How to port Android app to Windows Phone

Android has gained a big market share in these days and right now many companies have apps published in Play Store, that's a fact. Recently Windows Phone has risen as a new player in the mobile market, especially in the low-end market segment where Android is the only option, and that's another fact. So now some companies are starting to asking themselves: what about porting my apps on Windows Phone 8? What does it involve? How far is Java from C#? Is Android Studio so different from Visual Studio for Windows Phone?
Based on my personal experience of porting a business application used by more than 40.000 workers across Europe i'll show you my journey from Android to Windows Phone.

Transcript

1. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Mind the Gap! From Android to Windows Phone Michele Capra aka @piccoloaiutante #mce-mindthegap
2. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 What is this talk about? Little disclaimer: ‣ No, it’s not about Microsoft vs Google ‣ I’m pragmatic: I work on a Mac, I own Nexus 7 tablet, I own a Nokia Lumia 625. ‣ I’m a freelance, I develop app for Windows Phone 8 / Windows 8 #mce-mindthegap
3. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 What is this talk about ? ‣ My personal experience on porting a business App from Android to Windows Phone 8. #mce-mindthegap
4. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Why I proposed this talk ? ‣ because I think that times are changing and Windows Phone 8 is growing its market share ‣ because I think that giving back my experience to the Community could help other developers #mce-mindthegap
5. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Agenda ‣ The App ‣ Development tools ‣ Mockup ‣ Code and development (UI, component, languages) ‣ Integration with OS ‣ App lifecycle ‣ App publish and store #mce-mindthegap
6. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 The MDC client #mce-mindthegap
7. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 The MDC client The case study: ‣ Mobile Data Collection (M.E.A.P .) ‣ create mobile application from a Web interface using a series of widgets ‣ deliver Apps to Android Tablet and Phone, iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Phone 8, Windows 8 RT/Pro ‣ developed by Gulliver, an italian company. #mce-mindthegap
8. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Mdc architecture #mce-mindthegap App2 App1 App n Mdc Client App1 App2 Appn Data sync Activated client
9. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 MDC client ‣ Native clients (no Phone Gap) ‣ Proprietary protocol ‣ Occasionally connected ‣ Several different widget (picture, signature, position, textbox..) #mce-mindthegap
10. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Web backend #mce-mindthegap
11. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 #mce-mindthegap
12. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Android client example #mce-mindthegap Applications Add new customer Salesman visit app
13. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Android client example #mce-mindthegap Proposed product Visit outcome Notes
14. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 First big question #mce-mindthegap
15. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Which Windows Phone version to support ? #mce-mindthegap
16. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 First big question To support Windows Phone 7 or not? We chose not to support it: ‣ Clear Microsoft intent to dismiss Windows Phone 7 ‣ Some of the components we needed were only for Windows Phone 8. Android support from 2.3 #mce-mindthegap
17. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Development tools #mce-mindthegap
18. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Windows Phone IDE ‣ Windows Phone Software Development Kit (free) ‣ Two separate SDK for Windows Phone 7.8 and Windows Phone 8 ‣ All the paid versions of Visual Studio support Windows Phone Development #mce-mindthegap
19. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Visual Studio 2012 #mce-mindthegap
20. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Android IDE ‣ AndroidStudio ‣ Intellij Idea ‣ Eclipse #mce-mindthegap
21. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 IDE Both support: ‣ Code completion ‣ Emulator
 ‣ Debugging ‣ Visual designer #mce-mindthegap
22. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 IDE Jet Brains solution could help you: ‣ Intellij Idea keyboard scheme and shortcut are available for Visual Studio through ReSharper plugin ‣ Code navigation, refactoring shortcuts… #mce-mindthegap
23. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Mockup #mce-mindthegap
24. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Mockup ‣ UI + Controls + Navigation - Logic ‣ Didn’t look at Android app code ‣ Just investigate ‣ Trying to figure out how to translate App flow from Android to Modern UI #mce-mindthegap
25. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Mockup #mce-mindthegap Android Windows Phone
26. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Mockup #mce-mindthegap Android Windows Phone
27. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Mockup #mce-mindthegap Android Windows Phone
28. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Mockup #mce-mindthegap Android Windows Phone
29. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Mockup #mce-mindthegap Android Windows Phone
30. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Mockup #mce-mindthegap
31. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Component #mce-mindthegap
32. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Component App capabilities: ‣ Take picture ‣ Read BarCode/QR Code ‣ Read NFC ‣ Get GPS coordinate ‣ Take signature ‣ Use web view ‣ Store data in a database ‣ Multi-language support #mce-mindthegap
33. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Component ‣ Take picture (Intent → Request CameraTask) ‣ Read BarCode/QR Code (ZXing → ZXing.net) ‣ Read NFC (Intent → Microsoft library to do the job) ‣ Get gps coordinate ( LocationManager → GeoLocator) #mce-mindthegap
34. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Component ‣ Take signature ( Canvas & Path → InkPresenter) ‣ Use web view (WebView → WebBrowser) ‣ Store data in a database (SQLite → SQLite) ‣ Multilanguage support (Xml file → Xml file) #mce-mindthegap
35. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 So let’s start developing #mce-mindthegap
36. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Code #mce-mindthegap
37. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Java vs C# Academic answer for similarities: ‣ Statically strong typed ‣ Class-based, Object-oriented ‣ Semi-interpreted ‣ Garbage collection #mce-mindthegap
38. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Java vs C# ‣ convert basic type ‣ change data structure: ‣ Vector<T> → List<T> ‣ HashTable<Integer,Integer> → Dictionary<int,int> ‣ change method name i.e: string.startWith() → string.StartsWith() ‣ StringTokenizer → String.split(string) #mce-mindthegap
39. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Java vs C# Different pattern: ‣ Android: Model-View-Presenter pattern but View and Presenter highly coupled. ‣ Windows Phone: Model-View-ViewModel pattern, Binding mechanism. #mce-mindthegap
40. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 UI #mce-mindthegap
41. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 XAML You can create visible UI elements in the declarative XAML markup, and then separate the UI definition from the run-time logic by using code-behind files, joined to the markup through partial class definitions. #mce-mindthegap
42. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 XML vs XAML Similarity: ‣ LinearLayout → StackPanel ‣ TextView, TextEdit → TextBlock,TextBox ‣ ScrollView → ScrollViewer ‣ Radio Group, RadioButton → RadioButton #mce-mindthegap
43. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Values vs Xaml style Android Values: <color name=“white”>#FFFFFFFF</color> ! Windows Phone Xaml control style: <Color x:Key="white">#FFFFFFFF</Color> #mce-mindthegap
44. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 UI Difference: ‣ Xaml file needs a code-behind file and is compiled through partial mechanism. ‣ In Android you access UI elements using getElementById or similar. #mce-mindthegap
45. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Integration with OS #mce-mindthegap
46. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Integration with OS ‣ Make a phone call ‣ Send an email ‣ Open Map
 ‣ Navigate to a place ‣ Open link in browser ‣ Open pdf/office file #mce-mindthegap
47. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Integration with OS In Android you do this by intent and activity. ! Intent callIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_CALL); callIntent.setData(Uri.parse("tel:0377778888")); startActivity(callIntent); #mce-mindthegap
48. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Integration with OS In Windows Phone you use Tasks. ! PhoneCallTask phoneCallTask = new PhoneCallTask(); phoneCallTask.PhoneNumber = "2065550123"; phoneCallTask.Show(); #mce-mindthegap
49. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Integration with OS Sending email in Android. ! Intent emailIntent = new Intent(android.content.Intent.ACTION_SEND); emailIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_EMAIL, new String[]{to}); startActivity(emailIntent); #mce-mindthegap
50. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Integration with OS Sending email in Windows Phone. ! EmailComposeTask emailComposeTask = new EmailComposeTask(); emailComposeTask.To = “michele@orangecode.it”; emailComposeTask.Show(); #mce-mindthegap
51. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 App lifecycle #mce-mindthegap
52. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Android activity lifecycle #mce-mindthegap
53. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Windows Phone lifecycle #mce-mindthegap
54. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Be careful From Microsoft docs: “It is possible, however, for an app to be tombstoned after the user navigates away. In this case, the app is not preserved in memory, but some information about the app is stored – most importantly for this topic, the State dictionary of the PhoneApplicationPage object is stored” #mce-mindthegap
55. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Be careful ‣ Serialised and deserialise the app state that is not a part of the page ‣ Rebind all the dependencies ‣ Update UI value (i.e: something typed from user before tombstoning) #mce-mindthegap
56. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Be careful #mce-mindthegap
57. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Store #mce-mindthegap
58. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 App package ‣ Xap file which includes everything needed from the app. ‣ It’s almost like an apk file. ‣ You cannot install xap out of store. #mce-mindthegap
59. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Google Play store ‣ Generate key pair and certificate and keystone
 ‣ Sign your app and verify signed app
 ‣ Upload and publish to Play store #mce-mindthegap
60. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Windows Phone store Validation ‣ Package verification ! Certification ‣ Sign and encryption ! Publish ‣ Ready to be published #mce-mindthegap
61. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Windows Store Test Kit The Windows Phone Windows Phone Store Test Kit (formerly named Marketplace Test Kit) provides a suite of automated and manual tests to help prepare your apps to be accepted in the Windows Phone Store the first time you submit them. #mce-mindthegap
62. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Testing for tombstoning ‣ Before upload your xap to store simulate tombstoning and test your app manually. ‣ Tombstoning could be forced manually by Visual Studio. #mce-mindthegap
63. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Recap ‣ The App ‣ Development tools ‣ Mockup ‣ Code and development (UI, Component, languages) ‣ Integration with OS ‣ App Lifecycle ‣ App publish and store #mce-mindthegap
64. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 Conclusions ‣ Java is not far from C# ‣ Build a mockup in order to explore new platform ‣ Keep an eye on app lifecycle ‣ Before starting, try to use a Windows Phone device as your primary device. #mce-mindthegap
65. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 thanks to Gulliver ;-) #mce-mindthegap
66. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 grazie! @piccoloaiutante #mce-mindthegap
67. #mceconf 11 Jan 2014 References ‣ Comparison of C# and Java (Wikipedia) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Comparison_of_C_Sharp_and_Java] ‣ Windows Phone SDK (Microsoft)[http://dev.windowsphone.com/en-us/ downloadsdk] #mce-mindthegap