WP7 project on WP8 - windows-phone-7

We wan't to support both platforms, because the code is 100% portable to Windows Phone 7 from our Windows Phone 8 project, but i have noticed a strange problem.
So to support both platforms we need to create WP7 project and it will be installable on WP8, but:
On small devices like WVGA, application looks normal, but when i open it on 720p it doesn't use 100% height.
Example:
What the hell? If i open the same xaml in WP8 project all works perfect.
P.S. Full design is rubber - no hardcode in pixels or %. How to fix it?

Unfortunately, this is not possible. The WP7 apps running on WP8 devices are constrained in a 480x800 container.
To take advantage of the 720p screen, you'll have to build a WP8 version of your app.

That's because the different screen sizes and screen ratios. WP8 can run WP7 Apps, but at certain resolutions it uses a black rectangle to avoid lengthening the screen.

Related

How to "disable" HD screens for Windows Phone app Store?

When I started working on our company's Windows Phone app project there was no full HD resolution for WP. But now there is and I'm supposed to disable the app for full HD devices in the WP Store. How do I exactly do that?
The main reason for this is that the app has a thick black ribbon on top of the screen when used with a full HD device.
I have noticed that when you update or upload .xap file, the Store recognizes the requirements of the app. The Store says the app works on all screens. How do I set the requirements so that the app is disabled HD resolution screens?
The app is made to support WP versions 7.1 through 8. I eyed the Internet for help but it seems that because the app is WP 7 compatible I can't describe the resolutions in the WMAppManifest where the Store would easily to find it. Or can I?
It would be so great if I could do this some easy way instead of going through the whole app to make it work "better" on HD screens.
There is no way how you can prevent users with certain display resolutions from installing your app. A similar question was asked here, it was about installation prevention of apps for specific device types. What you can do is to do the check in code.
You could check the device's display resolution when starting the application. If the size exceeds your limit, you could inform the user about that and exit the application.
How can I get a screen resolution of Device (Windows Phone)
However, I don't know how this would affect the app certification.
Windows Phone 7.1 only supports 800 x 480 resolution and Windows Phone 8 supports multiple resolution.
The scaling used for Windows Phone 7x apps on Windows Phone 8 means that one 720p and 1080p devices, you will get a black band. There is nothing you can do.
You could recompile the app as Windows Phone 8 app and have both WP7x and WP8 xaps available and this will ensure that the space is consumed correctly and the black band isn't shown.

Do I need to add tile images to my Windows Phone 7.1 in order to target Windows Phone 8?

I have a Windows Phone app that targets OS 7.1 and I wish to be available for Windows Phone 8 devices as well. As I understand it I needn't do anything code-wise to make this possible. However, must I add new tile images to get it certified? According to App submission requirements for Windows Phone the XAP must include more images for Windows Phone 8 than for Windows Phone 7 (see Default Tile images under section 4.7.2), is this the case here or does it only apply to Windows Phone apps targeting OS 8.0 and higher?
I did not get your question what actually you want? but if you want to upload your .xap in app store than you have require
300x300 app icon
1000x800 back ground image
If your application support multiresolution than six WXGV(768x1280) screen shots else you need six single resolution screen shots
If you are talking about application icon than visit bellow link you got every thing
Tile size and resolution
Tile design Guideline
Multi resolution for windows phone
good. to know the requirements of your app or the window phone 8, i can assume you have been using Visual Studio 2010. i have had a similar experiance to one of my apps. i simply opened my project.snl file with visual studio 2012 and at the AppManifest page, i was able to add the stuffs (images for toast, tile and other images required which i provided in various sizes). you'll also have the advantage of adding some more cool features like a better arrangement of your app which you switch the orientation.
your app will still perform good on window phone 7 series too.
i hope this helps.
Your app is already available as is for WP8 devices.
That's not clear what do you mean by images.
If you are talking about screenshots for Marketplace:
If you have a separate XAP you'll have to add screenshots to it.
Nowadays it's enough to add a set of screenshots in WXGA (1280 x 768) resolution.
If you are talking about icons and other images you use inside the app:
you should add images in WXGA (1280 x 768) resolution. They will be resized to all supported screen resolutions.
WP8 app should contain 99 x 99 pixel PNG image as app list image and at least two main tile images: small and middle one. Wide tile is up to you.
To supppoert all tile sizes you will need to include the tile images for that size. If you don't, your app will still work, but the tile for your app couldn't be resized.

Multi resolution splash screen, tiles and App icons for Windows Phone 7

I'm developing an application which must work for both WP7 and WP8. And want to create multi resolution splashscreen and Tiles. I know that it can be done easily for WP8 (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/ff769511(v=vs.105).aspx)
But how can I do it for WP7 application?
How can I make my application (developed for WP7.5) closer to WP8 but still working on WP7.5-7.8.
I just want my application looks good for both WP7 and WP8 devices.
You can run your app designed for WP7 on WP8 device too, but then you will have problems with screen resolution on some devices. You can develop two versions app WP7 and WP8. Porting is not that difficult, if correctly to this approach. In the articles you can find good advice http://www.developer.nokia.com/Community/Wiki/Maintaining_a_WP7_and_WP8_version_of_a_same_Silverlight_application and http://www.developer.nokia.com/Community/Wiki/Introduction_to_multiple-resolution_support_on_Windows_Phone_8_apps .
Since WP7 devices are all (and always will be) WVGA, there's no point to supporting multiple resolutions. What you can do, though, is support multiple tile sizes on 7.8+, and I'd suggest using Mangopollo for that.
Just reuse your WVGA tile assets from the WP8 version of your app, and make the appropriate changes in your app's WMAppManifest.xml:
<AppExtra xmlns="" AppPlatformVersion="8.0">
<Extra Name="Tiles"/>
</AppExtra>
This should be placed inside the <Deployment> tag before <App>. Then you just need to make sure to change your primary tile's type and assets on first run using Mangopollo, and to use the library when creating or updating any secondary tiles.
That's as close to multi-resolution that WP7 will ever get.

top margin issue for windows phone 7 apps on windows phone 8

The windows phone 7 application which I developed using 7.1 SDK occupies the entire screen on wp7. But the same application when opened in Windows Phone 8 shows some extra margin on top because of which my app was not able use the space on top. Any idea how to fix this?
WP7 only supports only one resolution (480x800).
For 480x800 WP8 devices that's obviously fine.
For 1280x768 devices this scales fine as this is the same aspect ratio.
However 1280x720 devices have a different aspect ratio which leaves the black bars at the top of the screen.
The only way to fix this is to upgrade your project to WP8 using the WP8 SDK (whilst watching out for any subtle issues that may bring).

How to test/debug WP app simulating INDIA culture and language?

Using BugSense I have notice that my app is getting a lot of "NullReferenceExceptions" from country code "IN" (I think it is India). This Exceptions are form different WP7 OS versions, and using different phones (lumia 710, 610, SAMSUNGSGH-i917) - the common factor is IN country code.
Unfortunatelly I don't knows how to test it. In my phone emulator there is no INDIA language.
This Exception also appears on "NOKIARM-820" with Windows8 OS.
questions:
how to test my app simulating INDIA culture and language?
how to test my WP7 app on Windows8 phone emulator?
I don't think there is any 'culture' or 'language' based simulation/emulator available.
If you want to test a wp7 app on wp8 run any wp8 emulator(wvga,wxga,720p). But you will face some problems with 720p screen size emulator because wp7 app doesn't scale up with this size.
So, you got to upgrade your app for wp8. Don't worry it's just a click away.

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