I wanted to put together a simple Windows Phone 7 application that I could put through the marketplace just so I can go through the process of getting an application submitted, approved and up on the marketplace. I decided to build an application “about us” so I used Nick and Dave’s Social Viewer Template to pull together our blog posts, twitter mentions, You Tube videos etc. into one application.
I used the latest released version and it was really simple to add the feeds that I wanted to show. As is the way when you’re graphically challenged, I think it took me longer to get the icons, backgrounds and splash screen images etc. how I wanted them. The thing that drove me nuts thinking I’d done something wrong was my Application Icon. For the life of me I couldn’t get my highlight colour to show up on it thinking we’d done something wrong with the output of the image only to find the hightlight colour doesn’t come through for this version.
If you want to check out the application, you can download it from HERE.
The next biggest hurdle for me was to actually submit the application. Not sure if it was because I was submitting on a Monday but it took me about 6 attempts to get all of the images (which are all tiny) up on the site so I could submit the application. The site kept randomly giving out errors and was quite frustrating. After it was submitted, it made it through certification after 2 days and then took another day to actually appear on the marketplace. So if you have a deadline coming up, even if your application makes it through first time you need to give yourself a few days before it actually appears.