Tiles and Lock Screen Notifications

1. WP8 TILES AND LOCK SCREEN
NOTIFICATIONS
1. Tiles in Windows Phone 8
2. Local Tiles API
3. Updating Tiles from ShellTileSchedule
4. Updating Tiles from Background Agents
5. Lock screen notifications for Windows Phone
6. Lock screen background for Windows Phone

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3. TILES ON WINDOWS PHONE 8

4. LIVE TILES ON WINDOWS PHONE
 Windows phone has the unique ability to provide
the end user glanceable access to the information
they care most about, via Live Tiles
 Push Notifications offer developers a way to send
timely information to their applications even
when they are not running
 In Windows Phone 7.1 and later, the Local Tiles
API allows apps to create and update tiles

5. LIVE TILES 10
 Shortcuts to apps
 All apps have at least one tile, known as the default tile
 Created by user pinning your app to the Start Screen
 Launch to app main page
 Apps can create secondary tiles
 Created programmatically
 Launch to any page in your app
 Static or dynamic
 Tiles can be updated
 Application code
 Background agents
 Push Notifications
 In Windows Phone 7.1, only one tile size for third party apps
 In Windows Phone 8.0, you can support three different tile sizes

6. TILE TEMPLATES AND TILE SIZES
 Windows Phone 8 supports three
Tile templates
 Flip – flips from front to back
(similar to the WP 7.1 Tile
template)
 Iconic – clean iconic layout
designed to reflect Windows
Phone design principles
 Cycle – cycles through up to
nine images

7. TILE CONTENT
 The Tile content is built up from a fixed set of data properties
 Data Properties for Text elements, Count elements and Image elements
 Content that displays depends on the template you choose and the tile size
 Not all elements need to be used
 Not all elements used in all templates
 WXGA resolution Image sizes
 Automatically scaled for WVGA and 720p

8. FLIP TILE TEMPLATE
 Flips from front to back
 Small size does not flip
 Medium size is the same
as the WP7.1 tile
template

9. CYCLE TILE TEMPLATE
 Cycles between from 1 to 9 images
 Small tile does not cycle

10. ICONIC TILE TEMPLATE
 Displays a small image in the center of the Tile and is designed to reflect
Windows Phone design principles

11. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY TILES
 Application Tile
 Can be created only when user taps and holds the application
name in the Application List and then selects pin to start
 Tile template and Properties are set initially in the Application
Manifest
 Template cannot be changed programmatically
 Secondary Tile
 Can be created only as the result of user input in an
application
 The application then uses the Create(Uri, ShellTileData)
method to create a Tile on Start
 Because the UI will navigate to Start when a new secondary
Tile is created, only one secondary Tile can be created at a time

12. DEFINING THE APPLICATION TILE
 Define your images
 The standard new project templates already
contain placeholder images of the correct size
 FlipCycleTile*.png used for the Flip and
Cycle Tile templates
 IconicTile*.png used for the Iconic Tile
templates
 Replace these images with your own artwork

13. DEFINING THE APPLICATION TILE IN THE
APPLICATION MANIFEST
 Double-click WMAppManifest.xml to open using the new Manifest Editor
 On the Application UI tab, set the Tile Template, optional Title and Tile
Images

14. APPLICATION TILE

15. CREATING AND UPDATING TILES WITH
THE LOCAL TILE API
 Local tile updates (these are *not* push)
 Full control of all properties when your app is in
the foreground or background
 Manage Secondary Tiles •Create/Update/Delete
 Launches directly to page/experience

16. CREATING TILES

17. UPDATING TILES

18. UPDATING THE APPLICATION TILE

19. UPDATING TILES FROM A BACKGROUND
AGENT
 In Windows Phone OS 7.0, only way of updating Live Tiles was from a
Tile Schedule or from Push Notifications
 Tile Schedule needs to fetch images from a web URI
 Push Notifications require you to implement a backend service
 To have control of shell tiles when the app is not running without using
Push Notifications, a good solution is a Background Agent
 Use the ShellTile API to locate and update tiles

20. UPDATING TILES FROM A
BACKGROUND AGENT
LOCK SCREEN NOTIFICATIONS ON WINDOWS
PHONE

21. LOCK SCREEN ON WINDOWS PHONE 7
 On Windows Phone 7, Notifications area was
reserved to first party apps
 Next Calendar Appointment
 Icons and counts for missed calls, new email,
new SMS
 User could select background image
 From supplied Wallpapers
 From their own pictures

22. LOCK SCREEN ON WINDOWS PHONE 8
 End user can now select any app
that has been enabled for lock
screen notifications to show
detailed status
 Select any five apps to show
quick status (icon and count)
 For your app to be included in
the notifications area, all you
have to do is
 Create an icon
 Declare the app’s intent in
the application manifest file

23. UPDATING THE APPLICATION MANIFEST
FILE
 Edit WMAppManifest.xml with the XML editor

24. HOW TO UPDATE THE ICON COUNT AND
TEXT
 Lock Screen Icon Count and Text is taken directly from your applications
primary tile
 Secondary tiles are not used for this feature
 Information is only displayed on the lock screen if the tile contains the
information
 For example, a count will only be displayed if the tile displays it
 Primary tile does not need to be pinned to the Start Screen for lock screen
notifications to be enabled
 Update Primary Tile content in the usual way
 Local Shell Tiles API
 Push Notifications

25. TESTING WITH THE SIMULATION
DASHBOARD
 Simulation Dashboard allows you to display
the Lock Screen on the emulator
 Access the Simulation Dashboard from the
Visual Studio Tools menu

26. LOCK SCREEN NOTIFICATIONS
LOCK SCREEN BACKGROUND

27. LOCK SCREEN BACKGROUND ON
WINDOWS PHONE 8
 End user can choose a background image from their own photos or search for one on
Bing
 In addition, they can choose an app to be the background image provider
 For your app to be a lock screen background provider, all you have to do is
 Declare the app’s intent in the application manifest file
 Write code to change the background image

28. UPDATING THE APPLICATION MANIFEST
FILE
 Edit WMAppManifest.xml with the XML editor

29. WRITE CODE TO CHANGE THE LOCK
SCREEN BACKGROUND

30. USER CONFIRMATION

31. ACCESSING LOCAL IMAGES

32. Thank You