Develop Digitise apps for Windows Devices
If you want to run Digitise Apps on Windows desktops, laptops or tablets, you can run the Digitise Apps Client and Digitise Apps Standalone Apps in one of two formats- standard Windows apps or Microsoft Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps.
We refer to the standard Windows versions as 'Windows Desktop' versions and the UWP versions as 'Windows Universal' or 'Universal' versions.
You can choose which of the two formats you want to use for a particular Project. The features, look and feel 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 and the Universal version has a better camera for taking photos and recording videos. If you want to distribute your Digitise apps as Standalone Apps, the Universal version bundles the Digitise Apps Client into the Standalone App install files and only requires you to install the Standalone App whereas the Desktop version requires you to install the Digitise Apps Client separately from the Standalone App. Other differences between the two versions are described where relevant throughout this Online help.
Windows Desktop versions of the standard Digitise Apps Client and Standalone Apps are installed directly onto the PC or device.
UWP versions of the standard Digitise Apps Client are 'sideloaded' to your devices, i.e. they are downloaded and installed directly to the device and not via the Microsoft Store. With Standalone Apps you can choose whether to sideload the apps or install them via Microsoft's app Store.
In order to download a Windows Universal version of an app to a Windows device, the app must be code signed with a security Certificate which validates it as coming from a known publisher. This means that the Digitise Apps Windows Universal Client and Digitise Apps Windows Universal Standalone Apps have to be code signed with an appropriate Certificate. If you will be downloading Digitise apps from within the standard Digitise Apps Universal Client, you do not need to code sign the apps; only the Digitise Apps Client needs to be signed. Windows Desktop versions don't require signing.
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For enterprise Universal apps and the Digitise Apps Universal Client, you can use either a self-signed Certificate or obtain a trusted Certificate from one of the commercial or non-profit Certificate Authorities, such as GoDaddy or CACert. You will also need to install the Certificate on each device that will run a Digitise Apps Client or Digitise app signed with that Certificate.
For store Universal apps you only need to use a self-signed Certificate, you don't need a trusted Certificate from one of the Certificate Authorities, and you don't need to install the Certificate on individual devices.
For enterprise apps and the Digitise Apps Client, Digitise Apps is supplied with a default Certificate, self-signed by NDL, and a version of the Digitise Apps Universal Client signed with this Certificate. You can use the supplied Digitise Apps Universal Client to distribute the standard Client to your developers and users and use the Certificate to produce your own pre-configured versions of the Universal Client and to sign enterprise Universal Standalone Apps.
Alternatively, instead of using our Certificate, you may prefer to create or obtain your own Certificate. Once you have a Certificate you can use it to sign both the standard Digitise Apps Universal Client and enterprise Digitise Apps Universal Standalone Apps.
For store apps, we recommend that you create your own self-signed Certificate, which is slightly different to the self-signed Certificate you can use with enterprise apps, and use that to sign all your store apps.
A Certificate has a life span specified when the Certificate is created. When the Certificate expires you will need to renew it, in order to continue signing with it. Apps which were signed with an expiring Certificate and which have already been installed will continue to run when the Certificate expires but for installations the Certificate must be valid at the time of installing. If your Certificate expires, you will need to rebuild any Universal Clients and Universal Standalone Apps, signed with the expiring Certificate, using a new Certificate, if you will want to install or re-install them after the expiry date.
The supplied NDL Certificate has a life span of approximately 100 years and so is unlikely to need renewing. If you create your own self-signed Certificate you can choose when you want it to expire. Certificates obtained from a Certificate Authority generally have a much shorter life.
If you want to sign the standard Universal Client or enterprise Universal Standalone Apps with your own Certificate or you want to sign an enterprise Universal Standalone App with the NDL Certificate, you can build a Client or app from within App Studio. You can also generate a pre-configured Universal Client with either Certificate in App Studio.
Likewise, when creating store Universal apps, you can build the app and sign it with a specified Certificate from within App Studio.
Building Clients and Standalone Apps in App Studio uses a remote automated Build System hosted by NDL and requires an Internet connection on the development PC running App Studio. Files are sent to and from the Build System using a secure SSL connection.
When you request a build of a Digitise Apps Client or Standalone App in App Studio, App Studio will send the required files to the remote Build System. 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.
If you have your own Certificate, one member of your organisation uploads it to the Build System from where it will be available to other members of your organisation, so you don't have to submit it every time you request a build.
For enterprise apps and Digitise Apps Client builds, the NDL Certificate will be available to all Digitise Apps users by default and so if you don't want to obtain your own Certificate you can always use the NDL Certificate instead. You can use the same Certificate to sign all your Digitise Apps Clients and enterprise Standalone Apps, you don't need to create a separate Certificate for each one.
For store apps, you will need to obtain your own Certificate to sign these apps. This Certificate will also need to be uploaded to, and stored in, the Build System, from where it will be available to all members of your organisation to sign store Digitise apps.
Signed versions of the Digitise Apps Client and enterprise Standalone Apps can be downloaded to devices in a variety of ways, e.g. you can copy the install file directly to the device, use a Mobile Device Management system (MDM), download from an internal web site, deploy by e-mail or download from a Company Hub app.
Signed versions of store apps are downloaded to devices from the Microsoft app Store.
If you use your own Certificate you will need to obtain a new Certificate before your current one expires and update the Build System with the new Certificate. App Studio will show you the date on which your current Certificate expires.
For more information about obtaining your own Certificate refer to the document Developing UWP Digitise apps for Windows PCs and Tablets available from the PDFs page of this online help.
For more information about using the Digitise Apps Build System, see The Digitise Apps Build System - Build Standalone Apps & Pre-Configured Standard Clients.
For more information on requesting Standalone Apps, both enterprise and store, and pre-configured versions of the Digitise Apps Client see Standalone Apps and Build a Pre-Configured Digitise Apps Client respectively.
Once you have finished a store app and it is ready for deployment, you will need to submit it to the Microsoft Store. You must have an active developer account in the Microsoft Partner Center to be able to submit apps to the Store. Microsoft reserve the right to reject your submission and prevent your app from appearing on the Store. For more information about submitting apps to the Store refer to Microsoft's web site:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/uwp/publish
- When building a Windows Universal Platform Standalone App, you can request the ability to directly access files in a device's Documents library from within certain Scripting Methods. If you do this, the procedure for getting approval to upload your app to the Windows Store is slightly different and requires you to justify your request for this capability to Microsoft – see Upload Standalone Apps to the Public Stores for more information.
For details of how to install the Windows Universal Client and Windows Universal Standalone Apps on Windows desktops and tablets, see Install Universal Windows Clients and Standalone Apps.