Choosing a proper version of Appeon Workspace

Appeon Workspace could be available in several versions:

Table 2. 

 

iOS

Android

Demo version

Not supported

Supported and available

Built-in version

Not supported

Supported and available

Customized version

Supported but not available by default

Supported but not available by default


For iOS Mobile Devices:

  • Demo version -- Appeon no longer publishes a demo version of Appeon Workspace on Apple App Store since PowerServer version 2020.

    Reasons are: 1) Workspace is for internal-use only and does not comply with app store policies; 2) the app store policies keep changing and it cannot be guaranteed that the future changes to the policies will not disrupt users’ usage of Workspace. Therefore, publishing Appeon Workspace to Apple App Store is not supported any more.

    We recommend that you create a customized version of Appeon Workspace and distribute it on PowerServer or your own Web site. And before you do that, you can perform a quick test of Appeon Workspace on our web site (Try Out Appeon Workspace).

  • Built-in version -- Appeon no longer provides built-in Appeon Workspace for the iOS devices since PowerServer version 2017.

  • Customized version -- The customized version is created by the developer or server administrator using the PowerServer Toolkit Package tool. The customized Appeon Workspace can only be uploaded to a Web site such as PowerServer via AEM.

    About In-House Distribution

    Please be aware of the following important notes about using the In-House Distribution:

    1. To distribute Appeon Workspace on PowerServer or your own Web site (in-house distribution), you need to enroll in the iOS Developer Enterprise program.

    2. If you enroll in the iOS Developer Enterprise program, you are responsible for managing the Enterprise Program certificate and the provisioning profile. According to the Apple policy, the iOS Enterprise Program certificates expire after three years and provisioning profiles expire after one year, which means, before the distribution certificate expires, you will need to request an additional distribution certificate and replace the expired one, and before the provisioning profile expires, you will need to renew the provisioning profile using a valid certificate. Otherwise the app distributed using the enterprise provisioning profile will not launch after expiration. For more details, refer to Managing Expiring Certificates and Provisioning Profiles in the Apple document App Distribution Guide.

    3. If Appeon Workspace is built and distributed thru the iOS Developer Enterprise program, when it is run on iOS 9.0 or later for the first time, the end user may receive an "Untrusted Enterprise Developer" prompt, Apple forces this prompt to appear because this Appeon Workspace has not gone through the App Store review process so it is technically untrusted. The end user can bypass the prompt by going to Settings > General > Profiles (or Device Management), tapping on the developer name under the "Enterprise App" heading, and then clicking on Trust.

For Android Mobile Devices:

  • Demo version -- Appeon publishes a demo version of Appeon Workspace on Google Play. This Appeon Workspace only works with the latest PowerServer on the market, and we strongly recommend it used only to test out or demonstrate the new features of the latest PowerServer. You can install this demo version from our web site (Try Out Appeon Workspace).

  • Built-in version -- PowerServer contains a built-in version of Appeon Workspace for the Android device.

    In every release build of PowerServer, the exact same build of Appeon Workspace is by default packaged and posted on PowerServer, so that the developer or end user can easily download and install it. You could also directly take the APK file provided by PowerServer and host it on your Web site, or send it to end users via emails etc.

    To install the built-in version of Appeon Workspace on your Android device:

    Use your Android mobile device to access the Appeon Workspace download center (http://server_ip_address/aws), and then click the download button to install Appeon Workspace to your mobile device.

    Allowing the installation of apps from Unknown Sources on Android-powered devices

    Android protects users from inadvertent download and install of apps from locations other than Google Play. It blocks such installs until the user opts-in Unknown sources in Settings > Security, shown in the following figure. To allow the installations of apps from other sources, users need to enable the Unknown sources setting on their devices, and they need to make this configuration change before they download the app to their devices.

    Note that some network providers do not allow users to install app from unknown sources.

    Figure 10. Enable Unknown Sources settings

    Enable Unknown Sources settings


    Appeon Workspace download center is created by PowerServer to distribute the built-in version of Appeon Workspace. It is also served as a template to help the developer or server administrator to create their own download center and set the download URL correctly. Detailed instructions for how to do that are provided in Configuring the Appeon Workspace download center.

  • Customized version -- The customized version is created by the developer or server administrator using the PowerServer Toolkit Package tool.

    Normally you would not need to package a customized version for the Android device, because the built-in version should satisfy your needs (as aforementioned). The only scenario you may want to create a customized version for the Android device is that you want to customize the visual elements (banner, texts, language, icons etc.) and functionalities (add/remove apps, default app etc.) in the workspace.

    If you are interested to package and distribute your own customized version of Appeon Workspace for the Android device, follow the instructions below.

    To host Appeon Workspace on PowerServer or your own Web site, refer to the section called “Package & Distribute Android Apps” in PowerServer Mobile Tutorials.