Appcenter-sdk-dotnet: Is WPF supported?

[pscraire]

From Visual Studio App center, only UWP application seems to be supported. However, I saw that a merge request to make WPF works have been approved:

https://github.com/Microsoft/AppCenter-SDK-DotNet/pull/433

So, is there a way to make it works with WPF and, if yes, how? Because if I try I got an error print in the output window:
[AppCenter] ASSERT: Cannot use App Center on this target. If you are on Android or iOS or UWP, you must add the NuGet packages in the Android and iOS and UWP projects as well. Other targets are not yet supported.

[elamalani]

@pscraire We started to work on WPF platform in App Center sometime back, though it's not supported officially. We have a preview NuGet that should work for WPF apps. You can install it in your application from here: https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.AppCenter/1.0.2-r0004-e44d856

[pscraire]

Thanks for the link to the unofficial nuget.

It will be great if you can add offical supports to WPF soon!
It's the only thing missing for us to switch our iOS and Windows (WPF) application to Visual Studio App Center.

We are a little bit concern, especially because Xamarin insights will soon be retired... We want to switch all our applications to Visual Studio App Center before others services get retired...

[elamalani]

@pscraire We hear you but App Center is not in full feature compatibility with Xamarin Insights. It's in our backlog to support WPF platform but is not prioritized and surely not in our mid-term roadmap.

What App Center services are you interested to integrate with your WPF app?

[pscraire]

We are using HockeyApp to manage the different versions of our applications.
We are also using HockeyApp to send crash reports. We didn't use analytics yet but it's something we might use in the future.

Hopefully, HockeyApp won't be retired until App Center is full feature compatible with HockeyApp.

[elamalani]

@pscraire We plan to support Distribute, Analytics, and Crashes services for WPF apps at the minimum. Our aim is to have feature parity with HockeyApp.

[pscraire]

Good to know, thanks for the follow-up! Can't wait to have those functionnality! Keep the good work!

[pici-masp]

+1 for wpf

[jgasiorowski]

@elamalani I've just tried that nuget package you linked but it also brings assert error in output console:
_[AppCenter] ASSERT: Cannot use App Center on this target. If you are on Android or iOS or UWP, you must add the NuGet packages in the Android and iOS and UWP projects as well. Other targets are not yet supported._
Is there anything more I can do or only waiting for full support?

[elamalani]

@achocron Can you please help @jgasiorowski to fix this issue with WPF NuGet?

[elamalani]

@jgasiorowski Can you enable verbose logging for your application and share the console logs with us:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/appcenter/sdk/other-apis/uwp#adjust-the-log-level

[jgasiorowski]

@elamalani but are we still talking about WPF?

[guperrot]

@jgasiorowski WPF has the same public API surface as UWP that's why we shared the documentation link of UWP for adjusting log level.

Please also share your csproj file and the file listing all the nuget dependencies.

[monsdar]

I just tested it with a sample App and it worked right out of the box. I used the following packages:

• Microsoft.AppCenter
• Microsoft.AppCenter.Analytics

I can push the sample app to Github, so everyone else interested in this can have a look. It's currently on another computer, so give me some time.

I also found the following by substituting the URL, but haven't tested the functionality yet:

• Microsoft.AppCenter.Crashes
• Microsoft.AppCenter.Distribute
• Microsoft.AppCenter.Push

A few questions regarding this:

• Is this the newest version available, or are there newer versions also unlisted?
• What needs to be done in order to release a new version for WPF? Are there major code-changes involved, or is it simply removing the Assert for "Cannot use App Center on this target."?
• When saying that it's on your roadmap, but in the long-term you would like to support Windows Desktop is this because there are major code changes involved or is this because of secondary reasons like you're currently not able to support this officially?
• Currently there is no way to Add my WPF-App to AppCenter in order to release it. When uploading it, I get a message that it's not supported. Will there be support for this in the (near?) future?

Thanks a lot for already providing so much details!

[elamalani]

@monsdar To answer your questions, this is the first and only preview WPF NuGet shared by our team so that we can get some early feedback from developers. Please note that since it's a preview NuGet, we haven't completely tested the functionality and right not, it only works as intended for Analytics service. WPF platform support is on our long-term roadmap because App Center has other high priority commitments at this time and we haven't planned active investment for this platform just yet. You cannot add WPF application type in App Center portal since we don't officially support this platform. So you cannot create a WPF application in our portal to get started.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other question.

