In The Hand Ltd

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  • Using RemoteWipe

    With Windows Mobile 5.0 AKU2.0 (Messaging & Security Feature Pack) a new feature was implemented called RemoteWipe. This allowed an administrator to remotely wipe a device if it may have got lost and was designed to remove all sensitive data from the device and return it to a fresh state. It was only with Windows Mobile 6 that the details of the implementation were added to the SDK documentation. Like most other administration and device management features RemoteWipe is implemented as a Configuration Service Provider, this allows it to be activated either via remote or local means. For example you could build a mechanism into your software where you wish to wipe the device, perhaps after an extended number of failed password entries etc. Whether you can call the CSP will depend on the particular security policy on the device, however if possible you can initiate a wipe locally with either DMProcessConfigXML or the managed ConfigurationManager e.g.

    System.Xml.XmlDocument cd = new System.Xml.XmlDocument();
    cd.LoadXml(    “<wap-provisioningdoc><characteristic type=”RemoteWipe”><parm name=”doWipe” value=”1″/></characteristic></wap-provisioningdoc>”);

    System.Xml.XmlDocument xd = ConfigurationManager.ProcessConfiguration(cd, true);


    Of course you use this code snippet at your own risk, if it works successfully it will wipe data from your device and return to factory fresh condition!


    More details about the service provider here:-


    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb737595.aspx

  • Session Materials from Tech-Ed

    I’ve posted a number of links relevant to the session I gave last week on our Tech-Ed page here. This includes the sample code which is an additional selection of samples than those which appear in the 32feet.NET package itself. The session covered the latest v2.3 release of the library and development continues on the next version based on your feedback.

    One of the items of feedback I got for the session was the confusion between Personal Area Networking as a concept and the Bluetooth PAN Profile (Which supports Network Access Point, Group Networking and PAN User). Windows Mobile supports a limited subset of this profile to support the Internet Sharing application which was added in Windows Mobile 5.0 AKU3 but is often documented as a new feature in Windows Mobile 6. There is no exposed API to programmatically interact with the BT PAN profile, however there is an API for Internet Sharing which can be used to start/stop a sharing connection. I’m investigating the best way to add this to a future version of the library.

  • Chinese Translation of Microsoft Mobile Development Handbook now available

     


    I just got word from David Chang that the Chinese translation of our book is now complete. You can order it from Amazon.cn here:-


    http://www.amazon.cn/mn/detailApp?pageletid=newpromote&prodid=bkbk820876

  • New Mobile Development Team Blog

    Amit Chopra’s Visual Studio for Devices team has grown to include Silverlight Mobile and .NETCF and the team have a new blog to cover all these areas. I’m looking forward to some great content from the team:-


    http://blogs.msdn.com/mobiledev/

  • Disable Windows Mobile 6.1 Threaded SMS View

    There may be an occasion where you want to restore the original chronological view for the SMS Inbox rather than the new threaded view. One example is where a system programmatically moves or inserts SMS messages into the system because these are not visible in the threaded view (even though the count of unread messages increases). There is a simple registry fix to turn off threading and restore the “classic” view. From the registry editor of your choice browse the device registry for the key:


    [HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInboxSettings]


    Under this add a new DWORD value called “SMSInboxThreadingDisabled” and set it to 1. Close the tmail.exe application or soft-reset the device and the regular message view will be used. Set this registry value back to 0 or delete it to restore the default threaded view.

  • Antialisasing and .NETCF

    On the newsgroup, a developer asked if it was possible to use antialiasing on a Label font. By default on Windows Mobile the text does not use antialiasing unless you turn on the global ClearType option under Settings > System > Screen > ClearType. The platform has the capability to smooth fonts, we just need an easy way to specify the quality from our code. The System.Drawing.Font class doesn’t support this directly, but Microsoft.WindowsCE.Forms contains a wrapper for the native LOGFONT structure in the LogFont class. There is a static method on the Font class of FromLogFont(object o) which when passed a Microsoft.WindowsCE.Forms.LogFont will draw the font with the specified options. The following code shows setting three labels with default quality, antialiasing and cleartype, the following screen grab shows the result from my device screen:-Microsoft.WindowsCE.Forms.LogFont lf = new Microsoft.WindowsCE.Forms.LogFont();lf.FaceName = “Tahoma”;


    lf.Height = 48;


    lf.Quality = Microsoft.WindowsCE.Forms.LogFontQuality.Default;


    label1.Font = Font.FromLogFont(lf);


