Apr 30, 2011 06:14 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has already introduced a Windows Phone interoperability hub to woo developers building projects for rival mobile operating systems, and the company is continually enriching the collection of resources made available to catalyze the evolution of the WP ecosystem by supporting the development of platform agnostic applications.

The latest addition to the Windows Phone Interoperability site is an application programing interface set to streamline the migration of iPhone/iOS apps to Windows Phone 7.

Being a younger mobile platform than iOS, Windows Phone 7 is also the underdog when it comes down to the volume of apps available to customers.

Microsoft did manage to attract and spark huge developer interest for the WP Marketplace, which led to the creation of over 15,000 apps already, but the company is not resting on its laurels.

The iPhone/iOS to Windows Phone 7 API mapping tool launched on April 29th, 2011 comes to prove this. According to Jean-Christophe Cimetiere, Sr. Technical Evangelist – Interoperability, the tool makes it simpler for devs to migrate short blobs of iOS code to the equivalent C# code.

“With this tool, iPhone developers can grab their apps, pick out the iOS API calls, and quickly look up the equivalent classes, methods and notification events in WP7. A developer can search a given iOS API call and find the equivalent WP7 along with C# sample codes and API documentations for both platforms,” Cimetiere noted.

But developers should not expect this API to do all the work for them. They’ll still be tasked with all the heavy lifting, and of course, there’s really no other way around it, otherwise everybody could start coding, which is not the case.

The first version of the tool focuses on Network / Internet, User Interface and Data Management APIS for iOS, providing Windows Phone 7 equivalents. There’s no Windows Phone 7 API mapping for such iOS APIs as: Audio / Video, Graphics / Animation, Performance and Security.

“Don’t expect a mapping for all of the APIs, simply because the platforms are built upon different architectures and user interfaces. For this first round we focused on identifying the one-to-one mapping when it exists. In the following versions we’ll expand the scope and anytime the concepts are similar enough, we’ll do our best to provide the appropriate guidance,” Cimetiere added.

It’s important to note that the iPhone/iOS to Windows Phone 7 API mapping tool will continue to evolve, and that the promise from the software giant is that additional APIs will be covered in the future.

“So, please consider using the mapping tool in your porting efforts, and provide feedback on the dedicated forum, where you can also suggest new mapping APIs to include: http://wp7mapping.uservoice.com,” Cimetiere stated.

Devs looking to port their apps from iPhone or Android to Windows Phone 7 should check out the Interoperability site that Microsoft set up especially for them, with such resources as the “Windows Phone 7 Guide for iPhone Application Developers” white paper and a range of relevant dev stories.