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Hello there,

Here a simple code I tried to make to take screenshots inside a Windows Phone 7 application. This works in the emulator. I'm pretty sure it will work with a phone.

I found this article to take screenshots with few lines of code: Screen Capture on Windows Phone 7.

The issue here is that you only have a Bitmap image in the phone's memory. What I did is:

• a simple web application for IIS able to receive a screenshot (you may host it on your local IIS)
• a class for your WP7 application to send screenshots to the web server

You will find an attached file named Wp7Screenshots.rar. It contains a Visual Studio 2010 solution to build & publish on your local IIS (or anywhere you like).

If you look at the code, you will find a simple IHttpHandler. It's main goal is to detect files in a HTTP POST query and to save them on your hard drive.

After publishing, make sure the web application contains a Files folder and verify IIS have permission to create files into it.

Now, let's see you WP7 application. This only apply to Silverlight projects. So if you are using XNA, perhaps this blog entry is not for you.

The only configuration you have to do is to set the URL of your deployed HttpHandler. You can do this anywhere.

Tools.ScreenshotSender.UploadUrl = "http://172.24.1.32/wp7/Upload.ashx?key=fvkjorejv";

Then, you have to call the magic method to take the screenshot. You need a reference to a PhoneApplicationPage. Here is a code to take a screenshot 5 seconds after the application startup. You can of course use any event to take more screenshots (mouse click, navigation event, timer...).

public partial class MainPage : PhoneApplicationPage {
        public MainPage() {
            InitializeComponent();
 
            Tools.ScreenshotSender.UploadUrl = "http://172.24.1.32/wp7/Upload.ashx?key=fvkjorejv";
 
            // go off-thread to wait
            ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(r => {
                Thread.Sleep(5000);
                var dispatcher = r as Dispatcher;
 
                // go on the UI thread to take a screenshot
                dispatcher.BeginInvoke(new Action(() => {
                    Tools.ScreenshotSender.TakeAndSend(this);
                }));
            }, Deployment.Current.Dispatcher);
        }
    }

Don't forget this code was made from scratch. It is NOT ready for production. I wrote this to take screenshots for documentation purpose. If you want to use this in a published application, you might want to read the whole code file (for the silverlight application). And the server code IS INSECURE: anyone can upload any file to your webserver. The only simple protection is a hard-coded key. So again, sample insecure code here. You are free to enhance (and optionally post your own code).

Here is my C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wp7\Files folder with screenshots from the emulator.

Hope this can help. I'm still searching how to take a screenshot of a whole panorama control...

Here is my approach for deleting stuff with ASP.NET MVC 2.

As mentioned here, the default Delete view isn't quite correct. What I wanted is a deletion solution that:

• is powered with Ajax for a better user experience
  • we will make a HTTP DELETE on /Items/Delete/12 to delete item #12
• is accessible for non-JS enabled browsers (we need a confirmation form)
  • when confirmed, the deletion occurs with HTTP POST on /Items/Delete/12 to delete item #12

With those specifications, we can write the following (wrong) controller code:

public class ItemsController : Controller
    {
        [HttpGet]
        public ActionResult Delete(int id) {
 
            ViewData.Model = new ConfirmFormModel { 
                Id = id.ToString(),
                BackAction = "Index"
            };
 
            return View();
        }
 
        [HttpDelete]
        [HttpPost]
        public ActionResult Delete(ConfirmFormModel model) {
            ViewData.Model = model;
 
            // business action here
 
            // if we use Ajax, backaction will be null and have
            // to prevent a secondary GET request
            return model.BackAction == null ? null : RedirectToAction(model.BackAction);
        }
 
    }

/// <summary>
    /// Simple model class to store the Id for a confirmation form.
    /// </summary>
    public class ConfirmFormModel {
 
        /// <summary>
        /// Item's ID
        /// </summary>
        public string Id { get; set; }
 
        /// <summary>
        /// Confirmation message.
        /// </summary>
        public string Message { get; set; }
 
        /// <summary>
        /// The controller action to redirect to if the user wants to cancel.
        /// </summary>
        public string BackAction { get; set; }
 
    }

A created a little model class to store the confirmation message and the item ID; this way I can use it all over my project. You can notice the [HttpDelete] and [HttpPost] on the second Delete() method. Obviously this won't work as asked here. You have to create your own attribute.

So I created the related views with (not-included) javascript. Here is the index:

<!-- Index page -->
 
    <ul>
    <% for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) { %>
        <li><%= Html.ActionLink("Delete #" + i, "Delete", new { id = i }, new { @class = "deleteLink" })%></li>
    <% } %>
    </ul>

The delete page where I include a generic partial-view:

<!-- Delete page -->
 
    <h3>Confirmation</h3>
 
    <% Html.RenderPartial("ConfirmForm", Model); %>

Finally, the partial view:

<!-- Delete form in a partial view -->
 
<% Html.BeginForm();  %>
    <fieldset>
        <legend>Confirmation</legend>
 
        <p><%= Html.Encode(Model.Message ?? "Are you sure you want to delete this?")%></p>
 
        <p>
            <%= Html.HiddenFor(m => m.Id) %>
            <%= Html.HiddenFor(m => m.BackAction) %>
            <%= Html.ActionLink("Cancel", Model.BackAction ?? "Index") %>
            <input type="submit" name="Continue" value="Continue" />
        </p>
    </fieldset>
<% Html.EndForm(); %>

Now we have a working solution to confirm some action on a website. Sources attached...