UWP on DVLUP

Free Yourself With DevOps

Fri, 04 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

As you evolve as a developer, you start to venture into the world of CI-CD. This is because you want to spend more time coding and less time with the repetitive and tiresome nature of compiling for different targets, packaging and publishing.

I frequently write content about CI-CD; whether it is Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions or just a PowerShell command that does a ton of work for you. In today’s post, I’m going to take you on a journey that shows you how to use Azure DevOps to automatically build, package and publish your app to the Microsoft Store.

DevReach 2020

Wed, 04 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In case you missed it, I spoke this year at DevReach 2020. DevReach is Europe’s Premier Developer Conference that takes place every year in Sofia, Bulgaria. This year’s conference was online only, but was still a lot of fun.

In my session, I show you how to write GitHub Actions workflows for a full CI/CD experience that automatically builds and releases your Xamarin.Forms, Xamarin.Android, Xamarin.iOS and UWP apps.

My session starts at 53:22 and I go until 1:36:12

Using Windows IoT, SignalR, Azure Custom Vision and Xamarin Forms to Flush a Toilet

Thu, 13 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

My cat uses the human toilet. However, he doesn’t know how to flush when he’s done. So, I thought, “Why not train a custom trained machine learning model to know when to flush the toilet for him? That way, I can go on vacation without asking friends to stop by.”

That single thought began my trip through some great modern developer tools and tech to build a full solution for the problem. In this post, I’ll walk you through everything and you can explore the code and parts list here https://github.com/LanceMcCarthy/Flusher .

Postmortem - Child node "2" compilation error after updating to 18362 SDK

Wed, 07 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

[Update May 2020] This has been fixed in the 19041 SDK. Install the 19041 SDK, set your project’s Target SDK to 19041 and finally Rebuild the project/solution**.**

One of the more frustrating things for me is not being able to debug a problem. After updating my UWP app’s Target SDK to 18362 (Windows 10 1903), I was no longer able to compile. I got a very vague error. that I had to dig out of the msbuild logs:

Draw Your Own Xamarin Pie Chart dynamically

Thu, 18 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to draw your own pie chart just using lines and a list of data items. The code itself is in C#, but the concept can be used on any platform that has a drawing library and ArcSegments.

You can view the entire solution in this GitHub Gist . Okay, let’s get started!

Setting Up

The first thing you’ll need to understand is how the platform’s drawing library makes arcs. In this code, I’ll be using RadPath from Telerik UI for Xamarin most libraries work the same way. RadPath lets you use a custom Geometry which has RadArcSegment object, which has helpful StartAngle and SweepAngle properties.

Talk to the View

Tue, 16 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

There are many scenarios where a UI component might not have a Command or bindable property available for certain features that you need to access from the view model. There is a simple, but powerful, thing you can do to allow this and not break MVVM or testing capability, leverage the Interface.

Scenario

Let’s imagine the scenario where we have a special ListView control that has a HighlightItem method that can only be called with a direct reference to that control. There isn’t a Command or DependencyProperty (aka BindableProperty in Xamarin.Forms) alternative, so it has to be done in the code behind.

Using PowerShell to Install an SDK in a DevOps Build Pipeline

Fri, 04 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I have an open source UWP project that relies on the Ad SDK and Engagement SDK to be installed to Visual Studio. This normally isn’t a problem, because you can just run the MSI on your PC (see installation instructions here and here ).

I decided to move the project into DevOps so that I get some of that CI/CD goodness to build and publish new releases automatically to the Microsoft Store. However, there was a problem, when trying to build the project in a DevOps build pipeline, you’ll get the following error:

LoginDialog for easy Live SDK OAuth

Thu, 06 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Almost every developer I speak with agrees that getting a nicely working OAuth flow can be difficult. After much trial and error, I’ve built a UWP ContentDialog that makes this easy and has built-in refresh token support.

