Allegro
• Fujitsu Toshiba IS 12T
• HTC Rader
• HTC Titan (Ultimate/Eternity)
• HTC Titan II
• Nokia Lumia 510
• Nokia Lumia 610
• Nokia Lumia 710
• Nokia Lumia 800
• Nokia Lumia 900
• Samsung Focus 2
• Samsung Focus S
• Samsug Omnia W
• ZTE Orbit
• ZTE Tania
• Windows Phone 7.8
• Nokia Lumia 505

     Windows Phone 8

• HTC 8S
• HTC 8XT
• Huawei Ascent W1
• Nokia Lumia 520, 521,525
• Nokia Lumia 620
• Nokia Lumia 625
• Nokia Lumia 720
• Nokia Lumia 810, 820, 822
• HTC 8X
• Nokia Lumia 920, 925,928
• Nokia Lumia 1020
• Nokia Lumia 1320
• Samsung ATIV S, ATIV S Neo
• Nokia Lumia Icon
• Nokia Lumia 1520
• Samsung ATIV SE

Windows Phone 8.1

• Micromax Canvas Win W092
• Nokia Lumia 530
• Nokia Lumia 630, 636,638
• Prstigio MultiPhone 8400 DUO
• Yezz Billy 4.0
• Micromax Canvas Win W121
• Prrestigo MultiPhone 8500 DUO
• Yezz Billy 4.7
• Nokia Lumia 930 

Windows App Testing :: History of Windows Phone and its Version- Part 5

Windows Phone:

Windows Phone which is the successor to Windows Mobile is a smart phone OS developed by MS. It is incompatible with the older versions. It is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than enterprise. It was first launched under Windows 7 OS.

Windows 7:

Windows 7 was released on 8^th Nov, 2010. MS released an updated version of WP (Version 7.5) in May 2011.

Feature Included:

• IE9 (that supports same as web standard)
• Multi-tasking of third party apps.
• Twitter Integration
• Windows Live Sky Drive.

A minor update was released in 2012 under the code name “Tango”.

 Windows 7.8

In Jan 2013, Windows 7.8 was released

Features added:

• Updated Started screen
• Additional color schemes
• Additional wallpaper options

Limitations:

Windows 7 was not up-gradable to Windows 8 due to hardware limitations. However not all the users have received the Windows 7.8 update.

 Windows Phone 8

MS released a new generations of OS in 29^th Oct 2012. Windows Phone 8 brought support for the updated hardware which includes multi core processor and high screen resolutions. With the new hardware, Windows 8 could able to compete with Google and Apple.

Windows Phone 8.1:

It was released on 2^nd April 2014.

Features:

• Notifications Center
• IE 11
• Separate Volume controls
• Options to skin and add a tile live to the start screen

Starting with release, MS has dropped the requirement that all Windows Phone OEMs include a camera button and physical button for back, start, and search.

Windows App Testing: History of Windows Mobile and its version -Part 4

Windows Mobile 5

Windows Mobile was released on 9^th Dec 2005 under the code name “Magneto”. Microsoft offered a mainstream support for WM 5 through Oct 12, 2010 and extended their support through 13th Oct 2015.

It used the .NET compact framework 1.0 SP3. It also included the MS exchange server “Push” functionality. All the WM 5 devices supported Direct Push.

Feature:

• Microsoft Office mobile which includes (PowerPoint, excel with graphing capability, Word mobile ability to insert tables and graphics
• Windows media player 10
• Blue tooth support
• QWERTY keyboard support
• GPS
• Battery life

Windows Mobile 6

Windows mobile 6 was released on 12^th Feb 2007.

It has come in three different versions.

•  Windows Mobile 6 Standard for “Smart phones (Phones without touch screens)
•  Windows Mobile 6 Professional for Pocket PCs with phone functionality
•  Windows Mobile 6 classic for Pocket PCs without cellular radios.

WM6 was powered by windows CE 5. Windows mobile 6 was meant to be similar in design of Windows Vista.  Enterprise users’ business environment was targeted in large number.

Feature:

• Support for Office 2007 document formats (pptx, docx, xlsx)
• OneNote Mobile
• HTML E-Mail  support in  outlook Mobile
• Serve search on Microsoft Exchange 2007
• Out of Office replies with Microsoft Exchange 2007
• Search ability for contacts in a Exchange Server Address Book
• Developers and users access to MS SQL Server 2005 compact edition
• Storage and retrieval of information. 
• MS SQL Server 2005 compact edition
• Supports were added to IE Mobile.
• Storage Card Encryption
• Customer Feedback option
• Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) support for select operators

Windows Mobile 6.1

Windows Mobile 6.1 was released on 1^st April, 2008. It was a minor upgrade of Windows 6 which includes performance enhancements, Home screen featuring horizontal tiles. It was not supported in the professional editions.

Feature:

• Threaded SMS
• Full page zooming in Internet Explorer
• 'Domain Enroll' were also added
• Automatic links for telephone numbers in Tasks and Appointments
• Improved bandwidth efficiency in its push-email protocol "Active sync" of "up to 40%"
• Considerably improved battery life in many devices.

Windows Mobile 6.5

Windows mobile 6.5 was released on 11^th may 2009. It was not the part of windows mobile road map and was released after the release of Windows 7.

Feature

• Revamped GUI
• Microsoft's Zune player with vertically scrollable labels (called 'Titanium')
• WM6.5 also includes the new Internet Explorer Mobile 6 browser, with improved interface
• Skybox", "Skyline", "Sky Market”, icon based soft buttons (rather than text based)
• Updated contacts app
• Native support for a-GPS improved threaded text messaging
• Performance improvement
• Native support for multi-touch
• Touchable tiles replaced soft keys
• Drag-and-drop start menu icons
• Improved memory management and gesture smoothing.
• Additional features include threaded email and Office Mobile 2010.

The work on a major Windows Mobile update begun in 2004 under the codename "Photon", but the work have moved slowly and the project was ultimately cancelled. In 2008, Microsoft reorganized the Windows Mobile group and started working on a new mobile operating system. The product was to be released in 2009 as Windows Phone.

New OS was developed and the name Windows Mobile was renamed as Windows Phone. MS released the OS under the version Windows 7.

– Referred from WIKI