FAQ

Trouble shooting

Technology Roadmap

    Writing .NET CF Code

    Support

    Trouble shooting

    When I try running my applications or any of the sample applications, the application just exits with no error.

    Did you perhaps install the framework to the phone's data card and not phone memory? Installing onto phone memory will likely eliminate this problem. If the problem persists, try installing TaskSpy - or a similar tool that displays panics in the background while your application runs.

    I get “return value 3” as the application exist, no exception is thrown, and no log file is written.

    A return value of 3 is typically caused by a Symbian KERN-EXEC 3 panic. (If you run TaskSpy - or a similar tool that displays panics - in the background while your app runs you’ll be able to confirm this.) When a panic occurs the process is terminated by the OS immediately and our runtime does not get a chance to flush the logging buffer from memory to the log file. This is the reason why your log file is empty

    If you turn caching off, this will ensure that all events will be written immediately to the log file and not onto phone memory. It will slow your application down but all events will be recorded as they happen. Please do forward us the log file once you have simulated the error with caching switched off for us to further analyze the issue.

    I get a certificate error when I try to install my .sis file onto device. What's wrong?

    All .sis files must be signed before they can be deployed onto device. If you haven’t signed it, have a look at our Quick Start Guide for step by step help on how to do this. If after signing you still get a certificate error when deploying to device, look up you error on the Nokia Developer Community Wiki.
     

    Technology Roadmap

    Will Net60 support Compact Framework 2.0 in future updates

    Yes, Net 60 will support CF 2.0 applications in future.

    Once .NET CF applications for Smartphone run on S60, will Red Five support UIQ?

    S60 applications resemble .NET CF Smartphone applications, whilst UIQ applications resemble .NET CF PocketPC applications. The parallel in form and function between the two pairs is remarkable. As with our S60 work, there should be no trouble in getting Pocket PC apps to integrate well with UIQ devices. It is therefore possible; once we are convinced of the market for it we will build it.

    Will .NET Compact Framework applications for Pocket PC devices be supported in future?

    Yes. At present Smartphone CF application functionality maps roughly to the Nokia S60 interface whilst Pocket PC apps map to the UIQ software platform used by Sony Ericsson. We plan to support the UIQ interface on Symbian OS, however not in our Version 1.0 release. This will coincide with support for Pocket PC applications.

    My .NET Compact Framework application makes use of the SQL Server Compact Edition (CE). Will my application still work with the Red Five CLR for Symbian OS?

    .NET CF applications using the SQL Server CE database unfortunately will not be supported by Red Five Labs in Version 1.0 . The main reason is that SQL Server CE is a native Microsoft application not available for Symbian OS. We do however expect to add database support to our Version 2.0.

    Will .NET applications that run under Net60 need to go through Symbian Signed?

    Yes. Like native Symbian C++ applications, .NET applications that are shipped commercially will need to be signed by a Symbian Signed test house. (During development .NET developers can use the Symbian developer self-signing process to sign their applications for internal testing.)

    Because Net60 allows .NET Compact Framework applications to call directly in native Symbian C++ APIs (through Platform Invoke), there can be no security sandboxing by the runtime. Signing .NET applications ensures commercial .NET applications don’t subvert the Symbian OS security infrastructure.

    There is more information about the Symbian signing process at www.symbiansigned.com.

    Writing .NET CF Code

    What namespaces does Net60 support?

    Net60 is binary compatible with Microsoft's .NET Compact Framework 1.0 implementation.

    The list of the .NET Compact Framework class libraries installed to the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) located in \phonememory\resource\RedFiveLabs\GAC are:
    1. System.dll
    2. System.Data.dll
    3. System.Drawing.dll
    4. System.Windows.Forms.dll
    5. System.Web.Services.dll
    6. System.Net.IrDA.dll
    7. System.XML.dll
    8. Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll
    9. mscorlib.dll

    How do I determine the cause when a .NET CF application terminates unexpectedly on device?

    If an application terminates and does not provide a ‘0’ return code it typically means that there was a problem and it exited unexpectedly. If you receive an “Unhandled Exception" message box a thrown .NET exception has failed to be dispatched properly. In this case use the Red Five Labs Log Viewer to get the stack trace for the exception.

    How come when I use Visual Studio 2003 I can only create Pocket PC or WinCE SmartDevice applications, and not Smartphone applications?

    This is as a result of not having installed the SDK for Windows Mobile 2003-based Smartphone applications. Once installed, the 'Smartphone' option will appear when creating a new SmartDevice application.

    How come when I build a Microsoft Mobile Smartphone application and deploy it to the Symbian emulator / device the options on the main menu appear in reverse order?

    In Microsoft Smartphone applications, the 'Options' menu is always found on the right hand side. In Symbian S60 Smartphone applications, the 'Menu' is always found on the left hand side. This limitation (and conflict in design) is probably due to general user interface considerations.

    In order to be able to deploy a Microsoft .NET Compact Framework application unchanged on a Symbian S60 OS device, it is therefore necessary that Red Five Labs automatically reverse the options on the main menu in order to keep consistent with the Symbian user interface paradigm.

    This does not mean that the .NET CF application nor the development process need to be changed.

    The Windows Mobile Smartphone Menu rules (which are also applicable to the Red Five Labs implementation) are addressed in the .NET Compact Framework FAQ on MSDN. The FAQ is also a very good general reference for .NET CF development.

    Below is the relevant section from the FAQ :

    Windows Mobile-based Smartphone menus have several rules, such as:

    • The first menu item (corresponding to the left soft button) cannot have any subitems.
    • The second menu item (corresponding to the right soft button) can have subitems.
    • Any other top level menu items are not used.
    • If the first menu item has more than one item, you will get a NotSupportedException.

    For a complete list of requirements, refer to the Windows Mobile-based Smartphone help documentation in the SDK for Windows Mobile 2003-based Smartphones.

    Why does my application crash from a 'NotSupportedException' when I add a menu to my Smart Device Application in Visual Studio 2003

    A fundamental difference between a Symbian OS device and the Microsoft Smartphone is that the menus are in fact switched around. I.e. with Symbian you have a single option on the right of the CBA and a pop up menu of options on the left. With Microsoft the reverse case is true.

    It is actually a bug in the Visual Studio 2003 IDE that allow s you to add more than one item on the left side. If you try and run an application in the Microsoft emulator with more than one item on the left you will get a NotSupportedException thrown (you will get the same exception with our implementation). Visual Studio 2005 actually prevents you from adding more than one item on the left.

    To avoid this problem what you need to do when you are developing in Visual Studio 2003 is to make sure you only have one item on the left and put your sub-items under the right menu. When you run this in the Microsoft emulator it will work as designed. When you run it in the Symbian emulator you will see that we automatically switch the menus around for you so as to replicate what a Symbian user would expect to find.

    For more information please read the section entitled "What are the rules for Windows Mobile-based Smartphone menus?" in the .NET Compact Framework FAQ.

    Are there any differences between writing .NET Compact Framework applications for Smartphone devices and Pocket PC devices?

    Yes. The main form factor difference between these devices is in the fact that Pocket PC devices have (often larger) touch screens. Thus the main differences are in the unavailable UI controls to Smartphones and the absence of the SQLServerCE and SQLClient namespaces for Smartphone. For a more detailed overview of the unavailable controls, please visit this link.

    At present Red Five Labs is supporting .NET CF 1.0 applications built for Microsoft Smartphones.

    Support

    How do I get product support?

    Red Five Labs provides active managed support for customers and beta users of Net60. Support is provided in the form of managed public forums as well as direct case based support requests and bug reports through an online submission form.