14 DAY TRIAL // Each mobile application has its own story to tell. Things get even more interesting when the story is about great software or when it can be used to exemplify the application development process for any other app.
This is the case of the official Office Blogs app for Windows Phone, which is available for download via the Windows Phone Marketplace as of last week.
Craig Kerwien, the director of site management in the office division product management group, who helped with the building of this software, explains how the app turned from a weekend DIY project into a fully developed, downloadable application.
The steps to have the application up and running were pretty straightforward:
- Installed the Windows Phone SDK for the first time, and loaded up the Starter Kit project. - Created and fine-tuned the logos and color scheme so that they shared the same look and feel as the blog's design. - Organized the app pages and blog feeds for each of the Office programs - Removed pages and code that related to building an app for a school.
The app was ready to enter the Marketplace at this point, but its developer decided to have it published under Microsoft’s name, and had to get it through more testing to apply final touches.
“But I had higher ambitions: I wanted to publish the app under the Microsoft name, which would give it the Microsoft 'seal of approval' and provide broad visibility as an example for others to use and build from,” a post on the Office Blogs reads.
“We think it's cool that anyone can create a simple app for their blog using the same code that we used for the Office Blog app. So we kicked off the internal review process that all Microsoft products must undergo before they are released to the public.”
The result can now be downloaded from the Windows Phone Marketplace, free of charge.