Creating your own ApplicationId and certificates

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The Microsoft HealthVault SDK comes with a few sample applications and ApplicationIds which you can use in order to explore the platform and even to get started on your own application.  But at some point in your application development process, you will want to customize your ApplicationName and Logo.  You may also want to use additional data types or methods that the sample ApplicationIds cannot use.

The application configuration for these sample ApplicationIds is controlled by Microsoft and we want to keep these configurations in a known-good state for other developers, so you cannot modify these configurations.  Luckily it is easy to create your own ApplicationId that you can then configure as you see fit.  There are two options for how to do this:

Easiest way: If you have access to a computer running Microsoft Windows then you can use the HealthVault Application Manager client.

  • Start the Application Manager, which comes with the HealthVault SDK (it will be located in the install location “Microsoft HealthVault\SDK\Tools”).
  • Click on the Create New Application button to create the new application.
  • In the latest SDK it will give you a check-box to create a new Visual Studio website. Uncheck this option if you already have a project.
  • Click on the button “Create and Register Application”.  This will create your application ID, register it in the Application Configuration Center and bring up the Application Configuration Center UI. You will need to log in with your LiveId/HealthVault account.  The account with which you login now will be given administrator rights for this ApplicationId.  There is a request form in the Application Configuration Center that you can use to invite other administrators.
  • Once you are in configuration center, you can define the Online and Offline rules that are needed. Please choose only those data types and permissions that are needed for the application.
  • Once the configuration is done, right click on the application ID in Application Manager and select Copy Application ID to Clipboard.
  • Then paste the ID in the appSettings section in the Web.config file. Test your application to make sure it works as expected.

Harder way: you can also create your certificate using a client application such as MakeCert.exe on Windows systems, and then upload it to Application Configuration Center yourself.  The process to create and install your certificate pair is outlined in detail in this article.  To actually create the ApplicationId in the HealthVault-PPE environment, look for the create a new application link within the Application Configuration Center.