Preparations for using the mobile client

To use the mobile client to install apps on mobile devices, you must either generate the app by using the provided Eclipse and Visual Studio projects or use the version of the client provided for Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Windows 8, or BlackBerry directly.

Prerequisites for building the Application Center installer

The Application Center comes with an Android, an iOS, a Windows Phone, a Windows 8, and a BlackBerry version of the client application that runs on the mobile device. This mobile application that supports installation of applications on your mobile device is called the mobile client. The mobile client is a MobileFirst mobile application.

The MobileFirst project IBMAppCenter contains the Android, the iOS, and the Windows Phone versions of the client.

The Windows 8 project is provided as a Visual Studio project located at IBMApplicationCenterWindowsStore\AppCenterClientWindowsStore.csproj.

The BlackBerry project IBMAppCenterBlackBerry6 contains the version of the client for BlackBerry OS 6 and OS 7 devices. BlackBerry OS 10 is not supported by the current version of the Application Center.

Prerequisites specific to the Android operating system

The Android version of the mobile client is included in the software delivery in the form of an Android application package (.apk) file. The IBMApplicationCenter.apk file is in the directory ApplicationCenter/installer. Push notifications are disabled. If you want to enable push notifications, you must rebuild the .apk file. See Push notifications of application updates for more information about push notifications in the Application Center.

To build the Android version, you must have the latest version of the Android development tools.

Prerequisites specific to Apple iOS operating system

The iOS version for iPad and iPhone is not delivered as a compiled application. The application must be created from the MobileFirst project named IBMAppCenter. This project is also delivered as part of the distribution in the ApplicationCenter/installer directory.

To build the iOS version, you must have the appropriate MobileFirst and Apple software. The version of MobileFirst Studio must be the same as the version of IBM MobileFirst™ Platform Server on which this documentation is based. The Apple Xcode version is V6.1.

Prerequisites specific to Microsoft Windows Phone operating system

The Windows Phone version of the mobile client is included as an unsigned Windows Phone application package (.xap) file in the software delivery. The IBMApplicationCenterUnsigned.xap file is in the ApplicationCenter/installer directory.

The unsigned .xap file cannot be used directly. You must sign it with your company certificate obtained from Symantec/Microsoft before you can install it on a device.

Optional: If necessary, you can also build the Windows Phone version from sources.

To build the Windows Phone version, you must have the latest version of the Microsoft Visual Studio development tools.

Prerequisites specific to Microsoft Windows 8 operating system

The Windows 8 version of the mobile client is included as an archive (.zip file). The IBMApplicationCenterWindowsStore.zip file contains an executable file (.exe) and its dependent Dynamic-Link Library (.dll) files. To use the content of this archive, you download the archive to a location on you local drive and run the executable file.

Optional: If necessary, you can also build the Windows 8 version from sources. For this purpose, you must have the latest version of Microsoft Visual Studio.

Prerequisites specific to the BlackBerry operating system

The BlackBerry version is included as an archive (.zip) file. The IBMApplicationCenterBB6.zip file is in the ApplicationCenter/installer directory.

Optional: If necessary, you can also build the BlackBerry version from sources by using the BlackBerry project named IBMAppCenterBlackBerry6. This project is delivered as part of the distribution in the ApplicationCenter/installer directory.

To build the BlackBerry version, you must have the BlackBerry Eclipse IDE (or Eclipse with the BlackBerry Java™ plug-in) with the BlackBerry SDK 6.0. The application also runs on BlackBerry OS 7 when compiled with BlackBerry SDK 6.0.

Download the software from: https://developer.blackberry.com/java/download/eclipse/.

  1. Start the BlackBerry Eclipse IDE.
  2. Select Help > Install New Software > Work with: BlackBerry Update Site.
  3. Expand the BlackBerry Java Plug-in Category and select "BlackBerry Java SDK 6.0.x.y."
Parent topic: Application Center