It’s been almost two years since I started working on the Microsoft Patterns & Practices Mobile Client Software Factory, and those application blocks, shipped on July 2006, still being very valuable for the mobile developer. But it’s really hard to install it on Visual Studio 2008, in spite of some nice articles about it, like this great one from Glenn Block, which have some little missing steps I sent to Christoph and he posted here.
Well, soon you’ll be able to install it and without all that pain. It’s time to have a new set of mobile blocks updated and working on VS 2008, Windows Mobile 6.x and .NET CF 3.5. Some of the original MCSF team members (Per, Francis, Rohit, Alex, Kzu and me) with the help of an excellent advisory board, were started working on updating some of the original blocks (Configuration, Data Access, Connection Monitor, Endpoint Catalog, Subscription Manager, Disconnected Agent and Password Authentication) and building some new ones targeting modularity and location awareness. As you can see, the Mobile Composite UI Application Block won’t be updated and it will be removed from the new version, same with OAC which has been already updated by Clarius.
This version will be published on http://mobile.codeplex.com/ and ideally it will be the place for future great mobile development blocks.
We still working on prioritization and full feature set. Your feedback is totally welcome. If you have any suggestion, bug report or comment regarding this new project, please feel free to contact me: jose@mobilepractices.net.
Thanks!