I was reading about Windows Phone 8.1 Development, because I already work with Windows Phone 8 and I intend to start working with the new OS version.
Then I downloaded the Visual Studio for Windows with update 4, opened one project of mine (target to WP8) and clicked to "upgrade to 8.1".
I saw that my solution changed the name to "Windows Phone SilverLight 8.1".
Then I tried to create a new project targeting Windows Phone 8.1, and I saw the following options under Visual C# tree (as shows the image):
Universal Apps
Windows Apps
Windows Phones Apps
As my goal is to develop for phone devices with Windows Phone 8.1, I chose "Windows Phone Apps". But I saw that this project is kind different from the other (the one that I upgraded from WP8). It appears "Windows Phone 8.1" on the solution instead of "Windows Phone SilverLight 8.1". And codes are also very different.
So, I made a research about it, to understand the difference between "Windows Phone SilverLight 8.1" and "Windows Phone 8.1", read some posts like this:
Difference between Windows Phone Silverlight 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 development
What is the difference between Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 Silverlight
In windows phone 8.1 what is the differance between Windows phone project and silverlight project?
but I couldn't find anything that made me understand.
At some point, I found an answer saying that "Windows Phone 8.1" is for Universal Apps... but I disagree, if I wanted to create an Universal App, I would choose the "Universal App" instead of "Windows Phone Apps".
Does anyone knows exactly the difference between this two projects?
The main difference is that Windows Phone 8.1 Store Apps strictly use WinRT APIs which are not available under Silverlight.
Before you read on, this is the short version:
Windows Phone 8.1 Store App code runs on all Windows Phone 8.1+ and Windows 8+ machines, since it uses the unified WinRT API.
Windows Phone Silverlight App code runs on all Windows Phones 7+ but not on all Windows 8 machines (ARM machines do not support all features). That's why Windows Store apps are using different APIs (WinRT). You might want to check out this link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/jj681690%28v=vs.105%29.aspx
Windows Phones were using Silverlight apps only up to version 8 while apps for Windows 8 (an up) offered the WinRT API as well - you may have noticed the Windows 8 RT versions for ARM CPUs..
So - to stop the endless parallelism of Silverlight and WinRT Microsoft decided to unify the development process. Starting from Windows Phone 8.1, Windows Phone also runs WinRT (rebranded as Windows Runtime, I think) apps.
The main advantage is that you can now easily port Windows Phone 8.1 code to a Windows 8.1 app and vice versa, since both are using the same APIs. Accessing files, storage, networking.. it's all the same across Windows Phone and for Windows Store Apps.
This is where Universal Apps come into play. Instead of porting your code later by creating a new project you can now easily create a universal project that contains shared code both for Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 8.1.
However, the downside is that your app won't run on Windows Phones < 8.1.
The difference is in the framework the app will use.
Silverlight is a plugin like Flash, so if you develop an app that use it, you have to use his library/syntax. It is an old way to develop web and phone applications.
Universal is the new framework that Microsoft develop for help developers to create apps that run both on Windows Phone or Windows Store.
So, what you find in internet is correct: Phone App is for Universal framework.
The voices that VS offers mean:
- Universal App: for any device (Phone/Tablet/PC)
- Phone App: only for Phone (pay attention! Can use any library developed for Universal App since Universal App can run on Phone)
- Windows App: only for Tablet/PC (no phone). You can use Universal App library like Phone App can do
I hope this could help
Silver Light project does have service reference facility while in window phone it is removed so you can use either azure provided services or rest services while developing for windows phone
Related
Are following statements correct regarding Windows Phone app?
Windows Phone Silverlight app targeting 8.0 will work on all Windows Phones running 8.0 and above. It will not work on Windows desktop and Surface RT and Surface Pro tablets.
Windows Phone Silverlight app targeting 8.1 will only work on phones running Windows 8.1. It will not work on Windows desktop and Surface RT and Surface Pro tablets.
Windows Phone app will work on all Windows Phones running 8.0 and above and Surface RT tablets. It will not work on Windows Desktop and Surface Pro.
Windows Univeral app will work on all phones, tablets (Surface RT, Surface Pro) and desktop systems running Windows 8.0 or above.
Yes. Yes. No. No.
Maximum number of devices is hard to judge since there isn't a single definitive answer, and maximising devices by targeting older API means the app will not make use of newer features: Windows Phone Runtime apps are easy to port to Windows via Universal projects, but won't run on Windows Phone 8 devices. Windows Phone 8.0 apps will run on Windows Phone 8 devices but will be difficult to build for Windows. Windows Phone 7 apps miss many new features such as higher screen resolutions.
Windows Phone and Windows are separate (but related) OSes. Windows tablets run the same OS as Windows desktops (this is different from Android and iOS where Phone and Tablet share the OS). Windows RT runs a limited version of the desktop Windows OS.
Windows Phone apps do not run on Windows.
Windows apps do not run on Windows Phone.
Windows Universal apps bridge the two and allow essentially the same source code to be built for either Windows or Windows Phone.
