Configure Standalone Apps on Apple Devices

Once you have downloaded and installed a Standalone App, whether an enterprise or store version, you may need to configure the app to point to your App Server, depending upon whether or not whoever created the app supplied the App Server machine's address when creating it. If the server address changes, you can use the same method described below to edit the address to point to the new server, providing that the server address settings weren’t locked when the Standalone App was created. If any of the configuration settings have been locked, to prevent users changing them, the Standalone App will need to be rebuilt in order to make changes to those locked settings.

The Client needs to communicate with the App Server in order to authenticate that the user or device has been granted permission to run each individual Digitise app and to be able to upload and download data.

To configure a Standalone App to connect to your App Server:

  1. Load the Standalone App by tapping on its icon on the device’s Home Screen.

  2. You may now get a message displayed headed Untrusted Enterprise Developer, saying that your organisation has not been trusted on this device.

    Make a note of the organisation’s name and then tap Cancel.

  3. From the device’s Home screen, tap on Settings → General → Device Management.

    Tap on the organisation named in the message displayed earlier and then on Trust “<organisationname>.

    Tap on Trust to allow apps from this organisation to run on this device or Cancel to prevent apps from this organisation running.

    Tap Back → General → Settings in the top left-hand corner of the window to return to the Settings main page. Press the device’s Home key to return to the Home page.

  4. Locate and tap the Standalone App’s icon again. The app will load.

  5. At this point you may be asked to give your consent to the app using notifications. If you are happy to allow notifications, tap OK, otherwise tap Don’t Allow.

  6. If, when the app was created, it was configured to require the user to log in, the following login fields will be displayed on the Home screen:

    Picture showing login fields within a Standalone App on an Apple device.

    You don’t need to log in at this point.

    If the app is not configured to require authentication, the app will load and automatically display the first form. Tap Picture showing Home button. in the top left-hand corner of the screen to return to the app’s home screen.

    • Note: If your Standalone App contains more than one Digitise app, instead of directly loading an app, you will get a list of apps available within the Standalone App and the user can run the apps from this list. Once the Standalone App has been configured, whether you have to do this manually or it comes pre-configured, when you load the app you will be asked to log in. For now, tap Cancel in the top right-hand corner to dismiss the login screen.

  7. Tap on the Settings icon in the top right-hand corner of the screen: Picture showing Settings button..

  8. The Settings screen will be displayed:

    Picture showing Settings Screen within a Standalone App on an Apple device.

     

  9. If this Standalone App hasn’t been supplied with the App Server address pre-configured, you will need to enter the required connection details to allow it to communicate with its App Server.

    To view or edit the App Server connection details, tap Addresses under the Server section.

    • The developer can configure and lock settings when the Standalone App is created. Settings which have been locked can be viewed but not edited. This applies to the Server Address settings and to the other configuration settings described below.

  10. The Servers screen will be displayed:

    Picture showing the Servers screen in the Digitise Apps Client on an Apple device.

  11. Tap the Add button, Picture showing Add new App Server connection details button in Apple Client., to add a new App Server:

    Picture showing fields for entering App Server connection details in a Digitise Apps Client on an Apple device.

  12. Enter the DNS name or IP address of the Server running your App Server in the IP address field.

    • If you will be using the enhanced certificate-based private key exchange encryption mechanism for data in transit between your App Server and Digitise Apps Client, and you enter a DNS name here, the DNS name you enter must match one of the hostnames specified in your SSL Certificate’s Common Name field and/or Alternative Names fields.

    Leave the Port at its default setting of 3431, unless you are sure that port is in use by another application. Note that if you do change it here, you also need to change it on the App Server, which you do using App Manager - the Port setting can be found within the Server category Properties.

  13. Tap the Save button, Picture showing the Save button in the Digitise Apps Client on an Apple device., to return to the Servers screen. Your newly entered details will now be displayed:

    Picture showing Servers screen showing connection details for an App Server in the Digitise Apps Client on an Apple device.

  14. You can enter more than one server in this list if required, for example to provide access to a backup server, and when the Client attempts to connect to the App Server, if the first address in the list fails it will automatically try the next one down and so on. On subsequent connections within the same session, the last used successful address will automatically be tried first. A session ends when you close down the Client/Standalone App or modify the server list.

    To add another address, tap the Add button, Picture showing Add new App Server connection details button in Apple Client., again.

    If you enter multiple Servers, they will be displayed on the Servers screen like this:

    Picture showing Servers screen within Digitise Apps Client on an Apple device.

    To edit an entry in the Servers list, tap the > at the end of the row.

    To delete an entry, tap Picture showing Delete button. and then tap Picture showing button to confirm deletion..

    To change the order in which the Servers are listed, and hence tried, tap and hold Picture showing menu button displayed at end of each row in App Server connection details list. at the end of the row and then drag the row to the position you want it be within the list and release it.

  15. When you have finished, tap Picture showing button used to go back to the Settings screen. to return to the Settings screen, which provides access to the Standalone App configuration options and system information.

    This screen contains the following items:

    When you have finished on the Settings screen, tap Picture showing Back button..

  16. If you now want to run the app and your Standalone App has been configured to require authentication or you are running a Standalone App which contains more than one app, you will need to log in at this point.

    The login determines whether or not you have been granted permission to use the apps contained within the Standalone App.

    If the login dialog is no longer displayed, tap the Login icon, Picture showing Login button., in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.

    You will need to obtain the login credentials from whoever configured the App Server, if that wasn’t you, and enter them in the login screen. There are four types of possible user - a Digitise Apps User, a Windows Domain User, a Google OAuth User or an Anonymous User.

    By default, values you enter in the Username and Domain fields are automatically saved and will be filled in the next time the Login screen is displayed. When building a Standalone App, you can turn off username saving within the build request options, if required.

    If the Save Password option is displayed, you can instruct the app to remember your password as well and automatically fill in the password field the next time you log in. Select the Save Password option to save your password. The password entered will be stored in an encrypted database on the device.

    The Domain and Save Password options can be pre-configured and can also be locked so that the user cannot change them on the device. If the domain field is locked, you cannot include the domain in the Username field and an attempt to do so will result in an error message being displayed. If the Save Password option is set to not allow password saving and is locked, the option will not be displayed in the login screen.

    If you have been given a domain name to use as part of your login, you can enter the domain name in the Domain field or include it with your username in the Username field in the format:

    <domainname>\<username>

    Including the domain name in the Username field will overwrite any domain name specified in the Domain field. If you do not have a domain name to enter, but there is a value in the Domain field, you will need to delete this. If you cannot clear the field, this means that the app has been configured to require a Windows domain login. If the domain field is missing, this means that the developers have removed it because it isn’t required for you to login.

    • If you are running a Standalone App which contains more than one app, there will be a third option which allows you to log in anonymously. You should only log in anonymously if your Digitise Apps Administrator tells you to do so, as anonymous users only have access to apps which do not have access permissions set. To log in anonymously, simply select the Anonymous option and tap Done.

      If you log in anonymously after logging in as a Digitise Apps User or Domain User, the next time the Login screen displays, the username and password fields will be blank and the Save Password option, if displayed, will be unselected.

    When you have entered your credentials, tap Picture showing Login button. in the top right-hand corner of the screen.

    If you need to log in as an OAuth User rather than using Digitise Apps credentials or Windows Active Directory Authentication, the Client will load a browser and present you with the Google login page instead of the login fields shown above. For more details about logging in using OAuth see Log In Using Google OAuth Authentication.

    If you have entered valid credentials, the app will load and display the first form.