Standalone Apps
Standalone Apps allow you to create individually downloadable Digitise apps which do not require users to directly access the Digitise Apps Client. In general terms, a Standalone App bundles the Client together with a Digitise app into a single package, which can be installed directly onto a users' device and runs independently on that device.
Using Standalone Apps provides the following advantages:
-
Ability to customise the Client's Home screen so that it blends into the theme of the app contained within it, giving the appearance of a unified application.
-
Ability to set client-side configuration options within the Standalone App when creating the app, including specifying the App Server connection details, so that you don't have to configure each user's device separately. Configuration settings specified within different Standalone Apps are stored separately from each other on the device and are specific to each particular Standalone App.
-
Ability to prevent users changing configuration options set within the Standalone App.
-
Simplified deployment of your apps. Installation can be as simple as double-clicking on a Standalone App install file, downloading and installing from a web site or downloading from one of the app Stores. Users don't have to load the Client or understand how to download apps within the Client.
-
Each Standalone App installed on a device will appear separately in the device's application list or Start Menu under its own name, making it easier for users to find and launch your apps. You can supply your own customised icon for each app or use a default icon.
-
Ability to run more than one Standalone App simultaneously on the same device. Each Standalone App runs its own private copy of the Client and creates its own independent database in which to store its local data.
The standard Client can only be run once on any device, and although you can then run multiple apps within the same instance of the Client, you can only see and use the current foreground app. On devices which permit multiple apps to be viewed side-by-side, using Standalone Apps allows you to access multiple apps concurrently, screen size permitting.
When running Standalone Apps, you can also run a copy of the standard Client on the same device if required.
-
Updates to apps contained within Standalone Apps can be downloaded to the device via the App Server in the usual way. This means that once you have created a Standalone App, you don't need to rebuild it every time you change an app contained within it. Existing users can download updates and new users can install the original Standalone App and then simply update the contained app from the App Server. Options are available to force updates to be downloaded and to automatically check for updates when the Client is loaded.
-
Access rights to the apps contained within your Standalone Apps can be configured within the App Manager utility in the same manner as for standard Digitise apps. Where permissions are configured, users will have to log in to the App Server when they load a Standalone App.
Additional Important Information for Apple Devices
On Apple devices, due to Apple's conditions of use, when deploying Digitise apps to your users' devices you must deploy your apps as Standalone Apps, you cannot use the standard Client on your live devices. For this reason, on the iOS Platform, you can include more than one Digitise app within a single Standalone App if required.
For the same reason, on Apple devices you cannot download updates to installed Standalone Apps. If you want to provide an update, you will need to rebuild the Standalone App and re-install it on each relevant device.
Additional Important Information for Windows Devices
On Windows devices, if your Standalone App will run as a standard Windows app, the Standalone App does not bundle the Client with the app and you have to install the standard Client on your device before you can download and run this type of Standalone App. Apart from this, these Standalone Apps look and operate similarly to those on other devices – each app is installed separately, has its own icon, app tile or Start Menu item from which to launch the app and the Client runs in background hidden from the user. A silent install version of the Client install is also available to allow the client to be installed using a software distribution system without requiring user intervention.
If your Standalone App will run as a UWP app, the client is included with the Client in the install package and you don't need to pre-install the Client.
Standalone Apps are created in App Studio in the standard way and have to be published to the App Server as normal. You then have to submit a request to build the app to the remote automated Digitise Apps Build System hosted by NDL. This is done within App Studio and it requires an Internet connection on your development PC.
When you request a build, you specify whether you want an enterprise or store version of the Standalone App to be built. The only difference between store and enterprise apps is the way in which they are downloaded to users' devices – store apps are deployed via the app stores and enterprise apps are downloaded using other mechanisms and cannot be downloaded from the app stores. There may be slightly different settings available when configuring your build request for store and enterprise apps, but otherwise there is very little difference between the two types.
Once built, you can download a completed Standalone App from the Build Requests Pane in App Studio.
Before you can request a Standalone App build you need to configure various settings relating to the build and the app you want to produce. The configuration options and build requests are accessed from the Publish tab on the App Studio Ribbon.
For Windows devices you can create your Standalone App as a standard Windows app or as a Microsoft Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app. You can choose which type of app you want to run when you build the app. UWP apps are referred to as 'Universal' apps and standard Windows apps are referred to as 'Desktop' apps within Digitise Apps.
- Universal apps can only run under Windows 10 or above.
The Build System converts the app into an installable file in a format appropriate to the type of device on which it will be installed. Where you have multiple Target Platforms within a single Digitise Apps Project, you will need to configure and build each Platform separately. The Build Requests Pane provides a list of your Standalone App builds and displays the current status of each build request.
With Apple and Universal Windows Platform apps there are additional requirements when building your Standalone Apps. Both these Platforms require mobile apps to be signed with a code-signing Certificate and Apple apps also require a, so-called, Provisioning Profile. These items are obtained through the Apple and Microsoft developer programs - see Develop Digitise apps for Apple iOS Devices or Develop Digitise apps for Windows Devices. Therefore, before you can build a Standalone Apps for one of these Platforms, you will need to obtain the relevant Certificate etc. from the appropriate program and import it to the Build System from within App Studio using the App Studio's Settings.
When you request a build for a Standalone App for the Windows Desktop Platform, i.e. to request a Standalone App which will run as a standard Windows app, the app is built on your development machine. For all other Platforms, including the Windows Universal Platform, you will need to submit a build request to the Digitise Apps Build System. This remote NDL-hosted automated system is accessed via a secure SSL Internet connection. Consequently, in order to build Standalone Apps for these Platforms, the PC running App Studio must have an Internet connection available.
When your Standalone App is completed, the Build System will notify you by e-mail and the Status column for the build in the Build Requests Pane will change to Completed. You can then download the installation package from the Build Requests Pane.
Once you have downloaded the installation package, you can then deploy your Standalone App to your users.
On the iOS Platform, a Standalone App can contain one or more independent Digitise apps, on all other Platforms it can only contain a single app, although this may consist of a primary app and one or more secondary apps.
For more information see:
Build a Single App Standalone App