Using Review And Reset In Rate My App Component

Introduction

This article explains the reset and review methods of the Rate My App Component. Both of the methods are very useful from the developer's point of view. The reset method is useful in app testing and the review method is useful for adding flexibility in rating.

Rate My App

Rate My App is a ready-made component for adding rating functionality to your app. The Rate My App Component prompts the user by showing a message box. The special thing is, the message comes only after a specific number of uses of the app.

This component also helps you in collecting user feedback by email. If the user wishes not to review your app then one will be directed to a feedback message and the user can send you the feedback.

Some of the properties of Rate My App that I have used in this demo are as follows:

• Feedback To
  Email address for sending feedback to. It's a mandatory field.
   
• Application Name
  Name of an application. it's a mandatory field.
   
• Company name
  Name of the company. It's a mandatory field.
   

Reset

This method resets the application launch count. In other words, once the dialog is shown at the fifth launch of the app and if you want to recheck it then you can use this method and it will set the launch count to zero and the message will be shown again at the fifth launch.

Review

If you want to allow your user to launch a rating screen directly from the app then you can use this method. It will directly open the review screen.

Installing Rate My App

Use the following procedure to start using the Rate My App Component:

1. Open your app project (either an existing one or a new one). 
    

2. From the toolbar select "Tools" -> "NuGet Package Manager" -> "Package Manager Console". 
    

3. Now in the Package Manager Console type the following:
   
   Install-Package ratemyapp
   
   After typing this you will probably see the log similar to this:
   
   PM> install-package ratemyapp
   Installing 'RateMyApp 1.1.0'.
   Successfully installed 'RateMyApp 1.1.0'.
   Adding 'RateMyApp 1.1.0' to Demo.
   Successfully added 'RateMyApp 1.1.0' to Demo.
    

4. The next step is to add its reference to the XAML page. To do this just add this line:
   
   xmlns:c="clr-namespace:RateMyApp.Controls;assembly=RateMyApp"

 

Demo

In this demo I'm using only basic settings and methods of the Rate My App Component. This component is versatile and can be customized to suit your application specific requirements.

XAML

<phone:PhoneApplicationPage

    x:Class="Demo.MainPage"

    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"

    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"

    xmlns:phone="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Phone"

    xmlns:shell="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Shell;assembly=Microsoft.Phone"

    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"

    xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"

    xmlns:toolkit="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Phone.Controls.Toolkit"

    mc:Ignorable="d"

    xmlns:c="clr-namespace:RateMyApp.Controls;assembly=RateMyApp"

    FontFamily="{StaticResource PhoneFontFamilyNormal}"

    FontSize="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeNormal}"

    Foreground="{StaticResource PhoneForegroundBrush}"

    SupportedOrientations="Portrait" Orientation="Portrait"

    shell:SystemTray.IsVisible="True">

 

    <!--LayoutRoot is the root grid where all page content is placed-->

    <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="Transparent">

        <Grid.RowDefinitions>

            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>

            <RowDefinition Height="*"/>

        </Grid.RowDefinitions>

 

        <!--TitlePanel contains the name of the application and page title-->

        <StackPanel x:Name="TitlePanel" Grid.Row="0" Margin="12,17,0,28">

            <TextBlock Text="Demo" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextNormalStyle}" Margin="12,0"/>

            <TextBlock  Text="Demo" Margin="9,-7,0,0" FontSize="40" />

        </StackPanel>

        <StackPanel Orientation="Vertical" Margin="0,212,0,0">

            <Button Content="Rate This App(open)" Click="Button_Click"></Button>

            <Button Content="Reset" Click="Button_Click_1"></Button>

        </StackPanel>

 

        <!--ContentPanel - place additional content here-->

        <c:FeedbackOverlay x:Name="FeedbackOverlay"

                             Grid.RowSpan="2"

                             FeedbackTo="[email protected]"

                             ApplicationName="Demo"

                             CompanyName="ARDeveloper" 

                           />

    </Grid>

</phone:PhoneApplicationPage>

NOTE: For proper display of the dialog, always follow these two rules:

1. The "Rate My App" must be the last element in the layout root.
    

2. The row span should be large enough to display the message box. In general, row span of 2 works perfectly.

C# Code Behind

using Microsoft.Phone.Controls;

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Net;

using System.Windows;

using System.Windows.Controls;

using System.Diagnostics;

using Microsoft.Phone.Tasks;

using System.Windows.Media;

using System.Windows.Media.Animation;

using System.IO;

using RateMyApp.Helpers;

 

namespace Demo

{

    public partial class MainPage : PhoneApplicationPage

    {

        // Constructor

        public MainPage()

        {

            InitializeComponent();

 

            //This line is must for the working of the component.

            FeedbackOverlay.VisibilityChanged+=FeedbackOverlay_VisibilityChanged;

        }

 

        void FeedbackOverlay_VisibilityChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

        }

 

        private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)

        {

            FeedbackHelper.Default.Review();

        }

 

        private void Button_Click_1(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)

        {

            FeedbackHelper.Default.Reset();

        }

   }

}

  

Output

 

Fifth Start

 

 

Reset and Review