Peter Foot

Live Mesh for Windows Mobile

Peter Foot — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:32:00 GMT

The Windows Mobile client for Live Mesh is now available. You can download it from your device from http://m.mesh.com

I've just installed it onto my phone and have been taking a look. On the desktop the Mesh client is quite tightly integrated into the explorer shell - it adds an extra pane alongside your folder windows showing the status of your synchronised folders. On devices the same level of integration is not possible (nor is there the screen real-estate). Therefore the mobile Mesh client runs as a separate application allowing you to manage which folders are synchronised. If you select a folder it opens separately in File Explorer to show the contents, you don't get any fancy icons to show the synchronisation status. The main menu in the Mesh client provides access to the members and news of that folder - the content you would normally see in the Mesh pane. This opens in an Internet Explorer window and is actually a mobile formatted version of the mesh web application. Also from the menu you can force a manual synchronisation and change the settings for automatic synchronisation.

In summary it is quite a simple client and does a good job of extending your Mesh files onto your mobile device. One of the key features is synchronisation of photos and it will automatically setup the \My Documents\My Pictures folder to synchronise with a "Mobile Pictures" folder in your Mesh. Unfortunately this wasn't immediately useful to me as I save photos to the storage card, but it's simple enough to setup Synchronisation of any other folder from the device.

Get the name of your executing .exe

Peter Foot — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 03:11:00 GMT

The Compact Framework doesn't support Assembly.GetEntryAssembly to determine the launching .exe. You can instead P/Invoke the native GetModuleFileName function like so:-

byte[] buffer = new byte[MAX_PATH * 2];

int chars = GetModuleFileName(IntPtr.Zero, buffer, MAX_PATH);

if (chars > 0)

{

string assemblyPath = System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetString(buffer, 0, chars * 2);

}

Where MAX_PATH is defined in the Windows CE headers as 260. The P/Invoke declaration for GetModuleFileName looks like this:-

[DllImport("coredll.dll", SetLastError = true)]

private static extern int GetModuleFileName(IntPtr hModule, byte[] lpFilename, int nSize);

The function expects a HMODULE - a handle to a native module. However passing IntPtr.Zero here indicates we want the module which created the process which is our .exe. This code will always return the path of the calling .exe regardless of if it is in a utility dll, or even a GAC assembly located in the \Windows folder.

Home and Visiting Clocks in Professional Edition

Peter Foot — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:47:00 GMT

In Professional Edition (Pocket PC) devices the Clock control panel allows you to set a home timezone and a visiting zone and lets you toggle between them. If you need to retrieve the current settings they are stored in the registry in a key called HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Clock in a binary value called "AppInfo". Here is breakdown of that data:-

00,00,00,00,31,00,00,00,55,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,80,01,00,00,be,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

The first 4 bytes contains an integer which is 1 if in the home zone, and 0 if visiting.

The next 4 bytes always seems to be 0x31

The next 4 bytes are the index into the timezone collection of the home zone (In this example 85 GMT)

The next 4 bytes are unused

The next 4 bytes indicate whether to use DST (In this example 1 true)

The next 4 bytes are always 0x180

The next 4 bytes are the index into the timezone collection of the visiting zone (in this example 190 - New Delhi)

The next 4 bytes are unused

The next 4 bytes indicate whether to use DST in visiting zone (In this example 0 false)

I suspect that the unused values may be connected to the old Cities feature which was originally in the control panel but removed with PPC2003. You may be wondering how to get the timezone information at the specified indexes - in Windows Mobile they are not all stored in the registry as on other Windows CE flavours. They are accessible through POOM - IPOutlookApp.GetTimeZoneFromIndex, or in managed code in Mobile In The Hand.

SQL Compact 3.5 SP1 RTM

Peter Foot — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:49:00 GMT

To coincide with the RTM release of SQL Server 2008 the SQL Compact Team have delivered Service Pack 1 for v3.5. This includes Entity Framework support and a native 64bit version. Steve Lasker has the details:-

http://blogs.msdn.com/stevelasker/archive/2008/08/07/sql-server-compact-3-5-sp1-released.aspx

Meanwhile SQL Server 2008 RTM is available already online for both MSDN and TechNet subscribers.

APPA Mundi Awarded Microsoft Certified Partner Status

Peter Foot — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 13:17:00 GMT

APPA Mundi has received Certified Partner status within the Microsoft Partner Program along with the Mobility Solutions competency. This achievement showcases APPA Mundi’s expertise in creating mobile solutions based on Microsoft technologies. Read Full...(read more)

Implement FindString for a ComboBox

Peter Foot — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:25:00 GMT

The .NETCF ComboBox control doesn't have the FindStrind method which is present on the desktop however this is just a wrapper for a windows message supported by the native control so it is possible to wrap it quite easily in .NETCF 2.0 and above....(read more)

Using RemoteWipe

Peter Foot — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:51:00 GMT

With Windows Mobile 5.0 AKU2.0 (Messaging & Security Feature Pack) a new feature was implemented called RemoteWipe. This allowed an administrator to remotely wipe a device if it may have got lost and was designed to remove all sensitive data from...(read more)

Session Materials from Tech-Ed

Peter Foot — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:20:00 GMT

I've posted a number of links relevant to the session I gave last week on our Tech-Ed page here . This includes the sample code which is an additional selection of samples than those which appear in the 32feet.NET package itself. The session covered...(read more)

Chinese Translation of Microsoft Mobile Development Handbook now available

Peter Foot — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:57:00 GMT

I just got word from David Chang that the Chinese translation of our book is now complete. You can order it from Amazon.cn here:- http://www.amazon.cn/mn/detailApp?pageletid=newpromote&prodid=bkbk820876...(read more)

New Mobile Development Team Blog

Peter Foot — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:50:00 GMT

Amit Chopra's Visual Studio for Devices team has grown to include Silverlight Mobile and .NETCF and the team have a new blog to cover all these areas. I'm looking forward to some great content from the team:- http://blogs.msdn.com/mobiledev/...(read more)

Disable Windows Mobile 6.1 Threaded SMS View

Peter Foot — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:12:00 GMT

There may be an occasion where you want to restore the original chronological view for the SMS Inbox rather than the new threaded view. One example is where a system programmatically moves or inserts SMS messages into the system because these are not...(read more)

Antialisasing and .NETCF

Peter Foot — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:19:00 GMT

On the newsgroup, a developer asked if it was possible to use antialiasing on a Label font. By default on Windows Mobile the text does not use antialiasing unless you turn on the global ClearType option under Settings > System > Screen > ClearType...(read more)

New Windows Mobile 6.1 Screen Resolutions

Peter Foot — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 10:45:00 GMT

The release of Windows Mobile 6.1 brings a number of improvements for users but retains the same SDK and libraries as 6. The devices ship with .NETCF 2.0 SP2 in ROM. This release adds additional screen resolutions to both the Professional (touchscreen...(read more)

Exception Messages on .NETCF v3.5

Peter Foot — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:48:00 GMT

Martijn Hoogendoorn provides a description of how to avoid the message:- " An error message is available for this exception but cannot be displayed because these messages are optional and are not currently installed on this device. Please install...(read more)

How To: Get System Power State Name and Flags

Peter Foot — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 16:29:11 GMT

A question came up on our forums and so I investigated writing a wrapper for the GetSystemPowerState API function. This allows you to retrieve the power state name, and also a bitmask of flags - Is the backlight on, is the device password protected etc...(read more)