Microsoft Band SDK Release and Band Studio Introduction

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About a month ago we highlighted the Microsoft Band in a link round-up post, Developing for the Microsoft Band Link Round-up.

Since then the Microsoft Band SDK, http://developer.microsoftband.com/, was fully released...

Microsoft Band and developers take the next step in their fitness journey


Today, we’re announcing the full release of the Microsoft Band SDK. Visit http://developer.microsoftband.com, create third party tiles using icons, text, buttons, barcodes and more. Go develop today!



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With the full SDK, developers will be able to take advantage of added functionality from our February preview launch to unlock the full potential of the Microsoft Band.

Additional functionality includes the ability to:

  • Build apps that support Windows.
  • Create your own custom layouts for pages on third-party tiles using icons, text, buttons, and barcodes for payment options.
  • Receive events and button-click callbacks from the Microsoft Band to your phone app. If you press a button on a page inside your tile, your app would know which button was pressed.
  • Connect to the Band from background tasks.
  • Tap into calorie subscription from the Microsoft Band.

The Microsoft Band SDK supports four platforms including Windows, Windows Phone, Android, and iOS.

The release of the full SDK is just the latest example of how we’re taking steps to enrich the developer experience of the Microsoft Band for developers and customers alike. To find out additional information or to download sample code visit http://developer.microsoftband.com.

In that same Microsoft Band Link Round-up the Band Studio for Visual Studio was highlighted. Now there's an additional post (originally in Italian) that provides a great introduction to this Extension...

Introduzione a Band Studio per Visual Studio (Introduction to Studio Band for Visual Studio)


After initially presented the Microsoft Band in October, a few weeks ago the House of Redmond has proceeded to release the official SDK (although in preview version), opening the doors of the new smartband Windows Phone developers, Android, and iOS.

For an introduction to the SDK, we recommend reading this post, written by Matthew Tumiati and Giancarlo Lelli.

It is at this point that our idea: Although the SDK provided by Microsoft allows you to add tile to the Band (s) to which you can send notifications, will not allow the creation of tile with custom interfaces for our wearable. The challenge was to find a way to do this and to give other developers a chance to do so.

After analyzing the structure and controls with their attributes, the next step was to develop a language capable of representing in an easy and effective way the layout of the app and give the possibility to the developer to use it easily: the choice fell immediately on an extension for Visual Studio: so Band Studio for Visual Studio .

Let's see how to create our first app for the Microsoft Band.

Installing the Visual Studio extension for 2013 ...

Our first app ...



Layout editor ...

Layout elements ...

Now you have no more excuses to develop a great app for your Band!
Good coding and we recommend that you share your creations;)

[Click through for the entire post and translated version]

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