Write an IM App with WCF in the .NET Compact Framework

Mobile devices often do not have static IP addresses or dynamic DNS entries that follow them around, making it difficult receive data pushed down from servers. But the .NET Compact Framework 3.5 solves many of these problems with two new binding elements to Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) functionality that facilitate sending and receiving messages using e-mail as the transport.

In the Launch issue of MSDN Magazine, Andrew Arnott shows you the subset of WCF that is supported by the .NET Compact Framework 3.5 and how you can utilize these transports and tools in your mobile applications. Andrew builds a pair of small sample apps using e-mail to send instant message-like messages between a Windows Mobile device and a PC.

Since many devices already have e-mail sync functionality, these transports take advantage of the inherent queuing nature of e-mail and the availability of e-mail servers already set up on the Internet to create an addressable message queue that enables peer-to-peer, device-to-server, and server-to-device message-level communication in a true message-push fashion.

Don't forget to browse the code in our online code library.

Technorati Tags: Windows Mobile, WCF, .NET Framework 3.5