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Visual Studio Plugin

The RhoMobile Visual Studio Plugin allows you to build applications that are targeted for Windows Phone 8. The current version allows you to:

  • Generate an application structure
  • Generate data models
  • Code editing
  • Build for Windows Phone 8
  • Launch and Run

Prerequisites

  • Visual Studio 2012 Professional
  • Windows Phone 8 SDK
  • RhoMobile Suite 4.0+
  • Only available to Silver and Gold level subscriptions
  • There is no dialog to log in or sign up to RhoMobile.com from within the IDE. To create an account you will need to do so via RhoMobile.com, to log in you will have to do so through the command line or in RhoStudio.

Installing

  1. Download the extension’s VSIX file and double-click it in Windows Explorer
  2. Given the choice of which editions of Visual Studio the extension should be installed for, leave checkmarks next to only those editions where you plan to use the extension and click OK
  3. When the installation finishes, make sure to restart any open instances of Visual Studio
The current version of the extension installs for all users so you might get a User Account Control prompt in Windows upon both installation and removal of the extension. This is expected behavior.

Generating an application

  1. From the Visual Studio 2012 File Menu select New Project
  2. Select RhoMobile then RhoMobile Windows Phone 8 Project
  3. Give your project a name then click Ok
  4. When prompted either choose Rhodes or RhoElements frameworks. Check here for more details on the differences.
  5. Click Finish

This generates a set of files and folders to define an application structure. This structure is the same as what is generated from RhoStudio

Generating data models

  1. Right Click on the project name
  2. Choose Add \ New Item
  3. In the Add New Item dialog, choose RhoMobile Model
  4. Click Add
  5. In the Add new RhoMobile Model dial enter the Model Name an then a list of Model Attributes separated by a comma
  6. Click Finish

This automatically generates a folder and a corresponding set files that provide CRUD operations for that model. Read more details about data models.

Application changes

  • Add to application build.yml productid GUID. For example:

      wp:
    productid: 632621d0-5ecb-012e-2c97-482a1411c191

Windows Phone 8 User Interface

Recall that RhoMobile applications utilize web languages like CSS, JavaScript and HTMl to define it’s interface and application behavior. Therefore, if you are looking to provide a native Windows Phone 8 (aka Metro) user interface, you may want to consider using one of the the Metro-like frameworks:

Follow the instructions for replacing the default application generation with your own framework.

Launch and Run

You are now ready to build and launch your application by selecting a build configuration option:

  • RhoSimulator - The same RhoSimulator that is used on other platforms, provides a Webkit enabled view as well as a Web Inspector to help with debugging

  • Device - You must have a Windows Phone 8 device connected to your machine and have it setup properly so Visual Studio recognizes it

  • Emulator - Windows Phone 8 emulator provided by Microsoft.

It is recommended to use RhoSimulator while initially building out your user interface and application behavior. This will give you the most rapid method for testing/debugging that is targeted at web apps.

You can now launch your application inside of RhoSimulator for testing by:

  1. From the toolbar make sure RhoSimulator is selected in the dropdown
  2. Click Start

RhoSimulator launches. Read more details about how to use RhoSimulator

Run application simulator using command line:

    $rake run:wp8
You may use your computer keyboard with Windows Phone 8 emulator. By default it is disabled, but you can enable it pressing **PgUp** key. While it is enabled a device rotation simulation is not supported. To rotate device you need to disable keyboard support pressing **PgDown** key. Look [MSDN page](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff754352(v=vs.92).aspx) for much more details on this topic.

Run application device using command line:

    $rake run:wp8:device
  • See log in application folder : rholog.txt
When running on device you may need to disconnect USB cable from device to see log

Future plugin features

We will be adding this features to the plug-in soon. Check back for updates:

  • JavaScript debugging
  • Building for Windows Mobile/CE
  • Intellisense for RhoMobile APIs
  • RhoConnect Projects
  • Ruby Debugging
  • Building for Android
  • Remote build integration with RhoHub

Related Resources

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