Setting up development environment
Overview
To develop with the ArcGIS Mobile application framework, you need to have a development machine and a Windows Mobile device (or emulator) configured correctly. You will use Visual Studio .NET 2008 with SP1 on your development machine as the IDE and a device or emulator for testing.
Before you dive into coding, make sure you have all required components installed in both the development machine and testing device. Some of the components/tools can be downloaded free from Microsoft (allowing you to build applications for certain Windows Mobile platforms and connect your development machine with your device/emulator). Other components are installed by the ArcGIS Mobile setup, which provides APIs for extending mobile applications.
System requirements
Development machine
- Visual Studio .NET 2008 with SP1 (Note that Visual Studio .NET 2005 is no longer supported.)
- .NET Compact Framework 2.0 SP2
- ArcGIS Mobile core framework for Windows Mobile
- ArcGIS Mobile application framework
- Windows Mobile 5 SDK for Pocket PC/smartphone, or Windows Mobile 6 Professional/Standard SDK Refresh
- ActiveSync 4.5 (XP) or Windows Mobile Device Center (Vista/Windows 7)
Note:As a best practice, you should always install Visual Studio 2008 with SP1 before you install ArcGIS Mobile on your development machine. The ArcGIS Mobile setup will first install and configure the mobile SDK with Visual Studio, then install project templates and item templates. This requires that Visual Studio be ready when ArcGIS Mobile is installed.
Mobile device or emulator
- Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC/smartphone or Windows Mobile 6 Professional/Standard
- .NET Compact Framework 2.0 SP2
- ArcGIS Mobile application
- ArcGIS Mobile core framework runtime
- ArcGIS Mobile Application Framework runtime
By using the project templates in the same way as any other Visual Studio templates, you will be able to create empty projects for task or project extension, each including an additional Mobile Project Center project that will be required by Mobile Project Center when you author mobile projects.
For more information, visit ArcGIS Mobile Resource Center.