Windows Phone apps are upwards compatible:
Windows Phone 7 apps run on Windows Phone 8 and 8.1. Windows Phone 8.0 apps run on Windows Phone 8.1.
Windows apps are upwards compatible:
Windows 8 Store apps will run on Windows 8 and Windows 8.1
Windows 7 desktop apps will run on Windows 8 and Windows 8.1
Windows Phone 8 supports only Windows Phone Silverlight (8.0) apps.
Windows Phone 8.1 supports Windows Phone Silverlight (8.0 & 8.1) and Windows Phone Store apps.
Windows RT supports Windows Store apps (AnyCPU or arm)
Windows 8 & 8.1 support Windows Store apps and Windows desktop apps. (AnyCPU, x86, or x64)
Windows Runtime apps are apps which use the Windows Runtime. On the Windows Phone they are called Windows Phone Store apps. On Windows they are called Windows Store apps.
Universal apps are a way to share source for Windows Runtime apps across different targets (both Windows Phone Store apps and Windows Store apps). They apps need to be compiled separately and except for very simple apps generally have some differences between the two. Typically the UI is different but the underlying app logic is the shared. From a development standpoint, a Universal app solution contains a Windows Phone project for phone specific code, a Windows project for Windows specific code, and a Shared project for shared code.
MSDN has more details at What's a Windows Runtime app?
For more on differences between Windows Phone Runtime apps and Windows Phone Silverlight apps see Migrating your Windows Phone 8 app to a Windows Runtime XAML app
As far as i know Windows Phone apps would never work on tablets where as Windows Store apps can be deployed.
According to your statements:
Yes
Yes
Windows Phone apps (Target not specified, so assuming as WP 8) would work on Windows Phone devices which are 8 or above.
Yes, Universal apps are where, the solution would contain both the Windows Store & Windows Phone projects as combined with a folder for the Shared Resources. These can be deployed on devices which have the target version of 8.1.
I have just installed Windows 8.1 and then installed Visual Studio 2013 Community Edition.
I tried to create a Windows Phone app and found out that there are two ways of creating it (in fact 3 if you count Universal Apps if I am not wrong)
Windows Phone
Windows Phone Silverlight
Can someone please tell me what exactly is the difference between these two? I read a couple of articles but still don't understand and this whole thing is very confusing.
When I tried to create a Windows Phone Silverlight project then it asked me whether I want to target 8.0 or 8.1.
When I tried to create Windows Phone project then it asked me to get a Developer license and didn't ask about version 8.0 or 8.1.
What shall I chose if my aim is to create an application for mobile devices (tablet/phones) that will run on maximum devices running Windows Phone 8 version?
Windows Phone 8 Silverlight is the older UI on Windows Phone 8. WinRT XAML is used for Windows Store Apps(these are Universal Apps). Windows Phone 8.1 Silverlight is a bit different as explained here.
Windows Phone Silverlight, although older, is better in some ways. If your aim is to develop an app that is targeted only for phones and that doesn't have any use getting ported to Win8/RT, go with Silverlight. Background Audio is a mess in WinRT. Speech Recognition with Cortana is worse.
The controls of WinRT XAML are buggy. For example, there is a clear performance degradation of MapControl in WinRT XAML, whereas, in Silverlight, this is smoother.
On the other hand, Windows Store Apps have .NET Native, which converts C# to native C++ code, resulting in performance gains.
For a beginner, I would advise starting with Windows Phone 8 Silverlight apps.
Windows Phone Silverlight is the "old" platform that WP8.0 apps are built on. It asked you to target 8.0 or 8.1 because WP8.1 has a hybrid mode that lets you build WP8.1 apps but still have access to the Sliverlight API if you had a whole lot of legacy code you didn't want to port over just yet.
Windows Phone is the (mostly) universal platform for WP8.1 that is based on Windows Runtime.
I start developing Windows Phone 8 apps recently. I'm trying to do an app for a local radio. They use Shoutcast for internet broadcasting.
But I see that WP doesn't have native shoutcast support. So I searched for implementation for Shoutcast. I found http://shoutcastmss.codeplex.com/ and start working on it.
I succeeded to play shoutcast but I want to do a live tile that shows current song. But due to restrictions on Windows Phone 8, I need to upgrade my project to Windows Phone 8.1 to update live tiles more often.
My project is based on Windows Phone Silverlight 8.0. Thanks(!) to Microsoft, BackgroundAudioPlayer class is no more available for Windows Phone Silverlight 8.1.
So,
Is there a way to use BackgroundAudioPlayer in Windows Phone Silverlight 8.1?
Or
If I have to make it a Windows Phone 8.1 Runtime App, How can I do that?
Or
Can I keep it as a Windows Phone Silverlight 8.0 app, but update the live tile every minute? (User will have WP 8.1)
Thanks,
I don't think it'll work for WP Silverlight 8.1. As for working with BackgroundAudioPlayer is a limitation in Windows Phone Silverlight 8.1. Therefore you will have to write an app that targets WP8.0 Silverlight or WP8.1 WinRt app.
