We have an App which is intended to run on a LAN reading a company's own feed and producing local reports with it.
In order to do this I need to enable read_stream but I note that this is not possible without submitting an App for Review.
However in order to do this I need to choose a platform. I am only able to choose between ios/andrioid/Windows App/App on Facebook/Website/Page Tab/XBox/Playstation
A Windows Server is none of these. I looked at Windows App, but this is asking for a Windows Store ID - we do not particularly want to put this in the Windows Store. We just need to turn on read_stream.
Also, I see that the Review Submission requires a minimum of 4 screen shots. This seems a bizarre thing to have to provide for a Windows Service.
Any ideas how I can navigate all this red tape ?
Related
My client needs to find a way to automatically push app updates to a number of iphone 3gs devices remotely. These devices will be in guided access mode so the users will only be able to access the app in question.
I believe we have two option for distribution:
B2B custom app via the Volume Purchase Program
In-house app released with the Apple Enterprise Program
Having researched our options I can see that over the air app updates can be achieved by either:
Building an in-app update functionality to check for new updates (Enterprise only I am guessing?) and automatically update and restart the app
Using an MDM such as http://www.air-watch.com/ (as I understand Apple Configurator must have devices plugged in via USB to work?)
I am wondering if anyone can tell me whether either of those options are possible with the devices being in guided access mode?
Or are there any other solutions, which I have missed, that can automatically manage the app remotely while the device is in guided access mode?
You can solve this with an Enterprise distributed app.
App only. Update check for an OTA-Update from your app when the app is coming to the foreground (or some other metric at your clients leisure, like added time delay, etc). Basically self explanatory; you implement a call to your clients/your API to check the version and inform the user of a new one. The update can either be optional or mandatory (preferably announced by the API and changed when needed); present the user with an alert about it. The user acts upon it and you OTA install via an ITMS link provided by your API call. And that's it.
MDM. Tbh, I'm a bit on shaky ground here. Theoretically this is all possible via MDM too, however I am not sure if it is the (varying) MDM solutions or some misconfigurations, but clients usually seem to lose control after some time.
Both. Yes, you can perfectly well live with both. MDM while everything is fine, and as a backup a well structured App+API mechanism to push the OTA updates out. This is especially useful if you have customers where some departments are under MDM and others are not. So, some may get it via MDM (and if all else fails via the App itself), the rest will get it via the App.
The tradeoffs are a matter of personal preference, if there is a fully working MDM solution in place the update will be pushed out and the user however 'malicious' can do nothing against it. But the same is true for the 'App only' solution, as you have the option to not let him use the app if he does not update (either by not providing a cancel button or, as you are in an enterprise environment and there it is allowed doing an exit(0)).
From experience I prefer any solution that has the 'App only' option as it is the last fallback if anything on client side fails. Whatever may be added on top is just sugar to the cake.
While not strictly relevant, the 'App only' solution always goes well with Push Notifications when an update came out.
We would like to allow our iPhone application users to access to our secure and protected Wi-Fi hotspots, without having to manually download a configuration profile themselves. From my experience today, users have to either open an email with a profile attached, click on a link or have the app programmatically open up safari in order to download a configuration profile. We’d like to avoid the users having to do anything at all.
To that end, does anyone know if it is possible to have a configuration profile installed automatically on a user’s iPhone, such as when the mobile application is downloaded from the app store? Or is there another mechanism through which we could allow our iPhone users to gain access to our secure Wi-Fi hotspots.
Also, I am curious does anyone know of any companies that have enabled such a solution?
(note there is an older thread on this topic from 2010, which implies that this is not possible. Given it has now been 3 years and that we're on ios 7, I would like to see if the capabilities of iOS has changed.)
There are four ways to deploy configuration profiles:
By physically connecting the device
In an email message
On a webpage
Using over-the air configuration
More on this Document.
A client has asked us to develop a proprietary in-house app for managing their back-end systems. However, we are a small development company and I'm certain that their company does not have >500 employees.