[monsdar]

Don't get me wrong, totally clear that this is just a test release. Just wanted to get a feel on what's going on regarding WPF support.

Looking forward on what comes next, thanks a lot for the answers.

[elamalani]

@monsdar We will keep this thread posted once we plan to work on WPF platform in App Center :)

[jgasiorowski]

@elamalani @guperrot I did not wanted to waste your time for investigation so I dig a bit into it. I found that those Nuget packages are targeting .NET Framework 4.5.2 at least. Unfortunetelly my client operates on .NET 4.5 and I am unable to force them to update.

So after I tried on my machine with project switched to .NET 4.5.2 then as you described AppCenter Analytics started to work:
_[AppCenter] ASSERT: App Center SDK configured successfully._

Is it possible that AppCenter will support lower .NET targets?

[elamalani]

@jgasiorowski Thanks for the update and good to know that your issue is resolved. We should be able to lower the target once we release the next preview version. However, we don't have any short-term plan to make another preview release for WPF.

[ODB88]

@elamalani Hi, I've been trying to configure AppCenter in my WPF (Targeting 4.5.2) for a few days and a few computers.

Installed the following packages:

• https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.AppCenter/1.0.2-r0004-e44d856
• https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.AppCenter.Analytics/1.0.2-r0004-e44d856

And pasted the following code in App.cs

AppCenter.Start("KEY", typeof(Analytics));

However, visual studios keeps saying "Start does not exist in the current context".

I've tried to :

• Rebuild, Cleand solution
• Restart VS
• Reinstall nuget packages
• Install nuget packages for every project inside the solution

Is there any fix for this?
Thanks

[bmourat]

Hi @ODB88!

Are there any suspicious messages in the console during packages installation?
What is your solution structure? Are all projects in it targeting NET Framework 4.5.2?
What version of VS are you using?

Best,
Murat

[wjvii]

I think support for the same analytics reporting across all project types is important for consistency. I think this is even more important with Microsoft continuing to provide new and improved ways to integrate and use Win32 (including WPF applications) with UWP and to help get apps into the Microsoft Store. It is difficult at best not to have consistency in the tools developers use to collect the analytics of these different platforms, especially when they could be combined into a single Microsoft Store application where you want a single point of monitoring. I would like to vote that this get pushed up in priorities.

[elamalani]

@wjvii We hear your feedback and will take it into account when deciding on our priorities. Unfortunately, this is not in our mid-term roadmap at the moment.

[tstephansen]

@elamalani I understand from your post above (on 4/7) that you didn't/don't have any plans to release a new preview version for WPF. Will you please let us know when you do update the preview version (even if it isn't anytime soon)? Thank you!

[elamalani]

@tstephansen For sure. We will keep this thread posted once we update the preview version of the NuGet. Also, we won't close this issue for better visibility to all App Center customers.

[lucahost]

@tstephansen For sure. We will keep this thread posted once we update the preview version of the NuGet. Also, we won't close this issue for better visibility to all App Center customers.

I just got an email "Action recommended: Transition from HockeyApp to Visual Studio App Center"

Is there any progress on this issue?

[Porterbg]

+1 For WPF support.
I can't migrate to App Center because it has no option for wpf apps. Even if it is buggy would be nice if we can have this option.

[elamalani]

@Unlockedluca @Porterbg Thanks for sharing your feedback. We currently don't support WPF platform in App Center. We have a year from today to retire HockeyApp and we will continue to bring additional platform support to App Center over the next year based on all the HockyeApp customer feedback. Please continue using HockeyApp for now.

We'll keep this thread open and let you know once we decide to support WPF platform in App Center.

[brcinho]

@elamalani What is there to decide? Are you even thinking of not supporting it in the end? If I am not mistaken, Windows desktop OS is the second most widespread platform, it is from Microsoft, and I don't see if there should even be a question that Microsoft's App Center needs to support its own platform. Anyways, be determined and let us know if the support will be there in the end or not so we know whether to explore other services when transitioning from HockeyApp.

[nanderto]

It looks like HockeyApp was the recommended way to monitor WPF apps but now it is no longer in service. HockeyApp has been shut down, but WPF is not yet supported by its replacement App Center. If you are looking for early feed back from developers, which you say you are earlier in this thread, then I would say stop messing us about. How do I even give feed back when I can't install it and run it in my app and see the monitoring because you don't support it.

