Category: Programming

The Woes of Windows Store App Submissions

Written by Justinon

I recently submitted a Windows 10 / Windows Phone app to the Windows Store named Data Viewer for Dota 2. I’m here to warn the world just how awful the process of submission can be.

Microsoft first created the concept of the Windows Store with the release of Windows 8, Windows RT, and Metro Apps — I mean Windows Store Apps — I mean Universal Windows Apps. Whatever you want to call them, the store quickly became an unregulated messy disaster full of copycat and scam apps. Many, many apps were nothing more than front ends to scamming websites, copies of things like Facebook, or general do-nothing apps with a price tag and description which made it seem like a good purchase.

In order to address this problem, in normal Microsoft fashion, Microsoft decided to wait 3 years and come up with a new process of submitting the app. Every app would be held to “rigorous” standards which would guarantee all apps were clearly named and labeled to prevent confusion and scams. There are several guideline posts out there from Microsoft, and you can rest assured that all of them are vague and barely helpful.

So how did this affect my app? Originally, the app was named “Dota Database” after its sister site and had the same icon as appears on that site. The first submission resulted in this super helpful message: The app name and icon do not accurately represent the features.

Uh…OK? I’m not sure it could even get more vague than that. So as a guess, I figured maybe they were complaining about the word “Database” since the app isn’t literally a database but instead is a viewer into a database. I renamed the app to “Dota Data Viewer” and tried another submission. That was apparently a mistake because guess what message came back after failing? The app name and icon do not accurately represent the features.

At this point, I tried emailing the support address suggested by the submission report. I decided to get to the point and ask for more information about why the app was failing submission and asked about what specifically I should change. The response was kind of helpful: Hello Developer, you will need to make your app distinguished from other apps in the store with a unique name such as “Skype for Windows” or “User Guide for Microsoft Word.”

Then I changed the app name to “Data Viewer for Dota 2” which is specific and distinguished from any other apps. In addition, I changed the app icon to the one you now see in the Windows Store which clearly states the app is a data viewer and not an actual game. Surely success will come after this! Wrong. The app was rejected with the exact same copy and paste message: The app name and icon do not accurately represent the features.

Now I’m upset. I email the support desk again and receive the exact same response: Hello Developer, you will need to make your app distinguished from other apps in the store with a unique name such as “Skype for Windows” or “User Guide for Microsoft Word.” Hey Microsoft, that isn’t helpful!… Read more

How to Rename Your App in Windows Store

Written by Justinon

This applies to the Windows Store and Windows Dev Center as of March 1, 2016 and assumes you are uploading a Windows 10 Universal Platform App.

The Windows Dev Center started out badly back in Windows 8, and it hasn’t improved too much since then. I have to be honest when I describe it, because it’s sometimes nothing short of painful. One of those pain points is the UI and poor documentation regarding the concept of the “App Name”.

In order to submit to the store, you need to create “App Packages”. Each package has metadata associated with it that you define in your “App Manifest” (Package.appxmanifest in your project). This manifest is where the app’s name must match exactly with whatever names you have reserved in your Dev Center for that app.

Creating the App Name

When you create an app submission, you have to pick an “App Name”. This is the name that is displayed across your Dev Center Dashboard and the Windows Store. This name also has to match exactly in your app’s created manifest. That secret bit of information isn’t documented well and seems to only appear in tiny text when you are creating an app package through Visual Studio.

Changing the App Name

If your app has not yet been submitted to the store, then you can change the name by reserving a new one in the Dev Center, changing the manifest to that name, creating an app package, and then uploading that package. Don’t try to rename directly from the Dev Center (that’s where I kept looking). Instead, you have to reserve the name and change it in the manifest to match. There is no way to rename an app from the Dev Center!

If your app has already been submitted, you will need to reserve the new name, create a new update submission, change the manifest accordingly, create the package, and upload it to the new submission. If the submission is approved, the new name should show up in the store. I think there’s a delay in the new name showing up (16-24 hours).… Read more

Share a Generic XAML ListView, ItemsSource, and DataTemplate with UserControls in Windows Universal Apps

Written by Justinon

This post applies to Windows Universal Apps specifically. These techniques probably won’t work with WPF or Windows 8/8.1 Apps because the XAML hierarchy and namespaces are different.

The title is certainly a mouthful, but stick with me to understand where this scenario can be useful.

Let’s say you want to re-use a ListView without copy and pasting everything about it wherever you need it. Simple enough, right? Just put it in a UserControl! Not so fast. What if you want to define the ListView’s ItemsSource from one level above the UserControl? It gets a little more complicated. This is especially true if you want to take advantage of a VisualStateManager with the ListView’s ItemTemplate.

