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Enumerating Bluetooth Devices from .NETCF

I recently had a project where I needed to send data to Bluetooth devices. The client applications where to run in several platforms, currently only J2ME (Nokia phones) and Windows Mobile phones. Windows Mobile actually offers a pretty decent Bluetooth stack but not all devices use this. One of the devices I needed to use used the Widcomm stack. Luckily, there is an open source project called 32feet.NET which came in very handy for providing a layer over the 2 different stacks I use. The 32feet.NET library was also incredibly easy and fun to use.

In this article I'd like to demonstrate how to enumerate Bluetooth devices using .NETCF and the 32feet.NET library. The following code will work on both Microsoft and Widcomm Bluetooth stacks:

using System.Diagnostics;
using InTheHand.Net.Sockets;
 
namespace BluetoothSample
{
    static class Program
    {
        private static void Main()
        {
            BluetoothDeviceInfo[] devices;
            using (BluetoothClient sdp = new BluetoothClient())
                devices = sdp.DiscoverDevices();
 
            foreach (BluetoothDeviceInfo deviceInfo in devices)
            {
                Debug.WriteLine(string.Format("{0} ({1})",deviceInfo.DeviceName, deviceInfo.DeviceAddress));
            }
        }
    }
}

An interesting thing I had to consider for this project was the CPU architecture or endianness of the device I'm running on and the device I'm sending data to. I needed to reverse the byte order of the numeric data I sent and received.

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Posted by christian.resma.helle on Thursday, July 29, 2010 2:25 AM
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Improve .NETCF Build Performance in Visual Studio

A lot of .NETCF developers are surprisingly not aware of the Platform Verification Task in Visual Studio. Disabling this in the build process will speed up the build of .NETCF projects. To make things quick and short, here's what you need to do:

1) Open the file C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Microsoft.CompactFramework.Common.targets for editing.

2) Change the following:

   99   <Target
  100     Name="PlatformVerificationTask">
  101     <PlatformVerificationTask
  102       PlatformFamilyName="$(PlatformFamilyName)"
  103       PlatformID="$(PlatformID)"
  104       SourceAssembly="@(IntermediateAssembly)"
  105       ReferencePath="@(ReferencePath)"
  106       TreatWarningsAsErrors="$(TreatWarningsAsErrors)"
  107       PlatformVersion="$(TargetFrameworkVersion)"/>
  108   </Target> 

to:

   99   <Target
  100     Name="PlatformVerificationTask">
  101     <PlatformVerificationTask
  102       Condition="'$(DoPlatformVerificationTask)'=='true'"
  103       PlatformFamilyName="$(PlatformFamilyName)"
  104       PlatformID="$(PlatformID)"
  105       SourceAssembly="@(IntermediateAssembly)"
  106       ReferencePath="@(ReferencePath)"
  107       TreatWarningsAsErrors="$(TreatWarningsAsErrors)"
  108       PlatformVersion="$(TargetFrameworkVersion)"/>
  109   </Target>
 
The following configuration above was an excert from an article called Platform Verification Task leading to slow builds on compact framework projects

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Posted by christian.resma.helle on Wednesday, July 28, 2010 4:51 AM
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ListView Custom Drawing in .NETCF

In this article I would like to demonstrate how to do custom drawing in the ListView control that the .NET Compact Framework provides. I'll be extending the code I published previously in the article entitled ListView Extended Styles in .NETCF

This is normally a very tedious and frustrating task to do and to accomplish this task we'll have to take advantage of the custom drawing service Windows CE provides for certain controls. A very good reference for custom drawing is an MSDN article called Customizing a Control's Appearance using Custom Draw. Before going any further, I may have to warn you about the extensive interop code involved in this task.

We'll have to handle the ListView windows messages ourselves, and we accomplish this by subclassing this ListView. Subclassing a window means that we assign a new window procedure for messages that are meant for the ListView. This can be done through the SetWindowLong() method with the GWL_WNDPROC parameter. When subclassing, the developer is responsible for choosing which messages they want to handle, which to ignore, and which they let operating system handle. To have the operating system handle the message, a call to CallWindowProc() is done using a pointer to original window procedure.

Before setting the new window procedure its important to get a pointer to the original one in case the developer wishes to let the operating system handle the message. This is done through GetWindowLong()Let's get started...First we need to define the interop structures for custom drawing

 

    struct RECT
    {
        public int left;
        public int top;
        public int right;
        public int bottom;
    }
 
    struct NMHDR
    {
        public IntPtr hwndFrom;
        public IntPtr idFrom;
        public int code;
    }
 
    struct NMCUSTOMDRAW
    {
        public NMHDR nmcd;
        public int dwDrawStage;
        public IntPtr hdc;
        public RECT rc;
        public int dwItemSpec;
        public int uItemState;
        public IntPtr lItemlParam;
    }
 
    struct NMLVCUSTOMDRAW
    {
        public NMCUSTOMDRAW nmcd;
        public int clrText;
        public int clrTextBk;
        public int iSubItem;
        public int dwItemType;
        public int clrFace;
        public int iIconEffect;
        public int iIconPhase;
        public int iPartId;
        public int iStateId;
        public RECT rcText;
        public uint uAlign;
    }
 

Note: In C# (and VB and C++), the StructLayout is Sequencial by default, hence I didn't state itThe P/Invoke declarations we need are the following: 

 

    [DllImport("coredll.dll")]
    static extern IntPtr CallWindowProc(IntPtr lpPrevWndFunc, IntPtr hWnd, uint Msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);
 
    [DllImport("coredll")]
    static extern int SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int Msg, int wParam, ref RECT lParam);
 
    [DllImport("coredll.dll")]
    static extern uint SendMessage(IntPtr hwnd, uint msg, uint wparam, uint lparam);
 
    [DllImport("coredll.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    static extern int SetWindowLong(IntPtr hWnd, int nIndex, WndProcDelegate newProc);
 
    [DllImport("coredll.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    static extern IntPtr GetWindowLong(IntPtr hWnd, int nIndex);
 

And to make life a bit easier, I created some extension methods to the RECT struct we just defined.

