M11: Network Communication in Windows Phone 8

Target Agenda | Day 1

Module and Topic | 10-minute breaks after each session / 60-minute meal break 1a - Introducing Windows Phone 8 Application Development | Part 1 1b - Introducing Windows Phone 8 Application Development | Part 2 2 - Designing Windows Phone Apps Planned Duration 50:00 50:00 50:00

3 - Building Windows Phone Apps

4 - Files and Storage on Windows Phone 8 Meal Break | 60-minutes 5 - Windows Phone 8 Application Lifecycle 6 - Background Agents 7 - Tiles and Lock Screen Notifications 8 - Push Notifications

50:00
50:00 60:00 50:00 25:00 25:00 30:00

9 - Using Phone Resources on Windows Phone 8

50:00

Target Agenda | Day 2

Module and Topic | 10-minute breaks after each session / 60-minute meal break 10 - App to App Communication 11 - Network Communication on Windows Phone 8 12 - Proximity Sensors and Bluetooth Planned Duration 35:00 50:00 35:00

13 - Speech Input on Windows Phone 8

14 - Maps and Location on Windows Phone 8 15 - Wallet Support 16 - In App Purchasing Meal Break | 60-minutes 17 - The Windows Phone Store 18 - Enterprise Applications in Windows Phone 8: Architecture and Publishing

35:00
35:00 25:00 25:00 60:00 50:00 50:00

19 - Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 Cross Platform Development

20 Mobile Web

50:00
50:00

Module Agenda
Networking for Windows Phone WebClient HttpWebRequest Sockets

Web Services and OData

Simulation Dashboard Data Compression

Networking for Windows Phone

Networking for Windows Phone

Support for networking features Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) HttpWebRequest WebClient Sockets

Full HTTP header access on requests

NTLM authentication

New Features in Windows Phone 8

Two different Networking APIs System.Net Windows Phone 7.1 API, upgraded with new features Windows.Networking.Sockets WinRT API adapted for Windows Phone Support for IPV6 Support for the 128-bit addressing system added to System.Net.Sockets and also is

supported in Windows.Networking.Sockets
NTLM and Kerberos authentication support Incoming Sockets

Listener sockets supported in both System.Net and in Windows.Networking

Winsock support Winsock supported for native development

Networking APIs Platform Availability

API
System.Net.WebClient System.Net.HttpWebRequest System.Net.Http.HttpClient Windows.Web.Syndication.SyndicationClient Windows.Web.AtomPub.AtomPubClient ASMX Web Services WCF Services OData Services

WP7.1

WP8

W8

Async support in WP8 Networking APIs

C# 5.0 includes the async and await keywords to ease writing of asynchronous code In desktop .NET 4.5, and in Windows 8 .NET for Windows Store Apps, new Task-based methods allow networking calls as an asynchronous operation using a Task object HttpClient API WebClient.DownloadStringTaskAsync(), DownloadFileTaskAsync(),

UploadStringTaskAsync() etc
HttpWebRequest.GetResponseAsync() These methods are not supported on Windows Phone 8

Task-based networking using WebClient and HttpWebRequest still possible using

TaskFactory.FromAsync() and extension methods Coming up later

Connecting the Emulator to Local Services

Windows Phone 8 Emulator and localhost

In Windows Phone 7.x, the emulator shared the networking of the Host PC You could host services on your PC and access them from your code using http://localhost... In Windows Phone 8, the emulator is a Virtual machine running under Hyper-V You cannot access services on your PC using http://localhost...