CustomListView

For example, I had a UserControl which allowed users to scroll left/right on a ListView by clicking buttons left/right instead of using a scrollbar. I wanted to share this ListView in multiple places,  but didn’t want to restrict the UserControl to a single ItemsSource by hard coding it in the UserControl itself. I wanted to “pass in” the ItemsSource and DataTemplate to define the layout of the items from one level above the UserControl. Additionally, I wanted the layout to change based on the width of the screen to work with phones, tablets, and wide layouts.

So here’s what I did after a few hours of struggling through wildly varying documentation across WPF, Windows 8/8.1, and Windows Universal Apps.

Creating the DataTemplate UserControl

We first need to define the lowest level of the chain to determine what and how the data will be displayed in each data bound ListViewItem. We put the XAML in a separate UserControl so that we can also attach a VisualStateManager to the ListViewItem and have it re-organize appropriately on different layout sizes.

This UserControl will then be referenced one level up in the DataTemplate of the main UserControl which contains the ListView and the left/right Buttons.

Before we can go to the next step, we need to add some code to the code behind.… Read more

A Quick Reference to Azure Key Vault via Powershell

Written by Justinon

Azure Key Vault has been generally available in certain regions since June 2015. You can’t use the Azure Portal to work with the key vault yet, so you have to drop down into Azure Powershell and run a few commands. It’s a little confusing to get started since development is ongoing and Azure Powershell itself changes frequently.

Here’s how I have been achieving some simple Azure Key Vault commands via Azure Powershell. I’m using Azure Powershell version 0.9.8, so keep that in mind if you’re comparing these commands to the Getting Started guide linked previously in this article.

Check Your Azure Powershell Version (optional)

If you don’t know what version of Azure Powershell you’re using, try this:

Switch to AzureResourceManager Mode if Necessary (optional)

Since you’re using version 0.9.8 like me, you need to switch into Azure Resource Manager mode.

Login to Azure

Login to your Azure account and enter your credentials in the popup window. It seems kind of odd that it wouldn’t just make you login via Powershell parameters.

Create a Resource Group (optional)

You need an Azure Resource Group to add the Azure Key Vault to. If you don’t have one already, create it now. If you already have one, skip this step.

Create a Key Vault

Now create the Azure Key Vault. To be honest, I don’t know what would happen if you added it to a location that’s different from the Resource Group’s location.

Create a Key and Add It to Your Key Vault

Now you need to add a Key to your Key Vault. This cmdlet will create a software-protected key. You could also create a hardware-protected key, but keep in mind that there may be costs associated with that method of extra protection.

Confirm the Key Was Created

Read more thorough documentation here.… Read more

A Quick Reference to Creating NuGet Packages

Written by Justinon

All of the following commands should be executed in the folder containing the project from which you want to create a package.

nuget spec – Create a .nuspec file which contains meta-data about the package such as author, description, and title. You will need to edit some of the values in this file when you first create it.

nuget pack <.csproj file name> -Prop Configuration=Release – Create a .nupkg file containing the compiled contents of the project specified in the first parameter. Optionally target a specific configuration.

nuget push <.nupkg file name> – Push the NuGet package up to your NuGet.org account.

More complete documentation here.… Read more

How to Rollback Entity Framework Code First Migration

Written by Justinon

The code first approach to using the Entity Framework can be extremely helpful in creating a new database while staying entirely within your C# code base. If you’re more comfortable with creating plain old class objects (POCO) and then having those translated into SQL driven structures, code first is for you. That said, the process by which updates to the code base are pushed to the database (migrations) can be a bit frustrating to use at times. Not all SQL Server features are supported in a code first approach. In addition, migrating your structures in Azure has its own set of problems.

If you want to roll back to a previous migration due to an error in the current migration or wanting to rewind and start over, the following command can be used from the Package Manager Console in Visual Studio. This will rewind and undo any migrations between the current and the “migration-name” migration.

For example, if you have the following history of migrations in your project where the * indicates the current migration:

  • 201506042221067_RemoveColumn1
  • 201507031735200_AddColumn2
  • 201507044516322_CreateNewPersonTable
  • *20150731124746_SomeBrokenMigration

Use this command to roll back to the “AddColumn2” migration. Notice that the timestamp on the migration name is not included in the command.

