.NET Compact Framework 3.5 Data-Driven Applications

In Detail

The new .NET CF 3.5 framework provides enterprise application developers with a whole arsenal of possibilities at their disposal, but without proper guidance on developing performance-critical enterprise applications, it is easy to make the wrong design and technology decisions.

This book guides you to build each part of a robust enterprise application by illustrating the .NET CF 3.5 framework with the help of real-world business applications. It will not only help you to master basic .NET CF skills, but also outlines the best methods, techniques, and tools available to create high-impact and performance-critical data-driven enterprise mobile applications. It provides a solid set of guidelines to aid .NET CF developers to understand how best to apply the features of the .NET CF 3.5 framework.

The bulk of the book illustrates the basic concepts of .NET Compact 3.5 Framework programming by walking the reader through 3 different kinds of mobile applications:

• A thick-client mobile sales-force application
• A thin-client mobile dashboard and reporting application
• A customer support case management application

Both the SQL Server Lite and Oracle Lite mobile databases are covered in detail, from data access to data synchronization. The book explains how device features such as Bluetooth, SMS, telephony, Infrared, and Windows Contacts can be accessed via .NET CF in a real-world example, namely the mobile sales-force application. It also explains.NET CF's GDI+ features that can be used to create rich charts and reports. You learn to synchronize the mobile application with remote datasources and communicate via web services and WCF services. The book outlines performance optimization and memory management techniques on the mobile platform. It also outlines the tools and techniques available for testing, performance-tuning, deploying and debugging .NET CF enterprise applications (including Power Toys for .NET Compact Framework 3.5 from Microsoft).

This book will teach you to build robust, feature-rich enterprise applications using the .NET Compact Framework 3.5, with the help of an end-to-end real-world example of a mobile sales force application.

Approach

The book walks you through three different real-world mobile applications from head to toe to provide a practical, hands-on experience on how to use .NET CF. It provides you with code snippets (in both VB.NET and C#) from real-world business scenarios. A summary at the end of each chapter explains how these code snippets work together as a part of the larger whole. It also makes use of diagrams to explain core concepts and helps you decide on which design patterns to use in different enterprise application scenarios.

Who this book is for

This book is written for developers who are acquainted with the basics of .NET Compact Framework and want to create enterprise-level mobile applications. It is for developers who have worked with the .NET CF Framework before but would like to learn how to utilize its advanced features and deploy leaner and faster business applications.