Background processing in Windows 8
Author: Gill Cleeren
Price: $1.99 
Format: Word, PDF, MOBI, EPUB, source code
Number of pages: 41
Release date: June 2013
From the author: Now that Windows 8 has been around in its final form for almost a year, developers are getting used to the new platform. Lots of paradigms that have been around for many years in the Windows environment however have changed with the new course that Microsoft is sailing with the introduction of Metro (aka Modern UI aka Windows Store) apps.
Personally, one of the most striking differences between the desktop mode and the Windows 8 environment is without a doubt the way Windows handles multiple processes. In other words, background processing and the process lifecycle of Windows 8 applications. What used to be something we didn’t really have to take into account, has now propagated itself as one of the most concept topics in Windows 8.
In this new ebook, we are going to take a look at how Windows 8 manages the process lifecycle of apps and we are going to take a look at the different options we have to build applications that run in the background.
Fasten your seatbelt, as the content in this ebook is quite advanced!
Contents:
Chapter 1: How Windows 8 applications execute
Process lifecycle of Windows 8 applications
Managing state
Summary
Chapter 2: Allowing Windows 8 applications to execute in the background
Background processing options in Windows 8
Creating a background task
Triggers
Conditions
Summary
Chapter 3: Lock screen applications
The reason for lock screen apps
Lock screen applications and the API
Constraints and lock screen applications
Creating a lock screen app
Requesting lock screen access
Manifest changes
Send a badge update
But wait, this is not in the background…?
Summary
Chapter 4: More lock screen apps
The Push Notification Trigger
Using the Push Notification Trigger
The Network Trigger
The Time Trigger
Summary
Chapter 5: Background transfers in Windows
The need for the Background Transfer API
The API explained
Downloading a file
Uploading a single file
Summary
Chapter 6: Playing audio in the background
The good old MediaElement
Creating a background-enabled audio player
Adding support for the SoundLevelChanged event
Summary
About the author:
Gill Cleeren is Microsoft Regional Director (www.theregion.com), Silverlight MVP (former ASP.NET MVP) and Telerik MVP. He lives in Belgium where he works as .NET architect at Ordina (http://www.ordina.be/). Passionate about .NET, he’s always playing with the newest bits. In his role as Regional Director, Gill has given many sessions, webcasts and trainings on new as well as existing technologies, such as Silverlight, ASP.NET and WPF at conferences including TechEd Berlin 2010, TechDays Belgium – Switzerland - Sweden, DevDays NL, NDC Oslo Norway, SQL Server Saturday Switzerland, Spring Conference UK, Silverlight Roadshow in Sweden, Telerik RoadShow UK… He’s also the author of many articles in various developer magazines and for SilverlightShow.net and he organizes the yearly Community Day event in Belgium. He also leads Visug (www.visug.be), the largest .NET user group in Belgium. Gill is the author of “Silverlight 4 Data and Services Cookbook”. In 2012, the second edition, “Silverlight 5 Data and Services Cookbook” was released.
You can find his blog at www.snowball.be. Twitter: @gillcleeren