We have to deploy an enterprise ios app to employees. I came across multiple ways of doing it (http://www.apple.com/business/accelerator/deploy/app-distribution.html).
Either the MDM or the Over the Air(set up your own server for distribution) suits our need. We have to choose between these two.
I would like to know .....
What are the best MDM tools for distributing an ios enterprise app.
What are the advantages of using MDM tools over direct OTA
Thank you
A lot of this depends on the number of devices you plan on deploying to as well as whether or not you want some sort of "control" over your devices. If you could care less about harvesting the status of each device (offline, online, compliant, etc) in your fleet or controlling security settings, email settings, etc I would say skip MDM altogether. You could easily just setup a landing page (ala an App Store) via HTML, CSS, JS, etc and just have your users hit it to consume the app.
As eluded to above if you DO want to do things like see what devices are online/offline, push specific security rules to them, setup Exchange accounts, remote wipe devices, etc then definitely run with an MDM.
The answer really depends on your environment, what you wish to accomplish and how long you have before your deadline.
Regarding the "tools" everyone is playing by the same set of MDM rules set forth by Apple - the meat of the solution depends solely on how the MDM provider implemented the MDM capabilities. I'd recommend looking into AirWatch or MobileIron but understand that both typically take some spin-up time. If you need a quick solution try one of their SAAS models.
What are the best MDM tools for distributing an ios enterprise app?
Different persons have different thoughts and expectations about MDM. So, "best MDM tools" are different for different users.
I recommend you to refer any online articles (beware, there are paid ones among them) or feature comparison charts like:
Enterprise iOS (seems to be down these days) or
MDM Community
Find the one that best suits you and ask for a demo version. Most of them have a 30-day full feature demo, while some have a 14-day or 15-day demo.
What are the advantages of using MDM tools over direct OTA?
If there are more devices to which apps are to be installed, then I recommend using an MDM software because you can bulk push app to devices with MDM.
Take a look at this list.
OTA is easy to set up but difficult to 'manage'. If you need to do any kind of version control or asset management MDM is your best bet. The alternative is to add this via code in the app itself.
Related
I got an offer to develop a simple iPhone app that would call a web service with user's credentials. An user would get the list of files that can be downloaded (.pdfs) and could then download the wanted file. Simple enough...
Now, I've had bad experience with publishing on AppStore. Basically, they refused one app because according to them our RSS reader for a online newspaper wasn't in accordance with their guidelines. They said that the application was a simple web aggregator which I won't argue now. Not now :)
So, back to the new app problem :)
I would like to know what are the options for distributing the new app. The client has a web page and wants to give it's visitor this app to get that data from their phones too.
Technically, the app doesn't have to be a native app. It can be a phoneGap solution too since it's quite simple regarding the functionality. Sincerely, I am afraid that there is no way that Apple will allow this app to be uploaded to their store being native, phoneGap...
P.S.
I would also like to know is there a way to distribute an "internal" (not publicly available) iPhone app? For example, a company needs an internal tool for their 500 employees, but can't afford to go through the process of conecting each device and compiling the app for each device individually...
If you want to sell customized apps to companies, you should consider the B2B program.
if you are in an enterprise that wants to deploy apps inside your company, the Enterprise Developer Program is a good choice.
For internal:
100 test devices.
alot of iphones with the distribution profile after the 100 devices
with the enterprise:
https://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/enterprise/
I am developing an enterprise application for Android and iPhone platforms.
The question is if you have any way to publish on the AppStore and Android Market and make the application available only to users of this company and not available to anyone outside the company?
There are approximately 300 people who would use the App.
Thanks
Andre
I think an authentication process would be helpful in that case. However in iOS's case I would recommend to get an enterprise license, for your requirements.
For Android, it's pretty easy:
You can distribute the .apk file (the application package) without having to use the market at all. You can either post it on a web server, or otherwise send it to them via email.
Bonus: If you send it to the GMAIL account they use on their phone, the can install the apk file attachment directly.
As far as limiting distribution in the Android market, you really can't prevent people from discovering and downloading your application. Your best bet is to keep distribution local to your company using a private web server.
For iOS, check out the enterprise license.
Can anyone recommend any libraries/utilities they use to assist in distributing iOS adhoc/enterprise applications over the air, so users can install without needing a PC/iTunes?
There's a few hosted services around (eg. https://testflightapp.com/ - though that is not free for enterprise apps), but I'm sure in the past I saw a non-hosted service (ie. something I could install on my own server) and came with a client side library that was easy to hook into the app to notify the user when updates were available and allow them to easily install them. Unfortunately it seems I didn't bookmark it and a bunch of googling and searching on stack overflow hasn't found it.
You need to create your own manifest and bundle it with the app package (the IPA from Build and Archive). There are a lot of guides on the web. e.g. this to automate OTA distribution using Heroku from Héctor Ramos or Mike Nachbaur's write up.
That said, I suspect using TestFlight.app is a lot easier than rolling your own - have you looked at the cost benefit of paying TestFlight vs developing and maintaining your own system. Much better to write production code rather than save the cost of the TestFlight subscription surely...
I finally found the one I believe I was thinking of when I wrote the question, it's called "Hockey":
http://hockeykit.net/
https://github.com/TheRealKerni/HockeyKit
If there are other similar solutions out there, please do add your own answer!
I'm about to begin development of an iPhone app. The app itself is fairly basic, and I want a speedy turnaround time.
I'm a web developer myself, specialising in traditional web technologies such as PHP/MySQL; I have no experience in Objective-C.
My plan was to create a very basic iPhone app that is just a Safari service that passes some basic variables to a URL. That URL is the app built in PHP and housed on my servers, this way I can create the app very quickly without needing to outsource anything.
My question is whether apps of this nature would be accepted into the iTunes store, or would they be out-right rejected? Anyone's experiences or comments are very welcome.
Thanks
It could go either way, but mind bullet 12.3 from the App Store Review Guidelines:
12.3 Apps that are simply web clippings, content aggregators, or a collection of links, may be rejected
In my opinion, a simple UIWebView wrapper around your web site comes close to the definition of a simple web clipping. Your approval may very well hinge on your luck in drawing a sympathetic reviewer.
It really depends upon your application...These kinds of application have been approved in the past but again I am saying that it depends on many factors.
Try to test your app in every possible manner and also keep in mind the memory issues.
Best of luck!!!
Should be fine - its called a web app and there is software out there that will do just this for you.
All you need to do is to make a UIWebView and put your web app into it.
Also look at http://jqtouch.com. That gives you some idea of what you can do web-side. :)
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Yes, it will be accepted as long as you stick with HTML, CSS, JS and Obj-C on the client side. You still need to wrap it in an iPhone app. In my experience, the best way to this is to use http://www.phonegap.com/ or a similar framework.
You'll have the option of deploying you app through iTunes or as a regular web app (you users will be able to create a link to your web app right on their springboards)
It SHOULD be accepted, granted you test test test and make it look just like a native application. Also you'll have to make sure that your server is never down, or if the application can't reach it just display an error message. You also have to keep in mind that there are a lot of iPod Touch users, and they don't have access to the internet all the time. Which means that chances are you'll get a BUNCH of 1 star reviews
I am interested in writing apps that connect to the intranet or an extranet. In other words, I would like to make private apps for my clients, but I don't want everybody able to access it and be able to download it. Do you know if there is a way to distribute enterprise apps only to a certain people? Does Android do the same thing?
The iPhone Enterprise Developer Program is targeting exactly this scenario. It allows building and distributing apps outside of the AppStore. It does cost $299 instead of $99, however; and it's available for companies with 500+ employees and Dun&Bradstreet number only. If you are small shop working for big clients, you might want to talk with them enorolling in that program so you can develop the app for them.
Update: As #lifeIsGood commented, it looks like Apple has lifted the 500+ employees requirement. At least it's not mentioned anywhere on the Enterprise Developer Program or the Choose an iOS Developer Program comparison page.
They have also added a Custom B2B Apps distribution mechanism, which seems to target the exact scenario the OP asked about.
The answer is.... sort of. You can create ad hoc distribution, but you are limited to 100 total devices in your list. So, 100 customers. Or, you can sign up for an enterprise license, but to do so your company must have 500 employees (there may be other restrictions there too).
[edit]
One suggestion might be to create your application as SaaS - and charge for the connection/data store
[/edit]
I've been looking into this too. I don't think there's a good way to do this with objective-c, but I do believe this can be done well with HTML5.
I'm reading this book http://building-iphone-apps.labs.oreilly.com/
The iPhone supports the web databases, offline apps, and with the webkit part you get icons so your app can look like a real iphone app and be distributed from a web site.
I don't know much about Android...
For Android, all you do is download the apk file to the phone. Then you go into Settings > Development and allow Non-market installs.