Beginning Windows® Phone 7 Application Development: Building Windows® Phone Applications Using Silverlight® and XNA®

7

Launchers, Choosers, and Advanced User Input

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS CHAPTER:

• Using the application bar
• Understanding launchers and choosers
• Using launchers and choosers to perform common tasks, including manipulating contacts, making calls, and sending messages
• Controlling the software input panel (SIP)
• Responding to multitouch input

In the previous chapter, you looked at how mobile device hardware differs from standard PC hardware and how you can use the additional functionality. In this chapter, you'll learn about features provided by the Windows Phone 7 operating system and how to interact with them. There is some overlap between these subjects because the Windows Phone 7 operating system is shaped by the hardware on which it resides. For example, multitouch, which is the ability to interact with software by using two or more fingers on a touchscreen, is obviously hardware-related. In this case, the operating system provides an additional layer of abstraction for you, which enables you to work directly with gestures instead of raw data from the hardware. In addition, you can follow a number of best practices to make your applications feel more in tune with the Windows Phone 7 operating system.

Many of the features you'll look at in this chapter relate to a direct interaction with the Windows Phone 7 operating system. For example, you'll examine functionality that you control through launchers and choosers, which allow you to communicate with built-in functionality such ...