Submitting a Project Siena app to the Store

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In this blog post I’ll describe the steps to take an app created with Project Siena and submit it to the Windows Store. Note, this is an interim method that leverages the Store wizards in Visual Studio Express – but you will not need to do any programming.

[This post has been updated for Beta Refresh (November 2014)]

Prerequisites

Register for a Developer Account: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/jj193592.aspx.

Have “Visual Studio Express 2013 with Update 4 for Windows” installed. Free download from https://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/download-visual-studio-vs#d-express-windows-8

Produce the app

Create your app in Project Siena and publish it (File | Publish) to a destination on your machine. This produces a folder called PublishedPackage. Double click on InstallApp.exe within this folder and choose “Install on this PC” – if prompted, sign in with your Microsoft Account.

You will also see a sub-folder with your app name within PublishedPackage. Download the ProduceAppForStore.zip from https://aka.ms/ProjectSienaProduceAppForStoreNovember2014 (Beta 3 users: https://aka.ms/ProjectSienaProduceAppForStoreBeta3) and extract all files into the PublishedPackage\yourappname sub-folder. Accept when prompted about overwriting an existing file.

One of the extracted files is ProduceAppForStore.cmd, double click to run it. If you get a message “Windows protected your PC,” click on “More info” and choose “Run anyway.” This script will modify published files and open your app in Visual Studio, ready for you to take the standard Store publishing steps.

Submit the App to Windows Store

At this point, you have an app like any other that a developer might have created in Visual Studio. You can see your app working anytime by pressing Ctrl F5.

Follow the Store submission instructions at https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/apps/hh454036(v=vs.120).aspx. Below is a brief summary:

  1. Select Visual Studio menu Store | Reserve App Name, and choose the desired name for your app.

  2. Select Store | Associate App with the Store, and follow dialog to associate with the reserved app name.

  3. Select Store | Edit App Manifest, select the Capabilities tab, and uncheck any capabilities that your app does not use, like Camera, Microphone, Internet or Private Networks.

  4. In the Solution Explorer window inside Visual Studio, double click on privacy.html to review and edit your app’s Privacy Policy:

    • Remove the placeholder text "[REVIEW PRIVACY POLICY]" and edit the rest of text to accurately describe your app’s privacy policy

    • Substitute "[INSERT EMAIL ADDRESS]" with your own email address(es). The text should now look like this:

      <a href="mailto:someone@somewhere.com">someone@somewhere.com</a>

    • Substitute "[INSERT DATE]" with the actual date

  5. Choose Store | Create App Packages, and follow dialog to create the app package (.appx file). You will see a path to your .appx, copy and keep it for step #6.

    (You may encounter an error “Manifest reference file images\storeLogo.png” which not part of payload.” You will need to mark this file in its properties Package Action:Content. If that doesn't work, retry the above steps.)

  6. Choose Store | Upload App Packages to open the Developer Dashboard website. There, provide the information required by the Store:

    • In the “Packages” section, select your .appx using the path from step #5

    • In the “Description” section, make sure to choose the Windows 8.1 tab (Beta 1 users: Windows 8) – Note: Your Beta 2 app will only run Windows 8.1

    • When all information has been provided, the “Submit for certification” button will be enabled -- click to finish

 

At this point, you will have submitted the app you created with Siena to Windows Store for certification and publishing.

 

Vijay Mital, General Manager, Project Siena