As part of the Telerik “Q1.2012 Beta” WindowsPhone package we released a set of building blocks components. You can find more info on the idea of building blocks for Windows Phone here.
Overview
As we are discussing in our “Promote your Windows Phone App on a Shoestring” whitepaper, the number of ratings plays a big role in the algorithm that the marketplace uses to rank the different apps. Our experience shows that if the users are reminded to do something, chances are that their response rate will be higher than if they are not reminded.
With RadRateApplicationReminder you can configure your application to display a message box that reminds users to rate your application on every given period or for a given application usage. Here is how a sample Rate reminder looks like:
Configuration options
The usage of this component is quite simple. Let’s say that you want your users to be reminded to rate your application on every 50 application runs. To do this you need the following code:
RadRateApplicationReminder rateReminder = new RadRateApplicationReminder();
rateReminder.RecurrencePerUsageCount = 50;
rateReminder.Notify();
If you want the reminder message to be displayed on a given time period – say each 20 days you should use the following code:
RadRateApplicationReminder rateReminder = new RadRateApplicationReminder();
rateReminder.RecurrencePerTimePeriod = TimeSpan.FromDays(20);
rateReminder.Notify();
This is how easy is to use this component! Ofcourse you can change the content of the message box and to have your own custom message displayed as a reminder. To do this, use the following code:
RadRateApplicationReminder rateReminder = new RadRateApplicationReminder();
rateReminder.RecurrencePerTimePeriod = TimeSpan.FromDays(20);
rateReminder.MessageBoxInfo.Content = Strings.PleaseRateApplicationMessage;
rateReminder.MessageBoxInfo.Title = Strings.PleaseRateApplicationMessageTitle;
rateReminder.Notify();
You also have an option to allow users to skip further reminders from displaying. For this purpose you should use the AllowUsersToSkipFurtherReminders property.
I hope that this component will be very useful for you - please give it a try during the beta period and let us know if you have suggestions for enhancements.
You can also find me on twitter @valiostoychev – I’ll be happy to discuss any feedback you have!