UWP store package build automation

Question

Is there any way to automate package build for windows store? (I use jenkins on my build server) I'd like to prepare package for Windows Store without user interaction on a build server. Email verification code, building for .NET native and certification app kit stuff and all GUI stuff takes too much time and I'd like to automate this process. I wonder if it's possible or not.

Chilpancingo

1) Using MSbuild: Open “Developer Command Prompt” for vs2015 -->run cmd: "msbuild youprojname.csproj /p:Configuration=Release" You can write a script to run this command. 2)If you don't want to use Visual studio IDE, you need to use standalone tools like MakeAppx, etc. to package yourself. However, by doing this you need to define all the necessary dependency environments yourself. – Seymore

Then what is the difference between Store->Create App Packages and Build? – Chilpancingo

In cmd line MSBuild would create package automatically. However, in IDE msbuild won't create package until the "Crt App Package" is selected. you can refer to this MSDN post: social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsapps/en-US/… – Seymore

Answer 1

I just published a blog post on how to achieve this, including a sample project on Github

ndelabarre claims the following:

Step 1: Link your app with the windows Store (Visual Studio 2015 required)

But that is not correct. The only things VS does is change 2 files. This can be fully automated and can be found in part IV of my blog series.

I've set up both Jenkins and Bamboo using this approach. It made my life easier as the setup can easily be ported (change only 1 file) from one app to the other.

Interrupted

Answer 2

Let me share my experience to generate a valid UWP app package that can be uploaded to Windows Store using the MSBuild command line. This generation can be done in three steps:

Step 1: Link your app with the windows Store - Visual Studio required

From Visual Studio, select your project, right-click to display contextual menu. Select the menu “Store” then “Associate App With Store” :

This step requires to sign in with your Microsoft dev credentials. Once signed in, you'll assign a reserve name for your app and link your app with the windows store. This store association which shall be done only once will create two important files required for generating and signing your app package :

• Package.StoreAssociation.xml
• MyApp_StoreKey.pfx

Step 2 : Edit the application manifest file (Package.appxmanifest)

This step is optional. The manifest file contains a version number (Version attribute of <Identity> tag). Before building a new version of your app, you'll need to update this version attribute.

Step 3: Generate your app package with MS Build

Open a CMD console with Visual Studio environment variables required by MsBuild.To do so, open script VsDevCmd.bat located in VS_INSTALL_DIR\Common7\Tools.

Type the following command line :

MSBuild .\MyApp.csproj /p:Configuration=Release;AppxBundle=Always;AppxBundlePlatforms="x86|x64|ARM" /p:BuildAppxUploadPackageForUap=true

This command will :

• compile your project in release mode
• target x86, x64 and ARM platforms
• generate a bundle package named MyApp_1.0.0.0_x86_x64_ARM_bundle.appxupload that can be uploaded manually to the windows dev center

In summary you can generate a UWP app package using command line tool. But before doing so, you'll have to associate your app with windows store.

Vex

Building with this command line I still see "Generating native code" in the build log – Abode

Answer 3

I'm going to be trying: https://github.com/microsoft/StoreBroker for submissions, could be what you're looking for.

Collocutor

Answer 4

There is also a new MS Azure Pipeline to consider and there is a guide how to configure automated build. There is a Free plan for automated build.

Chilpancingo