Project Siena App : How to Publish in Windows Store

Let’s say our Project Siena app is finished and ready to be submitted to Windows Store for certification.

Few important files you should know about:

1. .ps1 file :  this is poweshell file which you can run with the poweshell to install the app locally in your device.

2. .APPXUPLOAD file : this is the file that you upload in the Windows Store through the Dashboard of your developer account.

Let’s see how we can get .APPXUPLOAD file from Project Siena App to submit the App in Store for certification.

STEPS :

1. Open your Project Siena App. Swipe from top to get the Menu. Click on “File”. Then click on "Publish".

2. when you click on "Publish" a new page will open up. fill the Display name, Icon etc. and hit publish button. you will get a folder called "PublishedPackage" at the location you had mentioned while publishing the app in Step 1.

3. open the folder "PublishedPackage". you will see two things. One, .exe file and a folder.

4. double click on "InstallApp.exe". you have two options now. First, just install the app in your PC, or generate the .appx and .ps1 files which you can give to your friends to install the app in their PC. Choose "Install on this PC" to do the first and choose "Create an appx file for sharing". our intention at this points is to create .APPXUPLOAD file to submit the app in store. so choose the first option in the above popup. when you click on "Install on this PC".

6. Now, in your "PublishedPackage" folder click on the folder with your app name. there you can see many files but if you want to create a store package and associate it with your developer account you need to open this project up in Visual Studio. to do that you need to run a small script to manipulate the files in this folder. to runt he script:

download - for Beta 2 :   https://aka.ms/ProjectSienaProduceAppForStoreBeta2

                  for Beta 1 :  https://aka.ms/ProjectSienaProduceAppForStore) 

NOTE : if your installing Project Siena After March you are most probably using Beta 2 version. so download the .zip from the first link.

7. Extract the contents of the .zip folder and copy all the files in the PublishedPackage -> your App Name Folder. please click on "Replace the files in destination" if prompted. that's what we need to do, modify the existing files so that we can open them up in Visual Studio.

NOTE : please don't extract the zip folder in the PublishedPackage\your-app-name folder. extract it somewhere else and copy the content (all files) from the extracted zip folder in the PublishedPackage\your-app-name folder.

8. you wont see the .sln file directly to open it up with Visual Studio just yet. Find the "ProduceAppForStore.cmd" file.  double click on it. and boom your app will open up with Visual Studio!

9. Now steps are pretty simple. click on the "package.appManifest" in the Solution Explorer. click on the "Capabilities" tab. here add/remove all the capabilities that your app is using. This step is important. this one time I was uploading a package in Windows Store for certification and I forgot to remove the unnecessary capabilities from package.appmanifest file, the package was not accepted for store certification.

NOTE : If you cannot locate the Solution Explorer then click on View from top menu, there you will find Solution Explorer.

10. Next, right click on your App Name, in Solution Explorer and click on "Store". Then click on "Associate app with Store" and fill in your developer account credentials if asked.

11. if you have previously reserved an App Name for this App in Store, select that from the list or else, you can reserve a new App Name. once you have selected the Reserved App Name. click on "Associate". 

12.   This brings us to the last Step. all that remains now is to create the App Package for Store. For that, right click on App Name in solution explorer. click on "Store" and  click on "Create App Packages..".

NOTE : it is advisable to click on ''Launch Windows App Certification Kit". This is Certification test which will test your app and give result as PASS/FAIL with report. Taking WACK test for your app is a good practice in Windows App development.

13.  browse to your package location and there you will find your .APPXUPLOAD file. Now goto dev.windows.com, sign in with your developer account credentials and submit the remaining process of App Submission to Store.

Hope this was helpful! :)