Building first Windows Phone app on Windows 7

[King Wilder]

I have some questions before I even start to build my first Windows Phone app.  I've read some things which are causing these questions.
I found out I cannot build a Windows Phone 8 app on my Windows 7 OS, so my questions are directed toward building Windows Phone 7.x apps on Windows 7 OS.

1. Do I need VS 2010 or can I use VS 2012?
2. When the app is completed, can I simply install it on my phone? (This first app is a private app for me only)
3. Will WP7 apps run on Windows Phone 8 devices?
4. I assume the app has to communicate with a remote service via REST for data, so something like a WebApi service needs to be created, correct?  Are there any examples of this available to download?

I appreciate the help.

Thanks,

King Wilder

[Deyan]

Hi King,

Thanks for writing.

1. You can use both VS 2010 and VS 2012 to develop for Windows Phone 7.x.
2. To install an app on a phone without using the Windows Phone Store you should first Developer unlock the device.
3. Windows Phone 7 apps can run on Windows Phone 8 devices.
4. We do not provide such examples.

I hope this is helpful.
 

Regards,
Deyan
Telerik

[King Wilder]

Hi Deyan,

Thanks for the response. 

King Wilder

[King Wilder]

Actually I have another couple of issues:

1. VS 2012 - when I select the Windows Phone project template in VS 2012, I get the error, "No Windows Phone version supported".
2. VS 2010 - there's no RadControls for Windows Phone available, just the standard Microsoft Windows Phone controls.  How can I add them?

Reminder, I'm on Windows 7 OS and I'd like to build a Windows Phone 8 app but evidently I need Windows 8 for that.  So I've installed the Windows Phone 7.1 SDK.

How can I include the RadControls for Windows Phone 7 in my VS 2010 toolbox?  There doesn't seem to be an available .vsix file for this on my machine.

Thanks,

King Wilder

[Deyan]

Hi King,

Thanks for writing back.

We have a dedicated help article describing how the Telerik controls are added to the Visual Studio toolbox:

http://www.telerik.com/help/windows-phone/common-installation-adding-radcontrols-to-toolbox.html

I hope this helps.

Regards,
Deyan
Telerik

[King Wilder]

Hi Deyan,

Ok I was able to get the RadControls for Windows Phone added to the Toolbox.

I get an error when I try to launch the Windows Phone Demo application.  I've attached two screenshots that maybe can shed some light on the issue.  It seems I'm missing a "packages" folder in the Examples folder.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

King Wilder

[Deyan]

Hello King,

Thanks for writing back.

Because of the ImageEditor demo the project requires the async support for Visual Studio. You should install this feature as described here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/lucian/archive/2011/11/01/async-ctp-v3-installation.aspx

Let me know if you need further assistance.

Regards,
Deyan
Telerik

[King Wilder]

Hi Deyan,

I'm not sure I'm following your response.  Are you saying that the entire Windows Phone Demo won't install because one example, the ImageBrowser, contains some async code and somehow the correct components for that are not already installed on my computer?

How is that possible?  I've used async in some of my applications.

And I don't trust that article because it sends me to a KB article that is dated 2011.  I don't want to install something that is older than my computer.

I wasn't aware that the Telerik demos would contain examples with components that weren't already installed on the users machines.  I'm not trying to be snide here, I'm just confused on whether this is really the answer to my problem.

The error that I included in my screenshots is talking about a missing "packages" folder in the Examples folder of the Demos.  It seems I would just need to get that packages folder and it should work.  Any ideas why the packages folder wasn't included with the rest of the Demo installation?

Thanks,

King Wilder

[Deyan]

Hi King,

Thanks for writing back.

Following the latest .NET technologies, we always keep our product up to date with what's currently happening in the .NET world. Visual Studio 2012 already supports async out-of-the-box and therefore we actively use this in our examples and controls as it significantly simplifies working with multiple threads and synchronizing them.

Since you are using Visual Studio 2010 you will have to install a few add-ins in order to be able to use this.

For your convenience I am attaching a zip containing the missing packages folder but we think the best way to get it is to use NuGet to install it on your side. Here's an article on how NuGet is installed on Visual Studio 2010:

http://docs.nuget.org/docs/start-here/installing-nuget

Following the installation you will be able to find the Async package in the NuGet repository and install it.

I hope this helps.

Regards,
Deyan
Telerik

[King Wilder]

Hi Deyan,

I have NuGet working in both VS versions already.  What is the correct package name to install this?

Thanks,

King Wilder

[King Wilder]

Deyan,

The zip file attachment got the Examples working.

Thanks,

King Wilder

[Deyan]

Hi King,

Good to hear that it resolves the case

We will close this thread now.

Do not hesitate to open a new one in case of further questions.

Regards,
Deyan
Telerik