You must use the correct host name or raw IP address of your host PC in URIs

Configuring Web Sites Running in Local IIS 8

WCF Service Activation If your service is a WCF service, you must also ensure that HTTP Activation is checked in Turn Windows features on or off

Configuring Sites Running in IIS Express

STEP 1: Create Your Website or Web service Create your website or web service in Visual Studio 2012 Run it and it is configured to run in localhost:port Note the port number. Here it is: 18009

Configuring Sites Running in IIS Express

STEP 2: Modify Config to Run on a URI Using Your PC Name Remove your website (dont delete!) from the Visual Studio 2012 solution Edit the file C:\Users\yourUsername\Documents\IISExpress\config\applicationhost.config Find the <sites> section Find the entry for the website or service you just created Change

<binding protocol="http" bindingInformation="*:18009:localhost" />

to <binding protocol="http" bindingInformation="*:18009:YourPCName" />

Save changes
Use Add Existing Website to add the website folder back into your solution

Configuring Sites Running in IIS Express

STEP 3: Open Port in the Firewall and Register URL From a Command Prompt (Run as Administrator), open the port in the Firewall: netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="IIS Express (non-SSL)" action=allow protocol=TCP dir=in localport=18009 Also run the following at the command prompt: netsh http add urlacl url=http://yourPC:18009/ user=everyone

Substitute yourPC with the host name of your Host PC

Substitute 8080 for the port where your service is running Run it and access from your desktop browser Now it is hosted at YourPCName:1800

Useful References | How to: Specify a Port for the Development Server http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178109(v=VS.100).aspx

WebClient

Simple Http Operations WebClient

using System.Net; ... WebClient client; // Constructor public MainPage() { ... client = new WebClient(); client.DownloadStringCompleted += client_DownloadStringCompleted; } void client_DownloadStringCompleted(object sender, DownloadStringCompletedEventArgs e) { this.downloadedText = e.Result; } private void loadButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { client.DownloadStringAsync(new Uri("http://MyServer/ServicesApplication/rssdump.xml")); }

WebClient using async/await

No Task-based async methods have been added to WebClient Async operation possible using custom extension methods, allowing usage such as:
using System.Net; using System.Threading.Tasks; ... private async void loadButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { var client = new WebClient(); string response = await client.DownloadStringTaskAsync( new Uri("http://MyServer/ServicesApplication/rssdump.xml")); this.downloadedText = response; }

Demo 1: Simple HTTP Networking with WebClient

More Control HttpWebRequest

private void PhoneApplicationPage_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { var request = HttpWebRequest.Create("http://myServer:15500/NorthwindDataService.svc/Suppliers") as HttpWebRequest; request.Accept = "application/json;odata=verbose"; // Must pass the HttpWebRequest object in the state attached to this call // Begin the request request.BeginGetResponse(new AsyncCallback(GotResponse), request); }

HttpWebRequest is a lower level API that allows access to the request and response streams That state object passed in the BeginGetResponse call must be the initiating HttpWebREquest object or a custom state object containing the HttpWebRequest

HttpWebRequest Response Handling

private void GotResponse(IAsyncResult asynchronousResult) { try { string data; // State of request is asynchronous HttpWebRequest myHttpWebRequest = (HttpWebRequest)asynchronousResult.AsyncState; ; using (HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)myHttpWebRequest.EndGetResponse(asynchronousResult)) { // Read the response into a Stream object. System.IO.Stream responseStream = response.GetResponseStream(); using (var reader = new System.IO.StreamReader(responseStream)) { data = reader.ReadToEnd(); } responseStream.Close(); } // Callback occurs on a background thread, so use Dispatcher to marshal back to the UI thread this.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(() => { MessageBox.Show("Received payload of " + data.Length + " characters"); } ); } catch (Exception e) ... }

HttpWebRequest Error Handling

private void GotResponse(IAsyncResult asynchronousResult) { try { // Handle the Response ... } catch (Exception e) { var we = e.InnerException as WebException; if (we != null) { var resp = we.Response as HttpWebResponse; var code = resp.StatusCode; this.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(() => { MessageBox.Show("RespCallback Exception raised! Message:" + we.Message + "HTTP Status: " + we.Status); }); } else throw; } }

HttpWebRequest Using TPL Pattern

private async void PhoneApplicationPage_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { var request = HttpWebRequest.Create("http://rockstar:15500/NorthwindDataService.svc/Suppliers") as HttpWebRequest; request.Accept = "application/json;odata=verbose"; // Use the Task Parallel Library pattern var factory = new TaskFactory(); var task = factory.FromAsync<WebResponse>(request.BeginGetResponse, request.EndGetResponse, null);

try { var response = await task;

// Read the response into a Stream object. System.IO.Stream responseStream = response.GetResponseStream(); string data; using (var reader = new System.IO.StreamReader(responseStream)) { data = reader.ReadToEnd(); } responseStream.Close();

MessageBox.Show("Received payload of " + data.Length + " characters"); } catch (Exception ex)...

HttpWebRequest (TPL) Error Handling

private async void PhoneApplicationPage_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { try { // Make the call and handle the Response ... } catch (Exception e) { var we = e.InnerException as WebException; if (we != null) { var resp = we.Response as HttpWebResponse; var code = resp.StatusCode; MessageBox.Show("RespCallback Exception raised! Message:" + we.Message + "HTTP Status: " + we.Status); } else throw e; } }

Demo 2: HttpWebRequest

Sockets

Sockets Support in Windows Phone OS 8.0

TCP
Connection-oriented Reliable Communication

UDP Unicast, UDP Multicast

Connectionless Not Reliable

New Features in 8.0!

IPV6 support Listener Sockets

Windows.Networking.Sockets Windows Phone Runtime API

Compatible with Windows 8 WinRT Revamped API Much more concise!

Web Services

WCF/ASMX Services

Can Add Reference from Windows Phone projects to automatically generate proxy classes ASMX should just work WCF requires that you use basicHttpBinding

RESTful Web Services

Building them Rather than building walled gardens, data should be published in a way that allows it to reach the broadest range of mobile clients

Old-style ASMX SOAP 1.1 Web Services using ASP.NET or Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) require clients to implement SOAP protocol
With Windows Phone 7 and Silverlight, we use WCF with BasicHttpBinding both on-premise and as a Web Role in Windows Azure to publish our data from local and cloud-based data sources like SQL Azure Recommend using lightweight REST + JSON Web Services that are better optimized for high-latency, slow, intermittent wireless data connections

WCF Data Services: OData

WCF Data Services provide an extensible tool for publishing data using a REST-based interface
Publishes and consumes data using the OData web
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes" ?> <service xml:base= "http://odata.netflix.com/Catalog/ "> <workspace> <atom:title>Default</atom:title> <collection href="Genres"> <atom:title>Genres</atom:title> </collection> <collection href="Titles"> <atom:title>Titles</atom:title> </collection> </workspace> </service>

protocol (http://www.odata.org)
Formatted in XML or JSON

WCF Data Services Client Library

(DataServicesClient) is a separate download from

NuGet
Adds Add Service Reference for OData V3 Services

WCF Data Services 5.1

Download WCF Data services 5.1 Tools Installer to update item templates for server side components Major release: Adds support for new JSON Light serialization format

Generate Client Proxy

In most cases, Add Service Reference will just work Alternatively, open a command prompt as administrator and navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft WCF Data Services\5.0\tools\Phone Run this command DataSvcutil_WindowsPhone.exe /uri:http://odata.netflix.com/v2/Catalog/ /DataServiceCollection /Version:1.0/out:netflixClientTypes Add generated file to your project

Fetching Data
public partial class NorthwindModel { NorthwindEntities context; private DataServiceCollection<Customer> customers;
private override void LoadData() { context = new NorthwindEntities(new Uri("http://services.odata.org/V3/Northwind/Northwind.svc/")); // Initialize the context and the binding collection customers = new DataServiceCollection<Customer>(context); // Define a LINQ query that returns all customers. var query = from cust in context.Customers select cust; // Register for the LoadCompleted event. customers.LoadCompleted += new EventHandler<LoadCompletedEventArgs>(customers_LoadCompleted); // Load the customers feed by executing the LINQ query. customers.LoadAsync(query);

} ...