Are there any alternative, yet similar, solutions to distributing this app to their company without going through the iPhone enterprise program?
(just to clarify: obviously, we would like to go through the official enterprise program but seeing how the company doesn't have >500 employees, this isn't possible).
UPDATE (27/09): It appears Apple have removed the 500 employee limit for the enterprise distribution See here. So this will probably be our route now (which is helpful because the app is approaching completion). I'll update this as we go through the process if anyone would like me to, so that others may get an idea of what the actual process is like.
You can submit the app as a completely free app on the AppStore but require that the user log in and authenticate to use it. That way anyone can download it but you control who can actually use it. Apple does all the distribution for you for and you don't have to worry about Ad-Hoc deployments or IT departments.
You then build a really simple configuration management system on a web host (or platform like Google AppEngine) that manages the authentication of apps.
When a user launches the free app they are asked for a username/password/whatever. That information is sent to the web-based configuration management system and confirmed. If the app receives an acceptable confirmation from the configuration management system it unlocks itself for use by that user.
The app can either re-authenticate every time it launches (useful if you want lots of control) or it can store a key file locally indicating that it has been authenticated. If it sees the local key file when the app launches it considers itself authenticated and never checks again.
Whether you use one user account per person or one for the whole company is up to you.
This style of distribution is very useful if you want to have control of who can use the app but want the ease of deployment that the AppStore provides.
Apple has accepted many apps onto the AppStore that use this method of authenticating against a remote server (Skype is a perfect example).
If you keep track of device UDID on the configuration server you can also pre-load it to allow a certain set of devices to work.
Further, nothing I have described is iPhone specific so you can use the same configuration management system and concepts on other platforms like Android (or even desktops) if you ever port the app or build other apps needing this in the future.
Also, since the action of authenticating devices is not processor or data intensive you will likely never incur a cost if you build this on Google AppEngine as you will never go over the free quotas and you will gain the stability and scalability of Google's backend architecture.
As this particular deployment is for managing an in-house back-end system deploying it through the AppStore can seem insecure because there is proprietary information embedded in the app, in particular the information that allows it to connect to and authenticate against the back-end systems.
The solution to that is to not include this information within the app and simply have that information be part of the response that the app receives from the configuration management server. Basically the app contains the logic necessary to perform its function but without the connection information it has no ability to manage any back-end system.
If you make the app authenticate every time it launches you can change the connection information on the configuration server and the app will update to the new information without any new deployment being necessary. The user just needs to restart the app. This gives your client the flexibility to change their internal network configuration without invalidating your application code. You could also make this information manually configurable within the application but then you incur an IT cost when setting up the application on each device and if you already are going to set up a configuration management system you might as well use it.
To further secure the above solution you may want to have the configuration management system be in-house and behind the company's firewall so that regardless of who gets a hold of the app they cannot connect to the config system unless they are within the company's network.
I was researching this yesterday and today, and it appears that Apple has just (within the past week) removed the >500 employee requirement for enterprise development. However, I believe you will need to develop/deploy for a particular client using a development toolkit registered by the client.
So if you do work for client A and client B, both client A and B will need to sign up with Apple as business developers, at which point you can develop apps for them (as a contractor) and use their tools to build and deploy within their enterprises. I would think it would be a good idea for your company to also be registered as a business developer.
Apple does still require you to have a Dun & Bradstreet DUNS number to sign up as a Business Developer.
About the only real choices you have are...
Up to 100 devices as ad-hoc distribution.
Enterprize distribution (requires > 500 employees)
Everyone has to march their device down to some IT-central and get built as a "developer" device. (yikes!)
Jail-broken.
Jail-broken may sound scary, but it's actually pretty advanced, now-a-days, and can be managed quite easily. Still, it voids your warrantee (unless you're willing to restore-to-factory and be not-honest about it ;)
Still, technically, it's an available option and can be made to work, if you're willing to plan it out.
Let us know what you decide, and the pros & cons of that method.
Another obvious although not neccesarily pleasant is to submit your app to the app store as an app but can only be accessed with a client password. Assuming you can get past the aapp store process this might work for you.
Olie said:
About the only real choices you have are...
Up to 100 devices as ad-hoc distribution.
Enterprize distribution (requires > 500 employees)
Everyone has to march their device down to some IT-central and get built as a "developer" device. (yikes!)
Jail-broken.
But to be clear (correct me if I'm wrong):
if you use the "Ad-hoc" distribution method, your costumers will see the app vanish after exactly 3 months.
only up to 100 devices can be used for testing (i.e. used in "developer mode") and moreover, the app will vanish after 3 months.
So, Apple doesn't give us any choice, are you really big (>500 employes)?? ok so you can do what you want etc otherwise... "byebye"
Moreover, forget about what "Bryce" said before, an app like the one he described would be rejected with the "limeted audience" motivation.
iOS is not for enterprise app....if you don't want to rely on some clever hackers (i.e. jailbreak)
Ad-hoc distribution is limited to 100 devices per app, that's true, but you can add the project n times to the apple developer center, so you can deploy it to n * 100 devices
How does apple ensure that your enterprise has greater than 500 people? I'd give it a go through the enterprise program anyway...
I would not jailbreak, I would not do ad-hoc because it is limited to 100, and I wouldn't make everyone put their phones in developer mode.
For future maintainability, enterprise mode is the way to go, so see if you can navigate your way through the process without mentioning that you might not be quite 500 users.
Also, I saw your comment about developing using MonoTouch. I would talk to Apple about this before you do anything else, because given their recent policy changes I am pretty sure this will get your app denied from the App Store and the Enterprise program.
Edit: I checked the Mono web page. It seems like Apple may still be letting mono apps in, and the Mono creators insist that it is kosher, but you might be running the risk of having your future app pulled from phones at any time.
A better edit: Straight from the mono website: Enterprise MonoTouch
It is important to point out that the new iPhone Developer Agreement terms are for AppStore deployment and not the Enterprise program that allows deployment of in-house application to users in the enterprise (using the Enterprise Deployment program).
So you might be good there as long as you can get into the enterprise program.
You can completely bypass the App-Store or Enterprise Developer Program approval process, if you develop your app as pure HTML5 solution.
This technology is called webapps. And they can be pretty advanced in functionality. You automatically have cross platform readiness and very easy deployment options (as webclip this can be distributed via .mobileconfig configuration files)
See http://www.apple.com/webapps/whatarewebapps.html
There is another solution: an own app store:
http://rhomobile.com/products/rhogallery/
unfortunately only in combination with RhoHub.
Or:
http://www.appcentral.com/
More info:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/integration/mdm/
http://www.cio.com/article/638175/Emerging_Tech_Alternatives_to_Apple_App_Store_For_Enterprises?page=2&taxonomyId=3002
In theory the proposed solution of publishing a free app meant for one company is not valid, since published apps in the app store should not be intended for a "limited audience" (whatever that means), according to:
http://appreview.tumblr.com/post/952395621/cannot-be-intended-for-a-limited-audience
Has anyone tried this with success? Any other ideas?
I want my application to be unsearchable from the App Store. I would like that only those users who sign in to my web site and then click the link of my iPhone application on app store, can install and use my application.
Is there any way to do that?
To hide your application you have to remove all the App Store countries in iTunes Connect:
Go in Manage your Applications > [Your Application Name] > Rights and Pricing
Click on "Deselect All" App Stores and "Save". The Application will change state to "Developer Removed".
To get it back on the App Store, choose the countries where you want it publish.
PS: it might take more than some hours for changes to be reflected on the App Stores.
Your application will be found when they search for the name of the app or your name. There's no special option in iTunes Connect to hide your app.
While your application will be found when searched for, as long as it's not installed in large numbers, it won't show up in the top 50 lists. Which kind of is the same.
Tip: don't specify any keywords when registering your app, as these will improve the "searchability".
Edit: you might want to implement some kind of authentication in your app, so users who do have installed your app need to register first, before they can actually use it. Relying on your app not being found, isn't very "clean".
I think, without meaningful keywords your app should vanish amongst the 99.999 other apps.
As an alternative you could let everyone (search and) download the app and disable it until the user signed in.
You can also use in-house-distribution with the enterprise program (see here).
Apple sells special developer licenses if you want to control the installation. They are meant for Enterprises to develop and deploy applications for only their use. Here's an article about it:
http://www.infoworld.com/t/platforms/new-iphone-enterprise-developer-program-299-musings-about-iphone-app-licensing-648
Since iTunes Connect has been redesigned a bit, go to My Apps > Select your app > Pricing and Availability > Availability (2nd section) > Select Remove from sale.
The best bet is to use obscure keywords on submission along with an obscure app name.
Not sure if this is going to work, but it may be worth a try:
You can set the release date of the application to the future. This removes the app from the catalog, which is a common way to remove an app temporarily (e.g. when it has problems) until an update appears.
However (this is possibly the catch) I don't know if the app will then be still available for sale via link or if the link will become unusable too.
if i were you i'd implement a "key generator", which will produce a serial that will be used to activate your application. this key generator would be free to access on your site, so whoever downloads your application through your site, would know what to do.
for those who access the application through itunes, i would also place a small text which basically says that you need to visit your site to generate a key. this way, you'd ensure that anyone who has access to your site has access to your app, and whoever finds your app will access your site.
this is i think hack proof by definition as well because noone would bother hacking it, would they? you basically give away your own serial generator for free, so it defeats the whole purpose of hacking. im assuming your concern is site traffic though.
I'm a first time iPhone application developer and I'm developing application for my client who wish to distribute this application to a group of people related to his business only, and as FREE application only. This is such an application which is not meant for general users so we definitely don't want this application is publicly listed in Apple AppStore, rather we want to distribute application to group of people privately. Just like sending them a link to download application via email or something. They click on it and application get downloaded. But in Apple I read that two programs are available like Standard Program and Enterprise Program. The standard one will list application publicly which we do not want, and enterprise programs looks compelling for enterprise users connected to MS Exchange server which we do not posses and not even wish to setup because its not needed.
Can any one help me answer following?
1. If we go with Standard program, how can we restrict application to be visible via some AppStore link ONLY and we will send that link to our users via email.
2. If we go with Enterprise Program, can we do a simple setup over our Apache+PHP+Linux environment i.e. without involving MS Exchange server.
Thanks,
Sameer.
One way around this is to submit your application to the App Store, but put it's availability date in the future.
Then, you can create promo codes and send them to the people you'd like to be able to download your application, but it won't show up in the store.
If you do it this way, you don't need to know anybody's UDID, but you're limited to 50 people per version of your application.
If we go with Standard program, how can we restrict application to be
visible via some AppStore link ONLY
and we will send that link to our
users via email.
It is very simple: You can not. You can either manually distribute the App through AdHoc distribution (for this you will need the UDID of every single iPhone the app will be installed and afaik the the license runs out every year and needs to be renewed) or post it to the AppStore publicly but restrict access to your application by using an authentication within the App itself.
If we go with Enterprise Program, can we do a simple setup over our
Apache+PHP+Linux environment i.e.
without involving MS Exchange server.
Afaik I think this should be possible as you basically are just doing a huge AdHoc distribution, but without Exchange Server it might get a pain as you will probably also need the UDID. Yet honestly I never took any closer look at this program.
You can setup the app to require a password or hot corner when first run.
The Enterprise Program is your only viable option for a native iPhone App. Re-read the program details. It's exactly what you want.
If you deploy your App as a Web-App, you can skip this and simply deploy on the company website, so if you don't need native iPhone options, this might also be a viable way to deploy your program.
-t
You will need to qualify for the Enterprise Program: you'll need a minimum number of employees and a DUNS number. Read the Enrollment document for more information. Your situation (as described) does not sound like it qualifies.