 

     static class RectangleExtensions

    {
        public static Rectangle ToRectangle(this RECT rectangle)
        {
            return Rectangle.FromLTRB(rectangle.left, rectangle.top, rectangle.right, rectangle.bottom);
        }
 
        public static RectangleF ToRectangleF(this RECT rectangle)
        {
            return new RectangleF(rectangle.left, rectangle.top, rectangle.right, rectangle.bottom);
        }
    }
 
 

We'll need the following constants defined in the Platform SDK 

 

    const int GWL_WNDPROC = -4;
    const int WM_NOTIFY = 0x4E;
    const int NM_CUSTOMDRAW = (-12);
    const int CDRF_NOTIFYITEMDRAW = 0x00000020;
    const int CDRF_NOTIFYSUBITEMDRAW = CDRF_NOTIFYITEMDRAW;
    const int CDRF_NOTIFYPOSTPAINT = 0x00000010;
    const int CDRF_SKIPDEFAULT = 0x00000004;
    const int CDRF_DODEFAULT = 0x00000000;
    const int CDDS_PREPAINT = 0x00000001;
    const int CDDS_POSTPAINT = 0x00000002;
    const int CDDS_ITEM = 0x00010000;
    const int CDDS_ITEMPREPAINT = (CDDS_ITEM | CDDS_PREPAINT);
    const int CDDS_SUBITEM = 0x00020000;
    const int CDIS_SELECTED = 0x0001;
    const int LVM_GETSUBITEMRECT = (0x1000 + 56);
 
 

Custom drawing in the ListView will only work in the Details view mode. To ensure this, I set the View to View.Details in the constructor method. Since I'm extending my old ListViewEx (Enables ListView Extended Styles) I'm gonna enable Double buffering, Grid lines, and the Gradient background. I'm gonna enable subclassing on the ListView only when the parent is changed, this is because I need to receive messages sent to the parent control of the ListView. We also need a delegate for the new window procedure and a pointer to the original window procedure. And last but not the least we need the actual window procedure method. 

 

    delegate IntPtr WndProcDelegate(IntPtr hWnd, uint msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);
    IntPtr lpPrevWndFunc;
 
    public ListViewCustomDraw()
    {
        View = View.Details;
        DoubleBuffering = true;
        GridLines = true;
        Gradient = true;
 
        ParentChanged += delegate
        {
            lpPrevWndFunc = GetWindowLong(Parent.Handle, GWL_WNDPROC);
            SetWindowLong(Parent.Handle, GWL_WNDPROC, WndProc);
        };
    }
 
    private IntPtr WndProc(IntPtr hWnd, uint msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam)
    {
        if (msg == WM_NOTIFY)
        {
            var nmhdr = (NMHDR)Marshal.PtrToStructure(lParam, typeof(NMHDR));
            if (nmhdr.hwndFrom == Handle && nmhdr.code == NM_CUSTOMDRAW)
                return CustomDraw(hWnd, msg, wParam, lParam);
 
        }
 
        return CallWindowProc(lpPrevWndFunc, hWnd, msg, wParam, lParam);
    }
 
 

In the new window procedure, we are only really interested in the WM_NOTIFY message, because this is what the NM_CUSTOMDRAW message is sent through. The LPARAM parameter of the message will contain the NMHDR which then contains the NM_CUSTOMDRAW message. The LPARAM also contains the NMLVCUSTOMDRAW which provide state and information about the ListView.

The trickiest part in performing custom drawing in the ListView is handling the drawing stage. We create a method called CustomDraw to handle the different drawing stages of the ListView 

 

    private IntPtr CustomDraw(IntPtr hWnd, uint msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam)
    {
        int result;
        var nmlvcd = (NMLVCUSTOMDRAW)Marshal.PtrToStructure(lParam, typeof(NMLVCUSTOMDRAW));
        switch (nmlvcd.nmcd.dwDrawStage)
        {
            case CDDS_PREPAINT:
                result = CDRF_NOTIFYITEMDRAW;
                break;
 
            case CDDS_ITEMPREPAINT:
                var itemBounds = nmlvcd.nmcd.rc.ToRectangle();
                if ((nmlvcd.nmcd.uItemState & CDIS_SELECTED) != 0)
                {
                    using (var brush = new SolidBrush(SystemColors.Highlight))
                    using (var graphics = Graphics.FromHdc(nmlvcd.nmcd.hdc))
                        graphics.FillRectangle(brush, itemBounds);
                }
 
                result = CDRF_NOTIFYSUBITEMDRAW;
                break;
 
            case CDDS_SUBITEM | CDDS_ITEMPREPAINT:
                var index = nmlvcd.nmcd.dwItemSpec;
                var rect = new RECT();
                rect.top = nmlvcd.iSubItem;
                SendMessage(Handle, LVM_GETSUBITEMRECT, index, ref rect);
                rect.left += 2;
 
                Color textColor;
                if ((nmlvcd.nmcd.uItemState & CDIS_SELECTED) != 0)
                    textColor = SystemColors.HighlightText;
                else
                    textColor = SystemColors.ControlText;
 
                using (var brush = new SolidBrush(textColor))
                using (var graphics = Graphics.FromHdc(nmlvcd.nmcd.hdc))
                    graphics.DrawString(Items[index].SubItems[nmlvcd.iSubItem].Text,
                                        Font,
                                        brush,
                                        rect.ToRectangleF());
 
                result = CDRF_SKIPDEFAULT | CDRF_NOTIFYSUBITEMDRAW;
                break;
 
            default:
                result = CDRF_DODEFAULT;
                break;
        }
 
        return (IntPtr)result;
    }
 
 

In the first stage we handle is the CDDS_PREPAINT. Here we return CDRF_NOTIFYITEMDRAW to tell that we want to handle drawing of the row ourselves. After this we receive the CDDS_ITEMPREPAINT where we can draw the entire row.

