Gordon Walker, MSP Lead talking about the history of Mobile Phones -- No bonus points for spotting me with my blue hair...
Gordon Walker, MSP Lead, talking about the history of Mobile Phones — No bonus points for spotting me with my blue hair…
A few weekends back was the Microsoft Student Partner UK Summit for 2013. As I’m a first year MSP it was my first experience of such an event and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was hosted at Modern Jago in the heart of Central London, which is always a nice place to be!
There were lots of inspiring talks from several softies including Andy Wigley talking about porting between Windows Phone 7/8 and Windows 8, Ben Nunney talking about developing a great user experience and marketing your apps, but most interesting to me was a talk presented by Mike Taulty about Windows Azure, particularly Windows Azure Mobile Services — a service which can be used to easily set up database driven RESTful services which integrate easily with Android, iOS and of course Windows Phone 7/8 Applications.
A Nokia Lumia 820 – Image from T-Mobile
I spent much of the Saturday of the two day event working with Kevin Lewis, the designer I have been working with on the App Builder Rewards website, implementing additional features to the site. I also met up with Paul Lo, the guy in charge of the program who thanked me for my work and gave me a Lumia 820 Windows Phone 8 Device as a thank-you for completing so much work at short notice — which I will review soon. It was really nice to finally meet, in person, the people I had been collaborating with on the project and speaking to constantly through VoIP, Instant Messaging and Email for the previous two weeks — almost like re-meeting people I already knew.
In the evening I made the short train journey to Milton Keynes to meet up with my family and my close friend from back home Sam Marr to see the comedian Harry Hill at the Milton Keynes Theatre and grab some dinner. A great evening was had by all!
Once back in London I joined the aforementioned Ben Nunney and Co. for a few drinks in the hotel Champagne bar before retiring to bed, ready for an early start.
Regtransfers for Windows 8 Main Page
At 9:30 sharp on Sunday Morning we started again, and I spent much of the day working on my Regtransfers Application for Windows 8. Between working on that and networking with my fellow MSPs, in the social sense — not the HTTP sense 😉 — I also continued writing a presentation I intend to present at university called “Developing Windows 8: Live Tiles, Snap View, Search and Share”.
Developing For Windows 8 Presentation Title Slide
After mentioning it to Dean Meehan, he suggested I ask Phil Cross if I could present it to the rest of my fellow MSPs. So I did. The presentation went quite well, and I hope that everyone took something away from it. I was particularly pleased because after I’d finished presenting a Mechanical Engineering student came and asked for a copy of the presentation and said it included the best instructions on how to implement the “Live Tiles” feature he’d seen! Always nice to hear! You can view the presentation for yourself here.
Overall I had a fantastic weekend full of catching up with old friends from Dublin, Programming and Comedy, what more could you want? A big thank you to Phil Cross, Ben Nunney and the rest of the Microsoft Staff and presenters involved!
In between my Networking Coursework and going to lectures I’ve been working on an application for my uncles company Regtransfers, on both the Windows 8 and Windows Phone platforms.
The application allows you to:
Search for Personalised Numberplates
Submit and enquirey about any plate
Purchase a plate
Read any edition of “The World of Personalised Number Plates” — The Regtransfers Magazine
View all the videos on the Regtransfers YouTube Page
Read all the status updates on the @Reg_Transfers Twitter Account
Windows 8 App
Regtransfer for Windows 8 Splashscreen
The Windows 8 version of the application runs on both Tablets and traditional PCs. It is an out-and-out “Modern Experience” application, including support for Live Tiles, the Search and Share charms and Snap View.
The Main Page
The main page of the application displays the cover of the latest magazine as well as buttons which navigate you to pages where you can subscribe to physical editions of the magazine, read all editions of the magazine in PDF version and read more information about the magazine. Clicking the cover of the latest magazine opens a page showing more information about it, from which you can choose to read a PDF version of it.
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Searching
At the top of the main page is the Regtransfers Logo and a search box. You can search for anything, including your name or initials and the application will return to you a list of relevant number plates. It will also allow you to filter your search results from some price brackets, so you can find plates more suited to your means.
Regtransfers for Windows 8 Search Charm
As you can see from the above screenshot, you can also invoke the search page using the search charm. The search charm is a way of searching any application, file or setting from anywhere within the operating system. This means that even if you’re in another app or on the start screen you can still search for numberplates by calling in the charm bar and selecting the Regtransfers app from the list of apps underneath the search box.
