As some of you may be aware I was involved in a project last year to enable developers to quickly build reading style applications. This started off as a simple template allowing users to pull in RSS data but exploded to be much more versatile. The template was made available at http://socialviewer.codeplex.com and is freely available for any Windows Phone developer to download and use.

Since the initial version we’ve made a number of enhancements to both functionality and the default look and feel. Over the festive season I started transitioning (and upgrading) the template to take advantage of the new Mango features. The configuration file (where you could previously only configure the feeds and lists for the application) now allows you to control layout, Ads and integration with various social networks.

I’m going to be doing a series of posts over the coming weeks on some of the new features of the Social Viewer template. We’ll start today with a recap of getting started with the template.

Step 1: Download the template

Go to http://socialviewer.codeplex.com and download the latest build from the Source Code tab. IMPORTANT: At this stage the latest version is still an Alpha release, which means that it’s probably not suitable for publishing apps. We’re hoping to get an official release out this month and would love any feedback you have.

Step 2: Unblock the Download

Gotta love Windows security – make sure you right-click the downloaded file, select Properties and then click the Unblock button.

Step 3: Extract the Download

Extract all the files from the changeset. There should be two files: a Zip file which is the template (don’t extract this file), and an OUT OF DATE word document that talks about the template (which for the time being you can ignore).

Step 4: Installing the Template

Copy the Zip file that was extracted out of the changeset (should be called BuiltToRoam.SocialViewer.Template.Zip) and place this file into your Visual Studio Templates folder. For example my templates folder is the following. Note that I added the “Silverlight for Windows Phone” sub-folder so that the template appears with all the other Windows Phone project templates.

C:\Users\Nick\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Templates\ProjectTemplates\Visual C#\Silverlight for Windows Phone

Step 5: Run Visual Studio

Visual Studio should automatically pick up the new template even if it is already running. However, if you’re updating from a previous version of the SocialViewer template, you may need to restart Visual Studio for it to pick up the new version.

Step 6: Create a New SocialViewer Project

File –> New –> Project

Select the SocialViewer template and give the project a new name. The is currently a bug that means if you put a space in your project name you’re going to enter a word of pain. DO NOT PUT SPACES IN PROJECT NAME

Step 7: Run

That’s it…. out of the box you should literally be able to just run the newly created project. Please do not simply create a new project and publish it via Marketplace. That’s not the intent!

Here are some screen shots of the latest build:

Main panorama: What’s new - vertical list of new feed items; Recent – hubtiles with images from Flickr; link list to pivot page, website (ie built to roam) and the about page.

On demand pivot (sources are only downloaded when the pivot is accessed). Reading page illustrating two different layouts: The default; WebBrowser for RSS feed items

The Settings and About pages. Note the long list of social providers that can be used within your applications (See the configuration file) and the variety of data sources that you can consume (again, see configuration file).

I just realised that I haven’t posted for a while on this blog. I have however been posting across at both Visual Studio Magazine (Mobile Corner) and on BuildMobile (Windows Phone). A full list of postings and books is available here

The core purpose of this post is to let you know, or remind you, that we’re currently running a competition where you can win a Nokia Windows Phone by answering a question and tweeting a link. The full details and conditions for entry are outlined in the post, Win a Nokia Windows Phone. So far we’re posted four questions, with more to come. Don’t worry if you haven’t answered any so far, you can go back and answer the existing questions as entries will stay open until the competition closes.

Question 1: List a navigation API and provide a short example of how you might use it within your application?

Question 2: Other than the controls that ship with the Windows Phone SDK, what controls do you use in your application, and how do they make your application rock?

Question 3: Discuss one feature, or design, of an application you’ve worked on (doesn’t have to be published) that makes it distinctly Windows Phone?

Question 4: List an API (or a set of APIs) that allow developers to build Windows Phone applications that integrate with either device hardware or into the core platform (e.g. integration into one of the hubs)?

Over at BuildMobile.com I posted about all the awesomeness that is Windows Phone 7.5 (aka the Mango update). There are a couple of features that I either overlooked or were announced after that post went to air:

- Firstly, if I wasn’t clear: The final version of the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 is now available and can be downloaded via the Web Platform Installer (WebPI).

- Not only is the Microsoft Advertising Ad Control included within the SDK, it’s also now available in 11 countries, including Australia.

- There is now a web version of the Marketplace allowing you to purchase and invoke the download of applications directly to your phone.

- Windows Phone 7.5 supports Internet Sharing (ie tethering). Unfortunately this won’t immediately be available on all devices across all carriers but the potential is there – complaining to your telco might affect their decision to roll it out….

- The UserVoice site for Windows Phone has reopened for continual feedback on new product features.

The fourth part of a series on Windows Phone Push Notifications has been posted on Build Mobile. If you’re interested, check out the direct links below:

• - Get Pinned: Windows Phone 7 Live Tiles
• - Personalise Windows Phone 7: Live Tiles

- Push Notifications in Windows Phone
- WP7 Push Notifications Part 2

In the Mobile Corner at the Visual Studio Magazine my latest article on using some of the system styles in Windows Phone has been published:

Style Your Application with Windows Phone 7 System Resources

A full listing of articles on both Build Mobile and Visual Studio Magazine is available here

If you want to jump start your Windows Phone application development, why not download the Social Viewer template available at http://socialviewer.codeplex.com. You can use this to simplify the creation of apps that read data from Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and any other data feed you might have.

The template integrates directly into Visual Studio 2010 (which you’ll need to do Windows Phone 7 development – http://create.msdn.com) and appears in the New Project dialog.

Like most Visual Studio 2010, once you’ve created a new project you can simply hit F5 to run it in the emulator or on a device. Pan left-right to see the different lists. Select an item to read the full item.

You can easily change the feeds and the lists that are displayed to the user in the configuration.xaml file. Add api keys for Facebook, Twitter and AdGACto allow the user to post to Facebook or Twitter, and to integrate Ads into your application.

Get the Social Viewer Template v2 from http://socialviewer.codeplex.com today and get building your WP7 applications.

The Social Viewer template for Windows Phone 7 applications has got a new home. It’s now been published via codeplex.

Social Viewer Template for Windows Phone 7

Miguel has posted a great summary of the newly released versions of MonoTouch and MonoDroid (officially release for production now!). This is a major step forward in being able to target multiple platform with roughly the same code base. I’ve done a couple of posts covering the basics of getting started across three mobile platforms, wp7, Android and iOS. Check them out:

- Mono I- Getting Started
- Mono II- Basic Navigation
- Mono III: Shared Libraries
- Mono IV: Webservices

Feedback always appreciated

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been working with Dave Gloveron a Visual Studio template that you can use to create simple reader style applications. You can combine RSS/Atom, Facebook Pages and Twitter feeds into a single application. Mix and match how you want the data to be combined, and customise the UI to your hearts content.

Anyhow, the full details have been posted on Dave’s post Windows Phone 7 Social Viewer Application Template Released