We check if the row is selected through the uItemState field of NMCUSTOMDRAW, if this field has the CDIS_SELECTED flag then it means the item is selected, hence we draw a fill rectangle. After handling the CDDS_ITEMPREPAINT, we return CDRF_NOTIFYSUBITEMDRAW to tell that we want to draw the sub items ourselves.

For drawing the sub items we need to handle CDDS_SUBITEM | CDDS_ITEMPREPAINT. We can get the position index of the item through the dwItemSpec field of NMCUSTOMDRAW. To get the bounds of the current sub item we send the LVM_GETSUBITEMRECT message to the ListView and pass a pointer to RECT as the LPARAM. Before sending this message, set the "top" field of the RECT to the index of the sub item (retrieved from iSubItem field of NMLVCUSTOMDRAW. After drawing the sub item we return CDRF_SKIPDEFAULT | CDRF_NOTIFYSUBITEMDRAW to tell that we only care about handling the next sub item.

Well I hope you guys find this interesting and helpful. To keep things simple, I only demonstrated displaying plan text and a plain rectangle for the selection.

If you're interested in the full source code then you can grab it here.

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Posted by christian.resma.helle on Tuesday, July 27, 2010 2:54 AM
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ListView Background Image in .NETCF

In this short entry I'd like to demonstrate how to display a background image in the ListView control. For this we will send the LVM_SETBKIMAGE or the LVM_GETBKIMAGE message to the ListView control with the LVBKIMAGE struct as the LPARAM. Unfortunately, the Windows CE version of LVBKIMAGE does not support LVBKIF_SOURCE_URL flag which allows using an image file on the file system for the background image of the ListView.

The layout of the background image can be either tiled or specified by an offset percentage. The background image is not affected by custom drawing, unless of course you decide to fill each sub item rectangle. For setting the background image we use the LVBKIF_SOURCE_HBITMAP flag together with the layout which is either LVBKIF_STYLE_TILE or LVBKIF_STYLE_NORMAL. If we set the layout to LVBKIF_STYLE_NORMAL, then we have the option of setting where the image will be drawn by setting the value of xOffsetPercentage and yOffsetPercentage.

In this example I'd like to make use of extension methods to add the SetBackgroundImage() and GetBackgroundImage() methods to ListView. This can of course be easily used to in a property to an inherited ListView. 

public static class ListViewExtensions
{
    [DllImport("coredll")]
    static extern int SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int Msg, int wParam, ref LVBKIMAGE lParam);
 
    const int LVM_FIRST = 0x1000;
    const int LVM_SETBKIMAGE = (LVM_FIRST + 138);
    const int LVM_GETBKIMAGE = (LVM_FIRST + 139);
    const int LVBKIF_SOURCE_NONE = 0x00000000;
    const int LVBKIF_SOURCE_HBITMAP = 0x00000001;
    const int LVBKIF_STYLE_TILE = 0x00000010;
    const int LVBKIF_STYLE_NORMAL = 0x00000000;
 
    struct LVBKIMAGE
    {
        public int ulFlags;
        public IntPtr hbm;
        public IntPtr pszImage; // not supported
        public int cchImageMax;
        public int xOffsetPercent;
        public int yOffsetPercent;
    }
 
    public static void SetBackgroundImage(this ListView listView, Bitmap bitmap)
    {
        SetBackgroundImage(listView, bitmap, false);
    }
 
    public static void SetBackgroundImage(this ListView listView, Bitmap bitmap, bool tileLayout)
    {
        SetBackgroundImage(listView, bitmap, tileLayout, 0, 0);
    }
 
    public static void SetBackgroundImage(
        this ListView listView,
        Bitmap bitmap,
        bool tileLayout,
        int xOffsetPercent,
        int yOffsetPercent)
    {
        LVBKIMAGE lvBkImage = new LVBKIMAGE();
        if (bitmap == null)
            lvBkImage.ulFlags = LVBKIF_SOURCE_NONE;
        else
        {
            lvBkImage.ulFlags = LVBKIF_SOURCE_HBITMAP | (tileLayout ? LVBKIF_STYLE_TILE : LVBKIF_STYLE_NORMAL);
            lvBkImage.hbm = bitmap.GetHbitmap();
            lvBkImage.xOffsetPercent = xOffsetPercent;
            lvBkImage.yOffsetPercent = yOffsetPercent;
        }
 
        SendMessage(listView.Handle, LVM_SETBKIMAGE, 0, ref lvBkImage);
    }
 
    public static Bitmap GetBackgroundImage(this ListView listView)
    {
        LVBKIMAGE lvBkImage = new LVBKIMAGE();
        lvBkImage.ulFlags = LVBKIF_SOURCE_HBITMAP;
 
        SendMessage(listView.Handle, LVM_GETBKIMAGE, 0, ref lvBkImage);
 
        if (lvBkImage.hbm == IntPtr.Zero)
            return null;
        else
            return Bitmap.FromHbitmap(lvBkImage.hbm);
    }
}
 
Here's an example of exposing the background image as a property in an inherited ListView by using the extension methods above.
 
class ListViewEx : ListView
{
    public Bitmap BackgroundImage
    {
        get { return this.GetBackgroundImage(); }
        set { this.SetBackgroundImage(value, BackgroundLayout == BackgroundImageLayout.Tile); }
    }
 
    public BackgroundImageLayout BackgroundLayout { get; set; }
 
    public enum BackgroundImageLayout
    {
        Tile,
        Center
    }
}
 
A small catch with the ListView background image is that it is only supported in Windows CE 5.0 and later. Hope you found this information useful.

