Tip on how to manually deploy a .xap to the emulator

Question

We are submitting builds of our WP7 XNA project to our publisher and needed a way to deliver the build without sending them the entire source tree and have them build it in VS2010 just to get it in the emulator.  I hadn't seen any discussion about it in here or other forums/blogs, so with Process Explorer I had a peek at what VS2010 does.

"%XNAGSv4%\Tools\wp.exe" install "file.xap" "app Id" "GameThumbnail.png" "XapCacheFile.xml" /clean

wp.exe is the command-line Windows Phone management tool.  You can see many other features by running it without any parameters.

file.xap is created by VS2010 and is found in the output directory.

app Id is the Guid found in Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs.

GameThumbnail.png is found in the output directory.

XapCacheFile.xml is found in the intermediate directory.

It will deploy to the default device (usually the emulator unless you have hardware).  You can deploy to a different device using the /device:<id> option where id is found by running "wp.exe devices".

I thought this might help someone who also needed a way to manually deploy a .xap to the emulator.

Answer 1

Thanks for posting this information!  Some one has been asking me about this.

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Joel Ivory Johnson | http://www.j2i.net | Device Application Development MVP

It takes all the running you can do to stay in one place.If you want to get somewhere else,you must try to run at least twice as fast as that.

Answer 2

Thanks! this is very useful.

Prabhu
www.geekswithblogs.net/techtwaddle

Answer 3

Thanks! this might be useful in the future

Answer 4

Useful when VS is not an option.

Javier Andrés Cáceres Alvis MVP WIndows Mobile http://speechflow.spaces.live.com/ http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/author/javierandrescaceres/

Answer 5

I got error message:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft XNA\XNA Game Studio\v4.0\Tools\wp.exe" install "MySLApp.xap" "MySLApp's Id" "ApplicationIcon.png" "..\..\obj\Debug\XapCacheFile.xml" /clean

The specified package can not be opened or contains an invalid manifest or signature.

Answer 6

I have ended up with the same issue as JamesMo.. i think the issue may be that we're trying to run a Silverlight XAP - perhaps this method only works for WP7 apps built with XNA?

Answer 7

I've only tested with XNA apps.  Since the wp.exe tool is in the XNA distribution, I'm guessing it may well be for XNA apps only.  I'll have a hunt around for what happens with a Silverlight app.

 

Answer 8

Testing with a small Silverlight app, it seems that VS2010 starts the emulator directly and then uses inter-process communication to deploy the app.  I get the same error as above when trying to deploy a Silverlight app using the wp.exe tool.

So it seems this tip is useful for XNA apps only.

Answer 9

Hello.

 

I have some issues with your tips.

Indeed,  it only launch the emulator, but doesn't load my xap file (I then only have the basic homepage of the emulator).

Here are the lines I wrote :

 

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft XNA\XNA Game Studio\v4.0\Tools\wp.exe" install "path...\xapDeploymentTest.xap" "my guid" "path...\thumbnailName.PNG"

"path...\XapCacheFile.xml" /clean

 

Any idea?

Thanks.

Answer 10

With the April Refresh, XNA apps now get added to the Games Hub by default, which is not visible in the emulator.  You can change this back to the apps list by editing Properties/WindowsPhoneManifest.xml and changing the app type from "App.Games" to "NormalApp".  There is more information in the CTP release notes.

There is another option in wp.exe to launch an app that you could also use. Just type wp.exe (along with the path if required) to see the other options.

Answer 11

Hello:

I have issues with your tips.

Indeed,  it only launch the emulator, but doesn't load my xap file

1)

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft XNA\XNA Game Studio\v4.0\Tools>

wp.exe install path...Bin\Debug\MyAppName.xap "APPID"

With this cmd it is opened emulator and error message "Invalid Application ID" (I got app ID from Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs)

 

2)

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft XNA\XNA Game Studio\v4.0\Tools>

wp.exe install path...Bin\Debug\MyAppName.xap "APPID" "path...\ApplicationIcon.png"

With this cmd is said that "Too many arguments"

And, what is XML file which is the last param in ur tip? (I found only system.xml in my output directory)

 

Thanks in advance.

Answer 12

Firstly, it works with XNA apps only.  It does not support Silverlight apps.  You do not mention which type of app you are trying to deploy.

The XapCacheFile.xml is found in the intermediate directory (obj), not the output directory (bin).

All the parameters are required.  Here is the help printed by wp.exe for the install command.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft XNA\XNA Game Studio\v4.0\Tools>wp help install

wp install [options] <xap> <app> <icon> <xapcache>

Installs an application on a device.

Arguments:
 xap        Path to the package to be installed.
 app        ID of the product to be installed.
 icon        Path to the application's icon.
 xapcache      Path to the xap cache xml file for incremental deployment.

Options:
 /clean       Forces a non incremental, clean deployment.
 /device:<value>  Sets the target device. Omit to use the default device.
 /instance:<value> Sets the application instance ID. If omitted, the applicati
on ID is used as the instance ID.
 /genre:<value>   Sets the application genre. Default value is "Apps.Games".

Answer 13

Hi,

My application is windows Phone application. Is this the way to install app. If not please help me...

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft XNA\XNA Game Studio\v4.0\Tools>

wp.exe install "path...\Bin\Debug\MyApp.xap" "AppID" "path...\Bin\Debug\ApplicationIcon.png" "path...\obj\Debug\XapCacheFile.xml"

Iam geting the following error...

Too many arguments

 

Answer 14

When you say it's a Windows Phone application, do you mean Silverlight?  I am guessing it is a Silverlight app because it has ApplicationIcon.png (the default icon name for Silverlight apps) instead of GameThumbnail.png (the default icon name for XNA apps).  In this case, wp.exe can not be used to deploy your app to the emulator.  Why you are getting the error "Too many arguments" I do not know.  When trying to deploy a Silverlight app (called Windows Phone Application in Visual Studio 2010), you should see the following:

C:\Users\Sly\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\WindowsPhoneApplication1\WindowsPhoneApplication1>"%XNAGSv4%\Tools\wp.exe" install bin\debug\WindowsPhoneApplication1.xap 71f6d153-0759-4d6e-9bcd-de9a49d8f232 bin\debug\ApplicationIcon.png obj\debug\XapCacheFile.xml
error: The specified package can not be opened or contains an invalid manifest or signature.

Answer 15

Yes, My app is windows Phone application (Sliverlight application).

Please see the screenshot of my error message. (http://maq2.web.officelive.com/Documents/Error.jpg)

How to deploy windows phone application in emulator?

 

Thanks in advance

Answer 16

The cause of your error is that your paths have spaces in them (D:\MobileApps\ShopEdge\Coding\Windows Mobile 7 \ShopEdge_WinMo), but you have not wrapped the paths in quotes.

The only way I know to deploy a Silverlight app to the emulator is to deploy it through Visual Studio.

Answer 17

Hello,

Thank you Steve...Thanks for ur replies.

If there is anyway to deploy windows mobile Silverlight application please post here...

Answer 18

HI all,

Is there any way to deploy the xap file on to the device without using visual studio?

Thanks.

Answer 19

Hi Santhosh,

I haven't read everything here.. but just thought I'd check .. have you tried How to: Use the XAP Deployment Tool for Windows Phone

Answer 20

Thank u Trees.

I have tried and succeeded... Now, i am able to deploy my app on the device...

Answer 21

No worries.

Answer 22

Thanx for sharing good info!

But I have no device to perform yet... :(

- Yeongki

Answer 23

The wp tool (and my original tip) has been put to bed, and the Xap Deployment Tool (as Trees posted) is the supported method for deploying any .xap to a device or the emulator.