Create the App

Here is a short checklist of things to do to create your app.  This is only a list of things to do without doing into the details of how to do them.  Remember, Google and Bing are your friends.  See also the videos on the [XPlatformCloudKit site] for more detailed walk-throughs.

Get the XPCK zip file.

Unzip it where you want to do your software development.

Open the XPlatformCloudKit.sln file in Visual Studio.

Try it out - see what it does out of the box.

• Select first the XPlatformCloudkit.Phone8 project as the startup project.  Select an emulator or attach a phone (registered for development) and then Run the project using the Debug | Start Debugging command.  This will run the phone version of the app.
• Now try the XPlatformCloudkit.Win8 project.  Set it as the startup project and Run the project.  This runs the Windows 8 Metro version of the app.

Add your content to the app.  You do this in two places.

• Edit the AppSettings.cs file in the XPlatformCloudKit.PCL project.  
• Change the ApplicationName near the top of the file to be the name you want for your app.  This shows up at the top of your app when it is running.
• For simplicity's sake, I recommend you turn off the Azure Mobile Services code until you are ready to write your own. 
• Add some RSS feeds for the content you want to display.  Comment out the examples, but take a look at the sorts of things they suggest you can put in an app. Make sure that you have permission to use the content in your app.
• If you don't want to use the local items file, make sure EnableLocalItemsFileService is set to false.
• Take a look at the sections near the bottom of the file.  Play with the settings as you will - try things out and see how they work for you.
• Note that the Group field in the RssSource class is used to arrange the groups of RSS content items.  This is done by alphabetical order, including the Group values in the Local Items File below.
• Edit the LocalItemsFile.xml file if you want to include content there.  The example format shows examples of what you can do.  Here are some other tips.
• You may omit the title, subtitle and group as you like.  
• Realize that the Group value in each item is used in combination with the Group fields in the RssSource entries in the AppSettings.cs file to arrange the content, in alphabetical order.

Configure the Windows Phone 8 project.

• Icons and picture assets.
• WMAppManifest.xml settings.  ApplicationUI and Packaging tabs, leave the others alone for XPCK.

Configure the Windows 8 project.

• Icons and picture assets.
• package.appxmanifest.xml settings.  Application, Visual Assets, Packaging tabs.

Test the apps.  A lot.  Use a phone if you have one to test the phone app; the emulator only goes so far.