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Posted by christian.resma.helle on Tuesday, July 27, 2010 2:47 AM
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ListView Extended Styles in .NETCF

In this article I would like to demonstrate how to extend the ListViewcontrol in the .NET Compact Framework. We will focus on enabling someof the ListView Extended Styles. If we take a look at the WindowsMobile 5.0 Pocket PC SDK we will see that there are certain features ofListView that aren't provided by the .NET Compact Framework.

Anexample of the ListView extended styles is displaying gridlines arounditems and subitems, double buffering, and drawing a gradientbackground. These extended styles can be enabled in native code byusing the ListView_SetExtendedListViewStyle macro or by sendingLVM_SETEXTENDEDLISTVIEWSTYLE messages to the ListView.

Send Message

Wewill be using a lot of P/Invoking so let's start with creating aninternal static class called NativeMethods. We need a P/Invokedeclaration for SendMessage(HWND, UINT, UINT, UINT).

internal static class NativeMethods
{
  [DllImport("coredll.dll")]
  public static extern uint SendMessage(IntPtr hwnd, uint msg, uint wparam, uint lparam);
}

Enabling and Disabling Extended Styles

Nowthat we have our SendMessage P/Invoke declaration in place, we canbegin extending the ListView control. Let's start off with creating aclass called ListViewEx that inherits from ListView. We need to lookinto the native header files of the Pocket PC SDK to get the ListViewMessages. For now we will only need LVM_[GET/SET]EXTENDEDLISTVIEWSTYLEmessage which will be the main focus of all the examples. I willdeclare my class as a partial class and create all the pieces one byone for each example. Let's create a private method called SetStyle(),this method will enable/disable extended styles for the ListView

public partial class ListViewEx : ListView
{
  private const uint LVM_FIRST = 0x1000;
  private const uint LVM_SETEXTENDEDLISTVIEWSTYLE = LVM_FIRST + 54;
  private const uint LVM_GETEXTENDEDLISTVIEWSTYLE = LVM_FIRST + 55;

  private void SetStyle(uint style, bool enable)
  {
    uint currentStyle = NativeMethods.SendMessage(
      Handle,
      LVM_GETEXTENDEDLISTVIEWSTYLE,
      0,
      0);

    if (enable)
      NativeMethods.SendMessage(
        Handle,
        LVM_SETEXTENDEDLISTVIEWSTYLE,
        0,
        currentStyle | style);
    else
      NativeMethods.SendMessage(
        Handle,
        LVM_SETEXTENDEDLISTVIEWSTYLE,
        0,
        currentStyle & ~style);
  }
}

Grid Lines

Formy first example, let's enable GridLines in the ListView control. Wecan do this by using LVS_EX_GRIDLINES. This displays gridlines arounditems and sub-items and is available only in conjunction with theDetails mode.

public partial class ListViewEx : ListView
{
  private const uint LVS_EX_GRIDLINES = 0x00000001;

  private bool gridLines = false;
  public bool GridLines
  {
    get { return gridLines; }
    set
    {
      gridLines = value;
      SetStyle(LVS_EX_GRIDLINES, gridLines);
    }
  }
}

Whatthe code above did was add the LVS_EX_GRIDLINES style to the existingextended styles by using the SetStyle() helper method we first created.

Aninteresting discovery to this is that the Design Time attributes of theCompact Framework ListView control includes the GridLines property. Nowthat we created the property in the code, when we open the VisualStudio Properties Window for our ListViewEx we will notice thatGridLines property we created falls immediately under the "Appearance"category and even includes a description :)

Double Buffering

Doyou notice that when you populate a ListView control with a lot ofitems, the drawing flickers a lot when you scroll up and down the list?Although it is not in the Pocket PC documentation for Windows Mobile5.0, the ListView actually has an extended style calledLVS_EX_DOUBLEBUFFER. Enabling the LVS_EX_DOUBLEBUFFER solves theflickering issue and gives the user a more smooth scrolling experience.

public partial class ListViewEx : ListView
{
  private const uint LVS_EX_DOUBLEBUFFER = 0x00010000;

  private bool doubleBuffering = false;
  public bool DoubleBuffering
  {
    get { return doubleBuffering; }
    set
    {
      doubleBuffering = value;
      SetStyle(LVS_EX_DOUBLEBUFFER, doubleBuffering);
    }
  }
}

Gradient Background

Anothercool extended style is the LVS_EX_GRADIENT. This extended style draws agradient background similar to the one found in Pocket Outlook. It usesthe system colors and fades from right to left. But what is really coolabout this is that this is done by the OS. All we had to do was enablethe style.

public partial class ListViewEx : ListView
{
  private const uint LVS_EX_GRADIENT = 0x20000000;

  private bool gradient = false;
  public bool Gradient
  {
    get { return doubleBuffering; }
    set
    {
      gradient = value;
      SetStyle(LVS_EX_GRADIENT, gradient);
    }
  }
}

Ifyou want to look more into extended styles then I suggest you check outthe Pocket PC Platform SDK documentation. There a few other extendedstyles that I did not discuss that might be useful for you. You can getthe definitions in a file called commctrl.h in your Windows Mobile SDK"INCLUDE" directory.

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Posted by christian.resma.helle on Thursday, October 30, 2008 7:25 AM
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Unit Testing for Smart Devices Webcast

On the 28th of February 2008, Microsoft Denmark will have the first and largest online launch for Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, and Visual Studio 2008. We made a few webcasts related to the products and technologies to be released. Here's one that I made entitled "Unit Testing for Smart Devices"

http://blogs.commentor.dk/downloads/smart_device_unit_testing.wmv

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Posted by christian.resma.helle on Thursday, February 21, 2008 2:44 AM
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Integrating with Garmin Mobile XT

Half a year ago, I wrote an article about Integrating with TomTom Navigator. This time I'm gonna discuss how you can integrate a .NET Compact Framework application with the Garmin Mobile XT navigation software. The process is a bit similar to integrating with TomTom because the Garmin SDK only provides a native API.

Before we get started, we need to have the Garmin Mobile XT for the Windows Mobile platform. Unlike TomTom's SDK, Garmin's SDK is available free of charge for download.

Before we can get more into detail, we will need the following:
1) Visual Studio 2005 or 2008
2) Windows Mobile 5.0 SDK for Pocket PC
3) A windows mobile device a GPS receiver and the Garmin Mobile XT (and Maps)
4) Garmin Mobile XT SDK for the Windows Mobile platform

We will be making the same projects we made for Integrating with TomTom Navigator:
1) Native wrapper for the Garmin XT SDK
2) Managed Garmin XT SDK wrapper
3) Device application that will call the Garmin XT SDK wrapper methods


Let's get started...


Native wrapper for the Garmin XT SDK

The Garmin SDK ships with C++ header files and a static library that a native application can link to. For that reason we need to create a native DLL that exposes the methods that we need as C type funtions. Let's call this Garmin.Native.dll.

In this article, we will implement a managed call to the Garmin Mobile XT to allow us to launch the Garmin Mobile XT, Navigate to a specific address or GPS coordinate, and to Show an address on the Map. These tasks will be performed on a native wrapper and which will be called from managed code.

We will be using the following methods from the Garmin Mobile XT SDK:
- QueLaunchApp
- QueAPIOpen
- QueAPIClose
- QueCreatePointFromAddress
- QueCreatePoint
- QueRouteToPoint
- QueViewPointOnMap

These methods return specific error codes describing whether the command executed successfully or not. This error information is translated to a .NET Framework enum which we will see later.


#include "QueAPI.h"

#define EXPORTC extern "C" __declspec(dllexport)

long DecimalDegreesToSemicircles(double degrees);

BOOL APIENTRY DllMain(
  HANDLE hModule,
  DWORD ul_reason_for_call,
  LPVOID lpReserved)
{
  switch (ul_reason_for_call)
  {
    case DLL_PROCESS_ATTACH:
    case DLL_THREAD_ATTACH:
    case DLL_THREAD_DETACH:
    case DLL_PROCESS_DETACH:
    break;
  }
  return TRUE;
}

static void QueCallback(QueNotificationT8 aNotification)
{
  // Used for debugging purposes
}

EXPORTC int CloseAPI()
{
  QueErrT16 err = QueAPIClose(QueCallback);
  return err;
}

EXPORTC int OpenNavigator()
{
  QueErrT16 err = QueLaunchApp(queAppMap);
  return err;
}

EXPORTC int NavigateToAddress(
  const wchar_t *streetAddress,
  const wchar_t *city,
  const wchar_t *postalCode,
  const wchar_t *state,
  const wchar_t *country)
{
  QueErrT16 err = QueAPIOpen(QueCallback);
  if (err != gpsErrNone) {
    return err;
  }

  QueSelectAddressType address;
  QuePointHandle point = queInvalidPointHandle;

  memset(&address, 0, sizeof(QueSelectAddressType));
  address.streetAddress = streetAddress;
  address.city = city;
  address.postalCode = postalCode;
  address.state = state;
  address.country = country;

  err = QueCreatePointFromAddress(&address, &point);
  if (err == queErrNone && point != queInvalidPointHandle) {
    err = QueRouteToPoint(point);
  }

  QueAPIClose(QueCallback);
  return err;
}

long DecimalDegreesToSemicircles(double degrees)
{
  return degrees * (0x80000000 / 180);
}

EXPORTC int NavigateToCoordinates(double latitude, double longitude)
{
  QueErrT16 err = QueAPIOpen(QueCallback);
  if (err != gpsErrNone) {
    return err;
  }

  QuePointType point;
  QuePositionDataType position;

  memset(&position, 0, sizeof(QuePositionDataType));
  position.lat = DecimalDegreesToSemicircles(latitude);
  position.lon = DecimalDegreesToSemicircles(longitude);

  memset(&point, 0, sizeof(QuePointType));
  point.posn = position;

  QuePointHandle hPoint;
  memset(&hPoint, 0, sizeof(QuePointHandle));

  err = QueCreatePoint(&point, &hPoint);
  if (err == queErrNone && hPoint != queInvalidPointHandle) {
    err = QueRouteToPoint(hPoint);
  }

  QueAPIClose(QueCallback);
  return err;
}

EXPORTC int ShowAddressOnMap(
  const wchar_t *streetAddress,
  const wchar_t *city,
  const wchar_t *postalCode,
  const wchar_t *state,
  const wchar_t *country)
{
  QueErrT16 err = QueAPIOpen(QueCallback);
  if (err != gpsErrNone) {
    return err;
  }

  QueSelectAddressType address;
  QuePointHandle point = queInvalidPointHandle;

  memset(&address, 0, sizeof(QueSelectAddressType));
  address.streetAddress = streetAddress;
  address.city = city;
  address.postalCode = postalCode;
  address.state = state;
  address.country = country;

  err = QueCreatePointFromAddress(&address, &point);
  if (err == queErrNone && point != queInvalidPointHandle) {
    err = QueViewPointOnMap(point);
  }

  QueAPIClose(QueCallback);
  return err;
}

The Garmin Mobile XT SDK works in a straight forward way. Before making any calls to the API, you first need to Open it. Once open, you can start executing a series of methods and then once you're done you must Close the API. The Garmin Mobile XT has to be running before you can execute commands to it, otherwise you will get a communication error.

You might notice in the code above an empty static method called QueCallback(QueNotificationT8 aNotification). This is a callback method that receives the information about the application state. You can use this for making callbacks from native to managed code. You can pass a delegate method from managed code to the native methods that expect QueNotificationCallback as a parameter. We will only use it for debugging purposes in this example. We will not dig more into that in this article.

Normally when reverse geocoding an address to a GPS coordinates using some free service, you will get the coordinates in decimal degrees (WGS84 decimal format). Navigating to a coordinate using the Garmin Mobile XT SDK requires the coordinates to be in semicircles (2^31 semicircles equals 180 degrees).

