This year was absolutely fantastic. I was a judge again this year and I can only say its has been a very pleasant experience. The ASPC have really grown since last year and the Hotel was just fabulous.
A lot of teams did some very cool stuff, many based on the App Model for SharePoint 2013. But it was not just all SharePoint, a lot other platforms was used, Azure, Mobils, Windows 8, Node.js and they integrated very nicely with SharePoint 2013.
Here is some pictures.
Before submitting an app to the Office SharePoint App Store, you must ensure you have done what you can do, to get it right the first time.
For starters use this check list “Validation checklist for apps for Office and SharePoint”
Then here are some from my own experience.
Validation checklist for submission to the Office Store
 | The app title submitted via the Seller Dashboard, must be similar to that included in your app manifest. |
| Be sure to implement language. Replace the Language tag in AppManifest.xml. Because of a bug in developer tool in Visual Studio, you are not allowed to use the correct Language tag, because it fails with a validation error when you build your app. Therefore you have to change the AppManifest.xml after you have package (Published) your app. Use a zip tool to to open up the app and change the AppManifest.xml directly. Replace : <SupportedLanguages>en-US</SupportedLanguages> With: <SupportedLocales> <SupportedLocale CultureName="en-US" /> </SupportedLocales> Update! The SupportedLanguage problem has been fixed in the lastest version of Office Developer Tools for Visual Studio 2012 RTM |
| Cleanup your JavaScript with JSHint or similar tools. Old browser can fail where new browsers don’t. The Internet Explorer 8 is especially bad here. Optional tool: JSFiddle |
| Your app must be fully functional with the supported operating systems and browsers for Office 2013 and SharePoint 2013. This means that the app has to function in Internet Explorer 8,9,10. The F12 Developers Tools, to change the Browser mode will only help see the difference in styling but not in JavaScript. You need to run it in Internet Explorer 8. I would recommend downloading a VHD image to test in “Real” environments. Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image |
| Test the app Online. This is important because Microsoft is apprantly testing the app there themselves. |
| Remember to check you app extensively. This involves the root domain, a sub web site and a new site collection under /sites/. Its important to check is you got all relative urls right. |
| In a licensed app, implemented code for checking this. For SharePoint hosted apps see SharePoint 2013 hosted App License check on how to implement license check. Also Licensing apps for Office and SharePoint |
In my experience the approval process are mostly done within a week.
Finally I got the SharePoint Manager 2013 Online app on the SharePoint App Store after 5 very long weeks. The app was already ready back in January but due to an internal error in the approval process that resulted in a exceptional long approval time and then it was denied approval a couple of times because it did not meet all the requirements.
But now its out there go and try it out. SharePoint Manager 2013 Online. This version is build purely on JavaScript and only runs client side, but you are still able to view most of the data hidden behind the scenes.
Question: Will the Online version cost anything?
Answer: The Online version is a per person license, but it supports a 15 days trail.
Question: What are the status of the server side version found on Codplex?
Answer: The server side version of SharePoint Manager 2013 is still under GPL and free, there will be no changes here. The development of this version will continue when needed.
From the description of the Online version:
The highly recognize community tool SharePoint Manager, has now come in a version that works in Microsoft Online solutions. SharePoint Manager 2013 Online, provides the user a quick and easy overview of the structure and data hidden behind the scenes. Unlike the server version on codeplex, this app only uses html and javascript leveraging the SharePoint REST api. The well-known navigation tree on the left side and a property panel on the right side deliver an extremely user-friendly interface, which allows the user to burrow into SharePoint Online structure and hidden gems.