Fetching Data - LoadCompleted

... void customers_LoadCompleted(object sender, LoadCompletedEventArgs e) { if (e.Error == null) { // Handling for a paged data feed. if (customers.Continuation != null) { // Automatically load the next page. customers.LoadNextPartialSetAsync(); } else { foreach (Customer c in customers) { //Add each customer to our View Model collection App.ViewModel.Customers.Add(new CustomerViewModel(){SelectedCustomer = c}); } } } else { MessageBox.Show(string.Format("An error has occurred: {0}", e.Error.Message)); } }
36

Demo 3: OData Services

Network Information and Efficiency

Network Awareness
Making Decisions based on Data Connections Mobile apps shouldnt diminish the user experience by trying to send or receive data in the absence of network connectivity Mobile apps should be intelligent about performing heavy data transfers or lightweight remote method calls only when the appropriate data connection is available With Windows Phone, we use the NetworkInterfaceType object to detect network type and speed and the NetworkChange object to fire events when the network state changes

39

NetworkInformation in Windows Phone 8.0

In Microsoft.Phone.Net.NetworkInformation namespace: Determine the Network Operator: DeviceNetworkInformation.CellularMobileOperator Determine the Network Capabilities: DeviceNetworkInformation.IsNetworkAvailable DeviceNetworkInformation.IsCellularDataEnabled DeviceNetworkInformation.IsCellularDataRoamingEnabled DeviceNetworkInformation.IsWiFiEnabled In Windows.Networking.Connectivity namespace: Get Information about the current internet connection NetworkInformation.GetInternetConnectionProfile Get Information about the NetworkAdapter objects currently connected to a network NetworkInformation.GetLanIdentifiers

Determining the Current Internet Connection Type

private const int IANA_INTERFACE_TYPE_OTHER = 1; private const int IANA_INTERFACE_TYPE_ETHERNET = 6; private const int IANA_INTERFACE_TYPE_PPP = 23; private const int IANA_INTERFACE_TYPE_WIFI = 71; ... string network = string.Empty; // Get current Internet Connection Profile. ConnectionProfile internetConnectionProfile = Windows.Networking.Connectivity.NetworkInformation.GetInternetConnectionProfile(); switch (internetConnectionProfile.NetworkAdapter.IanaInterfaceType) { case IANA_INTERFACE_TYPE_OTHER: cost += "Network: Other"; break; case IANA_INTERFACE_TYPE_ETHERNET: cost += "Network: Ethernet"; break; case IANA_INTERFACE_TYPE_WIFI: cost += "Network: Wifi\r\n"; break; default: cost += "Network: Unknown\r\n"; break; }

Tips for Network Efficiency

Mobile devices are often connected to poor quality network connections Best chance of success in network data transfers achieved by Keep data volumes as small as possible Use the most compact data serialization available (If you can, use JSON instead of XML) Avoid large data transfers Avoid transferring redundant data Design your protocol to only transfer precisely the data you need and no more

Demo 4: Wire Serialization

Wire Serialization Affects Payroll Size

Simple test case: download 30 data records Each record just 12 fields Measured bytes to transfer

Wire Serialization Format

Size in Bytes

ODATA XML ODATA JSON REST + JSON

73786 34030 15540

REST + JSON GZip

8680

Implementing Compression on Windows Phone

Windows Phone does not support System.IO.Compression.GZipStream Use third-party solutions instead SharpZipLib is a popular C# compression library (http://sharpziplib.com/) on NuGet SharpCompress is another (http://sharpcompress.codeplex.com/) On Windows Phone OS 7.1, get GZipWebClient from NuGet Replaces WebClient, but adds support for compression Uses SharpZipLib internally NuGet release for Windows Phone 8 not yet available (as of October 2012) Until updated library released on NuGet, source is available online