To convert decimal degrees to semicircles we use the following formula:
semicircles = decimal degrees * (2^31 / 180)


Managed wrapper

In my article Integrating with TomTom Navigator, I created a Generic Navigator wrapper that uses the INavigator interface for defining methods to be used by the managed wrapper. The purpose of the Generic Navigator was to allow the application to integrate with several navigation solutions without changing any of the existing code. As I already discussed this in the past, I will skip this part and only focus on how to integrate with Garmin Mobile XT.

We first need to create an enumeration containing error codes we receive from the native wrapper.

public enum GarminErrorCodes : int
{
  None = 0,
  NotOpen = 1,
  InvalidParameter,
  OutOfMemory,
  NoData,
  AlreadyOpen,
  InvalidVersion,
  CommunicationError,
  CmndUnavailable,
  LibraryStillOpen,
  GeneralFailure,
  Cancelled,
  RelaunchNeeded
}

We of course need to create our P/Invoke declarations. This time let's put them in an internal class called NativeMethods()

internal class NativeMethods
{
  [DllImport("Garmin.Native.dll")]
  internal static extern int CloseAPI();

  [DllImport("Garmin.Native.dll")]
  internal static extern int OpenNavigator();

  [DllImport("Garmin.Native.dll")]
  internal static extern int NavigateToAddress(
    string address,
    string city,
    string postalcode,
    string state,
    string country);

  [DllImport("Garmin.Native.dll")]
  internal static extern int NavigateToCoordinates(
    double latitude,
    double longitude);

  [DllImport("Garmin.Native.dll")]
  internal static extern int ShowAddressOnMap(
    string address,
    string city,
    string postalcode,
    string state,
    string country);
}

Let's create a .NET exception that we can throw which contains native error details when a native method call fails. Let's call it GarminNativeException()

[Serializable]
public class GarminNativeException : Exception
{
  public GarminNativeException() { }

  public GarminNativeException(GarminErrorCodes native_error) { }

  public GarminNativeException(
    string message,
    GarminErrorCodes native_error) : base(message) { }
}

Now we need a class that we can use for calling the wrapped managed methods to the Garmin mobile XT. Let's call it GarminXT()

public class GarminXT : IDisposable
{
  public void Dispose()
  {
    NativeMethods.CloseAPI();
  }

  public void OpenNavigator()
  {
    GarminErrorCodes err = (GarminErrorCodes)NativeMethods.OpenNavigator();

    if (err != GarminErrorCodes.None) {
      ThrowGarminException(err);
    }
  }

  public void NavigateToAddress(
    string address,
    string city,
    string postalcode,
    string state,
    string country)
  {
    GarminErrorCodes err = (GarminErrorCodes)NativeMethods.NavigateToAddress(
      address,
      city,
      postalcode,
      state,
      country);

    if (err != GarminErrorCodes.None) {
      ThrowGarminException(err);
    }
  }

  public void NavigateToCoordinates(double latitude, double longitude)
  {
    GarminErrorCodes err = (GarminErrorCodes)NativeMethods.NavigateToCoordinates(
      latitude,
      longitude);

    if (err != GarminErrorCodes.None) {
      ThrowGarminException(err);
    }
  }

  public void ShowAddressOnMap(
    string address,
    string city,
    string postalcode,
    string state,
    string country)
  {
    GarminErrorCodes err = (GarminErrorCodes)NativeMethods.ShowAddressOnMap(
      address,
      city,
      postalcode,
      state,
      country);

    if (err != GarminErrorCodes.None) {
      ThrowGarminException(err);
    }
  }

  private GarminNativeException ThrowGarminException(GarminErrorCodes err)
  {
    string message = string.Empty;

    switch (err) {
      case GarminErrorCodes.NotOpen:
        message = "Close() called without having Open() first";
        break;
      case GarminErrorCodes.InvalidParameter:
        message = "Invalid parameter was passed to the function";
        break;
      case GarminErrorCodes.OutOfMemory:
        message = "Out of Memory";
        break;
      case GarminErrorCodes.NoData:
        message = "No Data Available";
        break;
      case GarminErrorCodes.AlreadyOpen:
        message = "The API is already open";
        break;
      case GarminErrorCodes.InvalidVersion:
        message = "The API is an incompatible version";
        break;
      case GarminErrorCodes.CommunicationError:
        message = "There was an error communicating with the API";
        break;
      case GarminErrorCodes.CmndUnavailable:
        message = "Command is unavailable";
        break;
      case GarminErrorCodes.LibraryStillOpen:
        message = "API is still open";
        break;
      case GarminErrorCodes.GeneralFailure:
        message = "General Failure";
        break;
      case GarminErrorCodes.Cancelled:
        message = "Action was cancelled by the user";
        break;
      case GarminErrorCodes.RelaunchNeeded:
        message = "Relaunch needed to load the libraries";
        break;
      default:
        break;
    }

    throw new GarminNativeException(message, err);
  }
}

The managed wrapper GarminXT() implements IDisposible for ensuring that the API will be closed when the GarminXT object gets disposed. I check the return code of every method to verify if the native method call succeeded or failed. If the native method call failed then I throw a GarminNativeException containing a text description of the error and the GarminErrorCode returned by the native method call.


Using the Managed Wrapper

Now that we have a managed wrapper for the Garmin Mobile XT SDK we can start testing it with a simple smart device application. Let's say that we created a simple application that accepts street address, city, postal code, country, latitude, longitude. We also have some buttons or menu items for: Navigating to an address, Navigating to coordinates, Showing an address on the map, and for launching Garmin Mobile XT.

