WP7 Beta Marketplace Is Balls

5 November, 2011

With Google's recent move to nerf Reader, I've switched to NewsBlur. Unfortunately, NewsBlur is newer and smaller and doesn't yet have a WP7 app. No problem, I know XAML-jitsu and their API is open/free for all, so I took it upon myself to start developing an app. While that was progressing well enough, I decided I'd try out the newly launched WP7 "Beta Marketplace" for ways to distribute it to my testers - when it's actually ready for testing.

There are three things that a "beta testing system" needs for closed development platforms - a way to distribute, a way to update the beta (to fix issues, etc), and a way to add people to the beta.

Through AppHub, you submit your app like normal, just selecting the 'beta' mode and entering in a few tester LiveID's. As I didn't have others LiveID's on hand, I just entered mine. Eventually (a few hours after) you get an email, which looked like this:

Congratulations! NewsBlur for Windows Phone is now available to the Windows Live ID participants you named as reviewers. They may now use the app at no charge until the Beta expires on February 2, 2012.

To get the best results from your Beta:

Notify your reviewers that the app is available for review. For your convenience, we've appended the list of Windows LIVE IDs that you provided with your submission. Reviewers must have a Windows Phone and their Windows Live account must be listed below.

Send the reviewers the Beta link, which will enable them to download NewsBlur from the Windows Phone Marketplace: zune://navigate/?appid=4adb2271-1ddf-49b8-a779-69344d602bef.

Use ratings and review data on App Hub to learn what your reviewers are saying about your application.

First off, you'll notice I didn't link that Zune link because neither did Microsoft. Annoying, but not the end of the world and a quick copy and paste into Internet Explorers address bar will fix that, right? It fired off Zune, and a few seconds later I was greeted with

Wait, what? I can't open/install the beta through the only mechanism that you've specified? Looking over the email a tad more carefully, "which will enable them to download NewsBlur from the Windows Phone Marketplace" - perhaps that means I can then find the app through Zune or on the phone to install? Nope. Lets try the web marketplace which has only been introduced with the launch of Mango. Not there either! Well, not there for the first 8 hours, eventually copying that AppID and editing urls in the web version of the marketplace let me at least view it, then send to my phone.

Sure enough, the first on the list - a way to distribute - is completely messed up. We'll forgive them though, the other two points can't have the same issues, right?

How is the update process handled? There isn't a way to notify users there is a new version (other than emailing them), there isn't a way to push out an updated version, there just isn't an update mechanism - you submit a completely new beta app.

Two out of three? Well, surely there is an easy way to add more people to the beta?

At the end of the email, there was the list of people who could get access to the beta. At this stage, it was just me as I didn't have any other LiveIDs on me at the time. Going through the web marketplace with anybody else will greet you with a useless error, Can't get app, Something went wrong. Try again later. Shock and surprise, through AppHub there is a way to add/remove testers via their LiveID, although this link didn't appear until after it was available on the web marketplace (a full 8 hours after submission).

While Meat Loaf proclaimed 'Two Out of Three Ain't Bad', in this case it doesn't redeem Microsoft from yet another bungled opportunity with WP7. If Microsoft was half as serious about the platform as they keep telling everybody, there is no excusing these sorts of obvious flaws in a "beta testing system."

Update

This is a "known issue" in that others have been reporting it on the WP7Dev Feedback/UserVoice site. If this effects you, voting can't hurt, but I'm not sure how much it'll help. While it's currently at 46 votes and topping the Marketplace subsection, that pales in comparison to SMS Backup or Bluetooth Support with over 1400 votes each. So few of the ideas have been marked as accepted, closed, or even under review that I'm not sure anybody is actually watching.