Folks,I am planning to build an app to count the number of sms's sent by an user over a period of time.But I am not sure if WP OS SDK gives access to the depth of writing such an app.I am still very new to mobile development,and as Microsoft has limited the access to some API's (ex:language) in the windows phone OS,I was not sure if I can do so.
On the contrary the application I want to build is kind of a basic feature that is in built in many basic phones.I need to get a start for app building,and may also come in handy on my personal phone! ;)Anyone who has come across working on any related feature might help me with his experience.Thank you for your time.
The Windows Phone SDK does not allow developers to access the content of SMS messsages for privacy reasons (or count of those, for that matter).
Your best (and only) bet at the moment is let the user use SmsComposeTask and count the number of messages potentially sent from your app.
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My company is looking to move from Android to Windows 8.1 phones but one of the obstacles we are seeing is that there are no Pager apps. We are looking into building our own but it looks like the Windows.Devices.Sms type methods are not available in Windows Phone 8.1. Is there a reference I can use to get the same functionality?
There is no way an app can access the text messages. Only in special cases, for example, Truecaller app alone has special permissions to intercept caller ID's. Since you say that you belong to an organization, you can approach Microsoft directly. They may give you special API's for that purpose.
Basically, on the Windows Phone developer site it shows how many installs your app has, but is there any way to see how many of these people have uninstalled it; so that you can see how many are actually using it?
This metric is not available in DevCenter. But you can use Distimo and/or Flurry to get user retention, conversion rates etc.
In "old" times I created simple tool for Windows users, which tracks what they were doing in the front of computer (where simple activity monitor). I was using Win32 api and functions like GetForegroundWindow, GetWindowThreadProcessId, etc.
Yesterday I installed new Windows 8 and tired to run my program. I got 50% success: for "classic" desktop it works like always:).
For Metro UI I just got one application: WWAHost :( without any details.
So my question is: is there a any way for tracking active application in Metro UI?
Thanks for help
UPDATE:
I'm trying to access Metro UI app from Win32, I know that accessing Metro app from another Metro app is impossible
You see, in WinRT, your application is the top-most application. And when your app is not the top-most application then your threads are suspended and the kernel will not schedule any more operations for your app. End of story.
This means what you are wanting to accomplish cannot be done in WinRT. You are thinking more like a resident app or a service with access to the desktop. Those apps have two advantages. 1) they are always running. And, 2) they have the API to do what you are wanting.
WinRT intentionally puts apps in a sandbox so that the user's experience, performance and battery life are protected. Your scenario and scores more like yours underscore the continuing need for desktop apps. (as long as there is a continuing need for those types of apps ;)).
Sorry, if this is bad news.
As for enumerating other apps. This is also not possible. You cannot know if another app is installed or if it is running. You can call out to another app through protocol activation or file activation or (in a sense) through the share contract. But you are unaware if they get the message and if the user has it installed in the first place. And this is by design.
It is worth mentioning that you can pinvoke to Win32 APIs in your WinRT application. It causes lots of problems and can create a headache to get certified into the store. But even then, not all APIs are open to you. And you will find this particular use case is a non-starter.
I am sure this will not be possible. With Windows 8 'Metro' only a single application is active. All other applications will be in a suspended state whilst the topmost application is running. This makes it impossible to write an application that monitors other applications which are currently executing.
See the numerous articles on the Windows 8 app lifecycle.
I'd interested in sending data from one WP7 to another WP7 phone so I could create 2 player games. If I understand correctly most WP7 will support bluetooth, but its not in the minimum spec, is this correct? What API's can I use to access the bluetooth, any good examples of this out there?
Unfortunately Microsoft don't provide any access to the bluetooth stack via any documented APIs in this version of the Dev tools.
They don't seem to have any sense of urgency about fixing this (or any of the many other missing features), so I wouldn't expect the situation to change any time soon.
I will be developing apps using both my own Live ID and one specific to my employer. Can I register the same device to both IDs at the same time?
It wouldn't be possible at the same time. If you go to the Developer Phone Registration tool you'll see the message "This phone has already been registered. You can may click 'Unregister' if you wish to unregister it.
You could switch the rego between the two though.
With that said, perhaps it doesn't really matter which live id the device is registered to. After all you can deploy apps developed for either you or your employer regardless of which account it's registered too.
As a side note, the way the side loading limit of 10 apps is written is this is per device. But it may be worth testing whether switching live id's offers any benefit.