Professional Windows® Phone 7 Application Development: Building Applications and Games Using Visual Studio, Silverlight®, and XNA®

Chapter 8. Tasks

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER

• How Windows Phone Tasks provide applications with the ability to integrate with services on the device

• The difference between a Launcher and Chooser

• How the Windows Phone execution model affects the way you work with Choosers

• Building and registering a photo Extras application

Continuing the theme of integrating into the Windows Phone experience, Tasks provide another mechanism through which your application can hook into information and functionality available within other applications on the phone. In this chapter, you will learn how to invoke launchers in order to commence an activity — for example, sending an SMS — and choosers to retrieve some data, such as taking a photo or accessing contacts. You will also learn how your application can register as an extension for certain activities on the device. For example, if your application can be used to modify images, you can register it as an image editor to appear within the built-in Pictures application.

WINDOWS PHONE TASKS

One of the things that make a Windows Phone application different from a regular desktop application is that it is running on a mobile device. In fact, a Windows Phone is not just any old mobile device — it is, of course, foremost a phone that can be used to make phone calls and send text messages. Without a way to tap into these unique device capabilities, you would be limited to building small screen versions of desktop applications.

Unlike its predecessor, Windows Mobile, ...