App development

MBT supports stand-alone apps that can be launched from the home screen. Apps can provide additional functionality outside the context of browsing the media library. They can be external processes, or new screens within the application.

Creating an App

First begin by following the steps to build an MBT plugin.

Implement IAppFactory

Create a class that implements IAppFactory. It has a single method - GetApps, that returns a list of IApp.

Each App will have to implement Name, Launch, and GetThumbImage.

• GetThumbImage should return a control to display as a thumb image. It can be an Image control, or some kind of dynamic content. The content must be of a 16 * 9 aspect ratio, and be able to scale to any size.

• Launch should return a Task that starts the app. This could be launching a process, or navigating to a new page by utilizing INavigationService. If the app navigates to a new page, see page development, for an overview on how to create MBT pages.

Testing your App

Once the above is complete, simply start MBT and navigate to the home screen, where the apps will be displayed. All home screens are required to display apps.