Category Archives: Windows Phone

Getting Started With Windows Phone Development

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Windows Phone is the easiest platform to develop for.

By now there are two versions of this mobile operating system: Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8. The main problem is that you can run a Windows Phone 7 app on Windows Phone 8 smartphone, but cannot install a Windows Phone 8 app on a Windows Phone 7 smartphone. At the same time Microsoft doesn’t provide an opportunity to upgrade Windows Phone 7 operating system to Windows Phone 8.

That is why I will describe the development for Windows Phone 7, so that your app will be accessible for all Windows Phone devices.

You need to download and install the following tools for getting started with the development for Windows Phone:

  1. Microsoft Visual Studio. This is the best IDE in my opinion. It is powerful and provides a lot of tools for convenient software development. It has the Express Edition which can be downloaded for free.
  2. Windows Phone SDK (emulator is included into the SDK). It is also a free tool. You can choose between downloading the SDK for Windows Phone 8 and the SDK for Windows Phone 7 (the latest OS version is numbered 7.8).

After downloading and installing this software you can start write your first app for Windows Phone.

Submitting App to Windows Phone Marketplace: What You Need to Pass the Certification

In order to submit your app to the Store you need to pass several more steps after programming the application. Today I will describe all the necessary steps for submitting your app to the certification to Windows Phone Marketplace.

First of all, let’s assume that you have finished the programming part of your application. But you are not ready to submit it, because the certification requires some things to be done.

Here is the check list of what do you need to do to pass the certification in Windows Phone Marketplace successfully:

  1. Change the Application Icons of your app. By default, those icons are generic and if you do not change them, you will not pass the certification at Windows Phone Marketplace. There are two icons you have to change: Application Icon and Background Icon. After uploading your icons to the project you need to go to Project -> Your Project Preferences and change “Icon” and “Background  Image” by selecting your icons instead of generic ones.
  2. Change the Application titles of your app. There are two titles: one will be shown in the list of apps and one will be shown if you put your app to the start menu as a tile. Go to Project -> Your Project Preferences again and change those titles under “Deployment Options” and “Tile Options”.
  3. Change the name of .xap file. The reason is not clear for me, but if you do not change the name of .xap file which you submit for certification from generic to a custom one, the app will fail the certification. So, you need to visit Project -> Your Project Preferences again and change the option “Xap file name”