Beta Release Notes
Supported platforms for running Siena are Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 (x86 or x64) Pro or Enterprise editions.
Supported platforms for running generated apps are Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 (x86, x64, ARM).
While Project Siena supports multiple resolutions, the recommended resolution is 1080p (1920x1080).
For more information, help, and resources visit us at http://aka.ms/ProjectSiena
Contents
1 Installing Siena 2
1.1 Siena prerequisites 2
2 Working With Siena 2
2.1 Getting started 2
2.2 Loading app documents 4
2.3 Importing data 5
2.3.1 Azure Mobile Services (AMS) 5
2.3.2 Excel 6
2.3.3 REST connectors 7
2.3.4 SharePoint lists 8
2.3.5 RSS Feed 9
2.4 Publishing apps 9
2.5 Deploying published apps 10
2.5.1 Steps for installing published apps on a device with Siena 10
2.5.2 Steps for installing published apps on a different device 10
2.5.3 Steps for installing published apps on a Windows RT device 11
2.5.4 Steps for deploying an app across enterprise 12
2.5.5 Keeping your developer license current 12
2.6 Things to remember when using Siena 12
2.6.1 Long-running, resource-intensive processes 12
2.6.2 Reserved column names 13
2.6.3 Column types in Excel data 13
3 Known Limitations & Restrictions in Beta 13
3.1 Size restrictions when importing Excel data 13
3.2 Canvas zoom 14
3.3 Circular references 14
3.4 Usage of asynchronous predicates in rules 14
3.5 Custom gallery nesting recommendations 14
3.6 Publishing using local resources 14
3.7 Image not showing 15
3.8 Internet connection requirement for apps 15
3.9 Apps produced by Siena cannot be published to Windows store “as is”. 15
3.10 Network-heavy apps may be terminated at startup 16
3.11 Certain visuals may cause performance degradation in custom gallery 16
3.12 Beta doesn’t support SharePoint Office 365 16
3.13 Selection not working well on Lenovo Helix 16
1 Installing Siena
Thank you for your interest in the Siena Beta release. Please install the latest version from the Windows Store or navigate to the app directly using this link: http://aka.ms/GetProjectSiena
Go ahead and get started!
1.1 Siena prerequisites
Prerequisites for installing Siena:
1. The current release of Siena is only supported on client SKUs (Pro and Enterprise) of Windows 8 RTM or Windows 8.1 RTM. An error will be reported if you try to run Siena on other unsupported SKUs.
2 Working With Siena
This section will get you started with Siena, with a quick overview of the UI and how to go about building apps, importing data, and publishing and deploying your apps. For more specific information about the supported functions that you can use in your apps, please refer to the function reference document available online: http://aka.ms/ProjectSienaFunctionReference
2.1 Getting started
You can launch Project Siena by clicking or tapping the app tile on the Windows 8 Start screen:
On launch, you will see the canvas.
Each app consists of one or more screens. By default, your app will have one screen. You can move between screens while building the app by using the drop-down list on the top left or by using the top app bar (swipe from the top or right click).
The “+” control on the top-right allows you to bring up your control palette—controls can be added to the currently-selected screen.
The following figure shows a canvas with a few controls added to it (you can display the names of all the controls on a screen by pressing Alt key). The Button control instance on the canvas has been selected. The bottom app bar displays the properties of the selected control.
Control properties have been grouped as follows:
· Design: These determine the appearance of the control.
· Data: These properties can be set for data bindings for the control. For example, Button control has a Text and Tooltip data property associated with it and it determines what text gets displayed on a button instance.
· Behavior: These properties can be set to define the behavior of a control in response to various user (or system) interactions.
Go ahead and try adding a few controls to your app canvas, and setting their properties.
2.2 Loading app documents
You can load app documents as follows:
1. Bring down the app bar by right-clicking anywhere on the canvas, or by swiping top down.
2. Select File > Open to bring up the Windows 8 file picker.
3. Browse to the location where you have the app document saved.
4. Select app document file that you want to open and click “Open”.
After an app document has been loaded, you can fully inspect and edit app contents. You can also preview the app by hitting F5, or by bringing down the app bar and selecting “Preview” option on the right. In this setting, you can try out the app and the experience will be exactly the same as you would see if you installed a published version of the app. You can exit the preview mode by hitting Esc key or by bringing down the app bar again and selecting “Design” option on the right.
2.3 Importing data[1]
Links to data sources can be added to your apps for importing data. You can create these links through the Data Sources backstage, which can be accessed as follows:
1. Bring down the app bar by right-clicking anywhere on the canvas, or by swiping top down.
2. Select File > Data Sources.
3. Select “+” control to bring up a list of possible data sources.
Please note that your SharePoint site or REST web services or RSS Feed should not be running on the same device as the published app. If this condition is not met, the app won’t be able to access the service due to a security restriction with Windows 8 apps that prevents them from calling into web services running on the same device.
The current release of Siena supports the following types of data sources that are displayed as options when you click “+” control.
2.3.1 Azure Mobile Services (AMS)
If your enterprise uses Azure Mobile Services, contact your IT department or the administrator of the account for the account details. You can then add AMS tables as data sources to your app:
1. Select “+” control in the Data Sources backstage.
2. Select “Azure Mobile Services” from the data sources menu.
3. You will be prompted for the URL (usually of the form “https://<EnterpriseName>.azure-mobile.net) and AppKey (this is generated when the account is set up; you should use an application key and not the master key). Enter this information and select the search icon.
