Using Live Connect to personalize apps (Windows Store apps using C#/VB/C++ and XAML)

Live Connect enables Windows Store apps to use info from a user's Hotmail and Microsoft SkyDrive accounts to provide a personalized and connected experience. Live Connect uses industry-standard protocols such as OAuth 2.0 and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) to interoperate with other platforms.

You can personalize your Windows Store apps built for Windows using C++, C#, or Visual Basic to offer additional features and value to your users by including Live Connect.

Here's a video that shows how you can use Live Connect features to personalize a Windows Store app.

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Live Connect features

The Live Software Development Kit (SDK) lets your Windows Store apps use Live Connect features to provide a personalized and connected experience for your customers.

In this section, you can learn more about these Live Connect features:

• Identity API features
• SkyDrive API features
• Hotmail API features

Identity API features

The Identity API lets you personalize your Windows Store apps using C++, C#, or Visual Basic, and the single sign-on feature of Windows 8 makes this personalization a seamless part of the Windows 8 user experience.

• Seamless personalization

  If users are not already signed in to their Microsoft account before they open your Windows Store apps, you can open the Windows sign-in control by calling the Live SDK. If they are already signed in, they won't be prompted to sign in again. After they've signed in with their Microsoft account, your Windows Store apps can access their profile info.

• Profile info

  Your Windows Store apps can access the profile info that users add to their Microsoft account, making your app their app. Some of the profile info that your app can access includes the user's first name, last name, gender, and birth date.

Learn more about the Identity API

SkyDrive API features

Using the SkyDrive API lets your app's users store their photos, videos, and documents in the cloud where they can access them from any device. Your Windows Store apps using C++, C#, or Visual Basic can save the user's personal content in the cloud to share with others and see on other devices, and your Windows Store apps can bring their cloud content into its own user experience. Users can share content in their SkyDrive with other users without requiring those users to be SkyDrive users or even to have a Microsoft account.

The SkyDrive API makes these sharing scenarios possible from your Windows Store apps:

• Photos and videos

  Enable users to select, upload, and share photos and videos that they have created in your app. Apps for editing images or video can connect to the cloud and enable users to touch up their photos and make them more dramatic with filters.

• Documents

  Enable users to access their documents, spreadsheets, and presentations from anywhere and from any device. Your app can help users create, access, and edit their documents in SkyDrive.

Learn more about the SkyDrive API.

Hotmail API features

The Hotmail API lets your Windows Store apps using C++, C#, or Visual Basic interact with the contacts and calendars that users keep in their Hotmail accounts. Your app can use this info to enhance the connected experience for your users.

You can make your Windows Store apps more engaging to your customers by using the Hotmail API to access their:

• Contacts

  Connect your customers to other people they know who also use your app.

• Calendars

  Give your customers a reason to return to your app by subscribing them to your app's shared calendars or by creating events that are available to your customers on all of their devices.

Learn more about the Hotmail API.

Getting started using Live Connect in your Windows Store apps using C++, C#, or Visual Basic

These steps describe how to get ready to use Live Connect in your Windows Store apps.

Preparing your development computer for using Live Connect in your Windows Store apps

Prepare your Windows 8 development computer by:

1. Downloading and installing the tools and SDK for developing Windows Store apps, if they aren't already installed. This download includes Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows 8 and other tools.
2. Downloading and installing the Live SDK.

Preparing your accounts for using Live Connect in your Windows Store apps

Before you start developing a Windows Store app that uses Live Connect, you must have a Windows Store developer account. If you don't have one already, you can create one from your Dashboard.

Important  Unlike what you do for other Windows Store apps, you must register your Windows Store apps that use Live Connect in your Dashboard before they can use any Live Connect features.

Using Live Connect in your Windows Store apps using C++, C#, or Visual Basic

After your development computer has the necessary software and your accounts have been set up, visit the following topics for more info about how to use Live Connect features in your Windows Store apps.

In this section

Build date: 3/5/2013