If you attended the event yesterday in London then firstly, thank you for coming and secondly, you can find the slides we used attached to this post or via this direct link.
The tips I listed in my part of the day can be found at Windows Store Tips.
And finally, my group is very active in helping developers and designers skill up for Windows 8. Check out the resources (including in-person free training) at http://www.windows-store.co.uk/training
Attachment:
Round Table 29th Nov 2012 novideo
Just stumbled upon ClassBrowserPlus – what a great app!
Lovely clean UX with great detailed content
And some very nice code samples
Well done Russell!
When you create a developer account on the Windows 8 store you can either create a company account or an individual account. I have seen several companies get into a “bit of a pickle” with store company accounts.
We now have some detailed guidelines which will help avoid problems later on, including:
There appears to be a small myth that getting a Windows 8 store app on a Windows RT device during development is complicated. I think this stems from a) some of the (quite complex) blogosphere posts on Windows RT and sideloading for Enterprise and b) the expectation that some form of remote deployment/debugging will be required.
However, if all you want to do is install and run it then it really is very simple.
In Visual Studio, use the Store menu to create a package.
At which point Any CPU is normally fine – unless you are using a C/C++ component in which case you will want to generate a ARM package.
Now navigate to the directory
And copy the entire sub folder onto a USB stick. The appxupload is NOT what you want.
Place the USB stick into your Windows RT device and open the folder to reveal the contents.
Right click on the .ps1 file and “Run with PowerShell”
You will then get a series of prompts – agree to them all 
Note: If it is the first ever time you have done this on the device you will also be prompted to get a developer license (free).
And when complete the application will be on your Start screen – far right, unless you previously installed it.
Last updated 24th October 2012.
Ok, not quite 101 but I’m sure we will get there If I have missed something, please share with a comment. Enjoy!
SQLite
Also
Currently in Preview.
Store data, authenticate (Microsoft accounts, Facebook, Twitter, Google) and authorize users, send email/sms and push notifications to devices using Windows Azure Mobile Services
Omniture has a WinRT SDK today in beta: https://developer.omniture.com/en_US/content_module/mobile
Currently Preview 6 (22/9/2012)
Audio and Video content protection for streaming and progressive download
The Windows App Certification Kit test is one of the first things that happens to your application during certification – and if you fail it, your submission fails. The good news is that the WACK is also something you can run locally before you submit. Please do. In fact, why not integrate it into your build process or get into the habit of running it whenever you are making significant changes to the code.
However as well as running it frequently, also run it on a low spec computer (or Virtual Machine) – Atom is a good processor to aim for.
Just in case you are seeing a performance boost from “caching of something”…
Creating a package gives you the option to launch the kit:
or just type “windows app cert” into the search charm:
And there is a command line to use as well:
appcert.exe reset
appcert.exe test -apptype metrostyle -packagefullname [package full name] -reportoutputpath [report file name]Resources:
Before you start developing, before you start design, reserve your application name – or someone else will. You should also reserve any localized app names at the same time.
This is bad:
This is good:
Read other Windows Store Tips
Several of the teams we have worked with have delayed looking at the store submission process until the very end … and only then realised a) how much time and effort is involved to do it well and b) there are a few areas that require some careful consideration.
There are eight steps you need to complete, some take a minute or two, some take much longer.
Areas that require some thought tend to be questions like “What age rating?” and “How do I answer this cryptography question?”. Check them out sooner rather than later!
Areas that require some effort to do well are things like descriptions, screenshots and promotional images. Promotional images are not screenshots! (More on that in a future post)
What often compounds this is the developer doing the submission is likely not the person best placed to fill in some of the fields. Again, do not leave it until the end to find this out.
Read other Windows Store Tips
If your application collects personal information or we think it might collect personal information then you need a privacy policy.
The detail can be found at 4.1.1 Your app must have a privacy statement if it collects personal information and thankfully it is now much more explicit.
The two areas that caught companies out were:
However, an IP address is personal information and declaring Internet capabilities such as internetClient and internetClientServer in the app manifest makes us think you’re collecting the IP number of the user. You will need a privacy policy
That is because you need it in the description page for your application and in the applications settings as displayed from the Windows Settings charm.
Resources:
When you create a new Windows Store project in Visual Studio 2012 it “helpfully” turns on one Capability in the manifest – “Internet Client”.
Which is great … if you use the Internet.
But… having this turned on means your application must have a privacy policy to be approved for the Windows Store else it will fail submission. There are other reasons why you might need a privacy policy – but this one has tripped up many development teams.
If you don’t need it, turn it off.
Read other Windows Store Tips