4. All the tables in your AMS instance are listed and you can select one or more of them and then select “Import Data” to import the data into your app.
Please note that in the current release, we support a simplified and light-weight interface for accessing AMS data. As part of the AMS setup, your IT administrator will also need to create a table named “zz_config” in your AMS instance for Siena to be able to interact with it. This table should contain the following columns:
1. Key: This should be set to “table”
2. Value: String value that stores table name
The zz_config table should contain one row per table that you want to expose to Siena. For example, if you need to allow Siena to access Employee and Sales tables, your zz_config table will have the following entries:
Key / Value“table” / “Employee”
“table” / “Sales”
2.3.2 Excel
Perform the following steps to import Excel data into your app:
1. Select “+” control in the Data Sources backstage.
2. Select “Excel” from the data sources menu.
3. This will bring up the Windows 8 file picker. You can browse to the location where your Excel file is stored, select it, and select “Open”.
4. All the tables within the Excel workbook you selected are displayed. You can select one or more tables from the displayed list, and then select “Import Data” to import the data into your app.
Please note that only Excel tables will be imported (link to help on creating tables in Excel).
2.3.3 REST connectors
You can consume data from REST connectors in your app by following these steps:
1. Select “+” control in the Data Sources backstage.
2. Select “REST” from the data sources menu.
3. Enter the URL for your REST service.
4. Choose an authentication method from the dropdown.
5. Select enable headers checkbox if you want to specify any additional custom headers.
6. Import data.
7. All the tables exposed through your REST service are imported into your app.
Siena can fetch data from REST services using GET requests (your proxy has to support GET requests at the supported endpoints) if the following conditions are satisfied. Please contact your IT administrator about these requirements if you are having trouble connecting to your enterprise’s REST services.
2.3.4 SharePoint lists
Perform the following steps to import data from SharePoint lists:
1. Select “+” control in the Data Sources backstage.
2. Select “SharePoint” from the data sources menu.
3. Enter the URL to your SharePoint site and select the search icon.
4. All the lists on your SharePoint site that you have access to are displayed. You can select one or more lists and then click “Import Data” to import the data into your app.
Please note that in the current release of Siena, link to SharePoint data is not “live” in the sense that changes done to the list on the server are not immediately reflected in the app. The app, on loading, essentially takes a snapshot of the data on the SharePoint server.
2.3.5 RSS Feed
Perform the following steps to import data from RSS feeds:
1. Select “+” control in the Data Sources backstage.
2. Select “RSS Feed” from the data sources menu.
3. Enter the URL to your RSS Feed and select the search icon.
4. All the RSS feeds in your specified URL that you have access to are displayed. You can select one or more feeds and then click “Import Data” to import the data into your app.
Please note that in the current release of Siena, link to RSS Feed data is not “live” in the sense that changes done to the feed on the server are not immediately reflected in the app. The app, on loading, essentially takes a snapshot of the data on the RSS Feed server.
In the current version of Siena only Atom and RSS 2.0 feeds are supported.
2.4 Publishing apps
At any point during the development of your app, or while trying out any one of the sample apps, you can publish it to your device as follows:
1. Bring down the app bar by right-clicking anywhere on the canvas, or by swiping top down.
2. Select File > Publish. You may be asked to download an installer update – please do so.
3. Provide a name for your published app. The name must be at least 3 characters long, start with a letter, and must not contain spaces or any non-alphanumeric characters.
4. OPTIONAL: Pick an icon for your app. This icon gets displayed on the Windows 8 Start screen after your app is installed.
5. Click Publish.
6. Navigate to the location where you want the published app package to be created. Click “Choose this folder” and click OK.
7. This will conclude creating a Published Package.
You can now follow the steps outlined in Section 2.5.1 to install the published package on your device. Steps for installing the published package on other devices have been outlined in sections 2.5.2 & 2.5.3.
2.5 Deploying published apps
After you have published your app, you can use the resulting generated folder to deploy your apps to any Windows 8 device.
There are two prerequisites for deploying published apps:
- Be logged in as an administrator
- Have PowerShell enabled (it is enabled in the default Windows 8/8.1 installation, but some IT departments may disable it)
The InstallApp.exe app in the PublishedPackage folder will automatically prompt for a valid Microsoft developer license if one is not found on the machine. You can use any valid Outlook.com (or @hotmail.com, @live.com) email account as a free license, or you can create a free Microsoft developer license from here: http://aka.ms/WorkingWithDeveloperLicenses.
Deploying an app requires digital certificates. Siena provides a default deployment certificate in case you want to use it. Deploying an app with the default certificate will install that certificate to your computer's Trusted People certificate store. Doing so carries serious security risk and should only be done if you trust the originator of this digital certificate. When you are done using the deployed app, you can manually remove the associated digital certificate. Instructions for doing so can be found here: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=243053
The steps for supported app deployment scenarios are described below:
2.5.1 Steps for installing published apps on a device with Siena
Assuming you have a valid Windows 8 developer license, you don’t need to perform any extra setup to install apps developed and published using Siena[2] on any device where Siena has already been installed.
1. Go to the PublishedPackage folder and double-click “InstallApp.exe” file to run it.