The last month has been really exciting for the Chrome Web Store. Not only did we launch the new (and very much improved user experience), we also launch internationally. The Chrome Web Store is available in lots more countries, but one in particular is close to my heart – Canada. In fact, I was up in Canada last week for a hack-a-thon and to meet with some great companies to talk about the Chrome Web Store.
With any newly launched product, there are lots of great opportunities for people to jump on board early, and if you’re a Web Developer in Canada, this is certainly one of them. On Thursday, we announced a special program for Canadian Web Developers. We want to see more Canadian Web Developers featured with apps that will resonate with Canadians. That’s why we’re offering a great incentive for submitting your apps! Our panel of experts will review the apps that you submit and for each app that meets the criteria, you will receive a $200 Amazon gift certificate – not to mention exposure to more than 200 million Chrome users around the world.
You’ve got until December 31, 2011 at midnight (PST) to get your app submitted to the Chrome Web Store and fill out the submission form. You’ve got just about 2 months to get your app built and submitted. Be sure to read the complete rules and regulations at here.
To learn more visit The Chrome Web Store Canadian Web Developer Incentive Program site, including full regulations, and how to submit your app!
If you’re looking for resources to get you started, check out some of these links:
Chrome Web Store Developer Guides: http://code.google.com/chrome/webstore/docs/index.html. These are the developer guides and tutorials for getting started submitting web apps to the Chrome Web Store.
Tutorial: Getting Started with the Chrome Web Store: http://code.google.com/chrome/webstore/docs/get_started_simple.html. A super easy tutorial that will get your app into the store, without any custom features.
Background: Extending Your App’s Life: http://code.google.com/chrome/apps/docs/background.html. This details how to add the background features to your app, using this, you can query for information, and then use notifications to alert the user, even when they’re not in/on your site.
Using the Notifications API: http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/notifications/quick/ is a tutorial on how to use the notifications API available in Chrome and through the Chrome Web Store.
Identifying the User: http://code.google.com/chrome/webstore/docs/identify_user.html is a good overview of OpenID and at the bottom under resources are a couple links to tutorials on implementing OpenID.
AppMator: http://appmator.appspot.com is a tool that will automate the basic process of getting your app into the store. Sadly, it won’t handle the background page stuff, but does do the basics
Application Cache: http://www.webdirections.org/blog/get-offline/ and http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/#appcache both provide great resources that you’ll find quite helpful
Web Storage – LocalStorage and SessionStorage: are both widely implemented and allow for storing of name/value pairs, not good for binary data, but useful for things like lessons completed or topics of interest. The other great way we’ve seen this used is as a temporary cache until the client can connect to the server to update things. http://www.html5rocks.com/en/features/storage
Good luck!
PEte