0

I am interested in developing an app for Windows Phones, and was wondering if they support the concept of limited/beta releases for their app developers? By this, I mean the ability to deploy a beta or demo version of my app to a limited/restricted audience, such as business partners, customers, external beta testers, etc. Nothing in their SDK documentation indicates either way. Thanks in advance!

IAmYourFaja
  • 55,468
  • 181
  • 466
  • 756

1 Answers1

1

You can create a Beta App submission in the Dev Center, and by adding certain Live Ids, limit the access to your application and make it available to your Beta Testers. See the following for more information :-

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/help/jj215598%28v=vs.105%29.aspx

Paul Diston
  • 3,279
  • 1
  • 17
  • 20
  • Thanks @Paul Diston (+1) - One quick followup: is there any way to perform a "partial release" of your app in production? For instance, say your app is at version 4.0.2, and you want to release 4.0.3 into production, but in such a way that, say, ~20% of new users download the app in its 4.0.3 version, while most (~80%) users download the existing 4.0.2 version? I like the concept of "partial releases" because that way, if you have to back them out, customer impact is minimized. Thanks again! – IAmYourFaja Oct 12 '12 at 16:22
  • 1
    This isn't currently possible. You can either roll your own or make use of the beta user facility. A particular user can have both the beta version and the version downloaded from the marketplace installed on their devices. Then once you are happy with the new version you can create an update to the marketplace version based on your beta tested version. – Paul Diston Oct 19 '12 at 15:00
  • Thanks again @Paul Diston (+1) - can you please confirm what you mean when you say "roll your own"? It sounds like, if you're willing to put in the work to do this, that my "partial release" idea is possible, so long as I'm willing to "roll my own" deployment/release platform. Is this what you meant, and if so, what would I need to do to achieve this? Thanks again! – IAmYourFaja Oct 20 '12 at 20:27
  • By roll your own I mean, you could release the higher version to all users but limit some of the new fuctionality to certain users by restricting this, a way to restrict this could be to password protect certain areas of the application. Once you are happy with the new functionality you then release a new version with the password restrictions removed. Or you could time limit it, so after 15 days, you then allow full access to the application, for all users. – Paul Diston Oct 22 '12 at 08:06