This week I submitted my first beta app to the marketplace and wanted to share my experience with you all. The submission was nearly identical to a standard app submission. There is a field labeled “Distribute to” on the “upload” step of the app submission.
By choosing “Private Beta Test” you will skip the standard certification process which will save about 4 days. You will be able to setup 100 Windows Live users to install the private beta application and the app will be available for 90 days. You cannot charge for the beta but it is still a very valuable way to get quick feedback from users.
Click the “Learn more about beta testing” link to get the full description of private beta submission and its limitations.
I submitted the beta to the marketplace around noon on Thursday and by that evening the status was set to “published”. The only problem was the link provided in the submission successful email didn’t work. I kept getting the following error in the marketplace on my Mango device:
MARKETPLACE ERROR
We’re sorry, but we can’t complete your request right now.
Try launching Marketplace again. If the problem continues, check back in a little while, or try restarting your phone.
Error code: 805a0194
I also tried the link on a Nodo device and it had a similar error.
I submitted a support ticket in the marketplace to see what was going on and went to bed. I got up the next morning and it worked fine. No problems since. So apparently although the marketplace status may say the beta is published expect several hours for the app to be available for installation.
Good luck.
Yes, this always happens when uploading a beta to the Microsoft (R) Windows (C) Store.