For those of you running the old WP7 version, the changes you need to make to support WordPress 3.5.1 are pretty simple, but do require a bit of code writing.  To make it as easy as possible, this set of steps *should* work for a simple update:

1. Open your Starter Kit in Visual Studio 2012 (this is now a Windows Phone 8 project, not a Windows Phone 7 project, so Visual Studio 2012 is now required).
2. Copy all the code from https://github.com/ChrisKoenig/Windows-Phone-Starter-Kit-for-WordPress/blob/master/Networking/WordPressPlugInReader.cs and paste over the top of the existing code in your Visual Studio project.
3. Recompile and test locally

Basically what I had to do was add a variable parameter to each of the query strings on the URIs requesting data from the WordPress site as it seems that WP3.5+ is caching the data based on the query string parameters now, which it didn’t used to do before.

If this doesn’t work, let me know and I’ll try to help walk you through it.

Announcing the CowTown Code Camp!

Those of you in the North Dallas area, please be advised that the CowTown Code Camp is officially scheduled and ready for registrations! Festivities occur on March 16th at the Pier One headquarters in downtown Fort Worth. In addition to standard sessions, there will be an “experts room” setup where technical experts will be on hand to answer any questions you may have and to have mini sessions to go through short labs or demos. This room will have it’s own schedule and activities to be posted by Feb 3rd.

If you’re interested in speaking at the Code Camp, the call for speakers is still open – just send your information in to the Speaker Submission page on their website.

As many of you know, I’ve been with Microsoft for almost 6 years, all of that time in a Technical Evangelist role. An opportunity has become available for me to move into Management within our team, which opens up my old position for a new, fresh face.  If you think that fresh face should be you, I’d encourage you to fill out the online recruiting form and send in your resume using the following link:

http://aka.ms/TechnicalEvangelist

What we’re looking for is summed up nicely in the job description there – it’s a technical role for experienced developers to drive adoption of Microsoft developer technologies – specifically Windows 8, Windows Azure and Windows Phone – in the broad developer community across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. You’ll get to flex a combination of technical, sales, marketing and business management skills as well as work closely with teammates across the district, the region and the US to deliver high-quality outcomes against a challenging scorecard.  It’s not an easy job, but can be a very rewarding one – I should know, as I’ve been doing that job for almost 6 years!

If you have any questions about the position, please send me mail at chris.koenig@microsoft.com and I’ll do my best to answer your questions. Please don’t post comments here as I want to keep our conversations private. I expect we’ll be moving forward soon to identify a set of candidates to do technical screening, so make sure to get your application in quickly!

• 1st Prize: A Surface tablet.
• 2nd Prize: A 4GB Xbox 360 with Kinect.
• 3rd Prize: A Kinect Sensor for Xbox 360.

Don’t have an azure account? Get a FREE 90-day trial at http://aka.ms/thecloud.

Don’t have an existing bot? Build a new one by visiting the Getting Started page on the Rock Paper Azure website.

Full details can be found at the Rock Paper Azure website, located at http://www.rockpaperazure.com/

Here’s a reference I got from my teammate Nick Harris showing off all the variations of Push Notification messages you can send to a Windows 8 machine, either manually from your own code, or from node.js scripts in your Windows Azure Mobile Services.

Toast variants: http://aka.ms/wnstoast

Tile variants: http://aka.ms/wnstile

Badge variants: http://aka.ms/wnsbadge

For the Mobile Services developer, these manifest themselves in the node javascript code something like this:

var parms = {
    image1src: 'http://link.to/myimage.jpg',
    image1alt: 'Alt tag for my image',
    text1: 'Text to put into the notification'
};
push.wns.sendToastImageAndText01(channel, parms);

Check out these links to learn what badge, tile or toast message options are available, and choose the one that makes the most sense for you and your app.

Activating your Azure Benefits is a simple process requiring just 3 steps:

1. Activate Windows Azure Subscription
   • Sign into your MSDN Benefits page at http://aka.ms/ActivateMSDN
   • Use the Windows Azure Platform link from MyAccount and follow the steps to “Activate” your MSDN benefits.
   • Access Windows Azure features through the developer portal at http://manage.windowsazure.com
2. Download the Developer Tools: Windows Azure is an open and scalable platform for building amazing applications in the cloud. To that end, we have multiple Open Source SDKs for various platforms and technologies. Here are some convenience links to getting all the tools you’ll need:
   • Visual Studio 2010/2012
   • PHP
   • Java
   • Node.js
   • Python
   • Windows Azure Mobile Services: Develop scalable mobile applications for Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, iOS and Android with this powerful SDK
3. Get the Training: The Windows Azure Training Kit includes a comprehensive set of technical content to help you learn how to use Windows Azure and SQL Azure. The training kit has updated content for folks using either Visual Studio 2012 or Visual Studio 2010 tool sets. It also contains plenty of content to help you learn features currently in preview such as Windows Azure Virtual Machine, Windows Azure Virtual Networks and Windows Azure Media Services.
   • Windows Azure Training Kit (Download, Source @ GitHub)
   • Channel 9 Cloud Cover Show
   • Windows Azure Forums
   • Windows Azure Code Samples

Simple, right? BizSpark members – follow these steps and get your benefits activated today. Once activated, download your favorite SDK and get busy building amazing applications in the cloud!