Since the managed wrapper implements IDisposable, we surround our calls to it with the using statement:

using (GarminXT xt = new GarminXT()) {
  xt.OpenNavigator();
}

As I mentioned before, it is important that Garmin Mobile XT is running in the background for executing certain commands. Otherwise the managed Garmin XT wrapper will throw a GarminNativeException saying that there was an error communicating with the API. I would suggest handling the GarminNativeException everytime calls to the managed wrapper are made.

For launching Garmin Mobile XT:

try {
  using (GarminXT xt = new GarminXT()) {
    xt.OpenNavigator();
  }
}
catch (GarminNativeException ex) {
  Debug.Assert(false, ex.Message, ex.StackTrace);
}

For navigating to an address:

try {
  using (GarminXT xt = new GarminXT()) {
    xt.NavigateToAddress(
      "Hørkær 24",
      "Herlev",
      "2730",
      null,
      "Denmark");
  }
}
catch (GarminNativeException ex) {
  Debug.Assert(false, ex.Message, ex.StackTrace);
}

For navigating to coordinates:

try {
  using (GarminXT xt = new GarminXT()) {
    xt.NavigateToCoordinates(
      55.43019,
      12.26075);
  }
}
catch (GarminNativeException ex) {
  Debug.Assert(false, ex.Message, ex.StackTrace);
}

For showing an address on the map:

try {
  using (GarminXT xt = new GarminXT()) {
    xt.ShowAddressOnMap(
      "Hørkær 24",
      "Herlev",
      "2730",
      null,
      "Denmark");
  }
}
catch (GarminNativeException ex) {
  Debug.Assert(false, ex.Message, ex.StackTrace);
}


That wasn't that hard was it?

But there is one thing that I don't quite understand. Why do we have to wrap SDK's like this ourselves? Why don't they just provide managed SDK's? Hopefully this will change in the near future. Until then, I guess I can just write a few more articles about it.

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Posted by christian.resma.helle on Sunday, February 17, 2008 9:16 AM
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Transparent Controls in .NETCF

I work a lot with a graphic artist for developing solutions. The better the graphic artist you work with is, the harder it is to implement their designs to your application. One thing that my solutions have in common is that they all require transparent controls. My graphic artist loves having a image buttons on top of fancy background.

Here's some screen shots of what I've made with my graphic artist:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In these screen shots I heavily use a transparent label control over a Form that has a background image. I normally set my controls to be designer visible so I can drag and drop while designing. Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 will automatically load all Custom Controls and UserControls

Implementing Transparent Controls

For creating transparent controls, I need the following:

1) IControlBackground interface - contains BackgroundImage { get; }
2) TransparentControlBase - draws the BackgroundImage of an IControlBackground form
3) Transparent Control - Inherits from TransparentControlBase
4) FormBase Form - implements IControlBackground and draws the background image to the form

Let's start off with the IControlBackground interface. Like I mentioned above, it only contains a property called BackgroundImage.

public interface IControlBackground
{
  Image BackgroundImage { get; }
}

Next we will need to create the TransparentControlBase. Let's create a class that inherits from Control. We then need to override the OnPaintBackground() event to draw the IControlBackground.BackgroundImage of the Parent control. To do this, we create an instance of IControlBackground from the Parent. Once we have the BackgroundImage, we draw part of the BackgroundImage where the transparent control is lying on.

We also override the OnTextChanged() and OnParentChanged() events to force a re-draw whenever the text or parent of the control is changed.

public class TransparentControlBase : Control
{
  protected bool HasBackground = false;

  protected override void OnPaintBackground(PaintEventArgs e)
  {
    IControlBackground form = Parent as IControlBackground;
    if (form == null) {
      base.OnPaintBackground(e);
      return;
    } else {
      HasBackground = true;
    }

    e.Graphics.DrawImage(
      form.BackgroundImage,
      0,
      0,
      Bounds,
      GraphicsUnit.Pixel);
  }

  protected override void OnTextChanged(EventArgs e)
  {
    base.OnTextChanged(e);
    Invalidate();
  }

  protected override void OnParentChanged(EventArgs e)
  {
    base.OnParentChanged(e);
    Invalidate();
  }
}

Now we need to create a control that inherits from TransparentControlBase. I'll create a simple TransparentLabel control for this example. The control will have the same behavior as the standard Label control, except that it can be transparent when used over a form or control that implements IControlBackground.

public class TransparentLabel : TransparentControlBase
{
  ContentAlignment alignment = ContentAlignment.TopLeft;
  StringFormat format = null;
  Bitmap off_screen = null;

  public TransparentLabel()
  {
    format = new StringFormat();
  }

  public ContentAlignment TextAlign
  {
    get { return alignment; }
    set
    {
      alignment = value;
      switch (alignment) {
        case ContentAlignment.TopCenter:
          format.Alignment = StringAlignment.Center;
          format.LineAlignment = StringAlignment.Center;
          break;
        case ContentAlignment.TopLeft:
          format.Alignment = StringAlignment.Near;
          format.LineAlignment = StringAlignment.Near;
          break;
        case ContentAlignment.TopRight:
          format.Alignment = StringAlignment.Far;
          format.LineAlignment = StringAlignment.Far;
          break;
      }
    }
  }

  protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
  {
    if (!base.HasBackground) {
      if (off_screen == null) {
        off_screen = new Bitmap(ClientSize.Width, ClientSize.Height);
      }
      using (Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(off_screen)) {
        using (SolidBrush brush = new SolidBrush(Parent.BackColor)) {
          g.Clear(BackColor);
          g.FillRectangle(brush, ClientRectangle);
        }
      }
    } else {
      using (SolidBrush brush = new SolidBrush(ForeColor)) {
        e.Graphics.DrawString(
          Text,
          Font,
          brush,
          new Rectangle(0, 0, Width, Height),
          format);
      }
    }
  }
}

Now that we have our transparent controls, we need to create a Form that will contain these controls. First we need to create a base class that will implement IControlBackground and inherit from Form.

