Searching the Marketplace with the MarketplaceSearchTask

The Marketplace search task is used to launch the built-in Marketplace app, which displays the search results for a specified search string.

The MarketplaceSearchTask class has two properties: SearchTerms and ContentType. SearchTerms is a string that contains one or more search terms. ContentType can be set to either MarketplaceContentType.Applications or MarketplaceContentType.Music. If not specified, ContentType defaults to MarketplaceContentType.Applications. The following excerpt demonstrates how to create and launch a MarketplaceSearchTask:

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MarketplaceSearchTask task
    = new MarketplaceSearchTask
        {
            ContentType = MarketplaceContentType.Applications,
            SearchTerms = "puzzle"
        };
task.Show();

The MarketPlaceView has a button that executes an ICommand named SearchCommand in the viewmodel. The searchCommand is instantiated in the MarketplaceViewModel constructor. When executed it creates a new MarketplaceSearchTask, sets its SearchTerms property with the text supplied by a TextBox in the view, sets its ContentType property, and finally calls its Show method, like so:

Click here to view code image

public MarketplaceViewModel()
{
    searchCommand = new DelegateCommand(
        delegate
            {
                MarketplaceSearchTask task = new MarketplaceSearchTask
                        {
                          /* SearchTerms can't be null or empty,
                           * or else an ArgumentException is thrown. */
                            SearchTerms = string.IsNullOrEmpty(searchTerms)
                                                ? " " : searchTerms
                        };
                if (contentType.HasValue)
                {
                    task.ContentType = contentType.Value;
                }
                task.Show();
            });
// ...
}