Install Universal Clients and Standalone Apps

For Windows PCs and tablets, there are two versions of the Digitise Apps Client and Standalone Apps - the Windows Desktop versions and the Universal Windows versions.

The Universal Windows versions are based on Microsoft's Universal Windows Platform and can be installed directly to a PC or tablet or downloaded from Microsoft's app Store and have to be code signed with a digital Certificate, whereas the Windows Desktop versions can only be installed directly to a PC or tablet and don't require to be code signed. You can choose which of the two formats you want to use for a particular Project. The features and experience are slightly different between the two and if you want to include recording videos within your app you will have to use UWP. Standard Windows apps can import an existing video but not record a new one. Differences between the two versions are described where relevant throughout this Online help.

 

This topic describes how to install the Universal Windows versions, for information about installing the Windows Desktop versions, see: Install Windows Desktop Clients and Standalone Apps.

 

The Digitise Apps Product Download includes Client install files for an NDL-signed version of the standard Digitise Apps Universal Windows Client. These files can be found in the \ClientInstalls\Windows Universal folder within the Product Download or can be copied to a PC using the full Digitise Apps setup.

The full setup, installing all the default components, will copy the install files for this Client to the Installs\Windows Universal folder below the installation folder. So, by default, the files will be copied to:

32-bit Operating Systems:

C:\Program Files\NDL Software\Digitise Apps\Installs\Windows Universal

64-bit Operating Systems:

C:\Program Files (x86)\ndl Software\Digitise Apps\Installs\Windows Universal

 

The install files include:

 

If you want to use a pre-configured version of the Client, code sign a Client with your own Certificate or create Standalone App versions of your apps, you can build the Client or Standalone Apps from within App Studio and then download the install files for them from the App Studio Build Requests Pane. You can copy these install files to a location of your choice.

For a pre-configured Universal Windows Client, the download from App Studio will contain the following files:

where nn.nn.nn.nn is the Client version number.

 

For a Universal Windows Standalone App, however, the download from App Studio will provide the following files:

where <appname> is the name of the Project minus any spaces and nn.nn.nn.nn is the version number of the Standalone App.

 

The install files for a Universal Windows Client and enterprise Universal Windows Standalone Apps can be presented to devices in the standard manner for distributing files to Windows devices, such as:

• Copying directly to the device,

• Using a mobile device management system (MDM) or other software distribution system, such as Microsoft’s Windows Intune and System Center Configuration Manager,

• Via email

  or

• Via a secure web site.

If you want to use an MDM or software deployment package to deploy your Universal Windows Client or Universal Standalone Apps to your users, you will need to refer to the product’s documentation for details of how to achieve this.

Store Standalone Apps are made available to your users via the Microsoft Store.

 

1. To install a Universal Windows Client or enterprise Universal Windows Standalone App to a Windows PC or tablet, you will need the ‘zip’ file from the appropriate install package.

2. If this is the first time you have installed a Universal Windows Client or Standalone App on this device, you will need to configure the device to allow sideloading of apps. You can do this using an enterprise policy or manually on each device in Settings. Your devices must, therefore, have the unlock policy enabled.

3. To use Settings to manually allow a device to side load apps, first load Settings, for example by clicking:

   → Settings.

4. Choose Update & security.

5. Click on For developers in the left-hand menu.

6. Select Sideload apps and then close Settings.

7. Copy the installation ‘zip’ file to the device and unzip it to a folder of your choice.

8. In the unzipped folder, locate the Windows PowerShell Script: Add-AppDevPackage.ps1.

9. Right-click on the script file and choose Run with PowerShell.

10. A PowerShell window will load and run the script to install the Client or Standalone App and, if necessary, the code-signing Certificate.

    If you get a message about changing the execution policy, type Y to change the policy and allow the app or Client to be installed.

    If you get a message saying you need to install the code-signing Certificate before the app can be installed, press Enter. You will then see a User Account Control message asking you to confirm you want to allow the app to make changes to your device. Click the Yes button. A second PowerShell window will load. Type Y to continue.

    The app should then be installed and when finished, a message will be displayed in the PowerShell window. Press Return to acknowledge this message and close the PowerShell Window.

11. You can now run your Client or Standalone App from the Windows Start menu. You can pin an icon for the Client or app to the Start screen or taskbar using right click or tap and hold on the Client/app in the Start menu under All apps and then tap or click pin to start or More → Pin to taskbar.

12. Once you have installed a Client/Standalone App on a device, you will need to configure it, if it hasn't been pre-configured. In particular, you will need to configure the connection details for the App Server hosting your apps, if these haven’t already been configured, before you can run any apps. For details, see Configure the Universal Windows Digitise Apps Client and Configure Universal Windows Standalone Apps.

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See also:

Upgrade Universal Windows Clients and Standalone Apps

Run Universal Windows Versions of the Client and Standalone Apps on Windows Devices