Linking to your app

You can help customers discover your app by linking it to your app's web-based listing page or, if you know the user is on Windows 8, directly to your app's listing page in the Windows Store.

Getting a web link to your app

When your app is published into the Windows Store, a web version of your app listing page is automatically created in all markets and languages where your app is available. These web-based listings provide an opportunity for users on any platform to learn more about your app. They are the best way to share a link to your app through email or social networks, even if you don’t know what platform your audience is on.

If a user visits a web-based listing page while on Windows 8, and with a browser that supports Windows 8 protocols, they will see the View in Windows Store button, allowing them to transition to the app listing page in the Windows Store.

The web listing surfaces the content you submitted for your app in the Windows Store Dashboard, including info shown on the Overview and Details tabs of the Windows Store listing, the app's price, and user rating information. This makes the data available to be indexed by web search engines and makes your app easier for users to discover.

To access the web link to your app

1. Sign in to your Windows Store dashboard.
2. Click on an app that is listed in the Windows Store.
3. Access the Details page of that app.

At the bottom of the page, you'll find a link to your app's web listing page.

Linking to your app using Internet Explorer 10

Internet Explorer 10 provides additional means to connect your web site to your app. To learn more, read:

• Connect your website to your Windows Store app
• Invoke applications directly in Internet Explorer 10

Linking directly to your app in the Windows Store

You can create a link that goes directly to your app's listing page in the Windows Store. These links are useful if you know your user is on Windows 8 and you want them to arrive directly at the listing page in the Store. For example, after checking a user agent string for “Windows NT 6.2,” or when you are communicating with the user via a Windows Store app, you’ll know the user is on Windows 8, so you can apply this protocol. Up-to-date versions of Internet Explorer, Safari, and Firefox all support Windows 8 protocols.

To create the Windows Store protocol link, append the Package Family Name of your app to the URL:

ms-windows-store:PDP?PFN=

You can retrieve the Package Family Name for your app either from Microsoft Visual Studio, or by visiting your app’s web-based listing page and viewing the page source.

When the Store receives a protocol request, it transitions to the appropriate page just as if the user had done so in the Store itself. The Store maintains navigation history and state, just as it does for a user action.

The Store will reject protocol requests that don’t match one of the supported actions or that have invalid or missing parameters. For requests that are properly formatted but result in an inaccessible page, the Store displays an error page.

Protocol actions

Here are the actions you can use with the Windows Store protocol.

Build date: 3/26/2013