Viewing a Plate
When you select a number plate from the search page, or select a recently viewed plate from the main page you are shown the View Plate page. From here you can customize the acrylic plate you can optionally choose to purchase with said numberplate.
Regtransfers for Windows 8 View Plate Page
The page allows you to view both sides of the plate — the front, white plate of course having no flag –, choose which flag to have on the plate, choose a border and decide if you want to buy a set of acrylic plates with the number plate or not. If not you’ll receive your plate on a retention certificate.
Sharing a plate to Mail
From here you can also Share your plate using the built in share charm, above you can see an example of me sharing to the mail app, but you can share the plate to any app that accepts share using HTML, RTF or Text data. This includes posting to facebook using the people app, or twitter using MetroTwit.
Buying a Plate
The process of buying the plate is dealt with by an embedded web form. All data is transferred over a secure HTTPS connection, and the Regtransfers website is PCI Compliant, so all credit card details are totally safe 🙂
Buy plate
Making an Enquiry
Making an enquiry is a simple case of filling in a form and hitting submit
Enquire about a plate
Watching a YouTube Video
Using the fantastic “MyToolkit” library I work out the location of the YouTube .mp4 file and embed it directly within the application using a custom video player which I made to be themed the same as the rest of the application. As with the rest of the application this works in both snapped view and full screen mode.
This page also allows you to share a link to the YouTube video, and gives you the option to view the video in your default browser if you would prefer.
Subscribing to Regtransfers: The World of Personal Number Plates Magazine
One of the most important parts of the application is the magazine sign up. This is why its displayed front and center on the main page, when customers sign up for a magazine they also receive a personalized list of plates they might like to purchase by email. Signing up is dealt with by a simple form:
Subscription Page
Reading PDF’s of the Magazine
As well as being able to subscribe to the magazine people might want to be able to read back-issues of the magazine. They can do this by tapping the “Read Other Issues” which brings them to the below page:
All Editions of RT Magazine Page
All 30 editions of the RT Magazine are available here. To read one or find out more information about one the user just has to tap the relevant magazine cover. Once they have done so they are shown a page like the one below, which displays information on the featured celebrity, main stories and provides a button which downloads the PDF of the magazine in the default browser. I would have liked to embed the PDF within the application but unfortunately this isn’t supported in the Windows RT API’s unless you purchase Foxit Embedded Reader.
Magazine Issue #13 – Vinnie Jones
Snapped View
One of my favorite features of Windows 8 is snapped view. Microsoft’s implementation of Multi-tasking in the Modern Experience Environment. Snapped view allows you to view two apps at once, pinning one to either the left or the right in a 320 pixel wide box and allowing the other to fill up the rest of the space as if it was in full-screen mode. Every page within the Regtransfers application supports snap-view, and every snap view has full feature parity with the full screen mode rather than just showing a logo – as some applications do.
Main Page Panormaic Snap View
Because I have an awful lot of content on the Main Page it was a bit of a challenge to fit it all onto a small 320 pixel wide window, but I achieved this with some inspiration from the pivot page used in many Windows Phone applications. Using a <FlipView> XAML element I have made it so that you can swipe between 5 different views. The Magazine View, Recent Plates View, Recent Search View, YouTube View and Twitter View. The Regtransfers Logo and Search bar are always present.
On the other pages elements are simply resized and reordered to make more sense on a smaller screen. Some examples are shown below.
Some of the snap views in the Windows 8 App, from left to right: View all Magazine Issues Page, The View Plate Page, The Enquiry Page, The Search Page, The YouTube Page
Windows Phone 8 App
Making the snap views for Windows 8 was a huge help in designing the pages for the Windows Phone 8 application, which sports all the features of the desktop app including search, twitter, youtube and magazine subscription and e-reading. I’ve only just started this so there isn’t too much to show. But below is a picture of the main page of the app and the search page with filters.
Regtransfers – Windows Phone 8 App
I will of course keep this blog updated with my progress.
Yesterday Nick Case and I traveled down to Modern Jago in London for an event set up for members of the Windows 8 | Elite program. The Event was particularly exciting as the CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, was presenting. I’ve been a fan of Ballmers since seeing the world famous “Developers” video on YouTube. Whilst a lot of people, myself included, find it funny I think its refreshing to see someone so genuinely passionate about what they do.
