Registering Android applications from the MobileFirst Operations Console

Register your Android application to an instance of MobileFirst Server to establish communication with the server and to provide the server with information about your app.

Before you begin

You must have the IBM MobileFirst™ Platform Operations Console running on the MobileFirst Server targeted for registration. For more information, see The IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation Developer Kit.

About this task

You can register an app on the server before or after setting up the Android Studio environment (see Methods of setting up your environment). You must register your app to the server before developing code that accesses server resources.

Procedure

  1. In the MobileFirst Operations Console, navigate to the Register Application page by using one of the following methods:
    • In the navigation sidebar, select New next to Appilcations.
      Console navigation-bar app-registration button
    • From the Dashboard, select Register an App.
      Console dashboard app-registration tile
  2. On the Register an Application page, select the Android option.

    Screen capture of the Register Application page, showing the fields for the app name, platform, package, and version

  3. Fill in the values for the application that you are registering.
    If you created your app by using the Android Studio wizard, the version number and package name and are defined in the app\build.gradle file in your Android Studio project, in the defaultConfig enclosure:
    defaultConfig {
    applicationId "com.example.myapplication"
    minSdkVersion 23
    targetSdkVersion 23
    versionCode 1
    versionName "1.0"
}
    • Application Name: This is for display and can be any convenient value. It is optional.
    • Package: The applicationId value specified in your app/build.gradle. For more information, see http://tools.android.com/tech-docs/new-build-system/applicationid-vs-packagename.
    • Version: The versionName value found in your app/build.gradle.

      If these parameters do not exist in the app\build.gradle, you can find them in the AndroidManifest.xml file.

      <manifest android:hardwareAccelerated="true" android:versionCode="2" android:versionName="0.0.2" ...>
  4. Click the Register application button. From the main Dashboard page, your application is now listed under the default mfp runtime.
    Screen capture showing how a registered app is displayed in the Dashboard
    Note: The mfp runtime is the default value for the WLServerContext parameter in the mfpclient.properties file below.
  5. Click the application name to display the main configuration page for your app. The main page for your app displays different configuration options for the server-side registration of your app.
    Screen capture showing the registered application and its server-side configuration options
  6. Click the Configuration Files tab. The Client Configuration File section displays a template for creating your mfpclient.properties file. This file is used for connecting the client app to the server. For information on populating the values in the file and copying it to your Android Studio project, see Android client properties file.
    Screen capture showing the content of the mfpclient.properties file

Results

The app is registered on the target server.

What to do next

To complete the client-server registration, you must complete the required properties in the mfpclient.properties file and copy it to your Android Studio project. For more information, see Android client properties file.
Parent topic: Registering Android applications to MobileFirst Server