Is going through the Windows Shop within Windows 8 the only way to know about the apps that are currently available (and if an app idea is already taken)? I've seen Windows 8 app links like this one -
http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/en-in/app/bigflix/cd3aa73b-e60e-44b6-bbe9-6898050a3502
...but going to the root site throws a "403 - Forbidden: Access is denied" and a search for "Windows 8 Store" doesn't provide any useful results. I guess there will be something after the official Windows 8 launch but is there anything else I'm missing? As a developer, I would love to see a summary listing of apps that shows a brief description, its features and Capabilities used.
Unfortunately for us, Microsoft is not providing any such information regarding the Store apps. All we can do is glean a bit from here and there. Zdnet has mentioned the number of apps, for example.
Have a look here and here
This link in particular maybe of some use because it provides estimated app category breakdown.
I created site http://metrostorescanner.com/ to see what's new in apps for all countries (but you can also use country filter).
I found a file with a site map that you may be able to use for a listing of apps:
http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/sitemap/sitemap_1.xml
http://www.greatwindowsapps.com is a searchable directory on the web. It's not the entire Store, the content is filtered to remove poor quality apps. Disclosure: this is my site, so clearly I think that's an advantage :)
http://drunktester.azurewebsites.net/ is the full Store using the Australian content. He published the source code (https://github.com/VikingCode/DrunkStore) so you could set this up for any country if you wished.
Update - It is now possible to search for Windows Store & Windows Phone apps even from non-Windows 8 machines and also view apps by category from the official Microsoft websites.
As #mamata-dalal & #gyurisc have mentioned, there is currently no official Windows 8 app directory.
I came across the website Windows8Apps (though not perfect) that comes close to what I'm looking for.
Currently there is no other place than the Windows 8 Store is the only place, but I am sure soon there will be plenty of sites categorizing these apps.
Related
I just developed my first app for windows phone and put it into the windows phone app store. Everything worked fine, I got the message the app was accepted, so I started looking for it in the app store. Many searches later I still couldn't find it.
The other strange part was, that I can't even find it with the direct link which I get under "Link zum Store" (German, stands for: link to store) When I click the link, I 404 page.
Any reason why this is the case, I made the app available in all countries, regions and windows phones 8.1 . The link to the app is: http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=f383f584-a864-4f07-a4bc-5c709f750865
Depending on when the app got published, it might take some time for it to propagate and become available through direct links or search.
For example, I can already see your app through direct link, I can also see it in Windows Phone Store through that link and install it.
it takes a couple of days... MS makes it seem like it will be instantaneous...
My first app took 3 days to "show up"... hurry up and wait :-)
I'm developing an app on the Windows desktop so Win7 users have the app, but for Win8 users I'm also developing a Metro app.
My problems are,
if a user opens a file (e.g. "Blue.xyz"), I want an app to come up that asks which environment to open it in, but first it has to find all the apps that can open the file and display them.
Then I need to pass the data as a parameter to the app Chosen.
In the .NET framework 4.5.1, I can't find the System.GetEnvironmentVariable command so I can create a common location for both environments to access. These are my options:
Comment for clarification.
Regarding your 3rd question, the function is there, just now showing on MSDN page:
After having an inspiration, I found some code that can get pretty close to what I want.
Dim filepicker As New Windows.Storage.Pickers.FileOpenPicker
CommonFolder = Windows.Storage.Pickers.PickerLocationId.DocumentsLibrary
I should just be able to tack this on the end after that:
CommonFolder.Replace("\Documents","")
and it should give me "C:\Users\someuser" and then I can add "\MyAppStorage"
Thanks for all the help though! This code isn't very clean, so feel free to edit and make it better!
I have to develop a windows store app which will be usable on public devices, that means users aren't supposed to be able to quit my application.
On iOS devices, an option called "Guided Access" allows to do this easily, buttons are disabled and you can specify an area where user can interact.
After some researches, I haven't found a way to do that, it seems that Microsoft has not implemented this option in Windows 8, so I'm looking for a way to do this with some code, directly in my app but I have no idea on how to do that precisely. Please, can you tell me if it's possible and, if it is, can you give me a point where I can start ?
Thanks.
I´m not sure whether or not this made it into the newly released preview of the Windows 8.1 Update, but check for "Assigned Access" it was rumored to be a new feature especially for Windows store apps
Edit: See the offical 8.1 product guide here, it only mentions it two times but maybe it is worth installing the preview.
I am thinking about app that will use google form and I need to create forms from that app. Is there a way how can I create form in google docs without using website but through some api or some other way?
I can offer an idea for a solution using Google App Script.