Nick and I caught our train from the Hull Paragon Interchange at 10:30 and were enjoying our journey until an announcement played on the train — “Please have all tickets and railcards ready for inspection”. At this point my heart sunk, I’d forgotten my Student Railcard in the rush to get out. Fortunately when the train guard came to me she was merciful and told me not to forget it again but that she would let me off this one time.
We arrived in the capital around 1pm and set off on our way to Modern Jago following the Circle line — enthusiastically referred to as the “Bright Yellow Line” by the woman opposite me on the train — round to Liverpool Street Station from Kings Cross, from there it was only a few minutes walk to Club Row, the street on which Modern Jago is situated.
Welcome to Modern Jago!
We were welcomed into the garden of Jago as there was an event which hadn’t yet finished still taking place in the hall. The building itself was formally a school and a lovely contemporary mix of old on the outside and modern on the inside.
Modern Jago Courtyard Garden
Whilst in the network I had a look round for any familiar faces and spotted one of my fellow MSPs, Abhilaksh Lalwani as well as a few people from Black Marble Studios.
Modern Jago Courtyard — My fellow MSP, Abhilaksh Lalwani, looks dappa in his Yellow Jumper
After around 20 minutes or so we were invited inside to be seated for the event. The chairs were in straight lines across the hall floor and I quipped “It’s just like a lecture apart from we don’t have anyone we’re friends with to look for”, with that we tried to find 2 seats next to each other in a decent position. The ones we found were 1 row from the front right in front of the speakers podium, fantastic.
Welcome to the Modern Jago Stage
First up was a short presentation about some of the applications that had been developed by people in audience, some were quite impressive. Of particular note were the ever impressive Cocktail Flow, The British Airways Inspiration app and UK Bus Checker.
Best of British — Windows 8 App Showcase
The Best of British app showcase finished with a look at the latest Windows Phone 8 advert, showing off the personalized start screen of a certain CEO. You can see it here:
At the end Mr. Ballmer was welcomed on stage with the introduction “heres the person who owns that phone”. He entered with his usual enthusiasm and thanked everyone for being at the event and for supporting Microsoft through the biggest change in the companies history. The event was very much about how much Microsoft values its partners and the people who develop for its platforms — underlined by the fact the final slide on Mr Ballmer’s slide deck simply said:
Succeed With Us.
Steve Ballmer Explains how Microsoft are “All in” with Windows 8 and Windows Phone
The Microsoft CEO explained Microsoft ideas and ideals behind the Windows and Windows Phone platforms and explained how every department within the company had some involvement with the finished products, in other words Microsoft are all in.. Steve felt as if he had “bet the farm on Windows 8” saying
When you change so dramatically your main product, which is used by over 600 million people worldwide of course you’ve taken a huge gamble
Steve went on to explain how Microsoft didn’t see Windows 8 as merely an update to an operating system but as a complete change on the idea of what a device is an can be, he highlighted this by an incredible series of weird hand motions explaining how some of the new laptop form factors are tablets that dock, some have hinges and how some are just like normal laptops but with touch screens.
This moment has remained in my mind partly because it was quite funny, but mainly because it symbolized to me how great a speaker Steve Ballmer is. He was so animated and genuinely excited about everything he spoke about — it was infusing and made you inspired to work on his platform. And guess what? That’s exactly what he wanted. I’d love to be able to speak to crowds of people in a similar style.
After Steve had finished he didn’t take any questions, which was a shame. I really really wanted to ask him the rumours of a XBOX Surface Slate 😛 But we did get to have a look at some of the new Microsoft Surface’s and some Lumia 820’s — both of which really impressed both Nick and I.
All the Microsoft Products!
I even took the time to put my website up on one of the Microsoft Surface Devices. I was surprised to find whilst doing this that the Type Cover (the physical keyboard dock) was actually perfect for my fingers and provided a better typing experience than my 15 inch dell laptop keyboard. The tap cover was still good but I imagine it would take a bit of time to get used to. I’ve heard some bad things about the screen resolution of the surface, but frankly I couldn’t see any issue and I was impressed by the field of view.
DanTonyBrown.com on a Microsoft Surface
Shortly after I played with all these lovely devices it was time to go. Thanks to Phil Cross and Co for setting up the event, Steve Ballmer for making the time to talk to us all and for a fantastic presentation and Nick for coming with me! 🙂
dannybrown.blog 