Summary
The Windows Store represents a huge shift in application deployment. The process is far more complex and restrictive than older deployment options. You must follow carefully prescribed guidelines for your application to be considered valid for placement in the Windows Store.
However, the benefits are major. The Windows Store provides the infrastructure to locate, deploy, and update an app once you have placed your app in the store. That reduces your responsibilities, and gives you a lot of instrumentation that you likely did not have with earlier options.
And, of course, the threat of malware is significantly reduced. Even for applications that do not go through the Windows Store, the process requires a level of trust via certificates that will be hard for malware to routinely overcome.
This chapter has told you the basics, but given that the Windows Store is rather new, you can expect evolution and refinement of the process in short order. Once you understand the concepts, you'll want to invest some time in online resources to be aware of changes over time.
Professional Visual Basic® 2012 and .NET 4.5 Programming
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This book is dedicated to Tracie, Billy, and Johnny, who had to put up with me locking myself away in my home office and not spending as much time with them as I'd like and they deserved.
—Bill Sheldon
I'd like to dedicate this book to those in the software development community who put users first. I've watched with regret as our profession has become inwardly focused, worrying far more about technology and process than what we can accomplish for our users and the businesses for which they work. I salute those who invest the time and effort to deliver compelling and wonderful experiences to their users, and I hope the material I contributed to this book will help them do that.
—Billy Hollis
This book is dedicated to you, the reader. Unless you didn't pay for the book—in that case it's dedicated to my Mom (love ya, Mom).
—Rob Windsor
To my son, Kevin.
—Gastón C. Hillar
For my wife, Amy. Thank you for your support while I worked on this project. I must also thank my son, Aidan, and daughter, Alaina, for their support and understanding while I was busy in my office rather than spending time with them. I love all of you. Thank you.
—Todd Herman
About the Authors
Bill Sheldon is a software architect and engineer, originally from Baltimore, Maryland. Holding a degree in computer science from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Bill has worked in the IT industry since resigning his commission with the United States Navy. He is the Vice President of Information Technology for Rubio's Restaurants (www.rubios.com) and has eight years as a Microsoft MVP for Visual Basic. Bill lives in Oceanside, California, with his wife and two sons. Bill is an avid cyclist and is active in the fight against diabetes. You can track Bill down via Twitter: @NerdNotes.
Billy Hollis is a developer and user-experience designer based in Nashville, Tennessee. His consulting company, Next Version Systems, offers design and development on software applications requiring innovative and intuitive user experiences. He speaks regularly at major industry conferences, usually on design concepts and user experience technologies. He is also available for training in XAML technologies and in user experience design concepts.
Rob Windsor is a Lead SharePoint Consultant with Portal Solutions—a Microsoft Gold Partner based in Washington, D.C., and Boston. He has 20 years' experience developing rich-client and web applications with Delphi, VB, C#, and VB.NET, and is currently spending a majority of his time working with SharePoint. Rob is a regular speaker at conferences, code camps, and user groups across North America and Europe. He regularly contributes articles and videos to MSDN, TechNet, and the Pluralsight On-Demand library, and is the coauthor of Professional Visual Basic 2010 and .NET 4. Rob is the founder and past president of the North Toronto .NET User Group and has been recognized as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his involvement in the developer community. You can follow Rob on Twitter at @robwindsor.
David McCarter is a Microsoft MVP and a principal software engineer/architect in San Diego. He is the editor-in-chief of dotNetTips.com, a website dedicated to helping programmers in all aspects of programming. David has written for programming magazines and has published four books, the latest of which is David McCarter's .NET Coding Standards, and is available at: http://codingstandards.notlong.com. He is one of the founders and directors of the 18-year-old San Diego .NET Developers Group (www.sddotnetdg.org). In 2008 David won the INETA Community Excellence Award for his involvement in the .NET community. David is also an inventor of a software printing system that was approved by the U.S. Patent Office in May 2008.
Gastón C. Hillar is an Italian living in Argentina. He has been working with computers since he was eight years old. He began programming with the legendary Texas TI-99/4A and Commodore 64 home computers in the early ‘80s. He has worked as developer, architect, project manager, and IT consultant for many companies around the world. He is always looking for new adventures around the world. Gastón has written four books in English, contributed chapters to three other books, and has written more than 40 books in Spanish. He contributes to Dr. Dobbs at http://drdobbs.com, and is a guest blogger for Intel Software Network at http://software.intel.com. In 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012, he received the Intel® Black Belt Software Developer award. In 2011, he received the Microsoft MVP on Technical Computing award.
Gastón lives in Argentina with his wife, Vanesa, and his son, Kevin. When not tinkering with computers, he enjoys developing and playing with wireless virtual reality devices and electronic toys with his father, his son, and his nephew Nico. You can reach him at [email protected]. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/gastonhillar. Gastón's blog is at http://csharpmulticore.blogspot.com
Todd Herman works for APX Labs as a senior software engineer. His current focus is developing a robust library to support the XMPP standard. He has been programming since he received his first computer, a Commodore 64, on his 11th birthday. His experience ranges from developing data entry software in FoxPro for a water research laboratory, to writing biometric applications in Visual Basic for NEC. He lives in Virginia with his wife and children, spending his free time programming, playing computer games, and watching the SyFy Channel or reruns of Firefly.
About the Technical Editors
Doug Waterfield has been a software developer and architect for over 20 years and has been working with .NET languages and related technologies since their first release. He has designed and constructed solutions for Fortune 500 and Defense Department clients through Chameleon Consulting, and he is a Senior Software Engineer with Interactive Intelligence, Inc. Doug graduated from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in 1988 and recently earned PMP (Project Management Professional) certification from PMI. Doug and his family are very active in the Avon, Indiana, community through the Boy Scouts of America and other organizations. He can be reached at [email protected].
Doug Parsons lives in Northeast Ohio and has been developing software professionally for over 15 years. He has a diverse background, having worked in the political, financial, medical, and manufacturing sectors over the course of his career. He is currently employed as a Senior .NET Developer with Harley-Davidson Motor Company. In his free time he tinkers with his various motorcycles, sits on the advisory committee of a High School Technology program, and spends time with his family.
Credits
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to all of the people associated with getting this book together and out the door. More so than any other edition, there seemed to be a real struggle as we made some truly major changes to much of the content. Thanks to those who stepped up and met the challenges that we were presented with during the production cycle.
—Bill Sheldon
Thanks to Beth Massi for being too busy to work on this project and thanks to the people at Wrox for accepting Beth's suggestion that I would be a suitable replacement. I'd also like to thank those who helped me advance professionally to the point that this opportunity was even possible: Craig Flanagan, Sasha Krsmanovic, Jean-Rene Roy, Mark Dunn, Carl Franklin, Richard Campbell, Barry Gervin, Dave Lloyd, Bruce Johnson, Donald Belcham, and everyone at Portal Solutions.
—Rob Windsor