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Windows Web Application Gallery Principles

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by Chris Sfanos

Note

The Windows Web Application Gallery (WWAG) is being retired on July 1, 2021. We are no longer taking submissions via the Submission Portal. Please contact webpi@microsoft.com to make updates to your existing submission.

The Windows Web Application Gallery makes it easy to explore, discover and install popular community ASP.Net and PHP applications on Windows. Users can browse and view applications for different types of Web sites, ranging from photo galleries to blogs to ecommerce sites. When an application is accepted by the Web Application Gallery, the application is added to the Web Application Gallery ATOM feed. The ATOM feed is consumed by the Web Application Gallery itself, Web Platform Installer, IIS Manager, and participating Hosting Control Panels.

To be part of the Windows Web Application Gallery, developers should follow these principles, which establish a consistent, quality user experience:

  • Be Current: The application you provide a link to must be the latest, stable final release version available, hosted on a publicly available Web URL.
  • Be Free of Charge: The application for which you submit a link to the Windows Web App Gallery must be provided free of charge and fully functional without time restrictions. You are welcome to charge for professional support or consulting services and/or provide an enhanced, enterprise version of the application for purchase on your site. We will be happy to provide a link to your commercial products and services from your page in the Windows Web Application Gallery.
  • Be Compatible: The application to which you provide a link must run on Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP, Windows Vista & Windows 7 using best practices on running ASP.NET applications and PHP applications on IIS.
  • Be Deployable: The application to which you provide a link must integrate with Microsoft Web Deploy as described in the Microsoft Web Application Packaging Guide, and run with the Microsoft Web Platform Installer v3.
  • Be Supported: You must provide a publicly available Web site where end users can download your application, find documentation and/or get free on a best effort basis support through a forum.
  • Be Hostable: The application to which you provide a link must run well in a shared hosted environment as well as when the user has administrative rights for the computer.
  • Be Platform Independent: The application to which you provide a link must be able to run on all platforms: x86, Itanium, and x64.
  • Be Inclusive: If your link is included in the Gallery, you should include a link on your application community's Web site to your application entry on the Windows Web Application Gallery.
  • Be Safe: The application to which you provide a link must not harm customers or be malicious, dishonest, destructive, invasive, or act in any manner restricted by the Web Gallery Application Submission agreement.
  • Be a Web App: The application to which you provide a link must be a Web application that can be used to generate a working, usable Web site after deployment without requiring code or customization. All submissions should adhere to the application categories currently available in the Windows Web Application Gallery.