Notebarn: Simple Free Notepad for Smartphone that uses ActiveSync and DirectPush

What is notebarn?

Notebarn is a small app for managing a collection of notes.

I did not write it because a notepad app is missing on the Windows Mobile Smartphone (there are plenty of notepad apps out there, and a bunch of OEM Smartphone distros, like Samsungs's, include a notepad). I wrote it because as a former Blackberry user I wanted a notepad that automagically sync'd to the Exchange server and thence to my local Outlook desktop. This blog post talks more about the idea.

June 12, 2007 Update: Fixed install and some bugs. Also, these TinyURLs come in handy if you want to browse to install the Compact Framework or Notebarn install files on your phone, with minimal typing:

Compact Framework v2 Install: http://tinyurl.com/2skq24
Notebarn Install: http://tinyurl.com/37bd79

June 8, 2007 Update: Added support for launching URLs from notes, and specifying a regular expression (via config file) for localized phone numbers outside North America. Blog post with details here (and embedded micro-tutorial on composing a numeric regular expression). I'm hoping to build a list of preset expressions for a future release... but for now I'm crowd-sourcing :)

May 29, 2007 Update: As described in this blog post, I've updated the app to allow you to dial phone numbers that happen to be in your notes directly from the application. This is a small thing, but in the absence of good cut/copy/paste functionality on the Smartphone, it used to be a hassle to actually call the numbers in the notes. If there's one number (identified by a 10-digit US phone number pattern) in your note, then Dial <number> appears in the main menu. If there are multiple phone numbers, then a "Dial..." menu item is created. Selecting that menu item brings up a screen showing all of the phone numbers in the selected note, in context (i.e. with the text around them so you can tell which number is which). From there, you can click to dial!

How to download/install

Notebarn relies on the .Net Compact Framework 2. If you're lucky enough to be running a Windows Mobile 6 device, then this framework is already on there. If you're running Windows Mobile 5, then you can install Compact Framework 2 via this MSI download to your PC, or (hint: easier!) an over-the-air install of this CAB file right here (2.2 M).

Then you install the Notebarn app and shortcut with this CAB file (187k).

I use the app so much I assigned it to my home screen right-side shortcut key on my Blackjack. The CAB install does not do this, but it's a handy trick.

To start using it, you need to create the Task that the Notebarn notes live inside of (ActiveSync and DirectPush manage your tasks, and this is how Notebarn gets note data around). You can either create a new Task (in Outlook, Outlook Web, or on the device) with "My Notes" as the subject or you can just run Notebarn and choose the menu option "Create Container Task" -- they all do the same thing. If you already have a Task called "My Notes", you'll want to rename it to prevent conflicts.

Want source!

Here is a Visual Studio 2005 solution with two projects: the Notebarn app itself and a CAB installer project that installs the .exe and adds a start menu shortcut.

To work with it, you'll need VS 2005 and also the Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone SDK and/or PocketPC SDK. The Windows Mobile 6 SDK will probably work too, but I haven't tried it.

In development, I tested using the new-and-improved device emulator version 2, which installs right over top of the device emulator version 1.