Build a Multi-app Standalone App
for the Apple Platform

On the Apple Platform you can include more than one primary Digitise app within a Digitise Apps Standalone App, if you want to. Each primary app can have secondary apps if required. Users can load any of the primary apps from a Home screen and move between them in a similar way to using the standard Digitise Apps Client for Apple devices.

In this case, you need to choose one of the primary apps from which to configure and request the Standalone App and then specify all the other Models you want to include as Digitise Apps Package files ('.mxp' files) in the Standalone App's build configuration settings. Each Package file that you add to the app can be designated as available to users or not. Those that you designate as available will be listed on the app's Home screen whilst those that are not available will be hidden from the user and will only be accessible by being programmatically launched from within another app.

For example, suppose you have three Digitise Apps Projects which run independently but which are part of the same business process and have a common look and feel. You can either produce a separate Standalone App for each Project or include the Models for all three within one Standalone App giving your users access to all three. Any secondary Models required could be added and marked as not available to users, meaning that they would not be listed on the app's Home screen.

In the latter case, when the user runs up the Standalone App, the Digitise Apps Client will load and display its Home screen showing all three Digitise apps as available. Users can run any of the apps and can return to the Home screen to run another app just as they can within the standard Digitise Apps Client.

If you want to include multiple Digitise apps within a Standalone App, you will need to open one of the primary apps within App Studio and configure and request the build from the open app. This app will always be available to users at runtime; you cannot hide the open app.

Before configuring your Standalone App you will need to create a Package file ('.mxp' file) for each additional Model you want to include, using the Publish to Package option. Unless you need the '.mxp' file for any other purpose, you only need to include the runtime files when creating the file to be included in a Standalone App.

You will also need to publish each Project to your App Server. You can publish to the Server before or after creating the Standalone App, but you must make sure you publish the same version of the Project to your Server as you include in the Standalone App. You can either publish your app from within App Studio, using the Publish to Server option, or you can install the '.mxp' file, used to create the Standalone App, within App Manager.

Note that the Digitise Apps Project which is open within App Studio will automatically be published to a Package file and can optionally be published to the Server as part of the Standalone App creation process.

 

To configure and build a multi-app Standalone App follow the same procedure as for a single-app Standalone App, with the following differences:

• Under the Build Settings Packages tab, you will need to add to the package list all the primary and any secondary Models that you want to include in this Standalone App.

  For each Package you will need to set the Usage column. This column determines whether the Model will be a primary app which you want to be available from the Standalone App's Home screen or a secondary app which should be hidden from the users.

  If you want the app to appear on the Home screen set the Usage column to User. If the app will be launched from within another app and you don't want it available on the Home screen as well, set Usage to Launched. The default setting is Launched. To change the current value for a listed app, click on the value and select the alternative setting from the drop-down list.

• The Packages tab also includes an Auto-Run option below the list of packages to be included in your Standalone App. This option is only relevant when creating a multi-Model Standalone App.

  Selecting this option will cause the Project which is currently open in App Studio to be automatically run when a user loads the Standalone App on their mobile device. Users will still be able to run the other User apps by returning to the app's Home screen from the auto-loaded app. You could use this option where one of the Models will always need to be run first or will be more frequently used than other Models.

  If you don't select this option, when the Standalone App is loaded, users will get a list of the User apps available to them in this Standalone App and no app will automatically be loaded. Users can manually choose one to run from the list.

• Primary Models which are included in your Standalone App will be displayed in the list of available apps on the Standalone App's Home screen. These are Models designated as 'User' Models on the Packages tab in the Build Settings. You can provide an icon to be displayed alongside the app's name in this list by specifying the required image file for the Model in the Bitmap Property in the Project Properties in App Studio. We recommend using a '.png' file, but you may be able to use a '.gif', '.jpg' or a '.bmp' instead.