1. Windows Phone
Marketplace Publishing in
a nutshell
Version: 2.0
Hosam Kamel
Developer & Platforms Evangelist
Microsoft Middle EAST & Africa
v-hokame@microsoft.com
@HosamKamel

2. Table of Contents
FORWARD.................................................................................................................................................... 2
CONTRIBUTORS ......................................................................................................................................... 3
PREPARE YOUR WINDOWS PHONE APPLICATION FOR MARKETPLACE SUBMISSION ................. 6
Application artwork .................................................................................................................................. 6
Tiles for the Application Installed on the Phone ................................................................................... 6
Tile Artwork for the Windows Phone Marketplace .............................................................................. 8
Application Screenshots........................................................................................................................ 9
Panoramic Background Art ................................................................................................................. 10
Themes .................................................................................................................................................... 11
Textual Information ................................................................................................................................ 11
Content Policies – Rating Certificates (WP Games) ................................................................................ 12
Performance Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 16
Behavior tests ......................................................................................................................................... 17
Localization ............................................................................................................................................. 17
XAP File ................................................................................................................................................... 17
MARKETPLACE TEST KIT: STEP-BY-STEP WALKTHROUGH ............................................................. 18
Application Details .................................................................................................................................. 18
Automated Tests ..................................................................................................................................... 20
Monitored Tests ...................................................................................................................................... 21
Manual Tests ........................................................................................................................................... 23
YALLAAPPS SUBMISSION PROCESS .................................................................................................... 26
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................ 27
And more free learning materials at ....................................................................................................... 27
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3. Forward
Dear WP7 Champs,
I am very pleased to introduce to you our Windows Phone 7 step by step guide to easy and smooth
Application publishing to Marketplace.
We have developed this guide in essence of helping you get exposed to the most common errors that
face developers when creating and submitting Applications on Market Place and provide prescriptive
guidance as to how to address those but more importantly how to proactively avoid pitfalls.
I hope you find this Guide and tools provided useful for you and help you maximize your productivity
and focus your time on innovating.
Best regards,
Sherif Abbas
Developer & Platforms Evangelism Group Lead
Microsoft Egypt
sherifa@microsoft.com
: @Abbas_Sherif
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4. Contributors
Mohamed Nar
DPE ARCHITECT EVANGELIST
Hosam Kamel
DEVELOPER AND PLATFORM EVANGELIST
Mohamed Yamama
WINDOWS PHONE DEVELOPER EVANGELIST
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5. 4

6. 5

7. Prepare Your Windows Phone Application for Marketplace Submission
Application artwork
Application artwork represents your application on Windows Phone devices and in the Windows Phone
Marketplace. Application artwork should capture the user’s attention and the essence of your
application. For art guidelines related to marketing your application in the Windows Phone Marketplace
Tiles for the Application Installed on the Phone
Customers see the application Tiles on the Start screen (apps and games), in the installed app list (apps
only), and in the Games Hub (games only)
The following table lists the size and file type requirements for application Tiles.
File Size File Where used Project file* Sample
(pixels) type
Small app 62 x 62 PNG The list of
icon installed
applications on
the phone
Large app 173 x 1 PNG The Start
Tile 73 screen on the
phone when
the user pins
the application
Small game 62 x 62 PNG The list of
icon installed games
on the phone
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8. Large game 173 x 1 PNG The Start
Tile 73 screen on the
phone when
the user pins
the game
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9. Tile Artwork for the Windows Phone Marketplace
Customers see the application Tile artwork when browsing the Windows Phone Marketplace catalog
before making a purchase. This artwork must match closely the icons provided in the XAP package.
When you submit your application for certification, you must provide this artwork.
The following table lists the size and file type requirements for the Windows Phone Marketplace
application Tile artwork.
Artwork Size File Where App sample Game Sample
(pixels) type used
Small mobile 99 x 99 PNG The
app Tile Marketpl
artwork ace
catalog
on the
phone
Large mobile 173 x 1 PNG The
app Tile 73 Marketpl
artwork ace
catalog
on the
phone
Large PC app 200 x 2 PNG The
Tile artwork 00 Marketpl
ace
catalog
on the PC
8

10. Application Screenshots
Customers see the screenshot of your application in the details page of the Windows Phone
Marketplace catalog. When you submit your application for certification, you must provide at least one,
and up to a maximum of eight, screenshots of your application. Each screenshot should be a direct
capture of the phone screen or emulator. Graphically-enhanced screenshots are not allowed. For more
information, see How to: Create Screenshots for Windows Phone Marketplace.
Screenshots must not contain emulator chrome and must not be transparent PNG images.
Screenshots also must be the images of the application, not just the partial content images of
the application such as some art work displayed within the application.
The following table lists the size and file type requirements for application screenshots.
Artwork Size (pixels) File type Sample
Application Screenshot 480 x 800 PNG
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11. Panoramic Background Art
Customers see the Panorama Background Art image in the Windows Phone Marketplace catalog if your
application is chosen as a featured application. When you submit your application for certification, you
can optionally provide panoramic background art. For art guidelines related to the Panoramic
Background Art, see “Panorama” in Best Practices for Application Marketing.
The following table lists the size and file type requirements for background artwork.
Artwork Size File Sample
(pixels) type
Panoramic 1000 x 800 PNG
Background
Art
10

12. Themes
Avoid controls and text washing-out by testing applications with the Theme Background set to “light”.
Textual Information
- Application Name: Your app name is programmatically pulled from the XAP file and is seen by
consumers in the Marketplace. Apps and games are represented by titles and icons within
Windows Phone Marketplace. We recommend that you consider the marketability of the title of
your app or game, App Titles should:
o Accurately represent the function of the app or game
o Does the title accurately represent the app or game? Can a user quickly identify the
purpose of the app from the title?
o Be appealing and easy to remember
o Is the title catchy? Does it stand out from other titles of similar apps and games in the
catalog?
o Be just the right length
o Is the title too long? Will it fit on one line on the phone screen, or will it be truncated?
The suggested title length is 11-15 characters. Titles that are longer than 15 characters
may be truncated.
- Application Description: App and game descriptions are displayed on the App Details pages of
the Windows Phone Marketplace, and may also be used for outbound marketing activities. The
following are some best practices for writing descriptions.
o Keep the description brief.
o Use simple, plainspoken language. Write as if you were describing your application to a
friend sitting next to you.
o Highlight any features that are exclusive to Windows Phone, or that may be different
between app releases.
o Include bullet points to highlight features of the app. Bullet points should also be brief.
Don't have more than six bullet points.
o Proofread the description for spelling and grammar errors prior to submission.
o If you're releasing an update to an application, don't reference the update at the top of
the product description unless you're highlighting a compelling new feature.
o The language you write the description in should match the language version of the
application you're submitting.
- Featured Application Description: Very short description used if your application gets featured
on the market place (optional)
- Keywords: list of keywords, used on Marketplace for search.
- Version Number:
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13. - Support information: A website address and email address that will allow users to contact you.
Content Policies – Rating Certificates (WP Games)
If your application is a game that has been rated by an approved ratings board (currently CERO, CRB,
DJCTZ, ESRB, FPB, GRB, OFLC - New Zealand, PEGI, and USK), you must submit a valid ratings certificate
for the application and include the appropriate content descriptors in your product description. Games
submitted to Brazil and South Korea requires game ratings.
According to your game rating, your application could be blocked from download based on Windows
Phone parental controls.
You can use PEGI Express, an online rating tool, to get an age rating for Windows Phone games. Here’s a
step by step tutorial on how to use the PEGI Express tool to rate your game:
1- Submitting your game
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14. 2- Rating your Game
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15. 3- Finalizing
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16. 4- Download your License
Click here to use the tool and rate your game.
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17. Performance Analysis
Your application must meet certain performance requirements to be published in the Marketplace.
You can use the Marketplace Testing Kit to identify some of those issues, but the performance Analysis
tool will help you determine the source of these issues in your applications.
a. Applications must render the first screen within 5 seconds and be responsive to end
user input within 20 seconds
Lear more about the Windows Phone Performance Analysis
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18. Behavior tests
- Pressing the Back button must return the application to the previous page. Pressing the Back
button from the first screen of an application must exit the application.
- If the current page displays a context menu or a dialog, the pressing of the Back button must
close the menu or dialog and then must bring up the same page where the menu or dialog was
opened from.
Localization
Be sure that all application text content is localized, be sure that the application description and the text
the application displays to end users is localized appropriately in the target language.
The following code shows how to set the natural resources language.
C#
//Set natural resources language for assembly
[assembly: NeutralResourcesLanguageAttribute(“en”)]
VB
‘Set natural resources language for assembly
<Assembly: NeutralResourcesLanguageAttribute(“en”)>
For more information refer to AppHub: Globalization and Localization and How to: Build a
Localized Application for Windows Phone
b. The product description must be written in the target market language even though it is
for users using a different language in the specific market, such as Chinese users in the
EN-US market.
XAP File
- Your XAP must be built in release; applications built in debug will be rejected.
- In the XAP file, you must be sure that the Neutral Language attribute has been set with the
primary language of the application as mentioned in Localization
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19. Marketplace Test Kit: Step-by-Step Walkthrough
This guide is composed of the following segments:
 Application Details.
 Automated Tests.
 Monitored Tests.
 Manual Tests.
Application Details
The Applications Details tab
- Lists the application package and enables you to specify images that will be evaluated later in
the testing procedure.
- Enables you to specify the images that will represent your application in the Marketplace. These
images will be tested as part of the test kit.
If you do not specify the required images, your application will not pass the
tests in the test kit. The following table lists the images that you can
specify.
What you need to specify
Image Size (pixels) Format Required
Large application tile 173 x 173 PNG Yes
