Distributing mobile applications with PMF Application Center

Overview

Persistent Mobile Foundation Application Center is a repository of mobile applications similar to public app stores but focused on the needs of an organization or a team. It is a private app store.

PMF Application Center facilitates sharing mobile applications:

  • You can share feedback and rating information.
  • You can use access control lists to limit who can install applications.

PMF Application Center works with PMF apps and non-PMF apps, and supports any iOS, Android applications.

You can use PMF Application Center in different contexts. For example:

  • As an enterprise app store across an organization.
  • During development to distribute applications within a team.

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Installing and configuring

Prerequisite: Before you install PMF Application Center, you must have installed an application server and a database:

  • Application server: Tomcat or WebSphere Application Server full profile or Liberty profile
  • Database: DB2 , Oracle, or MySQL

If you do not have a database installed, the installation process can also install an Apache Derby database. However, using the Derby database is not recommended for production scenarios.

  1. You need perform the installation of Application Center with choices of database and application server.

    For more information, see the topic about installing PMF Application Center.

    Because iOS 7.1 supports only the https protocol, the PMF Application Center server must be secured with SSL (at least with TLS v.1) if you plan to distribute apps for devices that run iOS 7.1 or later. Self-signed certificates are not recommended, but can be used for testing purposes, provided that self-signed CA certificates are distributed to devices.

  2. After PMF Application Center is installed, open the console: http://localhost:9080/appcenterconsole

  3. Log in with this user/password combination: demo/demo

  4. At this point, you can configure user authentication. For example, you can connect to an LDAP repository.

    For more information, see the topic about configuring the Application Center after installation.

  5. Prepare the mobile client for Android, iOS and BlackBerry 6/7.

The mobile client is the mobile application that you use to browse the catalog and install the application.

Note: For a production installation, consider to install the PMF Application Center by running the provided Ant tasks: it enables you to decouple updates to the server from updates to the Application Center.

Cordova based AppCenter client

The Cordova based AppCenter client project is located in the install directory at: install_dir/ApplicationCenter/installer/CordovaAppCenterClient.

This project is based solely on the Cordova framework and thus has no dependency on the PMF client/server APIs.
Since this a standard Cordova app, there is also no dependency on Mobile Foundation Studio. This app uses Dojo for the UI.

Follow the steps below to get started:

  1. Install Cordova.
npm install -g cordova@latest
  1. Install Android SDK and set the ANDROID_HOME.
  2. Build and run this project.

Build all platforms:

cordova build

Build only Android:

cordova build android

Build only iOS:

cordova build ios

Customizing AppCenter Installer application

You can further customize the application, such as updating its user interface for your specific company or needs.

Note: While you can freely customize the application UI and behavior, such changes are not under the support agreement by Persistent.

Android

  • Open the Android Studio.
  • Select Import project (Eclipse ADT, Gradle, etc.)
  • Select the android folder from install_dir/ApplicationCenter/installer/CordovaAppCenterClient/platforms/android.

This might take some time. Once this is done you are ready to customize.

Note: Select to skip the update option on the popup window, for upgrading the gradle version. Refer to grade-wrapper.properties for the version.

iOS

  • Go to install_dir/ApplicationCenter/installer/CordovaAppCenterClient/platforms.
  • Click to open the IBMAppCenterClient.xcodeproj file, the project is opened in Xcode and you are ready to customize.

Preparing mobile clients

For Android phones and tablets

The mobile client is delivered as a compiled application (APK) and is located at install_dir/ApplicationCenter/installer/IBMApplicationCenter.apk

Note: Refer to Cordova based AppCenter client, if you are using Cordova framework for building Android and iOS AppCenter client.

For iPad and iPhone

  1. Compile and sign the client application provided in source code. This is mandatory.

  2. In Mobile Foundation Studio, open the IBMAppCenter Project at: install_dir/ApplicationCenter/installer

  3. Use Run As → Run on Mobile Foundation Development Server to build the project.

  4. Use Xcode to build and sign the application with your Apple iOS Enterprise profile.
    You can either open the resulting native project (in iphone\native) manually in Xcode, or right-click the iPhone folder and select Run As → Xcode project. This action generats the project and opens it in Xcode.

