Behind the Curtain: App Publishing Requests
Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes when you submit an app to the ?
There are two main submission processes that you can use when creating an app, App Publishing Request, and a Publishable URL sharing request.
In this article, I’ll cover an App Publishing Request, which allows an app to be installed by all Zoom users through the Marketplace. Publishable URL sharing requests, covered in this article, allows an unpublished app to be distributed to limited Zoom users outside your account.
Whether you are exploring the many features Zoom has to offer, developing an app for the Marketplace, or returning to an old app to update it, you may want to know what Zoom is doing to support you. You may also have a couple of questions such as:
How long does it take for my app to be published after I submit it? What can I do to accelerate this process? If my app is rejected, what’s next? Who can I reach out to if you have questions about Zoom’s APIs, documentation, or app submission process? We will answer all of these questions and more in this article, strap in!
One of the factors in how quickly your app will be processed is the quality of the metadata you provide as well as how specific you are with your explanations and test plan.
To start, lets look at two examples from the Zoom app submission portal, this is similar to what the reviewer sees when you submit a CREATE request:
The first impression of this app submission is very strong, the developer has submitted an app that has clear descriptions, images, a video, and all necessary links. Clicking into each of those link brings me to a page that satisfies all necessary requirements. Reading the long description, the reviewer can get a clear sense of the purpose of the app, and who may benefit from it.
Looking a bit deeper, the developer has provided a test account and credentials, and their contact information should we need to reach out directly. Additionally, when we look at their Scopes and Features, we can see that they are within reason for how they have described their app, and aren’t accessing any unnecessary user information.
You can see that as a reviewer, we don’t have to reject this app based off of simple mistakes such as poor descriptions or invalid images, and the developer’s thorough explanation of what the app does validates their requested Scopes and Features.
Alternatively, here is an example of an app that has several issues, which we will cover below:
This app has poor descriptions, that do not give us a deep explanation or understanding of the purpose of the app. There is no video and the only image is a filler image. While it does have privacy policy and support links, the documentation URL is empty so the reviewer does not know how to test this app. Lastly, the reviewer notices that they are accessing a lot of scopes that have no explanation and the developer may be trying to access user information that is unnecessary for a simple blog app.
After the metadata review, we will perform a functional review. In this process, we will step through each part of your application, following the test plan you provide in either your Documentation URL or if you provide a test plan document directly in the Release Notes. Again, specificity and detail will enable us to easily understand the full lifecycle of your application, and we will be able to process it more quickly.
If your app is rejected, we will send you an email prompting you to check the feedback Zoom Marketplace Specialists left for your submission.
One of the best ways to communicate with your reviewer from here onward is to leave comments in the Google Doc, which we will respond to after you resubmit your app for review. You can see the steps to follow
In order to receive feedback for your submission, you must follow our submission/response cycle. Leaving a comment will not guarantee a re-review. If you want to provide comments or feedback on specific review items, please make comments in the Note response and resubmit the app once the items have been resolved.
In the meantime, please fix each issue addressed raised in the Notes and resubmit your app when it is ready, from there we will perform another review and leave additional notes if we encounter any new issues.
We evaluate each app on an individual basis and closely examine reasons why an app would require each feature or scope. Providing more detail in all aspects of your submission gives a greater likelihood of approval.
See this excerpt from our Documentation:
Review time varies by app based on app quality, usability, quantity and function of features, and metadata quality (descriptive content). Testing time is typically the shortest for apps with properly defined scopes and quality metadata. Conversely, apps with heavy feature requirements, poor usability, or sub-standard metadata content can require a lengthy review process.
To ensure you have everything you need in your app prior to submission, check out this app submission checklist documentation we have written for you:
One common mistake we see regarding App Publishing Requests is developers submitting an incomplete app or an app they are still working on. While we will happily give you issues to resolve and pointers to help improve your integration, we expect developers to thoroughly test the production version of their app before submitting. You can test with users within your Zoom Account through Local Testing, which you can read more on. If you need to, you can also test your app outside of your Zoom account by submitting a Publishable URL sharing request which you can read more about in this blog and . Doing this testing will quickly reveal flaws in your production environment and will also give you an idea of what we will see as we review and test your app.
If you have questions regarding the review process, here is a documentation article that describes it well:
If you have any questions regarding our APIs, our Documentation, or questions regarding developing on the Zoom platform, you can post questions directly on the Zoom Developer Forum:
Lastly, if you need to reach out the review team directly, please email us at: [email protected]
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