Visual Studio 2012 Mobile Device Emulators

Question

I just returned today from TechEd 2012 where I saw several breakout sessions where Mobile Device emulators were shown in the demo. A good example is the Dev304 session by Daminan Edwards entitled "ASP.NET for Mobile and Tablet Development" where he created an Asp.Net MVC 4 application, then made an _Layout.Mobile file, and an Index.Mobile file, downloaded JQuery Mobile with NuGet, added some styling to a list in his view, and ran a mobile version of his MVC app in an Opera Emulator, by starting the Opera Emulator from a toolbar within Visual Studio 2012.

I downloaded the RC version Visual Studio 2012 this morning, followed the steps in Damian's talk, but can't figure out how to run any of the mobile emulators. Can anyone help me with this?

Repletion

Answer 1

You can download the Opera emulator here: http://www.opera.com/developer/tools/mobile/

It is not included in Visual Studio. The Windows Phone tooling will be available later when Windows Phone tools are updated.

With VS 2012 you have the choice which browser to use when starting to debug. Next to the green arrow is a dropdown button, the last entry is Browse with.... You can add Opera's emulator there and you can start debugging with that browser (and every other added before).

Shame

@Sasha, Thanks for the response! In the demo that Damian gave at TechEd, he launched the emulator from a toolbar within Visual Studio, do you know if this Opera emulator that you sent me the link for launches that way, or does it work externally from Visual Studio? – Repletion

Visual Studio allows to create custom toolbar items, so it might be just a shortcut to a macro. One of the new feature of VS2012 is that you have the choice of browser you're using to debug. If the emulator registers as a browser, maybe it is the normal start with button. – Shame

@Russ Clark: see my change in the answer – Shame

@Russ, are you able to hit the debugger when running the Opera Mobile emulator from VS2012? – Moriah

Answer 2

You could try installing WebMatrix 2 which comes with a set of pseudo-emulators for iPhone, iPad, Windows Phone from memory. Then you can open your project in WebMatrix as a website folder and use its emulators.

http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/

Not the most elegant solution, but it's cheap ;)

Deracinate

Answer 3

In VS2012, you can choose Browse With and choose Add and then find the emulator under WebMatrix install folder and you will get both Iphone & Ipad emulators.

Campbellbannerman