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Principal Architect for Excolo Group, Casey Watson on how Casey recently made the switch from Amazon EC2 Cloud Services to Windows Azure. Tune in to hear us chat about the reasons why he moved over to Azure as they discuss IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and PaaS (Platform as a Service) key differences and benefits.

Next Steps:

• Try Windows Azure: No cost. No Obligation. 90-day FREE trial.
• Download Visual Studio Express for Windows 8
• Start building your own Apps for Windows 8

Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, Zune, or RSS

Register for our Windows Azure Hands-on Lab Online (HOLO) events today!

• Windows Azure Hands-on Labs Online

Virtual Labs:

• MSDN Virtual Labs: Windows Azure

Download

• MP3 (Audio only)
• MP4 (iPod, Zune HD)
• High Quality MP4 (iPad, PC)
• Mid Quality MP4 (WP7, HTML5)
• High Quality WMV (PC, Xbox, MCE)

Tune into 25 Ways Software Startups can use BizSpark at http://taylorcowanonline.com

BizSpark, for those that don’t know, Microsoft® BizSpark® is a global program that helps software startups succeed by giving them access to software development tools, connecting them with key industry players, and providing marketing visibility.  The program also includes access to Windows Azure, a flexible, comprehensive, and powerful cloud platform for the creation of web applications and services.  In addition, BizSpark offers technical support, business training and a network of over 2,000 partners to connect members with incubators, investors, advisors, government agencies and hosters.  Since it was established in 2008, more than 45,000 companies in over 100 countries have joined BizSpark.

Here is the BizSpark membership critera:

1. Privately-held company
2. Less than 5 years old
3. Earns less than $1M US per year
4. In the business of developing software (on any platform, with any language, for any type of device)

That means, if you are building a Windows 8 or Windows Phone 8 application that you intend to sell on in their respective marketplaces, you qualify for BizSpark and can get access to ALL of those amazing benefits!  Contact Taylor today via his blog at http://taylorcowanonline.com to find out more about joining the BizSpark family today!

You can see a list of the posts on Brady’s web site at the following URL, but I’ve copied down some abstracts for each post to make it easy for you (and me) to find them later.

http://www.bradygaster.com/solving-real-world-problems-with-windows-azure-web-sites

And here’s that list of articles:

Multiple Environments with Windows Azure Web Sites
In this post I demonstrate how to have production and staging sites set up for your web site so that you can test your changes in a sandbox site before pushing your production site and potentially causing damage to it (and your reputation). If you’ve wondered how to gate your deployments using Windows Azure Web Sites, this is a good place to start. You’ll learn how to use Windows Azure Web Sites with a GitHub.com repository and some creative branching strategies to maintain multiple environments for a site.

Managing Multiple Windows Azure Web Site Environments using Visual Studio Publishing Profiles
This post takes the same sort of scenario as presented in the first article. Rather than use GitHub.com as a means to executing a series of gated environment deployments it focuses on the awesome features within Visual Studio for web publishing. Specifically, you’ll see how to use publishing profiles to deploy to multiple Windows Azure Web Sites, so that a team of peers responsible for releasing a site can do so without ever needing to leave Visual Studio.

This post also takes a look at the idea of release management and how this solution answers the question of doing proper release management with a cloud-hosted web site. If you’ve wondered how your SDLC could fit in the idea of continuously maintaining a series of environments for gating your releases using Visual Studio’s super-simple publishing features, this is a great place to start.

Connecting Windows Azure Web Sites to On-Premises Databases Using Windows Azure Storage Bus
This post introduces the idea creating a hybrid cloud setup using a Windows Azure Web Site and the Windows Azure Service Bus, to demonstrate how a web site hosted in Windows Azure can connect to your on-premises enterprise database. If you’ve been wondering how to save data from your Windows Azure Web Site into your local database but didn’t know how to do it, or if you’re thinking of taking baby steps in your move toward cloud computing, this post could provide some good guidance on how to get started.

Common certification errors when submitting to the Windows Store

1.2 App must be fully functional

3.8 App must meet the basic performance criteria

4.1 App must comply with privacy requirements

6.5 App must be localized

If you read these, and follow her suggestions, you’ll have a much easier time getting your app through the certification process and out onto the Windows Store!