Launchers and Choosers for Windows Phone

Comments

(no comments yet)

Log in or Join to leave comments.

This article demonstrates how to use Launchers and Choosers in Windows Phone 7

See Also

Launchers and Choosers for Windows Phone

Article Metadata

---

Code Example

Source file: Media:LauncherAndChooser.zip

---

Tested with

SDK: Windows Phone SDK 8.0

Devices(s): Nokia Lumia 820, Lumia 920

---

Compatibility

Platform(s): Windows Phone 8.0/ 7.1

---

Article

Keywords: Launcher/Chooser

Created: somnathbanik (11 Oct 2011)

Last edited: hamishwillee (14 Jun 2013)

Introduction

Windows phone uses launchers and choosers to provide access to common device functionality and services. When a particular function is required, a launcher/chooser is called to start the built in app and perform the required task; on completion control returns to the calling app.

The main difference between launchers and choosers is that a chooser usually returns data back to the app (for example taking a photo) while a launcher does not (for example, sending an email).

Note: This architecture means that if you want to use a picture in your app you fire off a chooser to take the photo rather than embedding camera functionality in your own app. This is a bit frustrating if you want to write your own camera, but it does provide a consistent experience for users and make device memory management a lot more controllable.

The code example app described here uses a launcher to start the Media Player and play a video, and uses the Chooser to launch the Camera and take a photo. Each of the Launchers and Choosers have their own set of properties. After setting any of those properties, we need to call Show() method. For Choosers we need to implement the event handler for when the user has taken a picture, in order to get the image back to handle.

• 

  Launcher and Chooser

• 

  Media Player

• 

  Camera

Implementation

First create a project with Windows Phone Application Template. Once the project is created, add the reference Microsoft.Phone.Tasks (needed for both choosers and launchers).

 using Microsoft.Phone.Tasks;

Launch Media Player

To launch the Media Player using the Launcher API, first create the instance of the MediaPlayerLauncher then set the media file to be launched and then call the Show() function to launch the media player.

MediaPlayerLauncher mediaPlayerLauncher = new MediaPlayerLauncher();
mediaPlayerLauncher.Media = new Uri(@"http://video-js.zencoder.com/oceans-clip.mp4", UriKind.Absolute);
mediaPlayerLauncher.Show();

This code launches the default media player of the device and start playing the file.

Launch Camera chooser

For Chooser API we launch the build-in Camera and take photo.

CameraCaptureTask cameraCaptureTask;
cameraCaptureTask = new CameraCaptureTask();
cameraCaptureTask.Completed += new EventHandler<PhotoResult>(cameraCaptureTask_Completed);
cameraCaptureTask.Show();

When user completes the task, an event is raised and the event handler cameraCaptureTask_Completed() receives a photo in the result, which is then displayed in the screen.

void cameraCaptureTask_Completed(object sender, PhotoResult e)
        {
            if (e.TaskResult == TaskResult.OK)
            {              
                BitmapImage bmp = new BitmapImage();
                bmp.SetSource(e.ChosenPhoto);
                image1.Source = bmp; 
            }
        }

Note: I have tested the application in emulator where I see a moving block when I launch the camera.

Source Code

The full source code of the example is available here: File:LauncherAndChooser.zip