i am asked about custom app stores a lot by clients. Is it feasible to maintain a custom appstore for a specific enterprise where all the mobile device apps are available ? and can be deployed OTA ? any framework ? does afaria do that ?
if you are talking about apple products, their license strictly forbids that. you can install android apps from any link on the web and there are many alternate appstores for droid devices. you could write a simple droid app that downloads install files. blackberry also does not need central approval from RIM to publish and download an app.
Related
Is there a way to publish an app on publishing PWA on app stores
google play and ios itunes. Without creating a buggy with cordova which creates a tons of issues to maintain.
Yes there is way to publish your PWAs to Android AppStore.
TWAs
Trusted Web Activities are a new way to integrate your web-app content such as your PWA with your Android app using a protocol based on Custom Tabs.
TWAs uses the Digital Asset Links protocol and API enable an app or website to make public, verifiable statements about other apps or websites. For example, a website can declare that it is associated with a specific Android app, or it can declare that it wants to share user credentials with another website.
Checkout the following link for complete guide to launch PWA to Appstore by Google Developers forum and tutorial guide on medium by Maximiliano Firtman here
Try the documentation Package Your Cordova App for Publishing to an App Store.
Before you can build your application for deployment to any device
through a public app store, you must first configure Visual Studio
with the information it needs to complete the process of packaging and
signing the application for deployment through an app store.
I've just started investigating this myself, have you tried PWA builder? https://www.pwabuilder.com?
It can generate packages for Windows, Android and iOS.
Is there an official API to communicate with iPhone from Windows programmatically?
There are some apps that do that, but they require iTunes to be installed.
I wonder how one can develop such an app.
Does one have to reverse engineer something?
I heard Apple doesn't like 3rd party apps and wants everybody to use iTunes (and therefore doesn't provide any API).
Is it illegal to develop such an app?
There is a plugin for the TotalCommander file manager called t-pot that allows browsing the contents of an iPod Touch or iPhone. Looking at its code hosted on google code could help.
libmobiledevice has an API for that.
instproxy_error_t instproxy_install (instproxy_client_t client,
const char * pkg_path,
plist_t client_options,
instproxy_status_cb_t status_cb,
void * user_data
)
Install an application on the device.
I don't have an Apple computer, I just have an iPhone and some knowledge about language development. I want to create my own app for my own use, just for fun! I don't want to pay Apple for a developer account. I just want to develop my app and put it on my iPhone. I can either develop on Linux or Windows. How can I do that?
If you want to develop on an actual iPhone, you'll need a developer licence. To developer apps natively you will need a Mac running XCode.
There's lots of HTML5 libraries for making apps using javascript though. Maybe try out Phonegap or GameSalad
At the minimum you'll need to have OSX (Mac Operating system) to run Xcode/iphone emulator, you wont be able to do this without OSX.
EDIT:
You may be able to develop it using phone gap: http://phonegap.com/
You'll have to do testing on an adriod emulator, but I believe phonegap builds the app in the cloud. Good luck.
You can develop an app using adobe AIR or adobe Flash. Check out FlashDevelop for a free solution for making flash and air apps for everything from windows to android to iOS.
For a somewhat detailed tutorial on how to actually export an AIR project from FlashDevelop so you can install it on an iOS device, see:
http://www.codeandvisual.com/2011/exporting-for-iphone-using-air-27-and-flashdevelop-part-one-installation/
and FYI, this is not JUST for jailbroken iOS devices! :D
Native iOS applications can only be built in Xcode (which can only run on a Mac), and you need a developer membership to deploy those on an actual device (which costs about $100 a year). So, that’s the caveat: You can’t make native apps.
However, native apps aren’t the only option! There are two other approaches.
One way is to make a web app. These days, web apps can do almost everything that a native app can do (even access the camera). Unless you’re building something specialized (like a video editor, for example, or a game that needs to work with Bluetooth game controllers), you can probably make something as a web app. Years ago, I wasn’t happy with the flashcard apps on the market and wanted something custom but super simple to help me study JLPT vocabulary. At the time, I also didn’t have the money for a developer membership. I made it as a web app, and it worked great!
If you’re making a web app, you’ll need someplace to host it. There are lots of options. For example, the free tier on Firebase is plenty for a personal-use web app. You also might want to consider building the app using client-side scripting (like Javascript) so that you can host it statically, which will allow you to tell iOS to cache it so you can utilize it offline (Google “HTML offline manifest” for details).
The other way, if you have a friend with a developer account, is to build your app using a cross-platform framework like Flutter, where you don’t need a Mac to develop and test it, then ask your friend to make it for you. You’ll need to rebuild periodically (I think once a year) because your provisioning profile will expire.
If you use a framework like Flutter that can build both native AND web apps, that gives you the ability to run natively (if you have access to a Mac) or host it statically on someplace like Firebase Hosting (if you don’t).
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.