Windows Store Apps (WSA) | Versatile Digital DNA

Windows 8.1 SDK has lots of updates and changes compared to Windows 8 SDK. As an epitome of all these changes most of the Windows 8 SDK methods and classes have been deprecated and not advised to be used in the new development.

This post shows how to access the Contacts information in Windows 8.1 and 8. The new SDK is easy to use for sure and more sleek.

Accessing Contacts Information using Windows 8 SDK

private async void GetContactsDataUsingWindowd8SDK()
{
    var contactPicker = new Windows.ApplicationModel.Contacts.ContactPicker();
    contactPicker.CommitButtonText = "Select a contact";
  
    ContactInformation contact = await contactPicker.PickSingleContactAsync();
  
    // For multiple contacts Selection
    //IReadOnlyList<ContactInformation> contacts = await contactPicker.PickMultipleContactsAsync();
  
    var viewmodel = new ContactViewModel();
  
    if (contact != null)
    {
        string name = contact.Name;
  
        if (contact.Emails.Count > 0)
        {
            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
            foreach (IContactField field in contact.Emails)
            {
                sb.AppendFormat("{0} ({1}) \n", field.Value, field.Category);
            }
            string email = sb.ToString();
        }
  
        // Display the contact’s thumbnail
        Windows.Storage.Streams.IRandomAccessStreamWithContentType stream = await contact.GetThumbnailAsync();
  
        if (stream != null && stream.Size > 0)
        {
            BitmapImage image = new BitmapImage();
            image.SetSource(stream);
        }
    } 

Same to be done in Windows 8.1 SDK

private async void GetContactInfoUsingWindows81SDK()
{
    var contactPicker = new Windows.ApplicationModel.Contacts.ContactPicker();
    contactPicker.CommitButtonText = "Select Contacts";
  
    // select specific properties only
    contactPicker.SelectionMode = Windows.ApplicationModel.Contacts.ContactSelectionMode.Fields;
  
    //contactPicker.DesiredFieldsWithContactFieldType.Add();
  
    var contactCollection = await contactPicker.PickContactsAsync();
    //contactCollection.Add(new Windows.ApplicationModel.Contacts.Contact());
  
    List<ContactViewModel> contactViewModels = new List<ContactViewModel>();
  
    if (contactCollection != null)
    {
        foreach (var contact in contactCollection)
        {
            var viewmodel = new ContactViewModel();
  
            viewmodel.Id = contact.Id;
            viewmodel.FullName = contact.FirstName + " " + contact.LastName;
  
            if (contact.Emails.Any())
            {
                foreach (var email in contact.Emails)
                {
                    if (email.Kind == Windows.ApplicationModel.Contacts.ContactEmailKind.Personal)
                    {
                        viewmodel.PersonalEmail = email.Address;
                    }
                }
            }
  
            var thumbnail = await contact.Thumbnail.OpenReadAsync();
  
            if (thumbnail != null && thumbnail.Size > 0)
            {
                viewmodel.ContactThumbnail.SetSource(thumbnail);
            }
  
  
        }
    }
}

Code for the View Model class used in 8.1

public class ContactViewModel
{
    public string Id { get; set; }
  
    public string FullName { get; set; }
  
    public string PersonalEmail { get; set; }
  
    public BitmapImage ContactThumbnail { get; set; }
}

You can notice that 8.1 version the methods have changes and enums have been introduced to make the development more concise.

The WinRT platform provides developers with a new way to build reusable software components. WinRT types packaged in a WinRT component, also called a WinMD component (WinRT components == WinMD components). In traditional .NET application development, you could create a dynamic-link library (DLL) as a managed class library and use it in one or more applications.

This option is still available in Visual Studio. However, you can change the output type of a library project from class library to WinRT component, and the output of such a project is a WinMD (Windows Meta Data) file.

Benefits of creating a WinMD / WinRT component.

Contrasting to the DLL files WinRT / WinMD components can be accessed by unmanaged languages like C++ and Javascript. This allows us to create a WinRT / WinMD component in a managed language (C# or Visual Basic) and use it across different Windows Store Apps (WSA) projects implemented in unmanaged languages.

But this flexibility comes with some restrictions.

All public classes in WinRT / WinMD component should be marked sealed.
public fields aren’t allowed.
public data members must be declared as properties
Data types should be WinRT / WinMD compatible
Creating a WinRT / WinMD component in C++ has some additional property attribute settings (activatable class and ect…)

Creating a WinRT / WinMD component in C#

This is a very simple example and straight forward create Windows Store Apps (WSA) class library. Mark the class public and sealed. Create a method to return a string value.

Go to Project Properties and change the output type from Class Library to Windows Runtime Component.

Component Code

Do the build.

Accessing the C# WinRT in Javascript

Create a WSA project in Javascript. Add the WinRT project reference to the Javascript project.

Create a Javascript method to call the WinRT method. VS intellisense would guide you.

Javascript Code.

Here you can notice that the GetDate() C# method is formatted to getDate() with Javascript naming convention.

HTML Code

Run the code. 🙂

Things to consider

When you create a WinRT / WinMD component it is specifically designed for the Windows Runtime. Windows Runtime supports different language executions. In the above Javascript project we have a WinRT component developed in C# executed in the Javascript app. This is very useful when you want to extend your existing LOBs. You can use your existing managed code with little modifications, this cuts down development cost.

And also some complex data processing codes are hard to be written in pure Javascript. You can implement those in C++ and use the component in your front facing Javascript WSA.

Versatile Digital DNA

Category Archives: Windows Store Apps (WSA)

Accessing Contacts Information in Windows 8.1

WinRT or WinMD Components

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