This practical guide is designed to get programmers up and running with Windows CE, Microsoft's emerging operating system for handheld PCs and other alternative computing devices. This book helps you learn Windows CE programming by building on your experience with Windows 98 and NT. Although other resources may take a more theoretical approach to Windows CE, The Windows CE Technology Tutorial focuses on the essential topics and practical programming techniques you will need to create real-world Windows CE applications.

By using a sample application that is explored throughout the book, Muench walks you step-by-step through all of Windows CE's major technologies, functions, and capabilities--from the most basic skills through advanced techniques. Making extensive use of COM technology, he shows you how to create an application framework and prototype, work with the file system and registry, program for graphics and sound, design the user interface, and enable printing and connectivity. By book's end, this sample application is ready for deployment, complete with a redistributable setup. Smaller code snippets are also used to illustrate important techniques and concepts.

You will find coverage of such specific topics as:

• Choosing the proper device and installing Windows CE
• Available Windows CE development tools
• Windows CE application development with Visual C++ and Visual Basic
• Creating a COM server and ActiveX control
• Distributed COM and DeviceCOM
• The Windows CE registry
• ADOCE for database access
• Windows CE Internet integration
• Adding support for such remote technologies as RAPI, WinSocks, infrared communication, and an ActiveSync provider
• Full coverage of the Pocket PC

In addition, The Windows CE Technology Tutorial offers an overview of Windows CE technology and COM fundamentals. The accompanying CD-ROM contains all the source code used in the book, as well as a variety of convenient tools.

Table of contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Part I Ready . . . Set . . . Go!

Chapter 1 Why Windows CE?

1.1 What Is Windows CE?

1.2 Windows CE versus Embedded Windows NT

Chapter 2 Preparing Your PC for Windows CE

2.1 Choosing the Right PC

2.1.1 Get at Least a Pentium II or K6-2 with 300 Mhz

2.1.2 Use Windows 2000 Professional or Windows 2000 Server

2.1.3 Get a Lot of RAM

2.1.4 Use the New Dual- or Multi-Monitor Support

2.1.5 Get a Big Hard Disk

2.1.6 Use a Network Interface Card (NIC)

2.1.7 Use DVD-ROM Instead of CD-ROM

2.2 Choosing the Right Windows CE Device

2.3 Summary

Chapter 3 Installing Your PC

3.1 Installing the Operating System

3.2 Installing the Development Tools

3.2.1 Office 2000

3.2.2 Visual Studio 98

3.2.3 The eMbedded Visual Tools 3.0

3.2.4 The Windows CE Platform SDKs

3.2.5 ActiveSync 3.1

3.3 Setting Up Your Windows CE Device to Connect to the Workstation

3.3.1 Create a Direct Dial-Up Connection Using 115K Baud

3.3.2 Setting the Default Connection for the PC-Link

3.3.3 Test Your Connection to the PC

3.3.4 Optional Steps: Using a LAN Card to Connect to Your PC

Chapter 4 The Windows CE Development Tools

4.1 Windows CE Tools

4.1.1 Remote File Viewer

4.1.2 Remote Heap Walker

4.1.3 Remote Process Viewer

4.1.4 Remote Registry Editor

4.1.5 Remote Spy++

4.1.6 Remote Zoomin

4.1.7 The Control Manager

4.2 eMbedded Visual C++ versus eMbedded Visual Basic

4.3 The eMbedded Visual Basic Environment

4.3.1 Creating, Downloading, and Debugging a Small eVB Application

4.4 The eMbedded Visual C++ Environment

4.4.1 Creating, Downloading, and Debugging a Small C++ Application

4.4.2 Using the Windows CE Platform Manager

4.5 Choosing the Right Framework for Your Task

4.6 Basic Windows CE Development Tips

4.6.1 Compile-Time Version Checking

4.6.2 Compile-Time Platform Detecting

4.6.3 Runtime Version Checking

4.6.4 Accessing Debug Messages in ActiveX Controls

4.6.5 Debugging ActiveX Controls

Chapter 5 The Thread-Example Pocket-CD-Manager

5.1 The Pocket-CD-Manger Feature List

5.2 Creating the Framework of Your Application

5.3 Differences between the Desktop and Windows CE Versions

5.3.1 stdafx.h

5.3.2 PCDM.CPP

5.3.3 Mainfrm.cpp

5.3.4 PCDMDoc.cpp

5.3.5 PCDMView.cpp

5.3.6 Resources

5.3.7 Differences in Project Settings

5.4 The User Interface of the Pocket-CD-Manager

5.4.1 "File"

