Porting windows phone 8.0 apps to windows phone 8.1 - windows-phone-8

I am working on a project in Windows Phone 8.0 SDK for the last year or so. Now that Windows Phone 8.1 SDK is out I am trying to port my application to 8.1 SDK.
Currently, I have targeted my application which was built in 8.0 to 8.1. It works fine. But there are certain things which I am curious to know more are the about the namespace changes.
So now all the windows 8.1 and windows phone 8.1 apps fall under the windows store apps, there are certain namespace that are missing. For example, the System.IO.IsolatedStorage namespace does not exist in the 8.1 SDK. But there exists Windows.Storage namespace which can serve the same purpose.
Here's where it gets really interesting,
I have a solution with 10 projects built in 8.0 originally, and targeted to 8.1. System.IO.IsolatedStorage namespace still works and Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Media namespace still works. But when I create a new project in the same solution, I don't get these namespace.
I get the point that the original project was built in 8.0 and that's why I am able to see the earlier namespaces. But the problem arises when I would like to use the isolated storage data in the 8.1 SDK.
I am assuming that the solution would be to change each and every namespace to Windows.Storage instead of System.IO.IsolatedStorage. This is going to be a tedious process as the application we have here is quite a big application.
Am I missing anything here? What is the best practice?

But when I create a new project in the same solution, I don't get these namespace.
Sounds like you're creating a Windows Runtime project in your solution, and your existing solutions are Silverlight 8.1 solutions.
You need to make sure you pick a project type that includes "Silverlight".

Related

ZeroMQ on Windows Phone 8.1?

I've been developing an app for Windows Phone 8.1 and i wanted to use ZeroMQ for the communication with the server. I've used ZMQ before and it has always worked after some trying but i just coulnd't get it to work with WP8.1. I already tried to use NetMQ but i get the error "the package does not contain any assembly references or content files that are compatible with that framework" when trying to install it via NuGet, the same Problem with clrzmq4 and Castle.ZMQ Is there any possibility out there to get ZeroMQ running on WP8.1? I'm thankful for your help.
According to this thread, ZeroMQ is not compatible with Windows Phone, since this doesn't support the .NET sockets library.
I guess you'll have to use an alternative or build your own then...

Will application created using TideSDK work on Windows XP?

I am planning to create an exe for windows. My problem is my target clients are using windows XP. As windows XP has become too old, it is very difficult to get any support.
Can any one please guide me whether application created using TideSDK works on windows XP or not?
Yes it will work. I'm currently working on a project who also target Windows XP. (By the way, it also work on windows 8.1). But in my case (am I doing something wrong?), I've to bundle the app from windows 7 to have an installer.

Need to convert my Windows Phone 8.1 app code to Windows phone 8

I have developed an app for Windows Phone 8.1 but now I want the same app to developed in Windows phone 8.0. It is possible to do that? Is there any migration tool available or I need to develop from scratch.
No you can't downgrade any app after you've started developing. IF you wanted to develop a WP8 as you said have to start it from the scratch. But still you can upgrade a WP8 app to WP 8.1 (For Silverlight Apps). If it's normal WinRT app you can only develop targeting 8.1 only.
For more have a look here
Hope it helps!
You just compile the 8.0 release and upload the *:xap to the store without deleting your 8.1 *.appxupload.
Uppdate App >> Upload and describe your package(s) >> Add new
You might wanna consider making a phone 7 app for best coverage (7 will work for 8.0 users).

How can I port a Windows Phone 8 app to Windows Phone 8.1?

I've been working on a Windows Phone 8 app, which I now want to change to be Windows Phone 8.1. How can I do this?
Should I create a new Windows Phone 8.1 app and copy all my existing files into it? Or is there an automated way for me to upgrade the existing solution to 8.1?
There are two ways to do that:
like in comment - right click on oyour project and you should see Retarget to Windows Phone 8.1
or you can open Properties window of your project and the in dropdown box Target Windows Phone OS version you can choose Windows Phone 8.1
In every case the VS should ask if you are sure to do that - it's one-way operation, so it's worth to make a backup of your solution. As WP8.1 has backward compability, in most cases there shouldn't be any problems.
Some clarification for the followers:
As WP8.0 apps are Silverlight, after retargetting it will still be a Silverlight app but WP8.1 (some new features and enhancemens).
Thought, if you want to retarget to WP8.1 Runtime, it's a totally different thing - it's a different type of an app, different API and more. You will have to port it manually. Note that not all features from WP8.0 are yet available in WP8.1 Runtime - here is a good article about that.

Windows Phone 8 and D3DCompiler

For now in windows RT it is possible to access D3DCompiler.h, but application will not pass the store test (this is corrected in windows 8.1).
Is there a way to add D3DCompiler in windows phone project? (Mostly I need reflection support, shaders are generally precompiled). I tried to add the ARM build reference but it doens't seem it wants to include it (some xap security?).
Please note that for now I don't need store deployments, so if it works for development purposes that's fine (and either c++/sharpDX solution is pretty welcomed).
D3DCompiler was not available for 'production' use with Windows Store apps for Windows 8.0 or Windows phone 8.0. It was available for development, but the D3DCompiler #46 DLL itself will not pass the WACK tool for submission to the store.
It is available with Windows Store apps for Windows 8.1 and Windows phone 8.1. The D3DCompiler #47 DLL is included as part of the OS now. See this blog post.