[ElektrojungeAtWork]

Hey @nanderto,

Just to clarify:

It looks like HockeyApp was the recommended way to monitor WPF apps but now it is no longer in service. HockeyApp has been shut down.

HockeyApp has NOT been shut down. We have announced that it WILL be shut down about 11 months from now.

That said, we are aware of App Centers current limitations, including lack of WPF support.

If you are looking for early feed back from developers, which you say you are earlier in this thread, then I would say stop messing us about. How do I even give feed back when I can't install it and run it in my app and see the monitoring because you don't support it.

Support for WPF is one of the most highly recommended features. Please continue to +1 this issue, each +1 means it is more likely to be built sooner.

I hear you when you say "stop messing us about". The current roadmap that have published does not provide enough transparency and we are actively looking at how we can improve our communication around the HockeyApp transition and the roadmap for 2019. Our goal is to enjoy using App Center, have an easy transition from HockeyApp and make sure you don't feel "messed with".

Best,
Benjamin

[nanderto]

thanks @ElektrojungeMS for your response. When I go to https://hockeyapp.net/ all I can do is try AppCenter. HockeyApp may not be shut down yet but I can't add my application to it. Perhaps there is a back door to it that I am unaware of?

thanks
Noel

[ElektrojungeAtWork]

Hey Noel,

There is no back door in HockeyApp or App Center of any kind. (Just saying because I want to make sure the messaging is clear here)

Please get in thouch via support at https://support.hockeyapp.net and we will be able to help you out.

Best,
Benjamin

[ranjan-2209]

@nanderto go to https://rink.hockeyapp.net/ to use hoceyapp for now

[winnie]

Hi all,

We have now committed to fully supporting UWP and WPF in App Center diagnostics (meaning all the features we offer for App Center diagnostics on other platforms will be implemented for UWP and WPF, with the possible exception of handled errors). We will continue to evaluate the priority of supporting errors for Windows and update the community if we have any news.

We expect to start working on Windows around March and I'll post here for any updates (along with our App Center roadmap/changelog). Thank you all for your patience!

(cross post update from #669)

[Mostlypyjamas]

As a company that builds our windows desktop multimedia applications on WPF, we currently use a hybrid where we use HockeyApp for crash reports and for beta release distribution, but use Application Insights for application tracing. The Beta distribution we have actually scaled back now, so really our only use for HA is for crash reporting.

Without Crash reports, App Center is unfortunately of no use to us, as we already get all the diagnostics we need from AI - we'd love to move over to a single App Center platform, but without Crash reports there really wouldn't be much point in refactoring to use it - so please do get crash reporting added in as it's essential for many of us WPF users.

Thanks,

[hollowdrutt]

@winnieli1208 is there any commitment to supporting WPF in App Center Distribute?

[tstephansen]

@winnieli1208 Will you please clarify your statement above concerning crashes?

all the features we offer for App Center diagnostics on other platforms will be implemented for UWP and WPF, with the possible exception of handled errors

I think @Mostlypyjamas took it to mean that crash reporting will not be available at all. However, the way I read it is exceptions that are handled (by using a try catch or something) will not be reported but unhandled exceptions that cause the application to crash will be reported. I also agree completely that crash reporting is essential to WPF users.

Thanks!

[Mostlypyjamas]

Ah right - I missed the word "handled" errors - as long as unhandled crashes are capable of being reported and processed that's great - we do track some key exceptions that we are Try-Catch handling via AppInsights as they are useful to see if we see a rise in certain scenarios, but if that was lost we'd survive.

Definitely the key for us Is the direct replacement for the HA Crash Submission reports - they have proved invaluable in tracking down those weird issues that we just can't recreate in our dev labs :)

[winnie]

@hollowdrutt no commitment for WPF distribution as of now but we are considering this.

@Mostlypyjamas correct, we have not committed to supporting handled exceptions for UWP/WPF but we will show unhandled exceptions (what we call crashes in App Center Diagnostics).

Thanks!

[gemelo-hh]

hi guys,

any news about wpf and appcenter? Would be so great… Thanks a lot for your work!

Thies

[winnie]

Hi @gemelo-hh ,

You can find our proposed Windows plan here: https://github.com/Microsoft/appcenter/blob/windows/specs/2019-04/Windows-Plan.md

Even though we don't "officially" support WPF yet, you should be able to create a Windows UWP app in App Center and distribute your WPF apps packaged with APPX/MSIX.

We haven't started any engineering work yet but we're aiming to start next month. Hope that helps!

