Implementing and debugging trial mode in a WP7 app
With app numbers in the marketplace already rising over 3K getting your application noticed is more and more important. One of the features a lot of applications still miss is trial mode. Personally i would not consider buying an app unless i get the chance to preview it and i know this opinion is shared by a lot of users around the world.
Fortunately Microsoft provides an easy way of implementing trial mode and a lot of information on different implementations is available all over the web. Since people keep asking me how i implemented it i will cover it in this blogpost.
Trial Mode Basics
The Windows Phone 7 libraries provide easy access to trial information. To determine if an app is running in trial mode you just have to make one function call. The Phone OS will figure out everything for you. It is important to note that this call may take up to 70ms , so make sure you cache the value. I did this by keeping track of the trial status in a public boolean in the App class. Let’s just take a look at a few basic steps to implement this.
1. Add a reference to the marketplace namespace in your App.xaml.cs
using Microsoft.Phone.Marketplace;
2. Add the required declarations
public Boolean isTrial = false; private LicenseInformation licenseInfo = new LicenseInformation();
3. Add function calls to the launched and activated event handlers to refresh trial status on launch.
private void Application_Launching(object sender, LaunchingEventArgs e){
isTrial = licenseInfo.IsTrial();
}
private void Application_Activated(object sender, ActivatedEventArgs e){
isTrial = licenseInfo.IsTrial();
}
4. Check the isTrial status in your code anywhere you want to put limitations
App ap = (App)Application.Current;
if (ap.isTrial)
{
*trial code*
}
You can also databind ap.isTrial to UI elements
Linking to the marketplace using MarketplaceDetailTask
When confronting a user with trial limitations it is usually a good thing to provide a quick link to the marketplace. This will save some end-user frustration and will also increase your sales. This can be implemented using the MarketplaceDetailTask. Combine it with either a MessageBox or Button for best results:
private void buyNowButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
MarketplaceDetailTask detailTask = new MarketplaceDetailTask();
detailTask.Show();
}
MessageBoxResult mbResult = MessageBox.Show("This feature is only
available in the full version. Go to the marketplace now?", "Limited
trial", MessageBoxButton.OKCancel);
if (mbResult == MessageBoxResult.OK)
{
MarketplaceDetailTask detailTask = new MarketplaceDetailTask();
detailTask.Show();
}
Make sure a button or messagebox only shows when the application is running in trial mode. You can accomplish this by for example collapsing a button and only making it visible of the app is running in trial. Providing links to other applications is also possible by setting the detailTask ContentIdentifier property to your other apps unique id before calling Show().
Debugging
Another problem often encountered is debugging trial mode. When an app has not been retrieved using the marketplace isTrial() will always return false. Using the above code and hardcoding “true” is a way of solving this, but since a like automating everything i came op with this code:
private void Application_Launching(object sender, LaunchingEventArgs e)
{
if (System.Diagnostics.Debugger.IsAttached)
{
if (MessageBox.Show("Test in trial mode?", "Debug Trial",
MessageBoxButton.OKCancel) == MessageBoxResult.OK)
{
isTrial = true;
}
else
{
isTrial = false;
}
}
else
{
isTrial = licenseInfo.IsTrial();
}
}
This will check if a debugger is attached and if so display a MessageBox to ask wether or not to run in trial mode.
Update: Like Leon Zandman correctly states using preprocessor directives might be preferred above using the Debugger.isAttached property. Find more information about it here
With this information everyone should be able to implement trial mode in a (Silverlight) Windows Phone 7 app. Please let me know if you encounter any problems or just want to give feedback. Use the comments or the feedback form. Also Follow me on twitter to stay up to date on my WP7 posts
Tags: howto, trial, wp7, wp7dev, wp7nl
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Comments (92)
Leon Zandman
| #
Nice article, however I do have some comments:
I wouldn’t use the Debugger.IsAttached property check to enable debugging the trial mode. First reason is that this code is evaluated at runtime and will be executed every time. Not only on your device during development, but every time your app is run. So even after users download your app from the MarketPlace, it will still perform that check, which is unnecessary, because in general those users have no debugging business in your app.
Secondly, if I were able to somehow attach MY debugger to your app (e.g. via jailbreak), I would be able to use your debugging code.
Lastly, the debugging code will take up valuable space. It might be very minor in this particular case, but sometimes debugging code can be quite larger. If code isn’t used during normal operation, it shouldn’t be included in the first place.
Personally, I prefer using preprocessor directives to add debugging code to my app. By default Visual Studio defines the DEBUG symbol for DEBUG builds, so using the #if directive you can conditionally add your debugging code and prevent it from being included in RELEASE builds (see: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/4y6tbswk.aspx).
Reply
Speaking at DevDays 2011 | Tom Verhoeff
| #
[…] reports & feedback and runtime intelligence during this and next week. I blogged about implementing trial mode back in December, but I will also publish a new and improved post on this […]
Reply
stephen
| #
For those wanting to use the debug compliler symbol:
private void Application_Launching(object sender, LaunchingEventArgs e)
{
#if DEBUG
if (MessageBox.Show(“Test in trial mode?”, “Debug Trial”,
MessageBoxButton.OKCancel) == MessageBoxResult.OK)
{
IsInTrialMode = true;
}
else
{
IsInTrialMode = false;
}
#else
IsInTrialMode = _licenseInfo.IsTrial();
#endif
}
Reply
Making Money with Windows Phone applications at TechDays 2012 | Tom Verhoeff
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[…] Trial API […]
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