Deploying apps to employees testing using InTune 30 day trial - intune

My employer uses InTune to manage company mobile devices. As yet, we have not deployed any apps using InTune.
However, we have developed an app for internal employee use, for iOS, Android and Windows Phone 8.1 and 10).
I was trying to test the roll out myself (I don't have access to the Corporate Outlook Admin account) so I set up a 30 day trial of InTune.
I have a few questions :
It looks like I would need a Enterprise Mobile Code from Symantec to apply to the Windows Phone app before I can delpoy with InTune? (I think I will have to skip this as I can't spend $300 on a test!)
Also, I believe both Android and iOS apps need to be 'wrapped' to be able to deploy to such devices?
Having wrapped them, can I then distribute them to devices using the trial InTune?
Do Windows Phone apps also need wrapping, or can they be distributed as is?
The purpose of this exercise is to prove apps can be rolled out through InTune, and what steps need to be taken to do this.
Note : the app is for employees only and should not therefore be available on the public app stores.
Thanks in advance,

Yes. A Enterprise Mobile Code Signing Certificate is required before you deploy this app to users. You will need this certificate to generate an Application Enrollment token (AET) and sign company apps. Please refer to this guide here for more details.
I think you may have some misunderstanding here. There're two kinds of tools called Intune App warpping Tool and Intune App SDK. They are used for enabling the MAM (mobile application management) features to your app. In other words, you still can deploy your app via Intune even the app hasn't been wrapped or developed with SDK. However, in this case the MAM features like restricting copy & paste operations to the un-managed apps.
Note that the Intune App Wrapping Tool and Intune App SDK only support Android & IOS platforms. It depends on your needs to choose from these two tools. Simply to say, using Intune App Wrapping tool you don't need to access the app's source code but it supports less MAM features compared with Intune APP SDK, it also does not support warpping the apps on the public app store. Click here to know more detailed introductions about these two tools.
Yes of course.
No, as note above. The MAM policies only support IOS and Android devices at this moment. You can only use the feature called Windows Information Protection (WIP) to achieve the similar functions on Windows 10 desktop and mobile platform. More details here.

Related

Chrome ARC, Android -- ways to make paid apps?

I've recently posted my Android app to Chrome Web Store using ARC Welder, and wondering about how I can make it a paid app.
Currently, for Android, I have a free version and an "unlocker" as a separate app on Google Play. The user installs the free version first, and then if he/she decides to "go pro", he/she purchases and installs the "unlocker" which talks to the free versions and activates it into "pro" mode.
So my questions:
When packaging an Android app with ARC, it runs on its own, so there is no way to have a second app ("unlocker") running in the same Android "sandbox", correct?
Is it possible for an Android / ARC app to access "purchased" state via Google Play APIs, say for checking if the user purchased the "unlocker" app on Android?
I assume that the answer is "no", at least for now:
https://developer.chrome.com/apps/getstarted_arc
Since ARC is in Beta, it doesn't support all of Google Play Services yet.
However, here are some available APIs:
Auth (OAuth2)
GCM
Google+ sign-in
Maps
Location
Ads
I don't see licensing APIs here.
I found these links on monetizing Chrome apps:
https://developer.chrome.com/webstore/money
https://developer.chrome.com/webstore/payments-iap
Even if this also applies to Chrome OS (not sure), it seems to require JavaScript coding to talk Chrome Webstore APIs. Is it possible to access those from inside the Android ARC sandbox?
Are there better options that I'm missing?
None? Should I just wait until Android ARC is fleshed out more and hope that it includes support for paid apps?
The direct answers are:
1) You can bundle up two APKs so they both run in the same sandbox. But only one of them is launched as "your app". It is free to then launch or otherwise use the second APK as it sees fit.
2) But as you noticed, there is no way to easily check for a purchase/license right now.
Your best bet may be to wait for the Google Play Services license APIs to be implemented.

