Querying data from the Windows Phone and Windows Stores

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We had a requirement today to query both the Windows Phone and Windows Stores for information about some of the apps we’ve been working on. Since both stores have a rich client interface it’s only natural that the store can be queried via a hidden pseudo api (“pseudo” because they’re more feed-like than a real api).

To work out how the api is structured the easiest thing to do is to setup Fiddler with SSL decoding and remote connections enabled on one computer and then on your Windows Phone and/or Windows 8 device you set the Fiddler computer to be the proxy. In order for this to work you’ll need to install the Fiddler certificate onto the device (Windows Phone installs the certificate correctly by default; Windows 8 you’ll need to put the certificate into the Trusted Root Certificate Authorities store for it to work).

Here’s what I pulled from my Windows Phone:

Application Info URL

http://marketplaceedgeservice.windowsphone.com/v8/catalog/apps/{app guid}?os=8.0.10211.0&cc=AU&lang=en-US

Replace “app guid” with the Guid for your application. You can find the Guid for your application by finding the application in the web version of the Windows Phone Store and then looking in the address bar.

Image URL

http://cdn.marketplaceimages.windowsphone.com/v8/images/{image guid}?hw=486577666&imagetype=icon_small

Replace “image guid” with the Guid for the image you want to retrieve. The image Guids are listed in the information returned from the application info URL.

 

Here’s what I pulled from my Windows 8 device:

Application Info URL

https://next-services.apps.microsoft.com/browse/6.3.9600-0/776/en-GB_en-AU.en-US.en/c/AU/cp/10005001/Apps/{app guid}

Replace “app guid” with the Guid for your application. You can find the Guid for your application by finding the application in the web version of the Windows Store and then looking in the address bar.

Image URL

http://wscont1.apps.microsoft.com/winstore/1.4x/{image path}

Replace “image path” with the relative path to the image that you want which can be found in the Application Info URL

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