Before I get started, I just want to clarify that this is not a rant. And also, the Guys/Gals at Palm are an exceptional group of people, doing their best given their current resources.
Now, after 2 years of webOS development, I figured I offered some suggestions on how to improve the App Submission Portal/Process (even though no one asked me). Some of my suggestions should be easy to implement, others might be difficult/impossible, either way, I'm still going to list them. I'm sure many other developers can relate. Off the top of my head, here are my suggestions:
1) Emergency App Updates:
This is probably a slippery slope, but it would be nice if developers have a way to instantly push an 'emergency' app update, without having to go through the entire review process. Now, I don't know (and I don't care) how Android/iOS do it in their ecosystem, but we need to have this. Every developer has had that moment when they have to quickly release an App update, but the App is sitting in the Review Bucket (while the Dev is getting slammed with '0' star reviews :) ). Usually, the App Review Team is very efficient at pushing out updates, but occasionally, they may be overwhelmed (like when the catalog opened to Australia/NZ). Now, I don't know how it works on their end. I don't know if there's a separate queue for 'New Apps', 'Updated Apps' or 'Meta Updates' or if Apps are reviewed on first-in first-out basis, but there needs to be away to 'flag' an app update as 'important'.
Maybe Implement a criteria whereby an App can only get a max of 5 'emergency' updates per month/year or maybe have 'emergency' updates available to 'black belt' devs or devs that meet some criteria or something
2) Meta Updates
When an App's meta-data is updated, it shouldn't have to go through a review process (I don't know if it does). It should be instant. Enough said.
3) Geo Restricted Promo Codes
This horse has been pretty much beaten to death, but geo-restricted promo codes is a pain. I understand (well I don't) the reasons for it. Right now, if you want to create promo codes, you have to create one for each country. The process of doing it for one country isn't bad, it's fairly straight-forward. The pain comes when you have to repeat the steps for multiple countries. Which is why most Devs default to US only. I'm pretty sure the geo-restriction won't go away, so here's a solution to make it less painful for Devs. Make it possible to create promo codes in one shot. Have checkboxes for each country (along with a 'Select All'), and have fields for no. of promo codes for each. I'm pretty sure someone has already thought of this...
4) CSV for Promo Codes
Speaking of Promo codes, it's nice to have the ability to download them as a csv file. It'll be nicer if you could actually see the promo codes in the web GUI, without having to download to csv first (especially for single promo codes). This makes life easy for copying/pasting. I'm probably the only one with this dilemma, but the other day I was on my phone, and I wanted to retrieve a promo code (from the Dev Portal site) to tweet. But I had to go to ALL THE WAY my computer, because i can't open csv files on my phone (or TouchPad). It's not a big deal, but it'll be nice if someone looked into this.
5) Free<-->Paid
This one isn't a personal gripe of mine, but it turns out you can't change an App from 'Paid' to 'Free' and vice versa. Unless if I'm wrong. I've seen a few Devs struggle with this. Again, I have no clue why, but someone should look into this.
6) ScreenShots on App Updates
For some reason, after the touchPad came out, when submitting an App update, you have to re-upload app screenshots. This is a pain (especially for crazy devs like myself who like updating their Apps). Fix this.
7) Notifications
I don't know about other Devs, but I've NEVER been notified when my App gets published. I have to constantly keep checking. Thankfully, @chofter's 'My WebOS Apps' App is awesome in dealing with this. But an actual official email notification would be nice.
8) Deleting an App
Apparently, you can't delete an App. Ever. It remains 'Suspended'. it's annoying. Fix this, or give the ability to hide suspended Apps from the 'My Apps' view.
9)
Rejection Pending I'm not sure why a rejection has to be pending. If I click 'Reject', it should be instant. Especially if I want to re-submit another update. Devs, you know what I'm talking about
I know I'm missing a couple other things, but the list above is all I've got for now. I know International Devs also have hurdles too. Hopefully someone looks into these...especially since webOS is now undergoing a re-birth
