Fixing the assembly hopping between WP7 and WP8
- April 28th, 2013
- Av Diversify
- Kommentera
If you want to develop an Windows Phone app that can run on both WP7 and WP8 you can simply submit one built for Windows Phone 7. But if you want to take advantage of some of the new feature of Windows Phone 8 you will need to submit two versions of it (one for 7 and one for 8). This means that you will have to maintain two copies of the project file -- but you obviously don't want two copies of each source code file.
This can be solved by putting the code in a Portable Class Library and then reference it by the two projects. There are however some limitations using a Portable Class Library, and you might find yourself stuck between a rock and a hard [coded] place trying to use it.
Each time I was facing the dual project problem, I ended up with using linked source code files instead, i.e. making one of the projects the "main" project, and then simply linking all the source code files into the other project (i.e. "Add As Link" rather than "Add" when adding "Existing Item..."). An annoying problem with this solution is however that each time you rename a source file you will need to remove and add the linked file again. Aaarrgghh! :[ But for me this actually was less painful than using the Portable Class Library.
Anyway, this way you will only have to maintain one copy of the code files that are identical on both platforms. For the ones that differs a bit, you either use compiler switches (e.g. "#if WP7 [...] #endif") -- or totally different classes (i.e. non-linked code, if there are "too much" differences to make use of #if's).
But when it comes to XAML you are in more trouble. For instance, if you are sharing the same implementation of a page in both WP7 and WP8, you will notice that the home of the Pivot (and Panorama) has changed between the two platforms. Ouch.
In WP7 your page declaration looks like this:
xmlns:xxx="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Phone.Controls"
but your WP8 projects want this line:
xmlns:xxx="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Phone"
As you can see above, the assembly name has changed.
This makes you yearn for the following (illegal) construction:
<phone:PhoneApplicationPage
x:Class="Wp7App.PivotPage1"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
#if WP7
xmlns:xxx="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Phone.Controls"
#elif WP8
xmlns:xxx="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Phone"
#endif
xmlns:shell="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Shell;assembly=Microsoft.Phone"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
But unfortunately compiler switches are not allowed in XAML... So the above will NOT compile. :(
There is however a pretty simple solution to this. Create the following two classes:
namespace MyShared
{
using Microsoft.Phone.Controls;
public class MyPivot : Pivot
{
}
public class MyPivotItem : PivotItem
{
}
}
This file can be linked across the two platforms intact without any need of #if's (since it wasn't the namespace that was changed, "just" the assembly).
Now you simply use the MyPivot wrapper classes (instead of the Pivot directly) in your XAML, and you're good to go:
<Phone:PhoneApplicationPage
x:Class="MyShared.PivotPage1"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:MyShared="clr-namespace:MyShared"
xmlns:Phone="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Phone">
<Grid>
<MyShared:MyPivot Title="MY APPLICATION">
<MyShared:MyPivotItem Header="item1">
<Grid/>
</MyShared:MyPivotItem>
<MyShared:MyPivotItem Header="item2">
<Grid/>
</MyShared:MyPivotItem>
</MyShared:MyPivot>
</Grid>
</Phone:PhoneApplicationPage>
)
