| Free book teaches mobile app design |
Dec. 03, 2008
 Microsoft has released an eight-chapter, 144-page book for designers of mobile applications using the .NET Framework. The free Mobile Application Architecture Guide, downloadable in digital format, is aimed at solution architects, development leads, or "any technologist who wants to understand good application design," the company says.
(Click here for a larger view of Microsoft's Mobile Application Architecture Guide)
Announced on Microsoft's Windows Mobile Team blog, and downloadable from the company's "Patterns & Practices" website, the Mobile Application Architecture Guide is said to provide "an overview and prescriptive guidance for designing mobile applications on the .NET platform."
According to its introduction, the guide provides "design-level" guidance for mobile applications, focusing on "partitioning their functionality into layers, components, and services." A mobile application will normally be structured as a multi-layered application consisting of user experience, business, and data layers (pictured below), the authors add.
Design-level layers of a mobile application
Source: Mobile Application Architecture Guide
(Click to enlarge)
Chapters in the illustrated, 144-page book are described as follows:- Chapter 1, "Mobile Application Architecture," provides general design guidelines for a mobile application, explains the key attributes, discusses the use of layers, provides guidelines for performance, security, and deployment, and lists the key patterns and technology considerations.
- Chapter 2, "Architecture and Design Guidelines," helps readers understand the concepts of software architecture, learn the key design principles for software architecture, and provides the guidelines for the key attributes of software architecture.
- Chapter 3, "Presentation Layer Guidelines," helps readers understand how the presentation layer fits into the typical application architecture, learn about the components of the presentation layer, learn how to design these components, and understand the common issues faced when designing a presentation layer.
- Chapter 4, "Business Layers Guidelines," helps readers understand how the business layer fits into the typical application architecture, learn about the components of the business layer, learn how to design these components, and understand common issues faced when designing a business layer.
- Chapter 5, "Data Access Layer Guidelines," helps readers understand how the data layer fits into the typical application architecture, learn about the components of the data layer, learn how to design these components, and understand the common issues faced when designing a data layer.
- Chapter 6, "Service Layer Guidelines," helps readers understand how the service layer fits into the typical application architecture, learn about the components of the service layer, learn how to design these components, and understand common issues faced when designing a service layer.
- Chapter 7, "Communication Guidelines," helps readers learn the guidelines for designing a communication approach, and understand the ways in which components communicate with each other. It also helps readers learn the interoperability, performance, and security considerations for choosing a communication approach, and the communication technology choices available.
- Chapter 8, "Deployment Patterns," helps readers learn the key factors that influence deployment choices, and contains recommendations for choosing a deployment pattern. It also helps readers understand the effect of deployment strategy on performance, security, and other quality attributes, and learn common deployment patterns.
According to the authors, the Mobile Application Architecture Guide is designed so that its chapters may each be read independently, as well as in sequence. The informative publication concludes with a series of checklists and "cheat sheets" that can be used as aids when reviewing software applications, Microsoft adds.
The authors of the Mobile Application Architecture Guide -- apparently all Microsoft employees -- are described as ".NET architecture and development specialists," and listed in the following order: J.D. Meier, Alex Homer, David Hill, Jason Taylor, Prashant Bansode, Lonnie Wall, Rob Boucher Jr., and Akshay Bogawat.
Further information
The principles in the guide are not only applicable to Windows Mobile and Windows CE, but may also be used with Windows Embedded Standard, Windows Embedded for Point of Service, and Windows Embedded NavReady, according to Microsoft.
To see the Windows Mobile Team's posting about the Mobile Application Architecture Guide, go to their blog, here. To download the guide in PDF format, visit Microsoft's Patterns & Practices site, here.
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