Since the beginning of 2013 you can create new forms using the App Script Forms Service API quite easily.
var form = FormApp.create(title)
.setDescription(description)
.setConfirmationMessage('Thanks for responding!')
;
The problem now is how to get that App Script running from your non App Script code.
You can use App Script to create a Web App that reacts to HTTP GET requests.
So putting it together, you may be able to create an App Script Web App that reacts to a GET request and when it gets the right URL parameters, it creates the form.
(Nov 2020) Yes, it is possible to programmatically create Google Forms. You can do it with Google Apps Script using its Forms service. You can also extend the code to read in the contents from Google Docs (with Apps Script's Document service) and use it for the creation of Google Forms.
I created a Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) Add-on, which you can think of as a Google Docs extension, called GFormIt. Its original purpose was intended for teachers to write exams/quizzes, possibly with answers, in Google Docs, then automatically convert them to Google Forms to distribute to students who submit their answers into Google Sheets (the destination for Google Forms submissions).
Furthermore, if you (the teacher) provided answers to your test questions, GFormIt would also auto-submit your answers to the Sheet as if you were a student. If you do that, and use a tool like Flubaroo to grade the exam, you could designate your row in the Sheet as “the answer key.” You can learn more about how it works, including viewing a short video, at the GFormIt page linked above.
This Google Docs add-on, along with others for Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, etc., are all certified/validated by Google and available for free to anyone from the Google Workspace Marketplace. (However, your admins may have to grant permissions for you to try to install them to your corporate Workspace account.) If interested in building your own add-on, please see the developer documentation and perhaps some of my introductory videos to get started, the most relevant being the one linked to at the top of this answer.
Apps Script is a serverless Google technology, meaning you write your code (using JavaScript) in the browser, and it is hosted by & executed on Google servers. If you wanted to create your own web app (and hosted anywhere), you would have to wait for a Google Forms REST API which does not exist at the time of this writing. (If we ever launch one, you'll find its documentation at https://developers.google.com/forms along with the others like Sheets https://developers.google.com/sheets, Gmail https://developers.google.com/gmail, Drive https://developers.google.com/drive, etc.)
Earlier this year (Mar 2022) the new Google Forms Api graduated from Beta. It is more powerful that the previous versions and caters for two main use cases:
Automated form creation and editing: Enables automated form creation
and editing. Enables rapid form generation from large volume question
banks or other data backends.
Reaction to Form responses: The API also enables developers to build
automations for acting on incoming responses. Examples include
developing real-time dashboards or visualizations and triggering
business workflows based on response data.
We have used it to build an integration that Creates documents and slides each time a form is completed: www.portant.co/google-forms-to-docs and it works really well.
I think the other key use case looks like it would be a good fit for you and others looking for a solution like this.
Cheers, James
Sorry, the API doesn't support programmatically creating forms.
Is it possible to use Google Analytics API's to track Mac OSX applications?
If not could any one suggest me an alternative for Google Analytics.
Google Analytics is designed to work with web applications not for desktop apps. Although it might be possible to collect info about your application and send it to your Google Analytic account but the amount of work required to retrofit might be better spent, building your own Analytic solution.
A good starting point would be to create a simple web service, which collects information regarding clicks. Then rewrite your application to call that web service on every click within your application.
You would ideally want to store this information locally and submit it to the web service in batches. You would also want to design the application, so that if you ever shut down the web service, the application would still be able to operate.
UPDATE: As pointed out in the comments by Václav Slavík, they have added apps analytics for iOS/Android.
I made a simple set of classes for doing this:
https://github.com/stephenlind/SimpleCocoaGoogleAnalytics
Google Analytics is not only for web applications, but also for mobile. It's available on the platform like android, iOS, etc. If you want to track your MAC OS X application, you can choose DeskAppTrack or DeskMetrics. DeskAppTrack is only available on MAC. It provide a professional data statistical analysis and it's free. While DeskMetrics is available on MAC and Windows. Either one is ok.
This really depends on how detailed you want to get. If you are are truly looking for analytics with detail and control flow data, you are better suited to created your own web service, as mentioned.
However, if you simply want to know a small number of operations, that occur at a small volume, i.e. when the app is launched (a quick and dirty solution): then in theory you could create a landing page on your site that contains a minimal head section, and a blank body, and then load the URL with an NSURL when you want to trigger the action.
Of course, you would have to include the google analytics tracking codes in the header, and you may need to load an off-screen webview to get the javascript to run. Like I said, quick and dirty.
In either case, you want to make sure the application will continue to perform properly, even if the web service / page is not present.