Delivering Applications via a Direct Install URL
While you will typically deliver applications via the App Catalog, you may need to deliver an application to someone who is not an Digital.ai App Management user and cannot log in to the App Catalog. For this use case, you can enable Direct Install. Direct Install is supported with native iOS, Android, and Windows. Enabling an application for Direct Install allows users to install it on their devices via a Direct Install URL—with no App Catalog and without having to authenticate with Digital.ai App Management.
When an application is enabled for Direct Install, an install URL appears on the app details page. Anyone who knows the Direct Install URL will be able to download and install the latest version of the application. Note that when users install an app via Direct Install, they are not notified when the app is updated in Digital.ai App Management unless the Self Updating App for unregistered users policy is applied to the app. For information on the Self Updating App policy and other policies that are supported for users who install an app via a Direct Install URL or some other mechanism outside of Digital.ai App Management, see Using Policies with Unregistered Users.
Do not enable an application for Direct Install if you want to restrict installation of the app to authenticated users only.
See the procedure below to enable an app for Direct Install. To monitor Direct Install activity, run the Direct Install Activity report.
Enable Direct Install
The following procedure describes how to edit an application to enable it for Direct Install. Note that you can also enable an application for Direct Install when you initially add it to Digital.ai App Management.
To enable an app for Direct Install
- On the Admin Portal navigation bar, click Applications.
- Click the Edit link next to the application you want to enable for Direct Install.
- Expand the Application field.
- Select the Direct Install check box.
- Click OK to save your change.
Once the app is enabled for Direct Install, the Direct Install URL appears on the app details page. You can distribute this URL to the appropriate users.
With iOS apps, the Direct Install URL uses the itms-services protocol. When viewed in the default iOS mail client, the full URL displays as a clickable link that opens a Safari browser and prompts the user to install the app. On other email clients (such as Gmail or Outlook), the full URL does not display as a clickable link; to go to the URL, the user needs to copy it and paste it into a Safari browser. To ensure that the URL is a clickable link regardless of the email client it is viewed in, you can send it in its shortened version. For information on a URL shortener that works with the Direct Install URL, contact Customer Support.
If an app is disabled or deleted, users will receive an error message if they try to download the app via a Direct Install URL.
Run a Direct Install Activity Report
The Direct Install Activity report lists the following information about applications that were downloaded via a Direct Install link rather than through the App Catalog:
- Name and version of the app
- Application ID (Shows the bundle ID for iOS apps and the package ID for Android apps. This column is blank for Windows 8 apps.)
- Date and time of the install
To run a Direct Install Activity report
- On the Admin Portal navigation bar, click Reports.
- On the Reports page, click Direct Install Activity to view an HTML report. See Run an Instant Report for guidelines on using report tools for sorting and filtering data, and for downloading data to a CSV file.