5.4.2 "Help"

5.5 Creating a Prototype of PCDM

5.5.1 Creating the Desktop Version of the Prototype

5.5.2 Porting the Desktop Prototype to Windows CE

5.5.3 Preparing the DeluxeCD Database

5.5.4 Converting the Desktop eVB Project to an eVB Project

5.5.5 Migrating Forms and Code

5.5.6 Migrating ADO Desktop to ADO for Windows CE

5.6 Summary

Chapter 6 COM for Windows CE

6.1 A Short Introduction to COM

6.1.1 How Does COM Work?

6.1.2 Versioning

6.1.3 Early Binding No Longer Necessary

6.1.4 Communicating EXE to EXE

6.1.5 Making Remote Communication Seamless

6.2 COM Activation Methods

6.2.1 In-Place Activation

6.2.2 ActiveX Controls

6.2.3 Inproc: In-Process Activation

6.2.4 EXE to EXE

6.2.5 MTS or DLLHOST.EXE

6.2.6 DCOM

6.2.7 COM+ Services

6.3 Creating a Small COM Server

6.3.1 Creating a COM Server for Windows CE

6.3.2 Generating the Desktop Equivalent COM Server

6.3.3 Calling the COM Server in C++

6.3.4 Using #import

6.3.5 Calling the COM Server in Visual Basic

6.4 Creating an ActiveX Control

6.4.1 Creating an ActiveX Control for Windows CE

6.4.2 Generating the Desktop Equivalent

6.4.3 Using the Control in eMbedded Visual C++

6.4.4 Using the Control in eMbedded Visual Basic

6.5 Creating the Wrapper Controls for the PCDM

6.6 DCOM: Distributed COM

6.7 deviceCOM: The Industrial Version of DCOM

6.7.1 Installation of deviceCOM

6.7.2 Starting DCServer as a COM Surrogate

6.7.3 A Small deviceCOM Example

6.7.4 Other Features of deviceCOM

6.8 Summary

Part II Windows CE in Detail

Chapter 7 The Windows CE User Interface

7.1 The Command Bar

7.1.1 Adding a Command Bar to an Application

7.1.2 PCDMUI: Including the Command Bar

7.1.3 Testing the Control in eMbedded Visual Basic

7.1.4 Calling the Control from the PCDM Application

7.1.5 Summary

7.2 The Command-Band

7.2.1 Adding the Command-Band to an Application

7.2.2 Updating the PCDMCommander Class

7.2.3 Testing the New PCDMCommander Class in eMbedded Visual Basic

7.2.4 Using the PCDMCommander Class in the PCDM Application

7.2.5 Summary

7.3 Special Palm-size PC Considerations

7.3.1 Small Example Showing the Application Menu Bar

7.3.2 Updating Your PCDMCommander Class

7.3.3 Testing the New Class in eMbedded Visual Basic for Palm-size PC 2.0

7.3.4 Verifying Your PCDM Application

7.4 The List View Control

7.4.1 Including the List View Control in an Application

7.4.2 Adding the List View Control to the "PCDMUI.DLL"

7.4.3 Testing the New CPCDMList Class in Visual Basic

7.4.4 Using the New CPCDMList Class in the PCDM Application

7.4.5 Summary

7.5 Other Supported Common Controls

7.6 Common Controls That Are Not Supported

7.7 Printing on Windows CE

7.8 The Hardware Buttons on Palm-size PCs

7.8.1 The Action and Escape Keys

7.8.2 The Application Launch Keys

7.9 The Soft Input Panel

7.9.1 A Simple Application Showing the SIP

7.9.2 ShowSIP() for the PCDMDLL.DLL

7.9.3 Test the New PCDMUI in Visual Basic

7.10 Ink Control

7.10.1 Creating a Small Ink Control Application

7.10.2 Other Ink Control Functions

Chapter 8 Storage

8.1 The Windows CE Registry

8.1.1 Adding CPCDMAccessReg to the PCDMDLL.DLL

8.1.2 Testing the New CPCDMAccessReg in eMbedded Visual

8.2 The File System

8.2.1 No Drive Letters

8.2.2 The Name "Storage Card" Can Be Localized

8.2.3 "My Documents" on a Palm-size PC

8.3 The Object Store

8.3.1 A Simple API Application Accessing the Object Store

8.3.2 A Simple MFC Application Accessing the Object Store

8.3.3 Adding Object Store Access to the PCDMDLL.DLL

8.3.4 Testing the New Class in eMbedded Visual Basic

