Application Lifecycle: PART 3

Model execution on a Windows Phone has a complete cycle, from when the application is launched until it is deactivated.

Several terminologies we should get familiar with in order to understand the aspects of execution model on Windows Phone application.

1.    Tombstoning
A procedure in which the operating system deactivates the application process as users  exits the application. Operating system preserves any information about the application’s state. When the application is re-launched, the operating system restarts the process and sends the last known state from before the application was turned off.
2.    Page State
A state regarding the application page. It includes scroll positions or text field contents. Modifications to  this state is done by overriding OnNavigatedTo or
OnNavigatedFrom methods.

3.    Application state
An application’s condition in which there are no specific associations to any page. This condition can be modified using PhoneApplicationService class.
4.    Persistent data
Data shared by application. This  data is stored and retrieved from isolated storage. Application setting is one example of persistent data.
5.    Transient data
Transient data are those related to an instance of the application. Transient data is stored in state dictionary provided by PhoneApplicationService. An application in tombstoned state will return to transient condition when application is reactivated. An example of transient state is web service query.

Application lifecycle in window phone have five stage:

1.    LAUNCHING
2.    RUNNING
3.    CLOSING
4.    DEACTIVATING:
5.    ACTIVATING

Application Lifecycle

This is the list of actions that will cause an application to enter tombstoned condition:

• WebBrowserTask
• MarketplaceDetailTask
• MarketplaceHubTask 
• SaveEmailAdressTask
• SavePhoneNumberTask
• SearchTask
• SmsComposeTask

The following actions will not automatically cause application to enter tombstoned condition, and thus should be handled:

• PhotoChooserTask
• CameraCaptureTask
• MediaPlayerLauncer
• EmailAdrdressChooserTask
• PhoneNumberChooserTask