Mango, codename for the next version of Windows Phone shipping later this year, offers a lot of new capabilities for developers to create even better, more immersive user experiences on Windows Phone. This training course by Microsoft will give you hands-on experience with important developer features in Mango.

This training course is designed for developers who are already familiar with Windows Phone development. The course focuses on new features in the Mango release.

After completing this course, you will be able to:

• Get more out of the hardware with new APIs for compass, gyro, camera and a virtual motion sensor
• Take advantage of the new multi-tasking capabilities such as fast app switching, background agents, alerts and reminders
• Improve integration with the phone by using live tiles, Bing search extras, Bing maps, and the new calendar and contacts APIs

This course provides you with scenario-based hands-on labs demonstrating Mango’s new capabilities. You will learn how to create and query local databases, how to pin and update secondary live tiles, use background agents, create alarms and reminders, access the camera stream APIs, use background transfer and many other new features.

• Download the beta release of the Windows Phone Developer Tools for Mango here.
• The official documentation has been updated at the What’s New in Windows Phone Developer Tools topic in the MSDN Library.
• Download the offline training kit.

Using A Local Database in a “To-do” Application

This hands-on-lab will show you how to use SQL Compact Edition (SQL CE) to build a task management (“To-do”) application. You will first learn how to apply the right attributes to an existing object model so that the DataContext class can create a relational database with keys and constraints. You will also learn how to query the database using LINQ-to-SQL.

Using The Background Transfer Service in a “To-do” Application

This hands-on-lab will show you how to use BackgroundTransferService to transfer (upload and download) data between your Windows Phone Application and the internet. Using the new multi-tasking capabilities in Windows Phone 7 Codenamed “Mango”, BackgroundTransferService can transfer files even when your application is not running. This lab will show you how to schedule transfers, query their progress, and manage your download queue. The transfers are doing back-up and restore of the SQL CE database in the “To-do” scenario-based sample.

Fast Application Switching in a “To-do” application

Fast Application Switching (FAS)allows for applications to stay dormant (in-memory) after deactivation to get a very responsive time when the user navigates back to the application. By detecting whether your application is being activated from dormant state instead of a tomb-stoned state you can optimize your application to have immediate resume times. This lab will show you how to use the ActivatedEventArgs parameter in the application life-cycle events to the test if our “To-do” application instance was preserved using FAS

Creating Reminders in the “To-do” application

Scheduling notifications that trigger even when your application is not in the foreground is a critical multi-tasking task for some apps -like alarm clocks, calendaring, and birthday apps-. This lab uses the new ScheduledActionService to create and manage reminders to a “To-do” application. The application will also show you how deep linking works when the user clicks on a reminder and that launches your application to an actionable page with context from the reminder.

Photo by Dhananjay Kumar