I am creating an app with a Pro-feature which can be unlocked via in-app purchasing.
Is it possible to use the Windows Phone 8.1 Wallet API for creating a Voucher?
(As example for Reviewers or tester)
How can I ensure that the voucher can be used only by one person?
(maybe: can only be used for a particular LiveID)
Some recent changes here it seems. Microsoft now have a promo code system for Windows Phone, check this page : https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/apps/mt297660.aspx
And it works for IAPs as well !
There isn't currently any voucher or promo-code system available for Windows Phone apps.
You could implement this yourself along with using the existing in-app purchase system. Check the code yourself and then enable the feature if either the code is present or if the in-app purchase was made.
Tying it to a login such as the LiveID would be a good way to lock it down to one person, especially if your app already has a login requirement. Another option would be to make the code one-use and then roam the unlocked status once it was set. That would let the first user to use the code use it on multiple devices so long as the app wasn't fully uninstalled or was used often enough to keep the roamed data alive.
Prepaid codes are frequent request on the Windows Platform Dev Feedback site. You can add your vote at http://wpdev.uservoice.com/forums/110705-dev-platform/suggestions/2118985-prepaid-codes-for-wp-apps-promo-codes-for-review
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I want to develop service for synchronising user specific data within installations of my app. For instance, I have in-app consumable purchase in my app, lets say credits for a game. I need these credits to be shared between both mobile and desktop version of the application. But if user has only mobile or only desktop version, it is waste of resources to store historical purchase records for synchronisation. Current credits amount should be enough.
Maybe not really good example but should do for illustration. So is possible to know if user has both platform versions or he has only mobile/desktop version? Is there any proper API I would touch for the information from sync service or from the app?
Thanks for answers in regards
So is possible to know if user has both platform versions or he has only mobile/desktop version?
There is no official existing API to meet your entire requirement directly, but you can handle it by yourself. Using AnalyticsVersionInfo class to get the type of device the application is running on, especially the AnalyticsVersionInfo.DeviceFamily property.
For different platform, you can decide how to sync up your records.
I am developing an windows phone 8 application and want to maintain two versions of my app - free and paid. So that my app appear in both free and paid app sections.
Since these two applications will have different Product IDs, is it possible to buy paid app from inside the free app.
I know that if we use Trial API of WindowsPhone, we can purchase paid version from app itself and can unlock the features using IsTrial of LicenseInformation. But in this case your app doesn't appear in free section.
I want to allow user to buy paid app from free version say by clicking BUYNOW button in app and get the free version replaced by paid one automatically.
This is the exact scenario that Microsoft wants to avoid. They don't want to see duplicate apps in the market because it destroys the consistent user experience. Instead, you need to either use the Trial Library or release it for free and put an in app purchase to remove ads or add functionality.
Your only option is to maintain 2 apps one that limits functionality using IsTrial and the other with an in app purchase.
Some people have suggested this isn't allowed, but I've yet to find anything in the requirements documentation that says you can't do this. There's also quite a lot of examples of apps already in the store doing this.
I am building a Windows Store App using HTML5/JS (for Windows 8). I will be adding In-App Purchase capability to the app. I need to provide a way for them to test my app during the certification process but, I don't know what (if anything) I need to do to support this. MSDN and Google/Bing have been no help so far. Any help, guidance, or direction towards resources regarding this is greatly appreciated.
Let me narrate further in case my question is "too broad":
I need to add testing information during the Windows 8 App submission process to inform the testers at Microsoft how to test my app (this includes such things as test credentials for logging into the app). My problem is two fold:
I don't know if anything extra is needed on my part for them to adequately test my in-app purchase capabilities
If so, what do I need to provide? I'm not finding any information about this. If I need to provide testing information for in-app purchases, what information do they need?
This question is asking about what information (if any) I need to provide to the testers at Microsoft to adequately test the in-app purchase capabilities of my Windows 8 app during the Windows Store App certification process.
Please let me know if you need more details. I'll try to scrape some up.
You don't need to provide anything in my experience. I've had one app pass without anything explicitly called out for testing in-app purchases and I've seen several other apps that also passed without.
I am in process of developing app for windows phone 8. I need the adhoc distribution of my app to all devices within the organization. I don't want to publish it on the market instead i want the installation of app on the devices within the organization.
Do i need to buy another account for adhoc distribution or i can use the same $99 account for adhoc distribution of app.
Thanks in advance.
Well there are multiple ways to distribute apps,
Directly via Visual Studio or XAPDeploy (however the device must be developer unlocked, and connected via usb)
Via the normal Store/Marketplace
Via Store/Marketplace, with "Hide from users browsing or searching the Store" so that only users with the direct link to the store can find the app
Via Beta app distribution
edit: beta apps now do not have a 3 month limit anymore. Only restriction is, that you can "only" have 10000 users and each users email must be manually added for them to be able to download the beta
Company app distribution, which is likely what you are looking for. (However this seems to be relatively difficult) More information here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/jj206943(v=vs.105).aspx
Edit: I missed this one: Using "Windows Intune Direct Management for Windows Phone 8 Mobile Devices"
There are no other ways I know of.
Is it possible to purchase an in-app product outside the app? The scenario is that we would like to offer two in-app products:
Premium
Premium Free
Both of the products provide the same features, but the "Premium Free" is limited to few selected users. We don't want that the other users are able to purchase the "Premium Free" product.
If the app doesn't provide the purchase link to the "Premium Free" product, is it possible for the users to somehow purchase that product?
Update:
The idea is to provide both the "Premium" and "Premium Free" through the app. But "Premium Free" is limited to users who provide a correct code. So:
App shows page "Get premium pack"
The page includes a coupon code field
If user provides coupon code, she is directed to "Premium Free" product (app's in-app product on the Windows Phone Store).
If no coupon code is provided, user is taken to "Premium" product (app's in-app product on the Windows Phone Store).
The fear is that users find a way to acquire "Premium Free" pack without the coupon code. From outside the app. For example, if the product has a direct link (URL, I don't know if in-app product's have them) on Store and the user opens the link with phone, she can get the product "outside" the app.
The steps described above should be OK if the only way to access an in-app product is through the app.
It's not possible to do what you've described (make an IAP outside an app) but you could do something very similar.
Rather than trying to offer something to certain users outside the app, you could, instead, have something within the app that is only available to certain users.
There is nothing in the marketplace certification guidelines that stop you from implementing this. Obviously how this is implemented will be dependent upon your app. If the app in question allows (or requires) users to log in then a setting could be added to the account details to control which IAP options are made available. If the app in question doesn't support or have user accounts you'll need to indicate the special options are available to them. One such option may be to allow entry of an unlock code somewhere in the app which could allow access to the special IAP options. Of course if the aim is to offer free items via IAP you could just make them available in the app when the unlock code is entered.
Update No, products defined for IAP cannot be purchased outside your app. Originally I thought the question was hoe to do it.