HttpWebRequest With Compression

var request = HttpWebRequest.Create("http://yourPC:15500/NorthwindDataService.svc/Suppliers") as HttpWebRequest; request.Accept = "application/json;odata=verbose"; request.Headers["Accept_Encoding"] = "gzip"; // Use the Task Parallel Library pattern var factory = new TaskFactory(); var task = factory.FromAsync<WebResponse>(request.BeginGetResponse, request.EndGetResponse, null); var response = await task; // Read the response into a Stream object. System.IO.Stream responseStream = response.GetResponseStream(); string data; var stream = new GZipInputStream(response.GetResponseStream()); using (var reader = new System.IO.StreamReader(stream)) { data = reader.ReadToEnd(); } responseStream.Close();

Compression with OData Client Library

private void EnableGZipResponses(DataServiceContext ctx) { ctx.WritingRequest += new EventHandler<ReadingWritingHttpMessageEventArgs>( (_, args) => { args.Headers["Accept-Encoding"] = "gzip"; } ); ctx.ReadingResponse += new EventHandler<ReadingWritingHttpMessageEventArgs>( (_, args) => { if (args.Headers.ContainsKey("Content-Encoding") && args.Headers["Content-Encoding"].Contains("gzip")) { args.Content = new GZipStream(args.Content); } } ); }

Reference: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/astoriateam/archive/2011/10/04/odata-compression-in-windows-phone-7-5-mango.aspx

Demo 5: Compression

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Data Sense

Data Sense API

The Data Sense feature allows a user to specify the limits of their data plans and monitors their usage Your app can use the information provided by the Data Sense APIs to change data usage behavior Reduce data usage when the user is close to their data limits Discontinue data usage when the user is over their limit Or to postpone tasks that transfer data until a Wi-Fi connection is available Data Sense is a feature that Network Operators optionally support Provide a Data Sense app and Tiles to allow users to enter their data limits Routes data via a proxy server in order to monitor data usage If Data Sense is not enabled, you can still use the APIs to determine if the user is connected to WiFi or is roaming, but you cannot determine the users data limits

Using the Data Sense APIs

1. Get the Network Type from the ConnectionProfile by calling NetworkInformation. GetInternetConnectionClient 2. Get the NetworkCostType by calling ConnectionProfile.GetConnectionCost 3. Get the ApproachingDataLimit, OverDataLimit and Roaming properties of the ConnectionProfile If on WiFi, no need to limit data usage Returns Unknown, Unrestricted, Fixed or Variable: If Unrestricted, no need to limit data usage If any are true, your app can reduce or eliminate data usage

Responsible Data Usage in a Data Sense-Aware App

NetworkCostType

ConnectionCost

Responsible data usage

Examples
Stream high-definition video. Download high-resolution pictures. Retrieve email attachments. Stream high-definition video. Download high-resolution pictures. Retrieve email attachments. Stream lower-quality video. Download low-resolution pictures. Retrieve only email headers. Postpone tasks that transfer data. Stop downloading video. Stop downloading pictures. Do not retrieve email. Postpone tasks that transfer data.

Unrestricted

Not applicable.
All three of the following properties are false. ApproachingDataLimit OverDataLimit Roaming ApproachingDataLimit is true, when NetworkCostType is Fixed or Variable. Not applicable when NetworkCostType is Unknown. OverDataLimit or Roaming is true

No restrictions.

Fixed or Variable

No restrictions.

Fixed or Variable or Unknown

Transfer less data. Provide option to override.

Fixed or Variable

Dont transfer data. Provide option to override.