The migration history will then look like:

  • 201506042221067_RemoveColumn1
  • *201507031735200_AddColumn2
  • 201507044516322_CreateNewPersonTable
  • 20150731124746_SomeBrokenMigration

Notice that the migrations which were rolled back were not deleted. The next time you perform an update-database command, the migrations will be re-executed. You will need to delete the migration from your project entirely if you want to avoid this.… Read more

Custom authorization with ELMAH and ASP.NET Identity Framework

Written by Justinon

If you’re using any of the most recent ASP.NET MVC 5 project templates with authentication and authorization built in, then you’re probably using the ASP.NET Identity Framework. With any ASP.NET project, it’s smart to add references to the ELMAH library just in case any unhandled exceptions occur. You can use both of these libraries together to restrict access to the remote ELMAH page with custom authorization.

First, install the Elmah.MVC package from NuGet. This should download the correct libraries and add the necessary lines to your web.config.

Substitute the “your_user_name” entry with your own username that you’ve setup in the ASP.NET Identity Framework backend. For example, the AspNetUsers table in SQL Server contains your usernames. It appears that ELMAH does get the authentication information from the current thread principal, which the ASP.NET Identity Framework will establish on your behalf upon login.… Read more

The required anti-forgery cookie “__RequestVerificationToken” is not present.

Written by Justinon

In your ASP.NET MVC adventures, you may come across the following error when loading a view.

The required anti-forgery cookie “__RequestVerificationToken” is not present.

After searching Google for awhile, you might become desperate with the many different solutions presented. Normally, the solution to this issue is related to the ValidateAntiForgeryToken attribute on actions. When accessing a GET action, you don’t need to use the anti-forgery token.

However, this is not the only solution. In my case, my web.config had this entry:

Checking the project settings in Visual Studio revealed that my project was not set to use SSL which caused a conflict. Either comment out the above line or set the project to always use SSL.

See more solutions to this issue on this StackOverflow answer..… Read more

Fixing Error 5: Access Denied when Starting a Windows Service

Written by Justinon

After creating your own Windows Service, you may encounter the following error:
53rgc

Sounds serious, but it’s not. It’s complaining that executable can’t be started because the account under which the service is running does not have access. When you installed the Windows Service, you had to choose a context like Local System, Local User, Network User, or something custom. In order to fix this issue, you need to give execute permissions to the user you chose. For example, NETWORK SERVICE account may need permission if that’s the context you chose to run the service.

Even after that hard work, you might still see an error like below:
Fp6Zq

This is a more generic error which indicates that something threw an exception during the OnStart method of the service. Since it’s so generic, there’s not really one solution to the problem. You need to check the Application Log in the Windows Event Viewer to understand what faulted the service. In some cases, it could be a bad application configuration (as one example).… Read more

Installing XNA 4 on Windows 8 / 8.1

Written by Justinon

Microsoft has long since abandoned XNA improvements, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop using the framework entirely. If you’re interested in installing the XNA framework on Windows 8 and 8.1, it can be a little tricky. Follow these steps.

Option 1

Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/astebner/archive/2012/02/29/10274694.aspx

  1. Download and install the latest version of the Games for Windows – LIVE Redistributable from http://www.xbox.com/en-US/LIVE/PC/DownloadClient
  2. If you are installing the Windows Phone SDK 7.1, re-run setup and choose to repair it. This will re-run the previously failing XNA Game Studio installers and they should install correctly this time.
  3. If you are install a standalone XNA Game Studio product, re-run setup and it should install correctly this time.
  4. If you are planning to do Windows Phone development, you should also install the Windows Phone SDK 7.1.1 Update after installing the Windows Phone SDK 7.1. This update fixes an issue that prevents the emulator in the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 from working correctly on Windows 8.

If you are installing the Windows Phone SDK 7.1, you can use the log collection tool to gather your setup log files. This log collection tool will create a file named %temp%\vslogs.cab.

If you are installing XNA Game Studio, you can find log files at the following locations:

  • XNA Game Studio 4.0 Refresh – %temp%\XNA Game Studio 4.0 Setup\Logs
  • XNA Game Studio 4.0 – %temp%\XNA Game Studio 4.0 Setup\Logs
  • XNA Game Studio 3.1 – %temp%\XNA Game Studio 3.1 Setup\Logs
  • XNA Game Studio 3.0 – %temp%\XNA Game Studio 3.0 Setup\Logs
  • XNA Game Studio 2.0 – %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft XNA\XNA Game Studio\v2.0\Setup\Logs

Option 2

This method may not be entirely legal, so only try it at your own discretion.

Use the download for VS2012 and VS2013 at this link: https://msxna.codeplex.com/releases. I have no idea of the legality on that project (the developers seem to have decompiled XNA), but it did help me ease the pain of needing VS2010 in order to utilize the content pipeline.… Read more