    Microsoft.WindowsCE.Forms.LogFont lf2 = new Microsoft.WindowsCE.Forms.LogFont();


    lf2.FaceName = “Tahoma”;


    lf2.Height = 48;


    lf2.Quality = Microsoft.WindowsCE.Forms.LogFontQuality.AntiAliased;


    label2.Font = Font.FromLogFont(lf2);


    Microsoft.WindowsCE.Forms.LogFont lf3 = new Microsoft.WindowsCE.Forms.LogFont();lf3.FaceName = “Tahoma”;


    lf3.Height = 48;


    lf3.Quality = Microsoft.WindowsCE.Forms.LogFontQuality.ClearType;


    label3.Font = Font.FromLogFont(lf3);


  • New Windows Mobile 6.1 Screen Resolutions

    The release of Windows Mobile 6.1 brings a number of improvements for users but retains the same SDK and libraries as 6. The devices ship with .NETCF 2.0 SP2 in ROM. 


    This release adds additional screen resolutions to both the Professional (touchscreen) and Standard (non-touchscreen) editions. For Standard edition these are all 131 dpi and consist of 320×320 square and 400×240 and 440×240 landscape. For Professional there are 240×400 and 480×800 portrait screens. Once again these additional screen sizes emphasize the importance of making sure your app dynamically adjusts to make best use of screen space, for example using the Windows Mobile Line of Business Accelerator 2008.


     



    The images (currently US English only although localised versions should follow) are available to download here:-


    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3D6F581E-C093-4B15-AB0C-A2CE5BFFDB47&displaylang=en

  • Exception Messages on .NETCF v3.5

    Martijn Hoogendoorn provides a description of how to avoid the message:-


    “An error message is available for this exception but cannot be displayed because these messages are optional and are not currently installed on this device. Please install ‘NETCFv35.Messages.EN.wm.cab’ for Windows Mobile 5.0 and above or  ‘NETCFv35.Messages.EN.cab’ for other platforms. Restart the application to see the message.“


    Even if you have installed the cab file with message resources. A useful link:-


    http://blogs.msdn.com/martijnh/archive/2008/01/03/fixing-exception-messages-on-the-net-compact-framework-3-5.aspx

  • How To: Get System Power State Name and Flags

    A question came up on our forums and so I investigated writing a wrapper for the GetSystemPowerState API function. This allows you to retrieve the power state name, and also a bitmask of flags – Is the backlight on, is the device password protected etc. This is the result in VB.NET. We will add it to the wish list for the next version of the library.


    <DllImport(“coredll.dll”)> _
    Public Shared Function GetSystemPowerState(ByVal pBuffer As System.Text.StringBuilder, ByVal Length As Integer, ByRef pFlags As PowerState) As Integer
    End Function

    <Flags()> _
    Public Enum PowerState
    [On] = &H10000 ‘// on state
    Off = &H20000 ‘ // no power, full off
    Critical = &H40000 ‘// critical off
    Boot = &H80000 ‘ // boot state
    Idle = &H100000 ‘ // idle state
    Suspend = &H200000 ‘ // suspend state
    Unattended = &H400000 ‘ // Unattended state.
    Reset = &H800000 ‘ // reset state
    UserIdle = &H1000000 ‘ // user idle state
    BackLightOn = &H2000000 ‘ // device screen backlight on
    Password = &H10000000 ‘ // This state is password protected.
    End Enum


    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

    Dim sb As New System.Text.StringBuilder(260)
    Dim flags As PowerState = 0
    Dim ret As Integer = GetSystemPowerState(sb, sb.Capacity, flags)

    TextBox1.Text = sb.ToString()
    TextBox2.Text = flags.ToString()
    End Sub


    The last method is just a very simple example of calling the function and displaying the result.

  • Tech-Ed 2008


    I was delighted to find out this week that my session on Personal Area Networking was selected for Tech-Ed Developers this year. The session will cover a range of networking topics including of course Bluetooth. There will be a selection of demos which will support audience participation. It looks like I’ll be in good company too, the Windows Mobile track will have a wide range of topics which will enable you to build compelling applications with the latest tools and technologies. You can search the session list here.