Publish a Digitise app
Once you have created a Digitise app, before you can deploy it to your users, it must be "published" to the App Server. This means that the app is registered in the App Server's list of applications and the files that constitute the app are copied to the App Server Configuration Database. Only apps which have been published to the Server are available to your users – whether you are using the standard Digitise Apps Client to download your apps or creating Standalone Apps. However, whilst developing an app, you can publish it locally on your development machine to allow for easy testing.
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The version of a Digitise app deployed to your users must be the same as that published to the App Server. For example, suppose you create version 1 of a Standalone App but before you deploy it to your users you make some changes and publish your changes without incrementing the version number. Now the published version will be out of sync with the Standalone App. If you then try to deploy the Standalone App, the app may not work at all or won't work correctly.
If you are running apps within the Client, the same principle applies. So, if a user downloads an app to their device and you then publish changes to the app without changing the version number, the user will need to re-download the app before it will work.
This doesn't mean that all users have to be on the latest version. For example, Digitise Apps will allow you to perform a controlled rollout of a new version to allow certain users to test the app before it goes live to all users.
Once you have a published an app, App Manager (the App Server management utility) allows you to configure various aspects relating to its deployment and use. These include:
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Forced or optional download.
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Restricting access to specific users and/or devices. Access rights can be configured for each individually published version of an app.
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Encryption and compression of data in transit between the device and the App Server.
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Changing the connection details for Data Sources used in Digitise apps without having to modify your apps – can be useful for switching between test and live systems.
Apps can be published directly from App Studio or within App Manager. To publish an app to the App Server in App Manager you need to use a Digitise Apps Package file.
When publishing apps, especially updates, you will need to consider the following:
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Have you incremented the apps version number if this is an upgrade to an existing app?
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Whether a Standalone App should be configured to allow updates to be downloaded.
New Standalone Apps have to be installed onto each device using the installation package, they cannot be downloaded from the App Server. On Android, Windows Desktop and Windows Universal Platforms, however, you can specify when you create the Standalone App whether future updates can be downloaded from the App Server. If you don't allow updates to be downloaded, you will have to generate a new Standalone App and install it to each device when you make changes to the app. On iOS devices Standalone Apps cannot download updates and you will always have to generate a new version of the app and install it to each device.
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Whether the Client or Standalone App can or should be configured to check for updates whenever the Client starts up.
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Will you need to configure access permissions for the app or update before deploying to your users?
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The current setting of the Inherit Security Settings From Previous Version option in the Publish Project to Server dialog box.
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The current setting of the App Server Configuration Database connection string option in the Publish Project to Server dialog box.
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Whether the app should be configured in App Manager to be an automatic (Forced) or Optional update.
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The timing in relation to making an app available to your users and publishing it to the App Server. This is particularly relevant for upgrades to an existing app and especially if you want to perform a controlled rollout.
For more information about publishing your apps see: