Microsoft announced today via its Windows Phone Developer Blog the release of a new tool designed to help developers migrate iPhone applications to the Windows Phone 7 platform. While Microsoft reminds developers that there’s “no magic wand that will do the work for you,” the new iPhone/iOS to Windows Phone 7 API mapping tool will make the process far less painful.
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The API mapping tool is available at http://windowsphone.interoperabilitybridges.com, alongside a 90+ page white paper called “Windows Phone 7 Guide for iPhone Applications Developers.” The site also features videos of “developer stories” and a compilation of other resources developers need to get started.
Specifically, the API mapping tool functions something like a dictionary, says Microsoft, allowing developers to pick out their iOS API calls then look up the equivalent classes, methods and notification events in WP7. Developers can search a given iOS API call and find the equivalent WP7 along with C# sample codes and API documentations for both platforms, explains Microsoft’s JC Cimetiere in the blog post.
These code samples let developers migrate “short blobs” of iOS code to the equivalent C# code.
To start, there are three popular categories of iOS APIs that can be mapped with the tool: Network/Internet, User Interface and Data Management. There cannot be a mapping of all APIs, though, because the platforms are different architectures and have different UIs. However, Microsoft promises more APIs will be mapped soon.
Microsoft also says similar tools for Android are on their way, too.
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