Test Universal Windows Platform Digitise apps

You can test a Digitise Universal Windows app on either a Windows desktop or tablet, depending upon the Target Platforms you have specified for your Project. You will need to have forms within the Project for the appropriate test device. If you have included Windows forms in your Project, you can also test the app, for functionality at least, using the Run Project option, but be aware that the forms will look different when run as a Desktop app rather than a Universal app.

If you want to test your app as a Universal Windows app, you will need to have a test App Server to which you can publish your app and then you can download it to a test device to run it. The test device will need to have a copy of the standard Digitise Apps Universal Windows Client installed from which you can download your apps and subsequent updates for testing via a wireless connection to your test App Server.

Updates will need to be published to your test App Server and can then be downloaded to the device for testing. You can use the Publish to Server option to publish your app and updates to your test App Server.

For details of how to install the standard Digitise Apps Universal Client see Install Digitise Apps Clients and Digitise apps to Mobile Devices.

For details of how to download apps to your device within the Client see Download & Update apps in the Standard Universal Client.

 

Generally, when developing Digitise apps, we suggest that you install a copy of App Server on your development PC to be used for testing purposes. By default, Universal apps are unable to establish an IP connection to the same machine on which they are running. This means that if you run both the Universal Client and a test App Server on your development machine, by default the two will not be able to talk to each other.

So, if you want to be able to test this way, you will need to configure a so-called 'loopback exemption' for each Client or Standalone App that you want to run on the same PC as your App Server.

There are freely available utilities, such as enableloopbackutility, which allow you to easily set up an exemption. For more information refer to the following web page on the Stack Overflow web site:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/34589522/cant-see-localhost-from-uwp-app

Alternatively, you can do it manually if you prefer:

Install the Client or Standalone App on the test machine. Install App Server on the same machine, if not already installed.

On this PC, run PowerShell as an administrator.

Run the command:

Get-AppxPackage <appname>

where <appname> is a search term for either the Client or the Standalone App:

 

If you are not sure of the name of your app, you can use the wildcard character, *, e.g. *ndl* would search for all apps with 'ndl' in their name. Alternatively, leave this parameter blank to show everything.

 

In the details displayed by this command about your Digitise Apps Client or Standalone App there will be a field called PackageFamilyName. Copy the name from this field to the clipboard.

Run the command:

checknetisolation loopbackexempt –a –n="<packagefamilyname>"

where <packagefamilyname> is the name you copied in the previous step.

This adds an exception to your local computer that will allow you to use a loopback address (e.g. "localhost") as a server in your Universal Client or Standalone App for testing purposes.

 

If you are creating Standalone Apps, you might find it easier during development to test using the standard Digitise Apps Client and then when you are happy with your app, you can create a test Standalone App to try before deploying it to your users. For testing purposes, you can sideload a store app to a test device in the same way as an enterprise app – you don't need to upload it to the Microsoft Store for testing.