Network Security

Encrypting the Communication

You can use SSL (https://...) to encrypt data communications with servers that have an SSL server cert Root certificates for the major Certificate Authorities (Digicert, Entrust, Verisign, etc) are built into Windows Phone 8 Your app can simply access an https:// resource and the server certificate is

automatically verified and the encrypted connection set up

SSL Client certificates are not supported, so mutual authentication scenarios are not possible

You can install a self-signed cert into the Windows Phone Certificate Store
Expose the .cer file on a share or website protected by authentication Alllows you to access private servers secured by a self-signed server certificate

Authentication
As well as encrypting data in transit, you also need to authenticate the client to make sure they are allowed to access the requested resource For communications over the Internet, secure web services using Basic HTTP authentication Transfers the username and password from client to server in clear text, so this must be used in conjunction with SSL encryption For Intranet web services, you can secure them using Windows or Digest authentication Windows Phone 8 supports NTLM and Kerberos authentication

Adding Credentials to an HttpWebRequest

private void PhoneApplicationPage_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { var request = HttpWebRequest.Create("http://myServer:15500/NorthwindDataService.svc/Suppliers") as HttpWebRequest; request.Credentials = new Credentials("username", "password"); // override allows domain to be specified request.Accept = "application/json;odata=verbose"; // Must pass the HttpWebRequest object in the state attached to this call // Begin the request request.BeginGetResponse(new AsyncCallback(GotResponse), request);

Provide your own UI to request the credentials from the user If you store the credentials, encrypt them using the ProtectedData class

Encrypting Sensitive Data Using ProtectedData

private void StoreCredentials() { // Convert the username and password to a byte[]. byte[] secretByte = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(TBusername.Text + "||" + TBpassword.Text); // Encrypt the username by using the Protect() method. byte[] protectedSecretByte = ProtectedData.Protect(secretByte, null);

// Create a file in the application's isolated storage. IsolatedStorageFile file = IsolatedStorageFile.GetUserStoreForApplication(); IsolatedStorageFileStream writestream = new IsolatedStorageFileStream(FilePath, System.IO.FileMode.Create, System.IO.FileAccess.Write, file);
// Write data to the file. Stream writer = new StreamWriter(writestream).BaseStream; writer.Write(protectedSecretByte, 0, protectedSecretByte.Length); writer.Close(); writestream.Close(); }

Decrypting Data Using ProtectedData

// Retrieve the protected data from isolated storage. IsolatedStorageFile file = IsolatedStorageFile.GetUserStoreForApplication(); IsolatedStorageFileStream readstream = new IsolatedStorageFileStream(FilePath, System.IO.FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, file);
// Read the data from the file. Stream reader = new StreamReader(readstream).BaseStream; byte[] encryptedDataArray = new byte[reader.Length]; reader.Read(encryptedDataArray, 0, encryptedDataArray.Length); reader.Close(); readstream.Close();

// Decrypt the data by using the Unprotect method. byte[] clearTextBytes = ProtectedData.Unprotect(encryptedDataArray, null);
// Convert the byte array to string. string data = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(clearTextBytes, 0, clearTextBytes.Length);

Storing Data in the Cloud

Live SDK
Windows Live SDK Makes it easy to use SkyDrive in your Windows Phone and Windows 8 apps Live SDK also available for iOS and Android Store data in the cloud in the Microsoft Account users SkyDrive Restriction on acceptable file types now removed! Share data between Windows 8 and mobile device apps http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/live/default.aspx

Windows Azure Mobile Services

http://www.windowsazure.com/enus/develop/mobile/ Easily build a cloud backend for your app Easy to create a Windows Azure database accessed via RESTful services Authentication against Microsoft Account, Facebook, Twitter or Google Push Notifications Client SDKs for Windows 8, Windows Phone and iOS Android coming soon Great tutorials on the website

Demo : Windows Azure Mobile Services

Summary
WebClient and HttpWebRequest for HTTP communications Windows Phone has a sockets API to support connection-oriented and connectionless TCP/IP and UDP/IP networking Support for ASMX, WCF and REST Web Services DataServicesClient for OData service access Consider JSON serialization for maximum data transfer efficiency Windows Phone 8 supports Basic, NTLM, digest and Kerberos authentication Encrypt sensitive data on the phone using the ProtectedData class Live SDK and Windows Azure Mobile Services ease integration with the cloud

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MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

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