Looking at all the different topics that the EvenTiles series covers, I think it makes sense to at least have a table of contents for the series so far. For instance, if you are interested in reading something about tombstoning, it is not necessary to read through the entire series (although of course I invite you to do so anyway). At this moment, EvenTiles explains how to use Windows Phone Tiles, including Secondary Tiles. It also show how you can update content on your Tiles locally by using a Background Agent. Also don’t forget that all source code is available and each individual episode of EvenTiles contains a demo on video as well. The latest sample source code can be downloaded.
Here is the table of contents for the first 14 parts of EvenTiles:
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Introducing the EvenTiles application
- Creating a new project in Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone
- Defining an Application Tile from within the WMAppManifest.xml file
- Using the emulator to run the application
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PageNavigation and ApplicationBar
- Using Expression Blend to create an Application Bar
- Navigating to different pages by using the NavigationService
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Using the Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit in your application
- Defining page transitions in XAML and using them in your application
- Using styles in XAML
- Declaring and using a ToggleSwitch control
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Creating the Settings Page
- Designing a Windows Phone page using Expression Blend
- Executing code as a result of page navigation (using OnNavigatingTo and OnNavigatingFrom)
- Using event handlers to execute code on user interaction with UI elements
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Using IsolatedStorage
- Storing data in between different times an application executes
- Introducing the application life cycle
- Using IsolatedStorageSettings to persist information
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Using the Isolated Storage Explorer Tool
- Examining the contents of our application’s IsolatedStorage
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Fast Application Switching and Tombstoning
- A Windows Phone Application’s life cycle
- Saving application state when moved to the background
- Restoring application state when returning to the foreground
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More on Tombstoning
- Maintaining Page State
- Restoring a page to exactly the same situation it was when the application moved to the background
- Restoring focus of input UI elements
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Creating a Secondary Tile
- Creating a Secondary Tile inside your application
- Navigating from the Secondary Tile to the application
- Determine if a Secondary Tile is currently visible on the Start screen of a Windows Phone through a lambda expression
- Setting the front and back contents of a Secondary Tile
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Background Agents
- Different types of Background Agents
- Properly creating a PeriodicTask
- Starting and stopping a PeriodicTask
- Relation between an Application and a Background Agent
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Debugging Background Agents
- Using conditional compilation to test Background Agents
- Properly using the LaunchForTest method
- Using the debugger to debug a PeriodicTask
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The lifetime of PeriodicTask
- Rescheduling a PeriodicTask
- Exceptions that might be thrown when scheduling a PeriodicTask
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Communication between an Application and its PeriodicTask
- Passing data between an application and a PeriodicTask
- Protecting variables against simultaneous access by different threads
- Using a Mutex to synchronize threads
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Exchanging data between an Application and its PeriodicTask
- Using a file in IsolatedStorage to exchange data between an application and a PeriodicTask
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Even though there are many more episodes of EvenTiles planned, attention will now move beyond tiles as we focus on using built-in applications and accessing device hardware.
IoTForDevices 