Windows Phone 8.1 live tile background task

Question

I have a Windows Phone 8 app that I recently upgraded to 8.1 Silverlight. I'd like to use the new tile templates. Right now I have a ScheduledTaskAgent that uses ShellTile.

In order to use the new live tiles I changed the notification service to WNS in my WMAppManifest.xml. I removed the code to register the old background task and added this code instead:

var backgroundAccessStatus = await BackgroundExecutionManager.RequestAccessAsync();
if (backgroundAccessStatus == BackgroundAccessStatus.AllowedMayUseActiveRealTimeConnectivity ||
    backgroundAccessStatus == BackgroundAccessStatus.AllowedWithAlwaysOnRealTimeConnectivity)
{
    foreach (var task in BackgroundTaskRegistration.AllTasks)
    {
        if (task.Value.Name == "LiveTileBackgroundTask")
        {
            task.Value.Unregister(true);
        }
    }

    BackgroundTaskBuilder taskBuilder = new BackgroundTaskBuilder();
    taskBuilder.Name = "LiveTileBackgroundTask";
    taskBuilder.TaskEntryPoint = "BackgroundTasks.LiveTileBackgroundTask";
    taskBuilder.SetTrigger(new TimeTrigger(15, false));
    var registration = taskBuilder.Register();
}

I created a Windows Phone 8.1 Windows Runtime Component called BackgroundTasks that contains a BackgroundTask called LiveTileBackgroundTask:

public sealed class LiveTileBackgroundTask : IBackgroundTask
{
    public void Run(IBackgroundTaskInstance taskInstance)
    {
        BackgroundTaskDeferral deferral = taskInstance.GetDeferral();

        const string xml = "<tile>"
                           + "<visual>"
                           +  "<binding template='TileWideText01'>"
                           +   "<text id='1'>Text Field 1 (larger text)</text>"
                           +   "<text id='2'>Text Field 2</text>"
                           +   "<text id='3'>Text Field 3</text>"
                           +   "<text id='4'>Text Field 4</text>"
                           +   "<text id='5'>Text Field 5</text>"
                           +  "</binding>  "
                           + "</visual>"
                           +"</tile>";

        XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
        doc.LoadXml(xml);

        TileNotification tileNotification = new TileNotification(doc);
        TileUpdateManager.CreateTileUpdaterForApplication().Update(tileNotification);

        deferral.Complete();
    }
}

I added a reference to this assembly in my Windows Phone project.

I also added a Background task declaration in my Package.appxmanifest that has BackgroundTasks.LiveTileBackgroundTask as an Entry point. I selected Timer and System event as supported task types.

When I run the app though, nothing happens. No live tile appears. I ran through the background task and everything goes well without any exceptions.

Hi, did you try just updating the tile in the foreground instead of in a background task? The reason that I asked is because I can't even get the tile to update in the foreground... — Justin XL
Please take a look at this one stackoverflow.com/questions/23589479/… — Justin XL
@Xin thanks, I did set the notification service to WNS. Could you pastebin your manifest? — Leon Cullens

yasen yasen · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-15T15:28:00

You say "No live tile appears". The code you've posted does not create a live tile - it just updates one. You have to manually pin it - the primary tile cannot be pinned through code.

If that's not the problem, maybe you're not looking at the wide tile? This template is for a wide tile, so the square tile won't be updated by this. I'd suggest using the NotificationsExtensions library. It was originally for Windows Store apps, but I think it would work for WP as well. (I've used it, but just for a test, not for real, so there may be issues.) It allows you to easily specify the template and params for both wide and square tiles.

And finally, to have a wide tile, you have to manually edit the Package.appxmanifest file. You must add the Wide310x150Logo attribute to the DefaultTile element.

That's all I can think of. Hope it helps.

Windows Phone 8.1 live tile background task

2 Answers