Archive
Get nearby locations using Bing maps – WP 8
Using ‘Bing Maps Task’ we can get the nearby locations (i.e., Hospitals,Coffee shops or Shopping malls) on the Map.
Add a button to your XAML page and on ‘Click’ event handler place below code.
UI XAML
using Windows.Devices.Geolocation;
private async void btnMapTask_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) {
// Get the Current location Coordinates
Geolocator geolocator = new Geolocator();
geolocator.DesiredAccuracyInMeters = 50;
Geoposition position = await geolocator.GetGeopositionAsync(
maximumAge: TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1), timeout: TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30));
// Initialize BingMapsTask
BingMapsTask bingMapsTask = new BingMapsTask();
// Pass the current location coordinates
bingMapsTask.Center = new GeoCoordinate(position.Coordinate.Latitude, position.Coordinate.Longitude);
bingMapsTask.ZoomLevel = 2;
// Search Term; To search coffee shops set ‘coffee’
bingMapsTask.SearchTerm = “hospital“;
bingMapsTask.Show();
}
When you click on the button, we will get below screen.
Allow load Map
Once you click on ‘allow’ , we will get a bing map with nearest hospitals.
Nearest Hospitals
Also we need to enable following two Capabilities in application manifest file “WMAppManifest.xml”
1.ID_CAP_LOCATION
2.ID_CAP_MAP
🙂
A first chance exception of type ‘System.Windows.Markup.XamlParseException’ – WP8
Other day I got below error while executing my application.
A first chance exception of type ‘System.Windows.Markup.XamlParseException’ occurred in System.Windows.ni.dll
The exception was in ‘App.xaml.cs’ file’s InitializeComponent() method
XamlParseException
Reason –
- There could be many reasons for the exception
- Even if there is an invalid space in your xaml file it throws the exception
Fix –
- To get the exact reason for the issue, add the exception in your ‘Debug’
- Debug->Exceptions
- Press Add and type in, “System.Windows.Markup.XamlParseException” and select Common Language Runtime Exceptions
Add Exception
- Run the application
- It will pinpoint the exact reason for the exception
- In my case I had an empty space in my xaml file
🙂
Text to Speech – WP8
Windows Phone 8 has included the Text to Speech feature out of the box in the platform.Text to speech is very easy to use in your App (only takes 2 lines of code) using ‘SpeechSynthesizer’ class.
Text to Speech
Below is the code
var synthesizer = new SpeechSynthesizer();
await synthesizer.SpeakTextAsync(“Your text here”);
Copy and paste above code in button ‘Click’ event.
Also we can set the ‘VoiceInformation’ (i.e., Language, Gender etc…) to the speech.
Refer link for more details.
🙂
Playing a song from library – WP8
Here is the logic to play a particular song from library.
Logic is to loop through all the songs in Media Library and if the song name matches to our song play the song.
string favoriteSong = “mySong.mp3”;
using (Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Media.MediaLibrary library = new Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Media.MediaLibrary()) {
foreach (var song in library.Songs) {
if (song.Name == favoriteSong) {
FrameworkDispatcher.Update();
// Play the song
Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Media.MediaPlayer.Play(song);
break;
}
}
library.Dispose();
}
🙂
Setting the Start Page – Windows Phone 8
In my windows phone 8 application I have 2 xaml files.
By default when you run the application, it opens ‘MainPage.xaml’.
To set my second file (i.e., ‘MediaPlayer.xaml’) as start page.
• Open ‘WMAppManifest.xml’
• In ‘Application UI’ tab, set Navigation Page = MediaPlayer.xamlSet Navigation Page WP8
We can also change it in App.xaml in the Application_Launching event with below statement
App.RootFrame.Navigate(new Uri("/MediaPlayer.xaml",UriKind.Relative));
🙂
System.UnauthorizedAccessException – Windows Phone 8 application
These days I started practicing windows phone 8 applications.
In my first application, I tried to call a number using Windows Phone Stack using below code.
WP 8 Phone DIaler
PhoneCallTask phoneCallTask = new PhoneCallTask();
phoneCallTask.PhoneNumber = “1234567890”;
phoneCallTask.DisplayName = “Rajeev”;
phoneCallTask.Show();
While executing the code block I got below exception
An unhandled exception of type ‘System.UnauthorizedAccessException’ occurred in System.Windows.ni.dll
Access Denied WP8
Fix
- We have to enable ‘Phone Dialer’ capability in ‘WMAppManifest.xml’ file
- In the Project ,open ‘WMAppManifest.xml’ file under ‘Properties’ folder
- Go to ‘Capabilities’ tab and check ‘ID_CAP_PHONEDIALER’ check box.
WMAppManifest
App Manifest file
- Each Windows Phone app has a manifest file that contains details about the app, such as the App ID and the capabilities that the app uses.
Rajeev Pentyala - Microsoft Power Platform 
