Mostly we code...sometimes we write. Every once in a while, we podcast.

We have a chat channel and we answer questions there regularly. There are some very amazing people that sit in that channel and help answer questions. In the last month, two of those people have mentioned that we (the staff here at CodeWeavers), should blog about things more often. Thinking foolishly that there was some strange barrier around this I asked what we would blog about. The quick answer was... how to do things with our product and with our website; that we should answer questions. So I asked for the first question, and though the temptation was to only give the simple answer, I decided I had better make good on it. The question:

"Can we add new programs to the Application Database?"

And the simple answer is:


The more advanced answer is:


However, I'm sure that's not what the person was looking for. Who wants to go "figure it out" themselves? I mean, a question like this is really an opportunity. It's not apparent on our website how to do this and it's not very clear on why to do it.

The "why" is important. Submitting an application on our website does not mean the application works. To us, it means that the application has at least one person who wants to run that application on a Linux or Mac based system rather than on Windows. It creates a place-holder in our database where more people who want to run that application can exchange tips about that application and even the actual installation process for that application.

Now I'll take it a step further and demonstrate how.

First, login to our website. Every application submitted must come from a valid account.



Next, search for the application. For my example it is "Mortal Kombat Komplete" but search simpler, start with "Mortal" or "Mortal Kombat" and it is indeed missing from our Compatibility Database:



Now that the search is complete, there is no apparent way to add an application. It's something we should fix, soon. Thankfully, I know how to get where I need to go but I want to show it off properly and not just drop a link.

Go back to our main Compatibility Center page and locate the "Submit a New Application" link:




This comes to the "big scary form" which is not all that scary. Have a few pages about the application ready like...

The Steam page:



The game publisher's page:




The Wikipedia page:




Then use those pages to fill out our form:



Then submit the application, and you'll receive a message from us that looks like this:



Now the application comes to our queue. At this stage we will search for the application in our database, we will visit the websites that were submitted to verify the sites and then we will verify that the information is accurate. In this specific case, we'll correct the company information (Warner Brothers is too brief...).

Then we'll approve it, the submitter gets notification that it was approved and Mortal Kombat Komplete is now in our system:

About Caron Wills

Caron has been working in the computer software industry for over 10 years. She joined
CodeWeavers in 2008 and became the Quality Assurance Manager for CodeWeavers in 2009. Contact Caron at caron@codeweavers.com and learn more about her professional accomplishments on LinkedIn.