UI Components for Windows Mobile Applications (.NET Compact Framework)

Question

Applications which run on mobile devices have special user interface requirements. I think Apple did a great job introducing innovative controls on the iPhone/iPod touch platform.

Now, I have to design an application for the Windows Mobile platform using the .NET Compact Framework (Visual Studio 2008). I wonder if there are some commercial or open source UI control sets available which are similar to the iPhone / iPod touch UI elements:

• Scrolling panels based on gestures
• Instead of a dropdownlist: a new panel with a large list of items
• Sliding panels
• etc.

I couldn't find any useful products/code. Maybe there is somebody out there with more experience who could help.

Yammer

Answer 1

A few months ago, I searched and found nothing (satisfactory). I had to implement my own control library. Lack of good existing "touch-aware" libraries makes me think I should commercialize mine, but it's very incomplete.

Selfconfessed

Thanks for the answer. Did you use managed code (C#, VB.NET)? What kind of controls did you implement? Maybe I could be your first customer? ;-) or we could share some code... – Yammer

I did touch-scrolling lists and items, and buttons, skinnable with image templates. Try www.slimcode.com/dutchtab for an example of those controls. – Selfconfessed

Answer 2

I know that Resco has some "Touch" based list and grid controls for Windows Mobile .net. We use some of their stuff (but not the "touch" features) and they have worked out pretty good for us so far. Here is their SmartGrid.NET control for example.

Linhliniment

Thanks for the answer. I know the Resco-controls. I used them myself. They are okay, but still "classic" Windows controls. I'm looking more something "iPhone"-ish... – Yammer

Did you see this? resco.net/developer/company/articles.aspx?file=articles/… they look pretty modern to me. – Raze

Answer 3

I picked up Mirabyte's Touch Controls v1.0 offering on the weekend.
[Version 1.5 has now been released]

The positive:

• When you get it working, it can look very nice and the kinetic scrolling is nice.
• You get swiping left and right to go back and forth.
• Questions asked on the forum seem to be answered pretty quickly.
• You can do alpha transparent images using their resource based image
• They seem to be doing a lot of work to improve things requested on the forums.

The negative

• The architecture used in the demo isn't what I consider best practice. (There's a single PageHandler class that handles everything from spinning up buttons, pages, menus etc that's split using partial classes across 5 files).
• There's no documentation or comments.
• The mechanisms for using transparent images are heavily reliant on strings, lack of dynamic ways of using your own images.
• It's a very list based UI you're likely to end up with which may or may not be to your taste.
• Few entry points for inherited controls, no source.

All in all, I'd recommend them, they give you a nice way of creating iPhone like UIs. Just be aware there are still teething problems and a lack of documentation.

Raze

Answer 4

There's also an open source project called Fluid Controls. They live here. There's an implementation here.

Looks like you can create some nice interfaces with it, however it does require quite a lot of code to do.

For example, to create a list requires an inherited ListBox class with a Template that explicitly creates and positions all your controls.

Still, a good way to go if you don't want to fork out 50 euro for Mirabyte or 600 dollars for Roscos tools.

Raze

Answer 5

mirabyte has recently released Touch Controls, which offers a very flexible control for lists and menus. In also has features like kinetic scrolling. The good thing is that it is a 100% .NETCF component.

Kellikellia

Answer 6

We've faked a lot of static animations by creating .png sequences in adobe after effects and then rotating the images within a Picture box.

Langlauf

Answer 7

pocketwit is open source and has a cool interface

http://code.google.com/p/pocketwit/

Kinetic List - The main list implements "kinetic scrolling". Side Menus - Action menus are located to the sides of the main menu. So if you drag the list to the left or right, you will see the a menu of actions beside the list.

Cashman

Answer 8

You may also consider looking into SlideUI .NET CF UI Controls our company use for Win Mobile development. It contains a rich list of design-time available controls optimized for fingers (buttons, edits, paintbox, kinetic scrolling list, etc.) Visit SlideUI's website at www.devslide.com/products/slideui

Kahl

Answer 9

I tried Mirabyte and SlideUI. I downloaded and played with both of them. The SlideUI controls (1.6) are really good, and I have to say I am impressed. I'm setting up a student license from them now. I would recommend this for anyone looking for an easier way to make a nice looking app without having to create your own designs and controls.

Trochal

Answer 10

Search for Sense SDK, excelent freeware API for finger friendly UI development. I have to try Touch Controls (good, but not free), Fluid (obsolete) and Silvermoon (poor compatiblity) and Sense SDK is the best!

Danforth

Answer 11

mirabyte, it seems good, but you can't try in some test application their touch controls component, the are only provide a sample application. Otherwise, you can't see how to look inside of your application.

In my opinion, you should choice resco, they are working in PocketPC platform many year and they know what is the performance and application scalability, usability, user friendly etc.

Finally, i like the resco's lastest edition of mobile studio 2009.

Germanophile

Answer 12

If you're looking for iPhone like GUI on Windows Mobile, take a look at Bee Mobile at http://beemobile4.net

They offer their iPack - a pack of .NET CF controls which provide iPhone-like GUI.

Gyasi

Answer 13

I personally would recommend mirabyte's Touch Controls Suite 2. The new version 2 is much better than the first release (great performance, low memory consumtion) and they have probably the best value for money. I used them in some client projects and I'm very pleased with them, also because of the very active community in their support forums that helped me a lot!

Dasya