Configure Your Windows Store Application Using Manifest Designer

Before reading this article, please go through the following articles:

1. Developing Windows Store Apps : Introduction And Requirement Specification
2. Plans For Designing Metro Style Apps (Windows Store Apps)
3. Windows Store Application Life-Cycle
4. Guidelines to Pass Windows Store App Certification
5. Navigation Patterns to Develop Windows Store Application
6. Templates to Develop Windows Store Apps
7. Develop Your First Windows Store App (Hello World)
8. Controls to Design Windows Store Apps
9. Lay-out Design Guidelines For Windows Store Apps
10. Guidelines to Create Splash Screen For Windows Store Application

Introduction

In my last article we saw the guidelines for splash screens in Windows Store applications. In this article we will see how to configure your Windows Store application using the Manifest Editor. Most of the Windows Store application settings are available in the manifest file. In my previous article we talked about the appxmanifest file used when the application is being installed or removed from the user's system. In this manifest file we have various settings that need to set when we are developing our Windows Store application. Generally this file is one XML file but Visual Studio provides a great way to edit this file using the Manifest Editor. The Manifest Editor contains generally five tabs which are as follows. We will see then one-by-one.

1. Application UI

This is the first tab in the Manifest Editor. This tab is mostly used to configure the application user interface. For example like setting the application logo, splash screen, background color etc. We will see every section in this tab below.

• Display Name
  
  The user friendly name of your Windows Store application which is displayed to the user. We can say the identification name to application also.
   
• Entry Point
  
  This section in the application UI tab specifies the class name that runs first when the application is started. The entry point section appears only for the application which is created using C#, Visual Basic or C++ languages.
   
• Start Page
  
  This section appears only when you create your application using JavaScript. This section defines the start page for your application.
   
• Description
  
  This section is optional in the Manifest Editor of your Windows Store application. This section provides the description of your application.
   
• Supported Rotation
  
  As we know Windows Store applications run on various devices like tablets. These devices can be moved or rotated by the user. In this section we can specify the preferred orientation in which our application looks good.
   
• Short Name
  
  This section specifies the short name for your Windows Store application which appears in the application tiles directly.
   
• Foreground Text
  
  This section sets the foreground color to the text which appears on application tiles.
   
• Tile Background Color
  
  This property in the Manifest Editor specifies the background color to the application tile.
   
• Logo
  
  This section in the application UI specifies the image file path which appears on the application tile.
   
• Wide Logo
  
  This is the wide version of the above logo image which is used when our application tile appears in wide format.
   
• Small Logo
  
  This is the small version of the logo image which is used by the system when the user searches for something.
   
• Store Logo
  
  This is the image to specify the logo in the Windows Store for your application.
   
• Toast Capable
  
  If your application needs to raise a toast notification set this property to yes.
   
• Splash Screen
  
  This property is used to set the foreground image for your application's splash screen.

2. Capabilities

This is the second tab in the Manifest Editor. While developing our application we use the system resources like webcam, internet etc, Our application by default does not have this functionality enabled, we have to set these capabilities explicitly in the Manifest Editor. The system features are available in the Manifest Editor in checkbox list format; when we check the particular checkbox in the list of features we can use in our application. The following are some commonly used capabilities in our Windows Store apps.

• Documents Library
  
  Check this checkbox when your Windows Store application needs to access a user's document library.
   
• Private Network (Client & Server)
  
  If your Windows Store application needs to connect with a private network like home or work then set this capability. If this capability is not set then your Windows Store application is unable to connect with those networks.
   
• Internet (Client & Server)
  
  Set this capability if your application needs to communicate with public networks. This capability provides inbound and outbound access to public networks.
   
• Internet (Client)
  
  Set this capability if your Windows Store application needs to communicate with a public network. This setting only provides outbound access to public networks.
   
• Location
  
  If you are developing location-aware applications and your app needs to use GPS sensors then you must set this capability.
   
• Music Library
  
  If you need to access the user's music library then you must set this capability in the manifest file. This setting allows your application to loop through and access all the music files without user interaction.
   
• Picture Library
  
  Set this capability if your application needs to loop and access the user's picture library without user interaction.
   
• Proximity
  
  This capability is used when your application needs to connect to other devices available within a certain distance.
   
• Removable Storage
  
  If your application needs to access the files available on removable storage then set this capability.
   
• Videos Library
  
  If your application needs to use the videos library from the user's system then set this capability to your Windows Store application.
   
• Shared User Certificates
  
  If you are developing some financial application which needs the smart cart for identifying the user's identity then set this capability to your Windows Store application.
   
• Webcam
  
  In your Windows Store application if you are capturing some photo or capturing videos from a webcam then you must set this capability in appxmanifest.

3. Declaration

If your application includes system contracts like search, file open picker etc, then this tab provides easy configuration of those contracts you are using in your Windows Store application. The following are some contracts which you can set from this tab in the Manifest Editor:

• Account Picture Provider
  
  If your Windows Store application needs to provide the ability to change the user account picture then you can use this extension to do that.
   
• Autoplay Content
  
  As a Windows OS user all of you are aware that when the user connects a device to their system then Windows raises an autoplay event. If your Windows Store application needs to appear in the list of autoplays then you can use this contract.
   
• AutoPlay Device
  
  When you need to launch your application when the user attaches to an external device such as a webcam to their system then you can take advantage of this contract.
   
• Background Task
  
  When you need to run a background task when your application is suspended then you can use this extension to run that background task in your Windows Store application.
   
• Contact Picker
  
  When your application needs to access the user's contact book then you can use this contract.
   
• File Open Picker
  
  If your Windows Store application requires opening the file then you can use this contract.
   
• File Save Picker
  
  If you Windows Store application must save a file on the user's system then you can include the file save picker contract in your application.
   
• Search
  
  When your application needs to provide the feature like search then you can use this contract in your application.
   
• Share
  
  If your application needs to share the content to social media or sending some mail to user contacts then you can use this contract.

4. Packaging

This is one of the most important tabs in the Manifest Editor. This tab is used when you care deploying your application. All the application packing settings can be done using this tab in the Manifest Editor. The following are some useful configurations which must be done before deploying your application:

• Package Name
  
  The unique name to identify the package in the system. This attribute is case sensitive.
   
• Package Display Name
  
  To display a user friendly name in the Windows Store you can use this attribute.
   
• Version
  
  This attribute is used to provide the package version information.
   
• Publisher Display Name
  
  This attribute is used to provide the publisher name which displays in the Windows Store developer portal site.

Conclusion

In this article you learned the easy way to configure Windows Store applications. I hope you enjoyed reading this article. In my next article I'll return with a new topic, so keep reading this series.