CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#silverlightwindows-phone-7tiles
Eric98118
Eric98118

Reputation: 409

Is there a way to show a countdown on live tiles without constant push notifications?

I'd like to have an app that offered an "at a glance" view of how long they have left until something occurs via Live Tiles. For example, the next scheduled departure of the bus from their bus stop.

Ideally, there would be some sort of way to have a simple formula embedded in the live tile in some manner that would let me show a countdown. Is there some way to do this? With the current framework it seems like I'd need to send a push notification every minute which seems obscene.

The basic concept (very pseudo code-ish):

tile.text = "Next Depart: " + (departureTime - currentTime) + " minutes.";

run on an interval of 60 seconds or some such. Then I can update the departureTime via push notifications but otherwise leave the phone alone. It'd be even better if I could primarily rely on a schedule stored on the phone and only notify if there are changes, but not sure how to do that either.

Corollary: Are there any guidelines as to what push frequency is considered acceptable? aka is it really okay to push every 60 seconds?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 215

Answers (2)

AlexDrenea
AlexDrenea

Reputation: 8039

Unfourtunatelly at this point there is no acceptable solution to your problem. Live tiles were simply not designed to be updated on a such frequent basis and that why now (WP 7 Mango), there is no way of doing that. And I say "no way" because even if theoretically allowed, a push notification every 60 seconds is not technically sustainable (imagine you reach as little as 1000 clients at once, even that's a lot of processing, and 1000 could be a small number if your app gets popular).

Upvotes: 2

Chris Sainty
Chris Sainty

Reputation: 9326

To get down to 1 minute like frequency you will need to go with push notifications.

The TileSchedule and BackgroundAgents are in the 30min-1hour range for frequency.

Upvotes: 1

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