Introducing Universal Apps and How to build a Tool for the Community

Recently, Microsoft announced Universal Apps. This will allow you, the fearless developer, the ability to target phones, tablets and desktops from a single code base. Microsoft evangelist James Quick will join us this month to walk us through how to create a Universal App project and how to customize the app for Windows 8 and Windows Phone. He'll also demonstrate how to convert an existing app into a Universal App increasing your awesomeness by 100%. Richie Rump will also share how he created and an application for the whole community to use and how you can do the same.

We'll be meeting at Right Space 2 Meet. Right Space 2 Meet is a cowork facility that provides a collaborative community and a professional environment for entrepreneurs, freelancers and business professionals. It offers fully furnished offices, virtual offices, coworking spaces, conference facilities and event spaces. Right Space 2 Meet is located at 100 Miracle Mile Suite #200 in Coral Gables.

You can park at either the metered parking or one of the two the public parking garages located at: 51 Aragon Avenue, Coral Gables, FL 33134 or 245 Andalusia Avenue, Coral Gables, FL. Either parking lot is about a dollar an hour and a short walk to the SunTrust building.

And Don't Miss the After Party...

Because we don't want the fun to stop when the meeting is over we'll be at Miller's Ale House on Miracle Mile (101 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables) for food and networking. All are welcome.

Meeting Sponsor:

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Ranger Technical Resources (http://www.rangertech.com/)

Session and Speaker Details:

Universal Apps

This talk will walk through the Universal App Template in Visual Studio, which is used to write minimal code to produce both Windows 8 and Windows Phone mobile applications. We walk through the structure of a Universal App project, which will include both a project for Windows 8, Windows Phone, and for shared code (code used for both W8 and WP). We will show how to effectively customize your app for both platforms while at the same time keeping rewritten code to a minimum. This will also include being able to use the Context Switcher in the editor to be able to pull up intellisense specific to whichever platform you are currently working on and deploying to both platforms. Lastly, we will cover how to bring an existing app over to the universal app template so that you will be able to take any existing code and apply it two both platforms.

James Quick graduated from Vanderbilt University with a double major in Computer Science and Spanish. During last two years, he spent time inside and outside of the classroom exploring mobile application development on the Android platform, creating one app that currently has over 20,000 downloads. Upon graduation, he joined Microsoft as the Technical Evangelist in South Florida, focusing on mobile application development for Windows 8 and Windows Phone. Since joining Microsoft, he has worked with all different kinds of people (students, professionals, game developers, etc.). This includes giving professional development training for Miami Dade High School teachers and Miami Dade College professors, leading numerous workshops in the community, and speaking at local events such as ITPalooza and South Florida Code Camp.

How to Build a Tool for the Community

One year ago while sitting in training class I had the idea of a tool to help devs tune SQL queries. After a few days of coding I introduced statisticsparser.com a tool that transforms and aggregates SQL output. In this presentation, I'll share what Statistics Parser is, how it works, and how I promoted it in the community. I'll also give you some tips on how you can create your own community tool.

Richie Rump is a software developer, data architect and project manager. He currently helps companies solve their data challenges using SQL Server and .Net. He holds the Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and various Microsoft development certifications. Richie is also the founder of the dotNet Miami, a community focused on enterprise development with .NET and SQL Server. His previous experience includes working with Burger King, FPL, Ryder and Walt Disney World. Richie can be found on twitter at @jorriss or at http://jorriss.com.