Mac App Store criteria question

Question

In regards to the requirements for submitting an App to be considered in the app store, does that app have to be developed using Apples dev tools, or are apps developed using third-party tools/frameworks acceptable?
Specifically, I have an app that I have written using a third party toolkit. It compiles to a self-contained, universal, cocoa application that will run on any 10.5+ machine with just a drag-and-drop install process (so no third-party installer, just stick the Application wherever you want it). I could easy use package maker to make an "official" installer if that was required. Is there at least a possibility that this app could be accepted into the Mac App Store? Or would the third party toolkit disqualify it?
Obviously no one here can tell me if the app would actually be accepted, I just don't want to pay the $100 necessary to even try if there is no chance at all of being accepted without a complete re-write. Thanks.

Answer 1

Israel,
The is the correct forum. You are right about the "other" developer forums. However, you get more goodies for your $99 than just the forums.
Israel Brewster wrote:
In regards to the requirements for submitting an App to be considered in the app store, does that app have to be developed using Apples dev tools, or are apps developed using third-party tools/frameworks acceptable?
Specifically, I have an app that I have written using a third party toolkit. It compiles to a self-contained, universal, cocoa application that will run on any 10.5+ machine with just a drag-and-drop install process (so no third-party installer, just stick the Application wherever you want it). I could easy use package maker to make an "official" installer if that was required. Is there at least a possibility that this app could be accepted into the Mac App Store? Or would the third party toolkit disqualify it?
There are some very specific requirements to consider. However, if your application compiles to a self-contained, Intel, cocoa application that runs on 10.6.6, then you should be able to distribute it through the Mac App Store.
You can include all the 3rd party libraries, frameworks, and tools you want, as long as they reside inside your application bundle and you comply with their licensing. Your application cannot depend on any other 3rd party software. You can distribute a 32 and 64 bit intel application, but no PowerPC. The Mac App Store only runs on 10.6.6 anyway, so that precludes PowerPC. If you target only 64-bit, you can use the Modern runtime too.
One interesting restriction is that you can't include any metadata from other operating systems. So if this is a cross platform application, you have to purge anything from the bundle that doesn't apply to MacOS X.
In short - pony up your $99