You must package your application as a XAP file to be able to upload it to Windows Marketplace. The Windows Phone Tools for Visual Studio and the special versions of Microsoft Visual Studio® Express and Microsoft Expression Blend® design software included in the Windows Phone Tools automatically create a XAP file that you can upload.
A XAP file contains a series of artifacts that are required to install the application on a Windows Phone. These include the following:
- A valid Windows Phone application manifest file named WMAppManifest.xml, with the application title contained inthe <Title> element, and including a list of permission demands for device capabilities
- A valid .NET Framework application manifest file named AppManifest.xaml that lists the assemblies used by the
application - The assembly (DLL) files specified in the AppManifest.xaml file
- Any user controls or XAML files required by the application
- The resources, icons, images, media, and other content files that the application requires; the application icon must be a 62-by-62 pixel PNG file, and the application tile image used on the Start screen must be a 173-by-173 pixel PNG file.
The maximum size of the XAP package file you can upload is 400 MB, including all the media or other content that is included in the XAP file but not compiled into the application as resources.
If the package to download to the phone exceeds 20 MB in size, users will not be able to download it from Windows Marketplace when using a GPRS or 3G phone connection. Packages over 20 MB in size must be downloaded and installed over a Wi-Fi or physical wired connection.
If your application requires a separate download in order to work, such as an additional data package, and if the separate download exceeds 50 MB, you must inform the user and obtain permission to download it.
The Windows Marketplace Repackaging Process
The validation process, which the Windows Marketplace applies to all submitted applications, automatically unpacks and then repackages the application. It unpacks all the contents of the submitted XAP file and performs a range of validation checks on these. Afterward, it creates a new WMAppManifest.xml file based on the results of the validation process and repackages all the original content with the new WMAppManifest.xml into the XAP package that users will download.
The updated WMAppManifest.xml file contains a product identifier that is used in Windows Marketplace to uniquely identify the application download package; it also includes an indicator of the application type (such as a music and videos hub application). However, the main feature of the validation process that it is important for developers to understand is the way that the security permission demands are applied in the new WMAppManifest.xml file.
By default, the WMAppManifest.xml file created by the Windows Phone Tools templates in Visual Studio and Expression Blend contains permission demands for all the device capabilities. These include networking, location, microphone, push notifications, and more. However, applications distributed through Windows Marketplace advertise the capabilities they require, and users can be sure that an application that does not indicate it uses (for example) the location service, actually will not use it internally without the user being aware.
To ensure that this is the case, the validation process searches the application code for calls to any of the device capabilities that require permission. If the way that these are used in the application meets the certification requirements, the validation process includes that permission demand in the WMAppManifest.xml file and the product
metadata displayed by Windows Marketplace. If a feature is not used, the permission demand is removed from the MAppManifest.xml file. Therefore, code can use only the features for which it is certified, and any attempt to use other features (such as using reflection to invoke a feature) will fail because the application does not have the relevant permission.
You can perform the same detection process as is carried out by the submission validation process on your own computer by using the Windows Phone Capability Detection Tool to check that the correct capabilities are detected.
The Windows Phone Capability Detection Tool (Capability Detection.exe) is installed by default in the %ProgramFiles%MicrosoftSDKsWindows Phonev7.0ToolsCapDetect folder. For information on using this tool, see “How to: Use the Windows Phone Capability Detection Tool” on MSDN (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/gg180730(v=VS.92).aspx).
The Windows Phone Capability Detection Tool is part of the October 2010 update to the Windows Phone Tools, which is available from the Microsoft Download Center (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=49B9D0C5-6597-4313-912A-F0CCA9C7D277&displaylang=en).
After the validation process completes, the XAP file is rebuilt, including all the original content plus a file named WMAppPRHeader. xml that contains the Digital Rights Management (DRM) information. The DRM information controls how and where the application can be used, and it manages the trial period where applicable.