Creating and Developing Managed Device Projects
The Visual Studio integrated development environment (IDE) provides tools that make it easy to develop smart device projects and design user interfaces (UI).
Designing a User Interface
The Windows Forms Designer for devices resembles the desktop designer because it enables you to quickly and conveniently create user interfaces. Although you can also create your UI by manually writing your own code, designers enable you to do this work much faster. There are three main steps when you use the Windows Forms Designer:
Adding controls by dragging and dropping them to the design surface.
Setting initial properties for the controls.
Writing handlers for specified events.
To become familiar with the designer, see Walkthrough: Creating Windows Forms Applications for a Device.
There are differences when you work with the designer for devices. You must consider issues such as different platforms, different screen sizes, and changes in screen orientation. The following topics in this section discuss these issues:
IDE Features in Smart Device Projects
IDE features, such as code editors and IntelliSense, in smart device projects are inherited from desktop projects. For information, see Using the Visual C# IDE and Using the Visual Basic Editor.
The following topics in this section describe IDE features that are specific to devices:
How to: Create Device Applications Using Visual Basic or Visual C#
How to: Show Configuration Manager in Visual Basic Projects (Devices)
How to: Provision a Device in a Visual Basic or Visual C# Project