Question

A very straight forward question, but I know there would be no easy answer. I am looking for ideas on how to communicate to Windows Phone 7 back and forth using our application written in c#.

Our purpose is to receive user responses back to application.

Thanks

Answer 1

The simple answer goes something like this…

1) When you need a response, send a push notification to the phone app. This requires the user to opt in to receipt of push notifications for that app.
2) On startup of the phone app, have it query a service to retrieve outstanding information requests. This service will be the phone app’s sole means of communicating with the underlying app, so make sure you can do all you need through the service (get and submit data, mainly)
3) Display the required form to gather user input, and submit the values supplied.

Of course, you can make the scenario as complex or as simple as you like – add a count to the push notification (tile) to show the user they have outstanding data entry requirements – in case they miss the toast notification, have a background job that polls for work to complete, that kind of thing, but in my own opinion, a simple push tile notification should give you what you need.