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Introduction
Windows Phone Marketplace has stringent guidelines that an
application needs to adhere to if it is to be accepted. Since the Windows Phone
marketplace has been established, quite a few applications had to be
resubmitted as a result of missing the criteria.
To help developers succeed the application submission
process the first time, Microsoft has provided “Windows Phone Marketplace Test
Kit”. This kit contains a set of automated and manual tests, which can be
executed to verify if the application meets the Marketplace standards.
How to Get the Windows Phone Marketplace Test Kit
The Windows Phone Marketplace Test Kit is available as part
of the Windows Phone SDK. Once you have the SDK, it is accessible from any
Windows Phone project opened under Visual Studio.
What Does the Windows Phone Marketplace Test Kit Check?
The Windows Phone Marketplace Test Kit checks a Windows
Phone application for:
- Certification requirements for images and screenshots.
- Certification requirements for application icon and background
image. - Application capabilities
- Error handling
- Back button usage
- Prohibited API use
- Memory usage requirements
- Unhandled exceptions
- Application size limits
- Validity of application manifest
Accessing the Windows Phone Marketplace Test Kit
The Windows Phone Marketplace Test Kit can be accessed from
Visual Studio. When a Windows Phone project is opened from Visual Studio, you
can open the kit by right-clicking the project file and selecting “Open
Marketplace Test Kit”.
Figure 1: Open Marketplace Test Kit
Hands-On
Open any Windows Phone project from Visual Studio. Right
click the project file and select “Open Marketplace Test Kit”.
The Marketplace Test Kit opens.
Figure 2: Marketplace Test Kit
If it has been a long time since you have gotten the Windows
Phone SDK, you might be prompted to download updated test cases. Choose Update
if prompted.
Once the tests are updated, you will get a confirmation
dialog as shown below.
Figure 3: Confirmation dialog for Marketplace Test Kit
Close and restart the Testkit to get the latest version of
tests.
Choose all of the inputs for the tests as shown on the
Windowsphone Test Kit home page.
Next, select the Automated Tests tab and click “Run Tests”.
You will be prompted for a retail version of the XAP file if
there is not one already created. Recompile the application.
In my dummy run, I had not provided some of the information,
so the automated test run failed.
Figure 4: The automated test run failed
Once the failing criteria are satisfied, the test run should
succeed and the application will be ready to be submitted to the Windows Phone
Marketplace.
The Monitored Tests would need to be run on a real device to
get the readings. The manual tests are also self-explanatory
Summary
In this article, we learned how we can use the Windows Phone
Marketplace Test Kit to check the certification requirements confirmation of an
application. I hope you have found this information useful.
