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Microsoft Visual Basic CTP for Windows Phone Developer Tools Tutorial

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Today we announced availability of the Microsoft Visual Basic CTP for Windows Phone Developer Tools. Details of the announcement can be found on Soma's blog.

This CTP installs on top of the final Windows Phone Developer Tools announced last week and enables you to write Windows Phone 7 apps in Visual Basic. Installation steps for this CTP are:

Let's walk through an example:

Open Visual Studio and create a new project by choosing File, New Project. All the C# Windows Phone 7 app templates are available for Visual Basic, including the new Panorama and Pivot applications.

 

 Selecting the Panorama application above creates a Visual Basic app that uses the Panorama UI metaphor.

Visual Basic apps have full designer support, including automatically updating code-behind files and IntelliSense and refactoring for both XAML and Visual Basic. For example, in this app let's give the Panorama control a name. Add Name ="panorama1" to the Panorama tag like this:

You can now switch to the code window and get IntelliSense when you try to complete Me.panorama1. In the InitializeComponent method add Me.panorama1.Title="VB WP7" and hit F5. This launches the app in the Windows Phone emulator.

You can click-drag in the emulator to swipe and slide the app to use the panorama metaphor. Notice that hitting F5 launches the app in debug mode. You can use regular debugger features like setting breakpoints and using watch windows, call stack window, etc.

 

 

 

 

Note that if you have phone unlocked and connected, you can debug directly on the phone as well. All you need to do is change the deployment target before hitting F5:

As you can see, this is a full featured CTP of Visual Basic for Windows Phone Development.  Note that Windows Phone 7 has already shipped and only supports C# at this time.  The functionality in this CTP will be included in a future version of Windows Phone (details will be provided in the future).  When we formally release the VB tools you should expect the functionality will be included in a corresponding Express release for the phone in addition to a plug-in for Visual Studio Pro (and above).

Here are some additional useful links:

Please try out this CTP and let us know what you think.

Enjoy!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    September 22, 2010
    Ok, now I know why MS employees held an unofficial iPhone funeral - the VB support is the killer. Just imagine these apps for WP7.

  • Anonymous
    September 23, 2010
    With VB support - we have a huge developer based with some of the best developer tools in the business.    

  • Anonymous
    September 23, 2010
    I want to make sure I understand this comment: "The functionality in this CTP will be included in a future version of Windows Phone (details will be provided in the future)." Does this mean we can develop apps with VB, but not deploy them to the marketplace? If so, any timeline on when the devices will support VB applications? Hopefully, I'm misunderstanding this comment. Source language shouldn't matter when compiling/deploying. Thanks

  • Anonymous
    September 23, 2010
    @Joel - The CTP is not ready for production level work yet (it does not come with a "Go Live" licsense).  Because of this you can build applications for testing including deploying them to an unlocked phone.  We're looking for your feedback on the CTP and based on that and release timing we will be able to open up submissions in the future.  Hope that helps clarify

  • Anonymous
    September 23, 2010
    There are a few implementation items under the covers which should change between CTP and Release.  

  • Anonymous
    September 27, 2010
    Sweet! I have been waiting for the ability to program in VB for Windows Phone 7.

  • Anonymous
    October 01, 2010
    The comment has been removed