You could refer here for more:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/c9275491-cfff-4078-bc6d-6debe5372790/backgroundaudioplayer-is-not-working-after-upgrading-windows-phone-8-apps-to-windows-phone?forum=wpdevelop
Hope it helps!
I am going mad with these questions. Hope someone could help me.
1. What is the difference between windows phone 8.0 and windows phone 8.0 silverlight (if any) applications?
2. After updating my windows phone 8.0 application (not a silverlight application) into windows phone 8.1 applications, it became silverlight application automatically. Both are same?
3. If both are same, then what does the Blank App (Windows phone) means in windows phone 8.1 templates?
Thanks in advance.
Windows Phone 8.0 Silverlight apps are Windows Phone 8.0 apps written using Silverlight framework. Meaning that you probably used XAML to define the UI of your app, and C# or VB.NET for the logic in your code-behind.
It is the same platform, yes, only now you have the latest Windows Phone 8.1 Silverlight APIs, and possibly some breaking changes (APIs that were available in Silverlight 8.0 but are not available in Silverlight 8.1). The fact that it now explicitly says Silverlight in Visual Studio is because there are now two ways (platforms, models, however you wish to call it) to develop apps for Windows Phone 8.1 - based on Silverlight and WinRT. By upgrading a Windows Phone 8.0 app to Windows Phone 8.1, you keep using Silverlight as before, only now the Visual Studio is explicitly saying that it's Silverlight because the upgrade path goes only from Silverlight to Silverlight (can't automatically migrate from Silverlight to WinRT).
Blank App (Windows Phone) means a blank WinRT Windows Phone app. It's not a Silverlight app, and it's blank in the sense that there are no predefined controls or mock data in the project, just a bare minimum that you need to get started.
1). Windows Phone 8 apps are by default silverlight apps. So when it comes to windows phone 8 there is no difference between Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 8 Silverlight apps. Both are essentially same.
2). Because WP8 apps are silverlight apps when it is converted to WP8.1 it is stil a silverlight app. Windows Phone 8.1 apps have 2 types i) Windows Phone silverlight apps ii) WinRT apps. You can create a Windows PHone 8 silverlight app and it will work on Windows Phone 8.1 device with out any issues. But windows Phone 8.1 WinRT apps are not backward compatible with Windows Phone 8.
3). Windows Phone blank app in Windows Phone 8.1 sdk is by default a WinRT app. Its not a silverlight app. But it also has Window Phone silverlight apps as a template.
** When you select a Windows Phone silverlight app and click ok you are presented with a dialog to select the platform either WP8.0 or WP8.1.
Hope this answers your question.
Windows Phone 8 apps are by default silverlight apps. So when it comes to windows phone 8 there is no difference between Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 8 Silverlight apps. Both are essentially same.
I know you can develop W8 apps using c# and XAML. Is it the same on wp8 ?
How does Silverlight relate to all of this and how does WP8.1/WP8 relate to all of this.
Please tell me if you want more specifics.
You can develop apps on Windows Phone using C# and XAML.
Windows 8 uses a runtime called WinRT. Windows Phone traditionally uses a runtime called Silverlight. Both are on based on C# and XAML, but they have different controls and different classes.
Starting with Windows Phone 8.1, you can make phone apps using WinRT. So you can now write apps for both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8.1 using the same runtime (and therefore share large portions of the code): they are called "Universal Apps".
As to know which one you should use:
If you want to make an app for both Windows 8 and Windows Phone then it's a no-brainer: create an universal app
If you want to make an app that will run only on Windows Phone, then I would personally recommand using WinRT since that's the "future-proof" choice. However, some Windows Phone APIs aren't supported yet by the WinRT runtime. If you need one of those APIs, then you have no choice but using Silverlight.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/eob/archive/2014/04/16/starting-with-universal-apps-on-visual-studio-2013.aspx
On this version we have a API convergence of 90%, still there is a small set not converget yet, that are Phone features only available in Silverlight such:
Lenses Support
VOIP Suport
Camera Capture Task
Clipboard APIs
Lock Screen Wallpaper API
1 Ans: You can develop Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Phone 7, Windows Phone 8 & Windows Phone 8.1 applications using C# & XAML.
2: Ans: Windows Phone 7, Windows Phone 8 & Windows Phone 8.1 (Targetting Silverlight) uses Silverlight API's. And how Windows Phone 8 & Windows Phone 8.1 relate to Silverlight, well they use the SIlverlight API's that are available for mobile application framework.
Windows 8 & Windows 8.1 both target WinRT API's. Currently Windows Phone 8.1 also support WinRT API's. So, if you want to create Windows 8.1 & Windows Phone 8.1 applications that you can do by creating a Universal application targeting both the platforms (They have convergence of 90%).
If you want to create Windows 8 & Windows Phone 8 applications, you will require Visual Studio 2012 & Windows 8 OS.
If you want to create Windows 8.1, Windows Phone 8 & Windows Phone 8.1 applications , you require Visual Studio 2013 & Windows 8.1 OS.
This Link gives you a brief idea about Windows 8 & Windows Phone 8 app development.
Hope this helps.