How to keep a page open in the background when starting a new page in windows phone? - windows-phone-8

Question

I have one simple application that have few pages.
On first page I have addMob, and that is working fine.
On that page I have a button for the contact page. When I open the contact page and return to the main page, addMob refreshes.
I do not want to do that. How can I put that first page in background without starting it again when user the returns from the contact page?

Answer 1

No. By design, in windows phone, you can have only one page active (visible) at a time. Ad controls will unload and refresh automatically when you navigate between pages. We have no control over this behaviour.
In my experience, I don't think we have to worry about Ads refreshing if navigation is fairly infrequent. As long as you expect the user to stay on a page for about 20 to 30 seconds on average, I would suggest not to worry about refresh. In fact, (again, in my personal experience) I receive more clicks with this implementation than having one static Ad control refreshing at a fixed interval.
But if you still have to avoid Ad refresh, here are couple of workarounds.
Option 1: Embed the "contact page" as a ContentControl/UserControl inside the Main page. Show and hide the contact control as required. Below is a very basic XAML design to demonstrate this.
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinition>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
<RowDefinition />
</Grid.RowDefinition>
<AdControl Grid.Row="0" Height="80" />
<Grid Name="MainPage" Grid.Row="1">
<!-- Main page content -->
</Grid>
<view:ContactPage Name="Contacts" Grid.Row="1" Visibility="Collapsed">
<!-- Contact page content -->
</view:ContactPage>
</Grid>
Also, remember to handle BackButtonPress if you are going with this approach. The user would expect pressing back button, when the content page is visible, to take them back to Main page.
Option 2: If your application design would allow, use a Panaroma or Pivot control to show Main and Contact pages. Sample below,
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinition>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
<RowDefinition />
</Grid.RowDefinition>
<AdControl Grid.Row="0" Height="80" />
<controls:Pivot Grid.Row="1">
<controls:PivotItem Header="Main page">
<!-- Main page content -->
</controls:PivotItem>
<controls:PivotItem Header="Contacts">
<!-- Contact page content -->
</controls:PivotItem>
</controls:Pivot>
</Grid>