Note: Refer to Cordova based AppCenter client, if you are using Cordova framework for building Android and iOS AppCenter client.

Managing applications in the Application Center console

Image of application management in app center

Use the PMF Application Center console to manage applications in the catalog in the following ways:

  • Add and remove applications
  • Manage versions of applications
  • Look at the details of an application
  • Restrict the access of an application to specific users or groups of users
  • Read the reviews for each application
  • Review registered users and devices

Adding new applications to the store

Image of adding apps to the app center

To add new applications to the Store:

  1. Open the PMF Application Center console.
  2. Click Add application.
  3. Select an application file:
    • .ipa: iOS
    • .apk: Android

  • Click Next.

    In the Application Details views, you can review the information about the new application and enter further information such as the description. You can return to this view later for all applications in the catalog.

    Image of application details screen

  • Click Done to finish the task.

The new application is added to the store.

Image of access control in app center

By default, an application can be installed by any authorized user of the store.

Restricting access to a group of users

To restrict access to a group of users:

  1. In the catalog view, click the unrestricted link that is next to the application name. The Installation Access Control page opens.
  2. Select Access control enabled. You can now enter the list of users or groups that are authorized to install the application.
  3. If you have configured LDAP, add users and groups that are defined in the LDAP repository.

You can also add applications from public app stores such as Google Play or Apple App Store by entering their URLs.

The Application Center mobile client

The App Center mobile client is a mobile application to manage the applications on the device. With the mobile client, you can:

  • List all applications from the catalog (for which you have access rights).
  • List the favorite applications.
  • Install an application or upgrade to a new version.
  • Provide feedback and five-star rating for an application.

Adding mobile client applications to the catalog

You must add Application Center mobile client applications to the catalog.

  1. Open the Application Center console.
  2. Click the Add Application button to add the mobile client .apk, .ipa, .zip, or .xap file.
  3. Click Next to open the Application Details page.
  4. In the Application Details page, select Installer to indicate that this application is a mobile client.
  5. Click Done to add the Application Center app to the catalog.

Installing the mobile client on the mobile device

To install the mobile client on the mobile device: Image of application installer app

  1. Open the web browser on the device.
  2. Enter the URL: http://hostname:9080/appcenterconsole/installers.html
  3. Enter the user name and password.
  4. Select the Application Center application to start the installation.

On Android devices, you must open the Android Download application and select IBM App Center for installation.

Logging in to the mobile client

To log in to the mobile client:

  1. Enter your credentials for access to the server.
  2. Enter the host name or IP address of the server.
  3. In the Server port field, enter the port number if it is not the default one (9080).
  4. In the Application context field, enter the context: applicationcenter.

Login screen

Application Center mobile client views

  • The Catalog view displays the list of available applications.

  • Selecting an application opens the Details view on the application. You can install applications from the Details view. You can also mark applications as favorites by using the star icon in the Details View.

    Catalog details

  • The Favorites view lists the favorite applications. This list is available on all the devices of a particular user.
  • The Updates view lists all available updates. In the Updates view, you can navigate to the Details view. You can select a newer version of the application or take the latest available version. If Application Center is configured to send push notifications, you might be notified of updates by push notification messages.

From the mobile client, you can rate the application and send a review. Reviews can be viewed on the console or on the mobile device.

Reviews

PMF Application Center command-line tools

The install_dir/ApplicationCenter/tools directory contains all the files that are required to use the command-line tool or Ant tasks to manage the applications in the store:

  • applicationcenterdeploytool.jar: the upload command-line tool.
  • json4jar: the library for the JSON format that is required by the upload tool.
  • build.xml: a sample Ant script that you can use to upload a single file or a sequence of files to Application Center.
  • acdeploytool.sh and acdeploytool.bat: Simple scripts to call Java with the applicationcenterdeploytool.jar file.

For example, to deploy an application app.apk file to the store in localhost:9080/applicationcenter with user ID demo and password demo, write:

Java com.ibm.appcenter.Upload -s http://localhost:9080 -c applicationcenter -u demo -p demo app.apk
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