Windows App Studio update brings direct Windows 10 Store Package support

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It just got easier to create universal Windows 10 (Mobile) applications 'with no coding required'. Microsoft has just issued a big update to Windows App Studio, enabling direct Store submission from the development environment. 

From the Microsoft posting:

The Windows App Studio Windows 10 Store Support Release is now available, allowing you to easily create and publish a universal Windows app in record time with no code required. This release builds on the foundation created with July’s App Studio Windows 10 Preview release. You can directly submit your app to the Store through Dev Center, now with no intermediate step in Visual Studio required. In addition, this release brings a host of other new features:

  • Windows 10 Store Package with Screen ShotsWindows App Studio now generates a Store package for your Windows 10 apps, including automatically created screenshots for the Store listing.
  • Immersive Simulator (full screen web view) - No one wants to preview their app only in a tiny viewport. Included with this release is a big full screen simulator into Windows App Studio. Now it’s easy check out the app you’re building and interact with it in a full screen mode as you’re working on it.
  • Windows App Studio Collection AppWouldn’t it be great if you could easily manage the contents of a collection for an app without making any update to the app itself? Now you can with the newly released Windows App Studio Collection App available here. This app lets you easily manage the collections for all your apps in real time without the need to go to the Windows App Studio website. Update the data in the app and it will update the data in your relevant projects and apps with no additional actions required.
  • Live Tiles EditorYou can now design dynamic Live Tiles for your Windows 10 apps from within Windows App Studio. This will work on any Windows 10 app you create with the exception of Hosted Web Apps. With this tool, you fully customize your Live Tiles to make your app more dynamic for your customers when they view it from the Start menu or on a Windows 10 mobile device.
  • Advanced theme and icon editors
  • Better sideloading support for Windows 10 apps
  • Hero Image Editor
  • Improvements to the UX in apps generated with added visual features
  • Initial Windows 10 IoT support
  • Windows App Studio NuGet packages
  • Source code on GitHub for libraries and sample apps

The idea behind all of this is that Universal Windows apps can run on PCs, phones, Raspberry Pi 2s and other IoT devices. And producing one really does now seem easier than ever. 

Oh for a little development time at this end. Any of you had a play with this - what degree of programming awareness and resource creation is actually needed? Comments welcome!

Source / Credit: Microsoft