What type of applications can we build on Windows Mobile today - Part 3 of 10

This is part 3 of 10 of the getting started with Windows Mobile development series. For previous posts in this series please see here.

Today mobile development is getting easier. Many folks from the desktop can port there C# skills over and hit the ground running fairly quickly. The Compact Framework is maturing nicely. Development tools and emulators are getting more feature rich and more reliable.

The types of applications you can build today for Windows Mobile - with regards to managed code fall into the following groups:

1. Microsoft .NET Compact Framework. This is a subset of the Microsoft .NET Frameworkdesigned specifically for mobile devices. Use this technology for mobile applications that must run on the device without guaranteed network connectivity.
2. ASP.NET Mobile. This is a subset of ASP.NET, designed specifically for mobile devices. ASP.NET Mobile applications can be hosted on a normal ASP.NET server. Use this technology for mobile Web applications when you need to support a large number of mobile devices and browsers that can rely on a guaranteed network connection.
   

ASP.NET for Mobile no longer has designer support in Visual Studio 2008. You can simply use the desktop controls and they will render. Now with "6on6" which is IE 6 engine on Windows Mobile 6.1 this will make web development for mobile easier. You can test IE 6 with the recently released WM 6.1 emulators. I wrote a post on this here. One thing to bear in mind is of course screen size.

Most developers write .NET Compact Framework applications over ASP.NET for LOB (Line of Business applications) due to the smart client nature. Also the power of a .NET CF application allows the developer to do whatever he wants. You can access the camera the GPS chipset the radio or the phone. You can access Outlook, manipulate appointments or add/change a contact. You can access a Relational Database Management system such as SQL Server Compact to store your applications data then sync back to SQL Server desktop using Sync Services (Sync Framework). You can write very compelling UI using GDI or on later devices GDI+ for support such as gradient backgrounds and transparency. XNA sadly is not supported, however DirectX is but is limited and memory intensive.

The main power of using the .NET Compact Framework over any other technology is the fact that it is embedded and works great in smart client environments where connectivity is an issue.

ASP.NET is rarely used in my experience, one reason is due to the connectivity issues. Under ASP.NET, mobile devices require a constant connection with the server in order for this type of architecture to work. Web applications do not work well in enterprise solutions for mobile devices. They do work well for consumer applications but not mission critical ones.

You'll probably be thinking how do you architect an application for the .NET Compact Framework. Most developers adopt the Active record pattern for the business layer. This tends to work well as mobile applications tend not to be as complex as desktop applications. And now performance tends not to be so much of a problem as it once was. ORMs and Domain Driven Development with patterns such as the repository data access layer is not quite as good a story.

The only ORM that supports the CF and SQL CE to date is LLBLGen. I am in the process of building an ORM for the Compact Framework and intend on writing an MSDN article how I did it.

The CF 3.5 does support WCF as a consumer, ServiceHost is not supported. There are many binding and other limitations however. Usually the device will have its own domain that uses either a message protocol which can be completely bespoke over TCP or a service layer with standard DTOs via HTTP. Or in some cases Sync data directly using Sync Services or merge replication. Each application is different. Of course vanilla Web Services ASMX has been supported since CF 1.0.