Tag Archives: WnsRecipe

Updated NotificationsExtensions WnsRecipe Nuget to support Windows 8.1 templates now available

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A short post to let you know that I have just published the updated NotificationsExtensions WnsRecipe Nuget with support for the new notification templates that were added in Windows 8.1.

Here is a short demonstration of how to use it to send a new TileSquare310x310ImageAndText01 template with the WnsRecipe Nuget Package

Install the package using Nuget Package Manager Console. (Note you could also do this using Manage package references in solution explorer)

install-package WnsRecipe

Add using statements to the NotificationsExtensions namespace

using NotificationsExtensions;
using NotificationsExtensions.TileContent;

New up a new WnsAccessTokenProvider and provide it your credentials configured in the Windows Store app Dashboard

private WnsAccessTokenProvider _tokenProvider = new WnsAccessTokenProvider("ms-app://", "");

Use Tile Content Factory to create your tile template

var tile = TileContentFactory.CreateTileSquare310x310ImageAndText01();

tile.Image.Src = "https://nickha.blob.core.windows.net/tiles/empty310x310.png";
tile.Image.Alt = "Images";
tile.TextCaptionWrap.Text = "New Windows 8.1 Tile Template 310x310";

// Note you really should not do the line below :), 
// instead you should be setting the required content 
// through property tile.Wide310x150Content so that users
// get updates irrespective of what size tile they have pinned to Start
tile.RequireWide310x150Content = false;  

//Send the notification to the desired channel
var result = tile.Send(new Uri(channel), _tokenProvider);

and here is the output
310x310tile

Enjoy, Nick Harris

Sending Language specific Push Notifications to Windows 8 using the WnsRecipe

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I was recently asked to help out with a MSDN forum post on how the WnsRecipe NuGet package can be used to send Push Notifications via WNS to Windows 8 Metro app clients.  Essentially here are the steps.

Note: This post assumes you have already created a client app, requested test credentials for WNS and received a notification channel in your cloud service.  If you have not yet done this I would recommend you watch this episode of cloud cover where I demonstrate the setup:

If you want to download the hi def version here is the direct link to Channel 9 for this episode .

Now that you have watched the pre-req the rest is really quite simple.

Install the WnsRecipe NuGet into your solution using the NuGet Package Manager

  • Right click on your project and select ‘Manage NuGet Packages’
  • Select Online and search for WnsRecipe and press Install 
    using NotificationsExtensions; 
using NotificationsExtensions.TileContent;
  • Use the recipe as per normal but recall to set the appropriate BCP 47 language code  for your wideTile.Lang and squareTile.Lang properties 
    //new up an access token provider with your credentials
IAccessTokenProvider tokenProvider = new WnsAccessTokenProvider("<your package sid>", "<your client secret>");     
var uri = new Uri("<your endpoint uri>");

//Create the wide tile
ITileWideText09 wideTile = TileContentFactory.CreateTileWideText09();     
wideTile.Lang = "de-DE";     
wideTile.TextHeading.Text = "Test-Paket";     
wideTile.TextBodyWrap.Text = "ä";

// new up a square tile to send down with the wide tile
// as you do not know if the user has pinned the tile to small or wide
ITileSquareText02 squareTile = TileContentFactory.CreateTileSquareText02();     
squareTile.Lang = "de-DE";     
squareTile.TextHeading.Text = "Test-Paket";     
squareTile.TextBodyWrap.Text = "ä";     

// set the square tile content
wideTile.SquareContent = squareTile;

//Send notification - note you should pay attention to the Status codes coming back from the 
//send operation in the result variable.
var result = wideTile.Send(uri, tokenProvider);
  • And that’s basically it as mentioned above this is a somewhat fragment sample. Please do watch the Cloud Cover episode if you require more detail

For a full list with screenshots of the different tile template types please see this MSDN reference