Microsoft Virtual Academy has just announced this year’s Windows Phone Jump Start training for developers!
Building Apps for Windows Phone 8.1 Jump Start will be held on 29th, 30th April and extend onto the morning of May 1st:
“If you’re an app developer who wants to design and build Windows Phone 8.1 apps using XAML and C#, don’t miss this exciting event. The two-and-a-half day, demo-rich course, taught by experts who have years of experience developing (and writing about the process), focuses on how to create apps for Windows Phone 8.1 in Visual Studio and how to create universal app projects that share a high percentage of code and that target both Windows and Windows Phone.”
If you are unable to make the live event, you can catch all of the content at your leisure as the videos will be posted to Channel 9.
The Jump Start course is comprised of four sections:
Section 1: Introduction
· Session 1: Introduction to Windows Phone 8.1 (50 minutes)
Overview of the Windows Phone 8.1 developer platform, including guidance on the choices of app framework now available.
Section 2: Building Windows Runtime Apps using XAML and C#
Sessions that show how to build phone apps using WinRT XAML
· Session 2: Getting Started Building Windows Runtime Apps (50 minutes)
Fundamentals of building a WinRT XAML app for a Phone target, introducing the controls, layout, styles and theme resources, AppBar, StatusBar.
· Session 3: Page Navigation and Data Binding (25 minutes)
Navigating between pages in a Windows Runtime app, page caching and data binding
· Session 4: Lists and List Items (50 minutes)
Programming Lists, formatting list items and handling long or complex lists effectively
· Session 5: Windows Runtime App Page Layout Controls (25 minutes)
Pivot, Hub and Single Page layouts.
· Session 6: Adapting UI for Different Screens (25 minutes)
Explain the new layout system, and how to ensure your UI adapts to different phone screen sizes and orientations.
· Session 7: Windows Runtime App Lifecycle (25 minutes)
Explain the ways apps can be started, terminated and resumed.
· Session 8: Localization and Globalization in Windows Runtime Apps (25 minutes)
Making your app world-ready
Section 3: Programming Windows Runtime Platform Features (Windows Runtime XAML and Silverlight 8.1)
Programming platform features in Windows Phone 8.1 apps from either Windows Runtime Apps or Windows Phone Silverlight Apps
· Session 9: Data Storage, Backup and Roaming (50 minutes)
All about storing data, backing app data up to the cloud and roaming data across devices
· Session 10: Contracts and Sharing Files and Data (50 minutes)
Share contract, FileOpenPicker/FileSavePicker, File & Uri associations
[Day 2]
· Session 11: Background Tasks (25 minutes)
How to run code in the background
· Session 12: Maps, Geolocation and Geofencing (25 minutes)
Maps, Location and GeoFencing
· Session 13: Networking, Mobile Services and Authentication (50 minutes)
Networking fundamentals. Includes Background Transfer Service and Web Authentication Broker
· Session 14: Tiles, badges and toasts and Notification Center (50 minutes)
Tiles and toasts and Notification Center
· Session 15: Sensors and Proximity: NFC and Bluetooth (25 minutes)
Sensors, NFC and Bluetooth
· Session 16: Contacts and Calendar (25 minutes)
WinRT APIs for Contacts and Calendar, plus new capabilities (available on phone only) for Wallet-aware apps
· Session 17: Camera, Media, Audio and Speech (50 minutes)
Working with the camera, media and video editing
· Session 18: Enterprise LOB Apps (50 minutes)
All the new features aimed at Enterprise LOB and MDDM
· Session 19: SQLite Database (25 minutes)
How to program SQLite
· Session 20: VS Tooling and Memory Profiling (25 minutes)
Introduction to the many tools built into Visual Studio to help you develop Windows apps
[Day 3]
· Session 21: App Packaging and Publication (50 minutes)
How to package your app and get your app published in the Store
· Session 22: Best practices: Building Universal Apps for Windows Phone and Windows (50 minutes)
Guidance for building for both
Section 4: Upgrading Windows Phone Silverlight 8.0 apps to Silverlight 8.1
Programming new platform features from a Silverlight app
· Session 23: Upgrading Windows Phone Silverlight 8.0 Apps to Silverlight 8.1 (50 minutes)
Recap on why you would use Silverlight, and explanation of what issues must be considered when upgrading to Silverlight 8.1. Topics include behavioural changes introduced by the quirks API, Lifecycle changes as FAR is now the only mode of reactivation, implementing share contract and using the FileOpenPicker/FileSavePicker, Web Authentication Broker, moving from MPNS to WNS, background agents alongside background tasks.