Publish Digitise apps

Before users can run a Digitise app on their devices it has to be published to a Digitise App Server. This registers the app with the App Server and allows you to specify access permissions, and other configuration options, for the app. The App Server also performs data transfers between devices and back-office systems, so that devices don't connect directly with remote data sources. All apps must be published whether they will be downloaded directly from within a Client or run as Standalone Apps.

Subsequent updates to a published app must also be published to the App Server before they will become available to update apps already installed on user's devices. On all Platforms, except Apple, after publishing an update to the App Server, the update can then be downloaded to a device and installed directly from the App Server.

For apps which are comprised of more than one Model, all Models must be published to the App Server before the app can be run on users' devices.

 

You can publish a Digitise app in one of the following two ways:

• Directly from within App Studio using the Publish tab on the Ribbon. Click on the Publish to Server button to publish the currently open project.

• Via App Manager using a Digitise Apps Package File. In the left-hand pane, display the Application category, select Applications at the top of the tree view and then choose the Install button under the Properties tab in the right-hand pane.

In either case, with Standalone Apps, it is important to note that the version of the app you publish must be the same version that is used to build the Standalone App otherwise your users will not be able to run it on their devices.

When you submit a request to the Digitise Apps Build System to build a Standalone App, all the Models to be included in the Standalone App are sent to the Build System in the form of Digitise Apps Package files. Each Package File includes all the files which make up a single Model, stored in a compressed format. When you download the completed Standalone App, the download includes a Package File for each Model contained within the Standalone App. To be certain you are installing the correct version, you can use these Package Files to install the Models contained in the Standalone App to an App Server using App Manager before you deploy the app to your users.

You can, however, as described above, also publish each app or Model to the App Server directly within App Studio. If you want to publish it this way, we recommend publishing it immediately prior to or after creating the Package File you will submit to the Build System. Package Files can be created within App Studio using the Publish to Package button on the Ribbon's Publish tab.

If you need to make changes to an app after you have submitted the Package File to the Build System and before you have downloaded and installed the built app, you will need to recreate the Package File after making your changes and rebuild the Standalone App. If you have already published your app to the App Server, you will need to republish it so that the App Server contains the same version as the Standalone App.

Once you have published an app, you can use App Manger to configure access rights for the app and then you can deploy it to users.