Introduction
Weather Info came about because another weather program I had been using time bombed and the developer had disappeared. I sought out to learn about using Web Services on the .NET Compact Framework and ended up coming up with what I think is a very useful application for my first.
Implementation
This project contains a series of classes to implement Web Service calls and the caching of data for offline use. WeatherInfoMain.cs contains all of the main code to implement the user interface. WeatherItem.cs contains the information for storing and serializing a web service response. WeatherCache.cs provides the mechanism for caching and retrieving WeatherItems
, and Registry.cs contains the code for manipulating the Pocket PC registry.
Web Service Setup
Weather Info uses the weather data provided by EJSE. (Sorry to the non-US users, but this service only supports the United States.) I was actually pleasantly surprised at how simple it was to set up the web service request and to retrieve data from the service. One note: proxy configurations on the Pocket PC are problematic at best, so the application does not support the use of a proxy.
Pocket PC Registry
The application uses PInvoke to call the native Pocket PC registry handlers. I used the registry to store the ZIP code that the web service uses to retrieve the weather info.
Scrolling Forms
The other big challenge I faced in the application was developing a scrolling mechanism for when the user displayed the soft input panel and for the extended forecast. When the soft input panel is displayed, the viewable area shrinks by whatever the size of the selected input method is. To handle this, I developed all of the data as a series of panels and then dropped the panels into the main tab control. The scroll bars are displayed as necessary to allow the user to view the entire contents of the panel.
private void inputPanel1_EnabledChanged(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
if(this.inputPanel1.Enabled)
{
this.tabControl1.Height=
this.ClientRectangle.Height - this.inputPanel1.Bounds.Height;
this.vScrollBarCurrent.Visible=true;
this.vScrollBarAbout.Visible=true;
this.panelAbout.Left=-(this.vScrollBarAbout.Width/2);
}
else
{
this.tabControl1.Height=this.ClientRectangle.Height;
this.panelCurrent.Top=0;
this.vScrollBarCurrent.Value=0;
this.vScrollBarCurrent.Visible=false;
this.panelAbout.Top=0;
this.panelAbout.Left=0;
this.vScrollBarAbout.Value=0;
this.vScrollBarAbout.Visible=false;
}
int iCurrent=this.panelCurrent.Height-this.tabCurrent.Height;
this.vScrollBarCurrent.Maximum=iCurrent+((iCurrent/10)/2);
this.vScrollBarCurrent.LargeChange=iCurrent/10;
this.vScrollBarCurrent.Height=this.tabCurrent.Height;
int iExtended=this.panelExtended.Height-this.tabExtended.Height;
this.vScrollBarExtended.Maximum=iExtended+((iExtended/10)/2);
this.vScrollBarExtended.LargeChange=iExtended/10;
this.vScrollBarExtended.Height=this.tabExtended.Height;
int iAbout=this.panelAbout.Height-this.tabAbout.Height;
this.vScrollBarAbout.Maximum=iAbout+((iAbout/10)/2);
this.vScrollBarAbout.LargeChange=iAbout/10;
this.vScrollBarAbout.Height=this.tabAbout.Height;
}
Required Libraries
Serialization support requires Compact Formatter.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoy using Weather Info. Updated versions can be found here.
Shane Church is Technical Lead at EffectiveUI, where he designs and develops key mobile and Web applications for major client engagements such as Boeing and Cartegraph. Drawing upon his more than ten years of experience developing in the Microsoft .NET Framework with a focus on ASP.NET and Microsoft mobile technologies, Shane contributes to and guides a core development group to execute new mobile Web and native applications.
Prior to joining EffectiveUI, Shane was a senior software engineer at CNSI. In this role, he contributed to public-facing portals for the Mine Safety and Health Administration and created an original online tool for mine rescue teams to better respond to mine emergencies. Throughout his career in senior software engineer and systems architect roles, Shane has developed important mobile and Web projects for clients, including the Department of Energy’s Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site, Visa and TimeCentre. Shane earned his B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder.