Install Digitise Apps Clients and Digitise apps to Mobile Devices

Once you have installed Digitise Apps to your App Server and development machines you will be ready to start designing and creating your Digitise apps.

On your development PCs, by default, the Digitise Apps setup includes a local copy of App Server and the Windows Desktop version of the standard Digitise Apps Client allowing each developer to test their own apps using their own local App Server.

If you are developing apps for the Windows Platform, the developer can create and test their apps all on their own machine.

  • If your developers want to test Windows Universal apps on their development machines, UWP apps by default cannot establish an IP connection to the same machine on which they are running. Therefore, in order to allow a Client or Standalone App running on a development PC to communicate with an App Server running on the same machine, the developer will need to configure the PC to provide something called a loopback exemption.

If you are developing Digitise apps for Android or iOS devices, your developers will need to have test devices or simulators which they can use to run the apps during the development process.

In either case, we recommend that developers use the standard Digitise Apps Client to run their apps for testing during development as this allows them to download changes to the device and test them more quickly and easily.

For your live users’ devices, however, on some Platforms you have a choice. On all Platforms, except Apple, you can install the standard Client to the devices and your users can download and run apps from within the Client. Alternatively, you can distribute your apps as Standalone Apps, providing a more familiar user experience than that obtained when using the Client. On Apple devices, due to Apple's terms and conditions, you have to deploy your apps to user devices as Standalone Apps; you cannot use the standard Digitise Apps Client for these devices, not even for testing purposes.

If you will be using the standard Client on a device, you will need to install the Client to the device before you can download and run your Digitise apps.

On Windows PCs and tablets the Client and Standalone Apps are available in two versions - Windows Desktop and Windows Universal (UWP). You can install and run both versions on the same machine if you want to. If you will be using Windows Desktop Standalone Apps, you also need to install the Windows Desktop Client on each device which will want to run your apps.

If you will be running Standalone Apps on Android or Apple devices or using Windows Universal versions, you do not need to install the standard Client to your devices, as the Client is included within the Standalone App. Note, however, that you can run both Standalone Apps and the standard Client on the same device if you want to, in which case you would need to install the standard Client separately as well as your Standalone Apps. On Apple devices you must deploy your apps to your users in the form of Standalone Apps only; you cannot run the standard Client on users’ devices but developers can run both on their test devices.

 

The Digitise Apps Client includes various configuration settings, including the address of the machine running the App Server to which your apps will be, or have been, published. The standard Client can be configured manually after installing it to a device. Alternatively, you can generate a pre-configured version of the standard Client using the Digitise Apps Build System (a remote NDL-hosted facility providing an automated Client and Standalone App generation service) and you can optionally lock individual configuration settings to prevent the users changing them. If you don’t lock the settings, users can manually edit them once the Client has been installed to their device.

For Apple devices, if you want to give a standard Client to your developers you need to use the pre-configured build option to produce it. Remember that due to restrictions imposed by Apple, you can only use the standard Client on development devices and only for development testing. Your Digitise apps must be deployed to your users using the Standalone App format, even for testing purposes. In addition, you can only deploy the Client by sideloading it to your developers’ Apple devices – you cannot submit it to the App Store.

With Standalone Apps, for all supported device types, you can also pre-configure the client settings, including the App Server address, and optionally lock them, although not all the settings available in the standard Client may be available when using Standalone Apps. As with the standard Client, if you don’t lock a particular configuration setting, it can be manually set or edited by the user after the app has been installed to their device.

 

 

Digitise Apps Clients and Digitise apps can be downloaded and installed to different types of device in the following ways:

The Digitise Apps Product Download includes an install file for a standard Digitise Apps Client for Android devices in its ClientInstalls\Android folder.

If you include the Android Client component as part of a Digitise Apps installation, this file will also be copied to the Installs\Android folder below your Digitise Apps install folder.

If you want to provide a pre-configured version of the Digitise Apps Client or deploy a Digitise app as a Standalone App, you will need to generate the Client or Standalone App install file from within App Studio before you can install the Client or app to your devices.

Once you have the install file, you can download and install it to an Android device in one of the following ways:

Install standard Digitise Apps Client:

  • 'Over the Air' from a web site (e.g. via a wireless or GPRS connection),

  • Direct USB connection to a PC

    or

  • Using third-party software deployment or mobile device management software.

 

Download apps within the standard Digitise Apps Client:

  • Connection to the App Server (e.g. via a wireless or GPRS connection).

 

Standalone Apps:

  • 'Over the Air' from a web site (e.g. via a wireless or GPRS connection),

  • Direct USB connection to a PC,

  • Via Google's Play Store

    or

  • Using third-party software deployment or mobile device management software.

 

If you want to deploy a Standalone App via the Google Play Store, you will need to submit it to the Play Store in the standard manner for submitting apps to this store. Once your app is accepted and listed, it will be available to users to download from the Store.

 

For Apple devices, the Digitise Apps Product Download doesn’t include the install files for a Digitise Apps Client. If you want to install a Client to developer test devices, you will first need to build a pre-configured Client from within App Studio. When you are ready to deploy an app to your users, you will need to generate a Standalone App version of the app from within App Studio.

Once you have the install files for a Client or Standalone App, you can download and install the Client or app to an Apple device in one of the following ways:

Development Digitise Apps Client:

  • 'Over the Air' from a web site (e.g. via a wireless or GPRS connection),

  • Direct USB connection to a PC (iTunes)

    or

  • Using third-party software deployment or mobile device management software.

 

Download apps within the Development Digitise Apps Client:

  • Connection to the App Server (e.g. via a wireless or GPRS connection).

 

Deploying Standalone Apps to users:

  • 'Over the Air' from a web site (e.g. via a wireless or GPRS connection),

  • Direct USB connection to a PC (iTunes),

  • Via Apple's App Store

    or

  • Using third-party software deployment or mobile device management software.

 

If you want to deploy a Standalone App via the Apple App Store, you will need to submit it to the App Store in the standard manner for submitting Apps to this store. Once your app is accepted and listed, it will be available to users to download from the store.

 

The Digitise Apps Product Download includes install files for an NDL-signed version of the standard Digitise Apps Windows Universal Client in its ClientInstalls\Windows Universal folder.

If you include the Windows Universal Client component as part of a Digitise Apps installation, these files will also be copied to the Installs\Windows Universal folder below your Digitise Apps install folder.

The code-signing Certificate used in the supplied standard version of the Windows Universal Client has a life span of approximately 100 years and so should not expire and hence won’t require renewing.

If you want to sign the Windows Universal Client with your own code-signing Certificate, rather than the NDL Certificate, provide a pre-configured version of the Digitise Apps Client or deploy a Digitise app as a Windows Universal Standalone App, you will need to generate a pre-configured Client or Standalone App from within App Studio before you can install it to your devices.

Once you have the install files for a Client or Standalone App, you can download and install the Client or app to a Windows PC or tablet in one of the following ways:

Install standard Digitise Apps Client:

  • Installed directly on to the device (e.g. from a local or network folder, USB stick or e-mail)

    or

  • Using third-party software deployment or mobile device management software.

 

Download apps within standard Digitise Apps Client:

  • Connection to the App Server (e.g. via a wireless or GPRS connection).

 

Standalone Apps:

  • Installed directly on to the device (e.g. from a local or network folder, USB stick or e-mail),

  • Via Microsoft's Store

    or

  • Using third-party software deployment or mobile device management software.

 

If you want to deploy a Standalone App via the Microsoft Store, you will need to submit it to the Store in the standard manner for submitting apps to this store. Once your app is accepted and listed, it will be available to users to download from the store.

 

The Digitise Apps Product Download includes various ways to install the standard Digitise Apps Windows Desktop Client. The Installation menu, accessed by running ndl-software_autorun.exe from the Product Download's root folder, provides two standard Windows setups, both of which can be used to install the standard Digitise Apps Windows Desktop Client. The full setup, used to install Digitise Apps on the App Server and development machines, allows you to include the Windows Desktop Client as one of the installed components, the other setup just installs the Client software.

The Product Download also includes separate Windows Desktop Client install files in its ClientInstalls\Windows folder, which can be used independently or with third-party software deployment software and allow you to perform a quiet install, which doesn’t require user interaction.

With pre-configured Windows Desktop Clients and Windows Desktop Standalone Apps, the Windows Desktop Platform behaves differently than other Platforms. These builds are generated from App Studio but the install file is created on your local development machine and doesn’t use the remote Digitise Apps Build System as other Platforms do. This is because on the Windows Desktop Platform the Client isn’t included in the install file as it is with the other Platforms.

This means that in order to install a Windows Desktop Standalone App or pre-configure a Windows Desktop Client you first need to install the standard Windows Desktop Client on the device and then run a separate install file produced by App Studio. As with the standard Digitise Apps Desktop Client, you can optionally perform a quiet install.

Install standard Digitise Apps Client:

  • Installed directly on to the device (e.g. from a local or network folder, USB stick or e-mail)

    or

  • Using third-party software deployment or mobile device management software. A silent install option is available for these situations.

Download apps within standard Digitise Apps Client:

  • Connection to the App Server (e.g. via a standard network connection).

 

Standalone Apps:

  • Installed directly on to the device (e.g. from a local or network folder, USB stick or e-mail)

    or

  • Using third-party software deployment or mobile device management software. A silent install option is available for these situations.

 

 

We refer to Standalone Apps which will be deployed to your mobile devices using mechanisms internal to your organisation, such as via MDM software or via a standard network connection, as enterprise apps, whereas apps intended to be deployed via one of the public app stores, we call store apps. When you generate a Standalone App from within App Studio, you will need to specify whether you want a store or enterprise version of the app, as there may be some differences between the two formats.

 

For more details about installing Clients and Standalone Apps on individual Platforms, see the following topics:

Install Clients and Standalone Apps on Android Devices

Install Clients and Standalone Apps on iOS Devices

Install Universal Windows Clients and Standalone Apps

Install Windows Desktop Clients and Standalone Apps