Develop Digitise apps for Apple iOS Devices

Under Apple's terms and conditions of use you cannot install an application on an Apple iOS device which downloads code to the device. In addition, to deploy applications to Apple devices, you must enrol in at least one of Apple's developer programs and obtain a code-signing Distribution Certificate through each program in which you enrol. The Distribution Certificate also allows you to produce so-called Provisioning Profiles, again through the developer programs. Each in-house app you develop must be signed with an appropriate Distribution Certificate and be linked to a Provisioning Profile.

There are two Apple developer programs - the Apple Developer Enterprise Program and the Apple Developer Program.

If you want to deploy some or all of your Digitise apps using mechanisms internal to your organisation, i.e. NOT via the Apple App Store, and/or you want to create the special version of the Digitise Apps Client to be used by your developers, you will need to enrol in the Apple Developer Enterprise Program from where you can obtain an Enterprise Developer Distribution Certificate and generate Provisioning Profiles. For these enterprise apps, you will need to generate a separate Provisioning Profile, linked to your Distribution Certificate, for each Digitise app or version of the Digitise Apps Client you create.

If you want to deploy some or all of your Digitise apps via the App Store, you will need to enrol in the Apple Developer Program and obtain a Distribution Certificate and Provisioning Profiles from here. With the Apple Developer Program, unlike the Apple Developer Enterprise Program, you can create wildcard Certificates and Provisioning Profiles, which means you can use the same Certificate and Provisioning Profile pair to sign multiple apps, whereas for enterprise apps you need to create a separate Provisioning Profile for each app, as wildcard Profiles are no longer allowed (unless you are renewing an existing wildcard Certificate or Provisioning Profile). We suggest you give your Distribution Certificate and Provisioning Profiles names which will allow you to easily identify them within App Studio as app store rather than enterprise versions.

 

As a result of Apple's conditions of use, which apply to applications you develop using Digitise Apps, there are some differences in the way Digitise Apps works with Apple devices:

• To comply with Apple's prohibition on the downloading of code to devices, you must deploy Digitise apps to users' devices as Digitise Apps Standalone Apps – you cannot run the standard Digitise Apps Client on your live iOS devices. Users cannot download Digitise apps or updates directly from the App Server as you can do on other types of mobile device.

• Each Standalone App for Apple devices has to be signed with an appropriate Apple Distribution Certificate and be linked to a Provisioning Profile. If you are creating enterprise apps, i.e. apps which will be distributed internally and not via the App Store, you need a separate Provisioning Profile for each app. Store apps can use the same Provisioning Profile, providing you created a wildcard version, otherwise you will need separate Provisioning Profiles for each app.

  • If you want to include the ability to receive push notifications within your Digitise apps, you cannot use wildcard Distribution Certificates or Provisioning Profiles and you must obtain separate Provisioning Profiles for each app. The Provisioning Profile must have push notification support included within the Profile. This is because the notification service, which sends out the notifications, must be able to identify the exact app to send a notification to.

• On Apple devices you can include multiple Digitise apps within a single Standalone App if you want to. On other Platforms a Standalone App is restricted to a single Digitise app.

• Apple users cannot download updates to Standalone Apps from the App Server. To issue an update to an existing app, you need to produce a new version of the Standalone App for users to download and install.

Note however, that when developing your apps, you can build a version of the standard Digitise Apps Client to use on your development devices. This version of the Client does allow developers to download and upgrade their Digitise apps on their development test devices from the App Server in the normal way.

Just as with enterprise Standalone Apps for deployment, this version of the Client will be specific to your organisation and will have to be signed with your Enterprise Developer Distribution Certificate and linked to its own Provisioning Profile.

The standard Digitise Apps Client can be used by your developers to develop Digitise apps and run them on test devices.

 

The standard Digitise Apps Client can be installed on a device using iTunes or via a browser from a web site. Enterprise Standalone Apps can be installed in the same ways, whereas store apps are installed to client devices via Apple's App Store.

 

A Distribution Certificate lasts for 3 years but a Provisioning Profile only lasts for a year. You will only be able to run your development Digitise Apps Clients and Standalone Apps as long as you have a valid Distribution Certificate and Provisioning Profile. When one, or both, of these is due to expire, you must renew the expired item(s) and upgrade your devices in order to continue using the apps or Client. With enterprise apps, you can update a Provisioning Profile without having to rebuild any apps which use it, although you can rebuild the apps(s) with the new Profile if you prefer. In all other cases, you will have to rebuild your app(s) or Digitise Apps Client and re-download them to your devices in order to continue using them.

 

The standard Digitise Apps Client and each of your Standalone Apps have to be built especially for you to incorporate your Distribution Certificate and Provisioning Profile. We provide a remote automated Build System which you can use to build a copy of the Digitise Apps Client and all your Standalone Apps.

Requests for a Client build or to create Standalone Apps are configured and submitted in App Studio. App Studio will send all the required files to the Build System, hosted by NDL, and consequently you require an Internet connection from the PC running App Studio. Once your Client or app has been built, the Build System will notify you by e-mail and you can download the completed installation package from within App Studio. Files are sent to and from the Build System using a secure SSL connection.

Copies of all your Distribution Certificates and Provisioning Profiles are uploaded to, and stored on, the Build System where they are accessible to all users of the Build System within your organisation. This prevents you having to upload a Distribution Certificate and Provisioning Profile each time you want to build a Digitise Apps Client or Standalone App.

When you submit a request to build a Standalone App to the Build System, you specify whether you want to build an enterprise or store version of the app and which Distribution Certificate and Provisioning Profile you want to use to sign the app.

When you renew a Certificate or Provisioning Profile you will need to update the Digitise Apps Build System with the new item(s) and regenerate your Client(s) and Standalone Apps within App Studio.

For more information about using the Digitise Apps Build System, see The Digitise Apps Build System - Build Standalone Apps & Pre-Configured Standard Clients.

 

If you are creating a store app, once your app is ready for deployment, you will need to submit the app to the App Store, where it will be reviewed by Apple to determine whether it will be accepted for the Store. Apple reserves the right to reject any app from listing on the Store, if it doesn't conform to their guidelines. For more information about the App Store guidelines, refer to Apple's web site:

https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines

 

Additional information about using Digitise Apps with Apple devices, the developer programs and obtaining Distribution Certificates and Provisioning Profiles can be found in the document Developing Digitise apps for Apple iOS Devices available from the PDFs page of this online help.