In this example, I added a background image to the solution and as an embedded resource. My default namespace is called TransparentSample and my background image is located at the root folder with the filename background.jpg

public class FormBase : Form, IControlBackground
{
  Bitmap background;

  public FormBase()
  {
    background = new Bitmap(
      Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream(
      "TransparentSample.background.jpg"));
  }

  protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
  {
    e.Graphics.DrawImage(background, 0, 0);
  }

  public Image BackgroundImage
  {
    get { return background; }
  }
}

For the last step, we need to create a Form that will contain these transparent controls. To start, let's add a new Form to our project and let it inherit from FormBase instead of Form.

Now we can add our transparent controls to the main form.

public class MainForm : FormBase
{
  TransparentLabel label;

  public MainForm()
  {
    label = new TransparentLabel();
    label.Font = new Font("Arial", 16f, FontStyle.Bold);
    label.ForeColor = Color.White;
    label.Text = "Transparent Label";
    label.Bounds = new Rectangle(20, 60, 200, 50);
    Controls.Add(label);
  }
}

That wasn't very complicated, was it? Having a nice and intuitive UI offers a very good user experience. Being creative, imaginative, and learning to work with a graphic artist can really pay off.

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SqlCeEngineEx - Extending the SqlCeEngine class

I use System.Data.SqlServer.SqlCeEngine() quite a lot in all my projects. I normally create the database on the fly when the application is launched for the first time and then I populate the initial data via a web service.

I often check if database objects exist before I create them. You can do this by querying the INFORMATION_SCHEMA views. I created a helper class called SqlCeEngineEx that contains the following methods for querying the INFORMATION_SCHEMA:

1) bool DoesTableExist(string table) - Checks if a table exists in the database
2) string[] GetTables() - Returns a string array of all the tables in the database
3) string[] GetTableConstraints(string table) - Returns a string array of all the constraints for a table
4) string[] GetTableConstraints() - Returns a string array of all the constraints in the database

And here is the full code:

public class SqlCeEngineEx : IDisposable
{
  private SqlCeEngine engine;

  public SqlCeEngineEx()
  {
   engine = new SqlCeEngine();
  }

  public SqlCeEngineEx(string connectionString)
  {
   engine = new SqlCeEngine(connectionString);
  }

  public bool DoesTableExist(string tablename)
  {
   bool result = false;

   using (SqlCeConnection conn = new SqlCeConnection(LocalConnectionString)) {
    conn.Open();
    using (SqlCeCommand cmd = conn.CreateCommand()) {
     cmd.CommandText =
      @"SELECT COUNT(TABLE_NAME)
       FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
       WHERE TABLE_NAME=@Name"
;
     cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Name", tablename);
     result = Convert.ToBoolean(cmd.ExecuteScalar());
    }
   }

   return result;
  }

  private string[] PopulateStringList(SqlCeCommand cmd)
  {
   List<string> list = new List<string>();

   using (SqlCeDataReader reader = cmd.ExecuteReader()) {
    while (reader.Read()) {
     list.Add(reader.GetString(0));
    }
   }

   return list.ToArray();
  }

  public string[] GetTables()
  {
   string[] tables;

   using (SqlCeConnection conn = new SqlCeConnection(LocalConnectionString)) {
    conn.Open();
    using (SqlCeCommand cmd = conn.CreateCommand()) {
     cmd.CommandText = "SELECT TABLE_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES";
     tables = PopulateStringList(cmd);
    }
   }

   return tables;
  }

  public string[] GetTableConstraints()
  {
   string[] constraints;

   using (SqlCeConnection conn = new SqlCeConnection(LocalConnectionString)) {
    conn.Open();
    using (SqlCeCommand cmd = conn.CreateCommand()) {
     cmd.CommandText = "SELECT CONSTRAINT_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS";
     constraints = PopulateStringList(cmd);
    }
   }

   return constraints;
  }

  public string[] GetTableConstraints(string tablename)
  {
   string[] constraints;

   using (SqlCeConnection conn = new SqlCeConnection(LocalConnectionString)) {
    conn.Open();
    using (SqlCeCommand cmd = conn.CreateCommand()) {
     cmd.CommandText =
      @"SELECT CONSTRAINT_NAME
       FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS
       WHERE TABLE_NAME=@Name"
;
     cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Name", tablename);
     constraints = PopulateStringList(cmd);
    }
   }

   return constraints;
  }

  public string LocalConnectionString
  {
   get { return engine.LocalConnectionString; }
   set { engine.LocalConnectionString = value; }
  }

  public void Compact()
  {
   engine.Compact(null);
  }

  public void Compact(string connectionString)
  {
   engine.Compact(connectionString);
  }

  public void CreateDatabase()
  {
   engine.CreateDatabase();
  }

  public void Repair(string connectionString, RepairOption options)
  {
   engine.Repair(connectionString, options);
  }

  public void Shrink()
  {
   engine.Shrink();
  }

  public bool Verify()
  {
   return engine.Verify();
  }

  public void Dispose()
  {
   engine.Dispose();
   engine = null;
  }
}

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Displaying the Calendar view on a DateTimePicker Control in .NETCF

I've recently made a solution where the customer requested to be able to bring up the calendar view in a DateTimePicker control by pressing on a specific button on the screen. The solution to that was really simple: Create a control that inherits from System.Windows.Forms.DateTimePicker and add a method called ShowCalendar() which I call to bring up the Calendar view.


public class DateTimePickerEx : DateTimePicker
{
  [DllImport("coredll.dll")]
  static extern int SendMessage(
    IntPtr hWnd, uint uMsg, int wParam, int lParam);

  const int WM_LBUTTONDOWN = 0x0201;

  public void ShowCalendar() {
    int x = Width - 10;
    int y = Height / 2;
    int lParam = x + y * 0x00010000;

    SendMessage(Handle, WM_LBUTTONDOWN, 1, lParam);
  }
}

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Posted by christian.resma.helle on Tuesday, July 24, 2007 4:11 PM
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