The new Windows Mobile LOB Solution Accelerator is live!

One of the things I really love about development work at Microsoft is the huge amount of reference material available for developers.  Between community web sites, SDK sample, and MSDN-- it's rare when you cannot find a code example to jump start that idea spinning in your brain.  MSDN doesn't grill you about becoming a member or jumping through hoops to get information -- it's just there.  Come and get me...

Not all samples are created equal.  Don't you hate when you are trying to learn something new and the sample provided is the most basic, no-developer-would-ever-actually-do-that-in-a-million-years, kind of code spew?  Spare me... give me something I can learn from.  When we released the Windows Mobile LOB Solution Accelerator a few years ago, I was excited.  Not only was this a real working sample of a complete LOB Windows App -- it was well thought out and written...  A great learning tool full of example code.

I'm pleased to say, they did it again. 

The Microsoft® Windows Mobile Line of Business Solution Accelerator 2008

Delivering new innovations and development best practices to the Windows Mobile platform with Visual Studio 2008, the .NET Compact Framework 3.5, SQL Server Compact 3.5, a working Supply Chain application, over 5,000 lines of commented code plus over a hundred pages of helpful documentation.

Adapt your App :: Create a single binary that runs unchanged on Windows Mobile Standard or Pro, Portrait or Landscape, Rectangle or Square. No more wasting time building separate executables to accommodate different screen sizes or input methods.

Sync Services for ADO.NET :: Synchronize your data between SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server Compact 3.5 using the new Sync Framework. Keep all your occasionally-connected mobile workers on the same page.

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Store and Forward :: Reliably push messages to servers or other devices via Exchange Server 2007. Programmatically notify peer devices that they have new orders waiting for them and need to sync.

MapPoint :: Guide delivery drivers to their customers via either the shortest or quickest route. Integrated mapping means you’ll never get lost again.

LINQ :: Use the new Language Integrated Query to filter results from Generic Object Collections. Query both your objects and XML using a familiar, SQL-like syntax to boost developer productivity.

Custom Controls :: Capture signatures and dazzle your end-users with 3D and Alpha-blended controls that alter their behavior depending on the platform they’re running on.

Managed Stored Procedures and Triggers :: The pluggable data layer allows you to say goodbye to compiling Dynamic SQL inside your code and fires events to react to INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE operations.

Notifications and Online Help :: Formerly only supported on Pro, say hello to Popup Notifications and Online Help on Standard. Popup Notifications, also known as “toast,” display an HTML message and then disappear after a pre-determined amount of time. Using Online Help on every screen reduces your applicationtraining costs.

Language Switching and Localization :: Change Language/Regional Settings inside your app and watch text and Online Help speak a different language. Don’t wait until your application is finished to realize that it needs to be world-ready.

Time to Market :: Stop reinventing the wheel and use this Accelerator as the foundation for your next Windows Mobile development effort. If you don’t want to use the whole thing, pick and choose the components that are the best fit for your project.

Find out More :: The first Windows Mobile Line of Business Solution Accelerator has been downloaded tens of thousands of times and has served as the foundation for some of the largest and most important Windows Mobile projects in the world. Visit https://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsmobile to accelerate your career as a Windows Mobile developer.

Check it out!
-Reed