Cross Platform Desktop Application Development

I’d like to develop Windows 8 applications and have them hosted on Azure as if they were any other website, i.e. accessible to Macs, PCs, etc. I don’t want to be limited to people downloading Windows 8 applications to a Windows 8 PC or device. Can you explain how Azure achieves this?
I’d like to develop Windows 8 applications for desktops, but not be limited to running them on Windows 8 PCs and devices.
Thanks
Azure doesn't achieve this at all, other than providing a public endpoint for access to 'code'. What you have up in the cloud will depend on what you want to achieve and who you want to reach.
You mention web site and application, but those connote two very different architectures.
A web site will give you the most reach since you'll (presumably) be using standards like HTML5/JavaScript and CSS that are available on a multitude of platforms. As you can see by using applications like outlook.com, the user experience can be quite immersive. With a web site there's little to no client-side requirements other than a browser.
An application typically implies native installation on the target machine and provides the richest possible experience because you use techniques, frameworks, and APIs that are specific to a platform or a device. Applications also (arguably better than web sites) enable reach and monetization via marketplaces like Apple's App Store, Google Play, and the Window Store.
Technologies like Silverlight and Flash were part of the RIA wave (Rich Internet Application) that was a hybrid of both: use the web for reach, and a plug-in for richness. Those are still valid models, but the tide is shifting to HTML5 which is now much closer to reality and narrows the user experience gap that Silverlight and Flash filled. While Silverlight is definitely supported (in an out-of-browser mode as well), the choice of using a plug-in technology will limit your audience because of platforms supported and the need for an additional installation. That may or may not be acceptable given your target application.
What we are seeing now is a trend toward mobile application development paradigms - native still, of course, but also hybrid applications such as afforded by PhoneGap, AppMobi, Sencha, and other HTML5 frameworks and cross-platform options like Xamarin. Each of these allows you to develop in the language and constructs you know well for a given platform, but create applications which are partially or wholly 'native' and can run on multiple devices and platforms. Typically, you will reuse much of your 'back-end' and data integration layers across you targeted platforms, but rework the user interface to be in-line with the expectation for the device.
Windows Azure figures prominently in the development of such apps by providing infrastructure for data storage, services, identity management, push notifications, and other facilities that rely on centralization and scale.
And I suppose there's one other option in all this, virtualization, but that's a larger hurdle for end users and wouldn't recommend that as a general approach.
You can create Silverlight apps, it runs in browser. So it can be open Windows PC as well as in Mac. Do visit Microsoft Silverlight website. Here's few links regarding Azure with Silverlight.
Silverlight in the Azure cloud
Microsoft Silverlight 5 and Windows Azure Enterprise Integration
Windows Azure with Silverlight End To End Demo
More you google, more you will get results.

How to deliver WP app to customer without publishing in Marketplace?

Now, to deliver each build to customer, i am publishing it on marketplace as beta version, so only i and customer can download it. Submission requires about 24h.
Is there any other way to install build to customer's phone to avoid this time lag?
I believe the only way to possibly do this is to register the client's device under your app hub developer account and deploy it manually.
This is not ideal.
Unfortunately there is no side-loading concept (or at least wasn't as part of WP 7.5) that allows you to ignore the app store.
This particular link suggests that side-loading will exist in WP8, though I personally don't know if it is enabled.

Does the Windows Phone platform support limited/beta releases for app developers?

I am interested in developing an app for Windows Phones, and was wondering if they support the concept of limited/beta releases for their app developers? By this, I mean the ability to deploy a beta or demo version of my app to a limited/restricted audience, such as business partners, customers, external beta testers, etc. Nothing in their SDK documentation indicates either way. Thanks in advance!
You can create a Beta App submission in the Dev Center, and by adding certain Live Ids, limit the access to your application and make it available to your Beta Testers. See the following for more information :-
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/help/jj215598%28v=vs.105%29.aspx

Is there any way to deploy a Wp7 app to a phone without publishing or using Visual Studio?

I have a Wp7 app (ready in a xap), and I'd like to give it to a client, so he can use it in 5-10 devices. But it is an "internal" client for our service, so I'd rather not publish it on WP Marketplace for all to see...
Is there any reasonable way to do this?
when you upload app on marketplace you can set it as private so only users with direct link can see/install it. There was an app which hacked WP7 that allows you to install apps without marketplace but I've heard it's not legal anymore*.
*search for it because I'm not sure about this one.
edit: http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/01/02/chevronwp7.runs.out.of.tokens.may.not.renew/
Maybe you can try http://labs.chevronwp7.com/
EDIT : Sorry, it seems that all tokens are sold out, so this is not solution for you.
As pointed out by others, you can publish a application on the marketplace as a beta, allowing 5 users to test it using their Live IDs.
But all unlocked phones can have a XAP installed. Generally, Windows Phone applications aren't designed for internal distribution. If you don't intend to publish the application on the marketplace at any point, you need to estimate in the cost of $100 per phone, per year, for the usage of your application.
I'll recommend you contact Microsoft, if you need a specialized deal.

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