Small application tile 99 x 99 PNG Yes
Marketplace tile 200 x 200 PNG Yes
Application screenshot 480 x 800 PNG Yes
Up to 7 additional application screenshots 480 x 800 PNG No
c. For more information about the artwork required to submit an application, see
Application artwork
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20. Action Screenshot
1. In Visual Studio, open a Windows
Phone application solution that targets
Windows Phone OS 7.1 or later.
2. In Solution Explorer, select the project
you want to test.
3. On the Project menu, choose the Open
Marketplace Test Kit option.
The test kit opens in a new Visual Studio tab
named Marketplace Test Kit.
1. Upload needed artworks using the
guidelines mentioned above.
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21. Automated Tests
The Automated Tests tab
- Provides tests that evaluate the basic criteria of your application, such as application size,
capabilities required by your application, and the presence and size of application images.
Action Screenshot
1. In Visual Studio, open a Windows
Phone application solution that
targets Windows Phone OS 7.1 or
later.
2. In Solution Explorer, select the project
you want to test.
3. On the Project menu, choose the
Open Marketplace Test Kit option.
The test kit opens in a new Visual Studio tab
named Marketplace Test Kit.
4. Navigate to “Automated Tests” tab
1. Click “Run Tests”
The testing kit will validate the following
items:
- XAP Package Requirements
- Capability Validation
- Iconography
- Screenshots
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22. Monitored Tests
The Monitored Tests tab provides a suite of tests that analyze the performance and reliability of your
application during use on a device.
d. To run this suite of tests you must specify a device as the target for the Windows Phone
project. You cannot run these tests while targeting the emulator. You start the tests by
clicking the Start Application button. This deploys your application to a tethered device
and starts the application and the monitored testing.
e. When your application starts, you should navigate through your application and
perform common user tasks. In addition, you should use the back button on the device
while your application is running.
f. When you have completed navigating through the application, click Close Application
to stop your application and display the test results. For each test, the Result column
will be updated with Passed or Failed to indicate the status of the test and more details
about the test results display in the Error Message column.
g. If a test fails you should use the provided information to fix the issue and run the tests
in this section again. You should repeat this process until your application has passed all
the tests in this section.
Action Screenshot
5. In Visual Studio, open a Windows
Phone application solution that
targets Windows Phone OS 7.1 or
later.
6. In Solution Explorer, select the project
you want to test.
7. On the Project menu, choose the
Open Marketplace Test Kit option.
The test kit opens in a new Visual Studio tab
named Marketplace Test Kit.
8. Navigate to “Monitored Tests” tab
9. Click “Start Application”
The testing kit will validate the following
items:
- Launch time
- Peak memory consumption
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23. - Application Closure
Use of Back Button
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24. Manual Tests
The Manual Tests tab provides a series of test cases that you should complete with your application
running on a Window Phone device.
h. These manual tests require you to navigate through your application and observe its
behavior in several different conditions to make sure it meets the application
certification guidelines.
i. To complete these tests you should follow the steps provided in the Test Description
column. After observing your applications behavior, you can change the drop-down in
the Result column to Passed or Failed depending on the results you receive.
j. If a test fails, you should make the appropriate changes to your application. When you
have fixed the issue, you can, redeploy the application to a device and walk through the
test steps again. You should repeat this process until your application has passed all the
tests in this section.
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25. Action Screenshot
10. In Visual Studio, open a Windows
Phone application solution that
targets Windows Phone OS 7.1 or
later.
11. In Solution Explorer, select the project
you want to test.
12. On the Project menu, choose the
Open Marketplace Test Kit option.
The test kit opens in a new Visual Studio tab
named Marketplace Test Kit.
13. Navigate to “Manual Tests” tab
14. Click “Start Application”
The testing kit will validate a lot of manual
tests with each test you will have a complete
description of what this test should be
performed.
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26. 25

27. YallaApps Submission Process
Watch a full overview video here http://www.youtube.com/v/Clea8s_o1SQ
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28. References
- Windows Phone App Hub
- Windows Azure Platform
- Additional Requirements for Specific Application Types http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/hh184838%28VS.92%29.aspx
- Creating Trial Applications for Windows Phone http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/ff967554(v=VS.92).aspx
And more free learning materials at
 Microsoft virtual academy – free e-courses on Virtualization and Management
 TechNet Portal – the essential portal for IT Professionals
 TechNet Wiki – collective knowledge of Microsoft experts and your peers
 TechNet Downloads – download free trials and betas of the latest Microsoft software
 IT Skills for the Cloud – all you need to set the sky as the limit for your career in a Cloud IT
environment
 MSDN link – the key portal to knowledge base, free tools and
 MSDN Virtual Labs – it’s like a big full scale data-center but for your experiments and creativity
only
 MSDN News Flash – subscribe for the key news and special offers
-
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