Regular readers of this blog will realize that, in addition to my interest in .NET programming, I am also an amateur genealogist. 

Many times, over the last few years I have tried to combine the two – which is demonstrated by a codeplex project I created a couple of years ago.  However, work, family and my inability to stick to a plan have gotten in the way of completing something usable.

I recently obtained a new Samsung Focus Windows Phone 7 phone, and it occurred to me that a Family Tree Application would be an ideal fit for the phone platform.  After all, you may not have access to a laptop or desktop computer when you are delving through material in the basement of some archive.

Just before Christmas I downloaded the Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools and the  Silverlight for Windows Phone 7 Toolkit, and I started work on a simple Windows Phone 7 App – “My Family Tree Project”.

The goals of the first version of the App are quite simple.

• Be able to copy an existing GEDCOM File (the standard format for Genealogy data) onto the phone from a PC.
  
• Be able to view a list of Individuals in the file
  
• Be able to view the following detailed information on each individual
  • Family Name, Given Names and Sex
  • Spouse(s)
  • Parents
  • A list of children
  • A list of events for the individual (Birth, Census etc)
  • Notes
• Be able to navigate to individuals using the list view, and be able to navigate to related individuals when in the detail view

I have essentially finished most of these features although they still need some polish and more exhaustive testing (see below for screenshots taken from the Emulator)

Screenshots of “My Family Tree Project”

Welcome Screen	Settings Screen	Individuals List
Individual - Detail	Individual – Children	Individual – Events
Individual – Notes

This week my application for a  Windows Phone Marketplace account was approved – and my goal is to have the first version of “My Family Tree Project” available as a free download through the Marketplace by April.

Over the next few weeks – in future posts, I will highlight some of the challenges I faced on this project.

This year I have decided to place a bigger focus on speaking at Developer Conferences and so over the last few months I have been submitting session proposals to major conferences around North America.

I am pleased to say that many of my submissions have been accepted and I have quite a busy speaking calendar for the upcoming Spring conference season.

VSLive

Conference Dates: April 18-22, 2011
Venue: Rio, Las Vegas
Website: http://vslive.com/lv

This excellent conference for .NET Developers is held two or three times a year and in April it will be held in Las Vegas.  I will be presenting two sessions at this conference.

• The Almighty @ – A Razor Primer
• WebMatrix Real World Data Centric Applications

If you would like to see me speak please use the registration code – VLSPK23 – for a $400 savings.

DevTeach

Conference Dates: May 30 – June 3, 2011
Venue: Intercontinental Hotel, Montreal, Canada
Website: http://www.devteach.com/

This excellent conference which is held annually in one of Canada’s 3 major cities, is this year planned for Montreal in the beautiful province of Quebec.  Come and see me speak on:

• The Almighty @ – A Razor Primer
• Have your Cake and Eat it Too - Using the WebFormsMVP Framework to Develop Testable Web Applications

Prairie DevCon

Conference Dates: June 13-14, 2011
Venue: Delta Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Website: http://www.prairiedevcon.com/

The Prairie Developer Conference is the conference event for software professionals in the Canadian prairies!  At this conference I will be teaming up with my son Andrew to give two Razor presentations

• The Nurse² Razor Show – Parts 1 and 2

Notice that the focus is Razor – Razor and WebMatrix are new technologies and DotNetNuke’s support for Razor means that I will be able to put a DNN spin on many of my speaking engagements.

If you plan on attending any of these conferences – ping me (@cnurse is my twiiter alias) – and we can meet up.