Using the LoginDialog

This is very simple to use, when the app launches, instantiate the dialog by passing your Live SDK ClientID and let the LoginDialog do the heavy lifting:

// Pass your app's OAuth ClientId (sometimes called an AppId)
var loginDialog = new LoginDialog("YourAppClientId");

// *** Perform login **** //
// Case 1 - If the user was previously signed in, there is a refresh_token stored and no user-entered credentials are needed.
// Case 2 - If the access token fails, or if it's the first sign-in, the user will see a popup to enter credentials.
await loginDialog.SignInAsync();

if(!string.IsNullOrEmpty(loginDialog.Authentication))
{
 // This will be the access token you can use for API calls.
 var accessToken = loginDialog.Authentication;

 // Make your API calls with the accessToken, for example:
 var user = await apiService.GetUserProfileAsync(accessToken);
}

This works just like a MessageDialog, but instead will show a WebView for the user to sign in, or automatically sign them in silently if they were previously logged in.

The RS5 Update Resources and Tutorials

Wed, 03 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

My friends at Microsoft have put together an amazing compilation of resources of all the new stuff available in the Windows 10 October 2018 Update (aka RS5). Below is a list of some of those resources relevant to developers and enthusiasts, enjoy!

SDK Downloads

EXE - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=2023014
ISO - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=2022797 You can also install the
Visual Studio Installer - Choose the UWP workload and select 17763 SDK under additional components

New Samples and Sample Updates

XAML Hosting API Sample uses the new XAML hosting API and C++/WinRT to demonstrate usage of XAML controls within a Win32 application.
Customer Orders Database Sample has been updated to use the new Data Grid and other new controls in RS5.
Photo Editor C++/WinRT Sample has been updated to build with the RS5 SDK and to use the new single_threaded_observable_vector function to create an IObservableVector for data binding. An additional performance update will be coming out in a couple weeks.
Data binding and MVVM is a new topic that was identified as a need based on the Code First program. The topic describes the benefits of using the MVVM design pattern and how it has been applied to the sample apps.

Videos

Application Developer Resources

Dev Center site page updates (Home page , Get started , What’s cool , Desktop , Downloads , and more)
What’s New in Windows 10 for developers, build 17763
New APIs in Windows 10 build 17763
Fluent Design controls (CommandBarFlyout , MenuBar , TreeView , and more)
Motion in Fluent Design
Gaze input and interactions
Windows UI Library (WinUI)
MSIX
UWP Controls in desktop applications
C++/WinRT
DirectX Graphics Infrastructure (DXGI)
Project Rome
Windows Machine Learning
Store Analytics API
EdgeHTML 18
Progressive Web Apps
WebVR

Driver Developer Resources

Windows Hardware Dashboard
Debugger Data Model API
Windows Driver Framework (WDF)
Audio
Bluetooth
Display
Windows Kernel
Networking
Mobile Broadband
Sensors
USB
Wi-fi
Go here to see a list of comprehensive list of doc changes.

Epic Build 2018 Playlists

Wed, 09 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Your one-stop shop for Microsoft Build 2018 sessions, slide decks, post links, keynotes and much more.

Living Document Note:

These Playlists will continue to be reordered and updated in real time as new content becomes available. However, the links will always remain the same and you can refresh the playlist page to get any updated ordering/content.

Easy XamlCompositionBrushBase

Sun, 18 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The upcoming Windows 10 update, the Fall Creator’s Update, introduces a new design system, Microsoft Fluent Design System . The design system has 5 major building blocks:

Light
Depth
Motion
Material
Scale

You can use any of these in a multitude of ways, however Microsoft has made it very easy to use in the latest Preview SDK (16190). Some of the things that used to be relatively hard, or at the least verbose, can now be done with a few lines of code.

Surface Dial and Real-Time Video Effects

Fri, 11 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I was given a Surface Dial the other day and I thought “what can I do with this to create a better experience for the user”. One thing came right to mind, applying real-time video effects.

I have a UWP app in the Windows Store, Video Diary , where you can apply real-time video effects while recording a video. One of the features of these effects is to increase or decrease the video effect’s properties. For example, the intensity of a Vignette effect, here’s what I want:

One XAML for UWP, Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1

Wed, 27 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I was recently involved in a conversation on how to have the easiest way to maintain a XAML view across a UWP (Universal Windows Project) a Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 projects. There are a few options and the most straight forward way to do it with a UserControl residing in a Portable Class Library. However…

What if you wanted to have **tailored code for each **without littering your code with #ifdef but still share a XAML view? The XAML View might be what you’re looking for. This is a tutorial on how to do just that. An example project is available for download at the end of the article. Let’s get started: