Applications

Owned by Kari Mattsson
2017-06-20
5 min read

Applications are third-party software that can be installed on mobile devices. You could have, for example, an anti-virus software that should be installed to all devices in the organisation. The applications can be installed from an app store, a locally hosted package, or a package hosted in a remote HTTP server. Each configured application can only be installed in compatible devices, and you can have separate applications for each tasks for different device platforms.

This section explains how you can define such applications. After that, you can install them to devices remotely, and define compliance rules to see that they are actually installed in user devices.

 

Application List

The application list in the bottom part of the view shows the all the applications registered in the service.

Applications can have either active or inactive status, shown in the Status column. Active applications can be managed through the service, while inactive applications cannot be installed from the service. You can explicitly set an application as active or inactive. Applications that are outside their validity date range are invalid and automatically inactive – as shown in the Validity column. You can hide/show inactive and invalid applications by selecting Hide inactive and invalid applications.

The list can also show system-wide applications installed by the master/vendor or supervisor for all organisations in the service. They are hidden if Hide system wide applications is selected.

Selecting Applications

You can select an application by clicking on it. You cannot select multiple applications.

Sorting

You can sort the application list according to different columns by clicking on the column headers. Clicking again sorts the list in reverse order.

Visible Columns

You can change the visible columns by clicking on the drop-down button in the right end of the list header. It displays a drop-down list of available and currently visible columns, where you can change the visibility of the columns.

You can reorder the columns by dragging the column headers with mouse.

Filtering the List

You can filter the application list by selecting a column for filtering and entering the search string in the Search input box.

Basic Operations

Let us first go through the basic tasks of managing application: registering, editing, and removing applications.

Registering a New Application

See the platform notes below if they apply to your case.

  1. To register a new application, click the New button in the toolbar


  2. The New application window asks for two alternatives for hosting the application package:
    1. Remote file – Enter a URL either to:
      1. The application package. It should be a working package for the intended platform (APK for Android, etc).
      2. An app store page for the application. You can usually just copy&paste the URL to the app store page of the application (Google Play, etc).
    2. Locally hosted file – Host the application package in the service. Click Upload new file to upload the package.
  3. Click Continue

  4. The Verify application details window opens. The details are retrieved automatically from the package metadata, but you should consider that they can be outdated. You can edit the details later.

  5. Click Continue

  6. A Finished screen is displayed. Either
    1. Click Close if you have finished configuring the application.
    2. Click Edit application to edit the configuration further. You can edit it later from the main view.

Platform Notes

iOS

See iOS Applications for notes about iOS applications.

S60

S60 3rd edition devices may have problems with installing .sis packages. Try using .sisx packages instead.

Copying an Application

In some situations, it is easier to use the settings for an application as a template for a new one. For example, you may want to manage two different versions of an application, in which case you could use the older version as a template for the new one.

To copy an existing application:

  1. Either:

    1. Select the application in the list and click Copy in the toolbar

    2. Right-click on an application and select New based on selected in the context menu.

  2. The Edit application pop-up window opens. The settings are organised multiple tabs.

  3. See the Application Settings for a detailed description of the settings

  4. Consider setting at least:
    1. Version number
    2. Web URL if to be installed from a web store or external URL
    3. Click Application program file hosting to upload the new file (optional)

  5. Finally, click either Save & close to save the settings and exit, or Cancel to exit without saving.

Editing an Application

You can edit the configuration for a previously added application.

To edit an already existing application:

  1. Either:

    1. Select the application in the list and click Edit in the toolbar

    2. Right-click on an application and select Edit in the context menu.

  2. The Edit application pop-up window opens. The settings are organised multiple tabs.

  3. See the Application Settings for a detailed description of the settings

  4. Finally, click either Save & close to save the settings and exit, or Cancel to exit without saving.

You can only edit organisation-wide applications. Trying to edit a world-wide (distribution: all) application lets you view the application settings, but you cannot save any changes.

Removing an Application

To remove an application from the system:

  1. Either:

    1. Select the application in the list and click Remove or

    2. Right-click on the application to open the context menu and select Remove. Notice that this selects the clicked application for removal.

  2. You will be prompted to confirm the removal.

  3. Click Remove to remove the application and Cancel to exit without removing it

Validating URLs

You can validate the remote or app store URLs of all configured applications by clicking Validate URLs in the toolbar. The results are shown in the Valid URL column that should appear.

Application Installations

You can get a list of devices in which a particular application has been installed by selecting the application and clicking Application installations.

The list is shown in a report view, which you can filter, print, and export, as described in Reports.

You can also generate the same report in Reports→Devices, which has some additional reports on application use and installation. See Device Reports for more details.

Update Installations

You can update an application on all the devices in which it has been installed.

To do so:

  1. Select the application
  2. Click Update installations
  3. Confirm the update
  4. Select Install immediately if you need to have the application updated immediately. Otherwise, its put in task queue.CHECK IF TRUE
  5. Click Install to update the application or Cancel to exit without updating