Professional Windows Vista Gadgets Programming (Programmer to Programmer)

16th
FEB

Posted by IDM under Applications, General Programming

Book Description
Professional Windows Vista Gadgets Programming covers sidebar and sideshow gadget development each in their own part of the book. Part 1 will cover Sidebar gadgets while Part 2 covers SideShow gadgets. In each part, the book first explains the motivation behind each technology and its features.

Then, the reader is taken on a quick walkthrough of how to develop a simple gadget, using the traditional “Hello World” approach to quickly introduce the key concepts. After the quick walkthrough, subsequent chapters will then dive into each specific API that is relevant to enhancing the gadget.

Finally, when the reader has mastered all the important APIs, each part will end with a chapter covering two or more projects, detailing step-by-step how each is built.

Some of the specific topics covered include:

Sidebar gadgets architecture and components including XML manifest
Debugging gadgets in Visual Studio 2005
Deploying gadgets
The Gadget system APIs
Localizing gadgets and sidebar security sidebar projects
Sideshow devices, UI components, and SDK
Sideshow architecture, managed code, and classes
Sideshow simple content format (SCF)
Interacting with sideshow devices and handling sideshow device events
SideShow projects

From the Back Cover
Professional Windows Vista Gadgets Programming

As an easy-to-use application that provides information at a glance, a gadget basically takes the concept of portal dashboards and moves them to the more accessible Windows desktop where users can quickly and easily obtain weather information, RSS news feeds, and much more. In Windows Vista, there are two types of gadgets—Sidebar and SideShow gadgets. Sidebar gadgets are mini applications hosted in the Sidebar pane located on the Windows desktop, and SideShow gadgets are applications that send information to SideShow-enabled devices, such as an external LCD display, or even a remote control. With this hands-on guide, you’ll discover the simplicity of developing Vista Sidebar and SideShow gadgets that can run onthe Windows desktop as well as send information to SideShow-enabled devices.

This book contains two parts. The first covers Sidebar gadgets and the second part covers SideShow gadgets. In each part, Microsoft MVP author Wei-Meng Lee begins by walking you through the development of a simple gadget, introducing you to the key concepts in the process. Each chapter breaks down the specific APIs that are relevant to enhancing a gadget, and helpful code samples throughout every chapter detail the step-by-step progression of how a gadget is built. By the end of the book, you will beconfidently programming Vista gadgets.

What you will learn from this book

Components of a Sidebar gadget
Detailed description and code samples for using the Sidebar APIs
Tips on using .NET Interop to enhance Sidebar gadgets
How to Interface Sidebar gadgets with SideShow-enabled devices
Tips on localizing Sidebar gadgets
How to debug Sidebar gadgets
Details of a Sidebar gadget project
SideShow architecture
How to use the SideShow managed class for .NET development
Tips on understanding the Simple Content Format (SCF) content format for sending SideShow data
Interacting with SideShow-enabled devices
Step by step instruction on how to develop a SideShow gadget project

Who this book is for
This book is for developers who want to build Windows Vista gadgets that target both the desktop as well as SideShow-enabled devices.

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

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