AboutYOU Windows Phone App Released

  • Article

There is an old joke: "But enough about me, let’s talk about you. What do you think about me?" Smile A more serious description would be “Find out what people are saying about you on the web”. IMHO this is the ultimate vanity app that a lot of people would want to use. It is not just “about me”.

You can:

  • Search the web using the Bing API for news about <YOU>.
  • Display a list of references.
  • Page through the list of references
  • Select an entry in the list to allow you to browse the referenced web page
  • Change and save your search criteria for future requests.

Design

Application Tile

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Main Page

  • Display search result references
  • Refresh button to re-issue the request
  • Settings button to change the search criteria
  • Help button to provide a help page

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Details Page

  • Displays the referenced page

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Settings Page

  • Criteria field for editing the search criteria
  • Save button to permanently save the criteria
  • Clear button to clear the entry
  • Help button to provide a help page

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Price

Free, No advertising for widest distribution Smile

Note: Somehow this got installed into the Games Category. So when you install it it will show up incorrectly in the Games Hub and not in the normal apps list. I am working with them to move it. So if you don’t find it in the apps list after you install it look in the Games hub on your phone.

Technical

This is a native phone app built using the Windows Phone Databound Application template.

It retrieves a previous value for the search criteria from the phone’s Application Settings and issues a web search using the Bing API. Then it parses the returned XML with Linq to XML to populate a viewmodel that is then bound to the references page list. The list includes the web page title, description and a hidden link to the web page. The user can then select an entry from the list. Selecting a list entry routes you to a page with an embedded web browser control to display the referenced page.

The Settings page can be used to edit the search criteria.

In keeping with the spirit of the Agile Manifesto This version is only Iteration 1 of the app. Subsequent versions may:

  • Use Mango to run constantly in background reporting new references to a live tile.
  • Include Polling interval, Method of notification (email, SMS, Notify service, etc.)
  • Add other sources such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.
  • Use more sophisticated search algorithms.

It all depends on the feedback that I get from this version.

Enjoy Smile