Application Compatibility Forecast for NETCF v2 sp2

During our test pass against v2 sp2, we tested backwards compatibility with previous releases by running internal tests archived from previous releases.  We also tested 90 retail applications and found a couple issues outlined below.

 

Application Compatibility Issue

The issue only affected one application and occurs when the application tries to save a new template file and displays a warning about overwriting a file that doesn’t exist. The user can answer “yes, overwrite” to this warning and this will cause the template file to be saved correctly. We’re waiting to hear back from the ISV regarding this issue.

 

Breaking Change

We also found a breaking change through our regular, feature testing. This change was made to match the serialization behavior found on the full .Net Framework. The details of this breaking change are listed below:

 

XmlSerializer serializes object members in order more closely resembling declaration order where no order is explicitly defined.

 

Previous Behavior: XmlSerializer would scramble the order of XmlElements in a serialized object unless the Order property was set on XmlElementAttribute and similar attributes.

 

New Behavior: XmlSerializer now takes care to preserve the order that members are reflected from serialized objects where no Order property is explicitly set.  Note that where element ordering is important, explicitly setting the Order property is still recommended on both NetCF and .NET Framework to guarantee proper serialization order across platforms and versions.

 

Application Compatibility Test Details

Notes about the 90 applications we tested

  • 30 sdk samples (NETCF & Windows Mobile SDK’s), 60 retail applications
  • 54 were built with NETCF v1, 36 were built with NETCF v2

 

Applications were tested on a matrix of devices which included

  • PocketPC or Smartphone
  • Windows Mobile 5 or Windows Mobile 6
  • High/low resolution screens
  • NETCF installed in RAM or ROM

 

.Net Compact Framework Application Catalog

In January I posted an update to the list of applications we’ve found that use Netcf.  I’ve recently updated this list in response to feedback I received from developers who wanted their application listed other adjustments.

 

If your application isn't on the list and you would like it to be, send an email to cfapp@microsoft.com and I'll get it posted with the next update.  If you need product support or want to request a feature, please use the MSDN Feedback Center as this will ensure your issue gets into our databases where we can respond to it and track it.

 

Michael Lipp

SDET Technical Lead

.Net Compact Framework

 

Disclaimers: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.