8.3.5 Adding the PCDMAccessDB Class to the PCDM Application

8.4 ADO for Windows CE

8.4.1 A Simple Application Using ADO

8.4.2 Adding ADO to the "PCDMAccessDB" Class

8.4.3 Re-Testing ADO Changes in eMbedded Visual Basic

8.5 Pocket-Access Files

8.5.1 Copying an Access 2000 Database to the Emulation

8.5.2 Summary

8.5.3 Synchronizing Pocket-Access with Access 2000 Databases

8.5.4 Updating the PCDM to Use the New Database

Chapter 9 Remote and Connectivity

9.1 Using RAS as TCP/IP Provider

9.1.1 Install the Communication Cable between Two PCs

9.1.2 Setting the Baud Rate of the Communication Cable to 115K

9.1.3 Set Up Windows 2000 Incoming Connections

9.1.4 Windows 2000 Server in a Domain Environment

9.2 Remote API

9.2.1 A Small RAPI Example

9.2.2 Converting "ObjectStoreIt" to a Desktop Application

9.2.3 Updating Your PCDM Application with RAPI

9.2.4 Testing the Class in Visual Basic for the Desktop

9.3 ActiveSync: Keep in Sync with Your Data

9.3.1 The Concept of ActiveSync

9.3.2 Creating an ActiveSync Service Provider for the PCDM

9.3.3 Some Debugging Tips

9.3.4 Summary

9.4 Distributed COM

9.5 Winsock

9.5.1 A Tiny Winsock Example

9.5.2 The PCDMApplication

9.6 IrDA or Infrared: The Wireless Wire

9.6.1 Adding IrDA Support to Your Winsock Example

9.6.2 Adding IrDA Support to the PCDMDLL

9.6.3 Test the New PCDMDLL in eMbedded Visual Basic

9.6.4 Implementing "Send to . . ."/"Receive . . ." in the PCDM Application

9.7 http: Integration of the Internet

9.7.1 WinInet: The Client Internet API

9.7.2 A Small WinInet Example

9.7.3 The Web Server Issue

Chapter 10 Graphics and Sounds

10.1 Loading Bitmaps

10.1.1 Using LoadBitmap( )

10.1.2 Using SHLoadDiBitmap( )

10.1.3 Using Custom Code

10.1.4 Adding a Picture Class to the PCDMUI.DLL

10.2 Displaying Bitmaps Using GDI

10.2.1 Updating "OnDraw" of the PCDMPicture Class

10.2.2 Testing the PCDMPicture Class in eMbedded Visual Basic

10.2.3 Updating the PCDM Application

10.3 Playing Sounds Using Windows CE API

10.3.1 Adding a Sound to the PCDM Application

10.4 DirectX on Windows CE

Chapter 11 Miscellaneous Topics

11.1 Enhancements for New Pocket PC Devices

11.1.1 Window Size Must Be Calculated Differently

11.1.2 Only Full-Screen Dialog Boxes

11.1.3 A Tiny Example

11.1.4 Summary

11.2 Creating Help Files for Your Application

11.2.1 Creating a Help File for the PCDM Application

11.2.2 Calling the Help File from within the PCDM Application

11.3 Creating a Control Panel Application

11.4 Adding an Icon to the Taskbar

11.4.1 Adding a Task-bar Icon to Your PCDM Application

11.5 Installation for Windows CE

11.5.1 Installation Targeting Windows CE

11.5.2 The Installer Information File (.INF)

11.5.3 Creating the Installer File for Your PCDM Application

11.5.4 Creating a CEF Installation for PCDM

11.5.5 Writing a Custom SetupDLL

11.5.6 CF-Card Instant-Installer for the Pocket PC

11.5.7 Creating an Installation for the Desktop

11.6 Rules to Make Your App Logo-Compliant

11.6.1 Logo Requirements of All Target Platforms

11.6.2 Special H/PC Logo Requirements

11.6.3 Special Palm-size PC Requirements

Chapter 12 Conclusions and Visions

12.1 A Word about Your PCDM Application

12.2 What's Next?

12.2.1 How Small Will It Become?

12.2.2 The Dark Side of the New World

12.2.3 What Can You Do to Take Part?

12.3 Where Is the Technology Now?

Part III Appendices

Appendix A Frequently Asked Questions

Appendix B The PCDMUtils Class

Appendix C Glossary and Abbreviations

Appendix D Tips and Tricks for Unicode versus ANSI

Index