[james1301]

Thanks for the update. I can’t see anything about Push notifications on that page. Is that being considered?

[gemelo-hh]

Hi @winnieli1208,

thanks for your update and your link. We are still doing it that way, but would be feeling better, if there is an official solution ;-)

And as @ElektrojungeAtWork wanted a "steady demand" on that feature, here you are. As we are saying in germany: "ein steter Tropfen höhlt den Stein."

Greets, Thies

[adammarks]

Hello @winnieli1208

You also need to add the ability to upload and store zipped EXE / MSI Windows WPF application installers similar to what HockeyApp allowed. The distribution would be limited to just downloading via the AppCenter webpage like HockeyApp was but that would be fine for internal/beta distribution purposes.

WPF apps packaged as APPX / MSIX is really limiting since those formats really aren't practical on Win7.

[blparr]

Hello,
Thanks all for your feedback and questions.

@james1301 Push notifications is not currently being considered short-term. We are first addressing the HockeyApp services (Distribution, Crashes, Analytics).

@gemelo-hh Definitely, we the plan is to make it official soon.

@adammarks Thanks for bringing that to our attention. We are currently making some investigations on the different formats we will support and we will add more details to our plans as these get done.

Best regards

[rido-min]

Hi @adammarks

Distributing Windows apps as Zipped exes has several limitations: (bootstrap pre-requisites, app regsitrations: start menu, add-remove-programs, no option to configure automatic updates, etc..)
MSI solve some of this issues, but configuring auto-updates, and producing MSI from build pipelines are not easy tasks.
.
We believe MSIX solves most of this limitations and there is a project to support MSIX on Win7.

Do you expect AppCenter to produce Zipped Exes or MSI from the build pipeline?

[adammarks]

@rido-min We would not expect the build pipeline to support zipped EXEs / MSIs . Anyone who is creating EXE/MSIs already has an existing build pipeline and is relying on AppCenter for distribution purposes ( internal / beta usage ). Also anyone using EXEs/MSIs would typically have their own update mechanism so there isn't a expectation for that to be supported as well.

There is a project to support MSIX on Win7 but the problem is how does that project get installed onto customer machines? Our understanding is that isn't going to be delivered via Windows update so how do customers get that project installed?

[centrolutions]

Is there a supported Nuget for WPF support yet? I attempted to Install-Package Microsoft.AppCenter.Crashes and got a list of dependencies a mile long; none of which should be required for WPF / classic .NET.
We are fast approaching the end of HockeyApp and this is the release we had scheduled this change for our app. Any update / help would be appreciated.

[winnie]

@centrolutions we're working on it! Our plan is to release an SDK that supports crash reporting and analytics for WPF by the end of this month. I'll update this thread when we release. Thanks for your patience!

[jesusmogollon]

Hi everyone, I'm trying the App Center, but I have been unable to see any logs on my App Center Analytics for my WPF application.
I added these packages:

• https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.AppCenter/1.0.2-r0004-e44d856
• https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.AppCenter.Analytics/1.0.2-r0004-e44d856

Then added the following lines to my application OnStartup method:
AppCenter.Start("XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX", typeof(Analytics));
AppCenter.LogLevel = LogLevel.Verbose;
Analytics.TrackEvent("SpectraLoK Started!");

Looking at the debug console I got:
[AppCenter] ASSERT: App Center SDK configured successfully.

I can see more lines where the data is successfully sent but still nothing on my Analytic page in App Center.

Is there something that I missing?
Maybe I should be using a newer package?
I have just created this application in App Center and selected the UWP as the platform, should I do something else?
What is the best place to discuss the implementation for WPF?

Thanks in advance.

[guperrot]

@jesusmogollon we do not currently support WPF but as mentioned in https://github.com/microsoft/appcenter-sdk-dotnet/issues/620#issuecomment-508862377, it will soon be supported. This thread will be updated with the details once the release will be available.

The package you used was very old (and not official) and just a proof of concept. The real version will be 2.2.0-preview and will be the first version to actually support WPF, the changelog is already on the develop branch.

[jesusmogollon]

@guperrot Thanks for reaching out so fast.
I will check the develop branch and see if I can compile it.
Please let me know the best way to provide feedback.

[guperrot]

Hi, please wait for the nuget release next week. After the release you can create new github issues or contact us via the feedback button on https://appcenter.ms to provide feedback.

[jrahma]

Yeah we need it for WinForm too and it should work offline then update the AppCenter when user is connected to internet only.

