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, or Windows 8 Universal, directly.

Prerequisites for building the Application Center installer

The Application Center comes with an Android, an iOS, and Windows 8 Universal 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 8 Universal versions of the client.

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

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.

Note: For V8.0.0, use MobileFirst Studio 7.1. You can download MobileFirst Studio from the Downloads page of the Developer Center website. Click the Previous MobileFirst Platform Foundation releases tab for the download link. For installation instructions, see Installing MobileFirst Studio in the IBM® Knowledge Center for 7.1.

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.

Important: 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. For this purpose, you must have the latest version of Microsoft Visual Studio.

Prerequisites specific to Microsoft Windows 8 operating system

The Windows 8 version of the mobile client is included as a .zip archive 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.