InfernoRed Blog

Choosing the right tech stack for a project can be difficult.  There are many factors that weigh in on which tools to use.  Your team's proficiency in a language, available frameworks, hardware requirements, existing components, and many other variables help shape this decision.

For a recent project we build a WPF application to run on the windows 10 platform, but we were hoping to take advantage of some of the new hotness that didn't exist in Windows when WPF was created.  Enter the Windows Desktop Bridge, or Project Centennial depending on how you google it. 

I have to admit, the first time I tried HoloLens at //Build in 2015, I was underwhelmed.  The demo was scripted, and the product was clearly not complete.  There was literally a main behind the curtain debugging the device as we went through the motions. 

If I can be a little honest, I feel like the HoloLens might be a solution in search of a problem.  But that's probably because it is so new and we are just beginning to understand its impact.  I think credit goes to Microsoft for understanding this, and that is likely why the device is not marketed to consumers.  But what about businesses?  Who can benefit from this technology? 

Welcome to Part 3 of my blog series on cross-platform UI testing.  For those who are just joining us, in Part 1 we discussed the high-level strategy for cross-platform UI testing using Xamarin.UITest and CodedUI, and introduced SpecFlow as the glue that holds everything together.  I also identified a couple of external resources that helped me put this together including Rob Gibbens' article about BDD Tests with Xamarin.UITest and SpecFlow; and finally we created initial cross-platform .  In Part 2 of this series, we took a big step towards implementing Xamarin.UITest patterns on windows by implementing Xamarin's IApp interface and defining a startup process so we could control the application's lifecycle.  In this post we will complete our journey by defining screens, creating CodedUI UIMaps, setting up our Xamarin project and ultimately creating our first tests using SpecFlow and Gherkin.

Just about every developer is familiar with the benefits and costs of Test-Driven Development.  Regardless of your personal stance on the topic, it is hard to argue against the evidence that automated testing often pays huge dividends in improved quality, reliability, and efficiency.  In fact, on most well-managed projects these days unit testing is a first class citizen. 

As you probably heard in the keynote at //build today – it is now possible to leverage the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) to build apps for Xbox One!  Since the last //build in 2015 we have been using UWP to build single package apps that can be shared by phones and desktops that run Windows 10 – a huge step up from the Windows 8.1 “Universal” app development story.

As Microsoft Build draws nearer, we can hardly contain our excitement for the conference. This year, Build will feature everything from Hololens to UWP on XBox.  As a Premier Xamarin Partner, we are also excited to learn  more about the impact of Microsoft's acquisition of Xamarin.  Recently wrote a post on why we go to Microsoft Build - we are excited for all of those reasons as well.  If you see a member of our team please stop and say hello!  Get an InfernoRed sticker!  See you all next week!

I often get asked, "Why does InfernoRed send their entire team to Microsoft Build?"  That's usually followed by a comment about the expense or the time away from client work.  For those wondering, here's why we go and what is important while we are there.

Cortana is a great way to bring some of that Windows 10 platform goodness into your app.  With Windows 10 and UWP, it is now possible to get Cortana integrated into your app for mobile devices, tablets, and desktops. At InfernoRed Technology, we have worked with several of our favorite clients and partners, including National Public Radio (NPR), Sesame Street, and Nexia, to build successful Cortana experiences into their Windows 10 apps.