[MatkovIvan]

Hi there!

AppCenter .NET SDK with WPF/WinForms support (2.2.1-preview) is released. We would appreciate it if you give us some feedback, so please check it out!

[james1301]

@MatkovIvan how do we use this if you cannot select to add a WPF App to App Center? Or am I being dumb?

[rolikoff]

I have the same question. There's no WPF or Winforms type of project available in appcenter backend.

[rolikoff]

@james1301 Seems UWP type of project works well. I see analytics data there. But we definitely need a new type of project in appcenter (WPF/Winforms)

[james1301]

Thanks @rolikoff, but at some point I presume I'll need to change this to a WPF one. So I'll need to change it in my application again?

[MatkovIvan]

@james1301, @rolikoff
Creating the apps for these platforms will be enabled on the portal soon.

[james1301]

@MatkovIvan is there anything to follow for when that is done? Or how soon are you meaning? Like this week soon?

[winnie]

Hi @james1301 - we're finishing up a few things on the UI and distribution side. If you would like to try out the SDK for diagnostics and analytics, please start a support ticket (blue chat bubble) with your e-mail and I can enable the feature flag for you. Thanks!

[james1301]

Thanks @winnieli1208.

[StefanKoell]

Thanks @winnieli1208 ! Jumped right in and wanted to get my hands dirty ;)

I successfully pulled the nuget packages and tried to replace my "custom/private" build - which already works.

Unfortunately I don't get any data into AppCenter. In the output I can see this:
Exception thrown: 'Microsoft.AppCenter.Ingestion.Http.HttpIngestionException' in Microsoft.AppCenter.dll
Exception thrown: 'Microsoft.AppCenter.Ingestion.Http.HttpIngestionException' in mscorlib.dll
2019-07-23 16:08:04.878 [AppCenter] WARN: Try #1 failed and will be retried in 5846 ms

I don't see any "retry" in the output and the data does not appear to get submitted.

Is this because the feature flag is not enabled or is something else going on?

[winnie]

@StefanKoell I just enabled the feature flag for you so you should be able to create a WPF app in the UI and see if you get any data. Let me know if you run into any issues or have any feedback!

[StefanKoell]

@winnieli1208 Thank you! I can now see data coming in with the preview package. I still see the HttpIngestionExceptions mentioned above. Not sure if this is something I have to worry about or if I can provide more data somehow to get to the bottom of this.

I will definitely keep an eye on the data...

[jrahma]

@winnieli1208 can you please enable the feature for me too? Thanks.

[rolikoff]

It worked well. I got crashes, got events, got crash attachments. Although, now the backend seems down, it gives 502/503 errors

2019-07-23 21:08:20.365 [AppCenter] VERBOSE: HTTP response status=502 (BadGateway) payload= ...

2019-07-23 21:09:44.113 [AppCenter] VERBOSE: HTTP response status=503 (ServiceUnavailable) ...

Pretty sure you guys already know about that, but wanted to give you a heads up.
I will send more feedback once it works again and we run some more tests.

[guperrot]

@rolikoff We had an incident yesterday on production that affected all incoming logs, not specific to WPF, that caused 502/503 errors, it should be resolved now (sorry for the troubles it caused). The time frame: 7/22 3.20PM PST to 7/23 11.20AM PST.

Please create new issues from now on for bugs or feature requests.
This thread should be kept open only to request the feature flag.

[guperrot]

@StefanKoell is it working now that the incident is resolved on our side? If you see a different issue please create a new github issue. Again sorry for the troubles that incident caused.

[StefanKoell]

@guperrot I get these exceptions intermittently in my output during debug session and it's a bit hard to see if every event gets tracked. I guess it's working but I will keep an eye on the data and if I see issues I will log a new github issue for that. Thanks!

[JulianoFL]

@winnieli1208, for some reason i can't see the chat icon in my account. Can you enable for me too ? Thanks !

[winnie]

@JulianoFL done!

[WyoDoug]

@winnieli1208, I'd like to get WPF enabled for two of my accounts, Can I get WPF enabled in App Center too? I have two account douglas(at)jackalopetechnologies.com and doug(at)ctwautomation.com where it would be most helpful.

[winnie]

Hi all! We just globally enabled the feature flag. You should all be able to create an WPF/WinForms app and use our distirbution, diagnostics, and analytics services.

Please start a support ticket if you run into any issues and let us know what you'd like to see next by filing a feature request in the public App Center repo. Thanks!