Quick Start Guide
This guide will introduce you to some basic administration tasks in the Admin Portal.
Before you Begin
If you have not yet registered for Digital.ai App Management, contact Customer Support.
Key Concepts
Before you dive in, review some terms we'll use throughout this guide:
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Organization | A single account in the Digital.ai App Management database. Every organization has its own collection of users, groups, apps, and account settings. |
| App Catalog | An app that your users run on their mobile devices to find and install their corporate mobile apps. By default, your organization is set up with a web App Catalog that runs in a browser on any type of mobile device. Using the web App Catalog is the fastest way to get started because you do not need to install anything. Later, you can move to a native App Catalog to take advantage of additional features. For more information, see Managing App Catalogs. |
| Admin Portal | An administrator's control center for managing your enterprise App Catalog. You'll use the Admin Portal to manage the apps in the App Catalog and your users' access to those apps. You can also configure your Digital.ai App Management implementation and run reports for monitoring App Catalog usage within your organization. |
| Administrator | An administrator can log in to the Admin Portal to manage apps, users, groups, categories, and other settings. |
Step 1: Activate Your Account and Log In
Once you've received the "Welcome" email you're ready to activate your Digital.ai App Management account and log in to the Admin Portal. For more detailed instruction, see Log in to the Admin Portal.
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On your computer, open the "Welcome" email that you received when you registered or were invited to Digital.ai App Management by another administrator.
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In the email, click the activation link to activate your account:
- If you are the user who registered for Digital.ai App Management, this opens a browser window to the Admin Portal Login page.
a. The email address you specified during registration is automatically entered in the User ID field. This email address is the unique identifier that you will use to log in to both the Admin Portal and your organization's App Catalog. b. In the Password field, enter the password you defined during registration
- If you are a new user (invited by another Digital.ai App Management administrator), this opens a browser window to the Admin Portal Password Set page.
a. Enter and confirm a new password, and then click Set password.
b. This opens a page for downloading the App Catalog. That page is intended for users opening the email on their mobile device.
c. Instead, go to https://admin.apperian.com/ to open the Admin Portal Login page. Enter the User ID listed in the welcome email and enter the password you just set.
To remain logged in until you click Logout or close the browser, select the Stay Signed in check box. Otherwise, you will be logged out after a few minutes of inactivity.
Step 2: Add an App to the App Catalog
Your organization comes prepopulated with the web App Catalog, but you still need to add apps for your users to download.
In this procedure, you'll add the Wikipedia Mobile public app from the Apple App Store. For more information about all app types supported by Digital.ai App Management, see Managing Applications.
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If you are no longer logged in to the Admin Portal, go to https://admin.apperian.com/ and log in with your user ID and password.
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On the Applications page, click Add Application in the upper right corner to display the Add New Application page.
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From the Application Type list, select Apple App Store.
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In the Apple App Store URL field, enter the following URL and then press Enter:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wikipedia-mobile/id324715238?mt=8
With an Apple App Store app, Digital.ai App Management automatically populates all the required fields (Name, Version Number, Version Notes, Author, Short Description, and Long Description) using values associated with the app. You need to scroll down to see some of these fields. Digital.ai App Management also attaches the app's icon and screenshots that are associated with the app. The screenshots appear in the App Catalog when the user displays details about the app.
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Note the Enabled checkbox (located below the Author field). The Enabled checkbox is selected by default so that the app appears in the App Catalog. When an app is disabled it does not appear in the App Catalog for any users. Disabling an app is useful when you have other actions to perform before you are ready for users to access the app.
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Note the Groups section. The app is automatically added to the "All Users" group—the system's default group. This can be seen after expanding the Groups field. Groups are the connection between individual users and applications. In order for a user to access an app in the App Catalog, the user must be a member of the group to which the application belongs. In this Getting Started guide, you won't create any additional groups but you can learn more about groups in Managing Groups.
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Note the Screen Shots section. Any screenshots associated with the app are automatically added here.
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Click OK to add the app. It now appears on the Applications page.
For more detailed instructions, see Add an Application.
Step 3: Invite a Mobile User
Now the most important part: inviting users to the App Catalog so they can quickly and easily gain access to your company's mobile apps. To invite a user, you add the user to the Digital.ai App Management platform and the system takes care of the rest. Digital.ai App Management sends an invitation email with simple instructions for getting started. For more detailed instructions, see Add a User.
For more information on user roles and the functions associated with them, see Roles.
- If you are no longer logged in to the Admin Portal, go to https://admin.apperian.com/ and log in with your user ID and password.
- Click Users in the navigation bar and then click Add User in the upper right corner to open the Add New User page.
- Complete the following fields:
- First Name
- Last Name
- User ID - Enter a unique identifier for the user. This is the ID that the user will enter to log in to the App Catalog. A common convention is to provide the user's corporate email address as the user ID since it is unique and easy for the user to remember. Some of your App Catalog users, however, may not have corporate email accounts (for example, contractors and partners); you can use any identifier that is unique within your organization in the Digital.ai App Management database. A valid ID is 200 characters or less and does not include spaces.
- Email Address - Enter the user's email address. This field is not required when adding a user, but if you do not provide an email address, Digital.ai App Management can't send an invitation message or other emails to the user. You can enter the user's email address in both the User ID and Email Address fields.
- Phone - (Optional) When a phone number is associated with a user, Digital.ai App Management can send an App Catalog link as an SMS text message.
- In the Role field, keep the default User option.
- In the Groups box, note that the user is automatically assigned to the "All Users" group—the default group you learned about in Step 2. Once you add other groups, those groups will appear in the Groups box and you can to select the groups to which a user should belong. At any point, you can edit an existing user to change the user's group membership.
- Click OK to add the user. You'll see the new user listed on the Users page.
At this point, Digital.ai App Management sends an invitation to the email address you provided for the user. The invitation includes links for activating the user's account and running the App Catalog.
In this procedure, we added an individual user. For information on adding multiple users, see Import Multiple Users.
Step 4: Log In to the App Catalog
Now that you know how to perform some basic administration tasks, let's leave the Admin Portal to get a feel for a mobile user's web App Catalog experience.
You'll need an iOS or Android mobile device to complete this step. If you do not have one of those handy right now, you can come back to this step of Getting Started at another time.
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On an iOS or Android mobile device, open a browser and go to https://appcatalog.apperian.com/.
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Enter the same user ID and password you used to log in to the Admin Portal.
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Once logged in, use buttons in the navigation bar to switch between pages of the App Catalog:
- Popular: Lists the most popular apps in your organization.
- Categories: Organizes apps by category. In the Admin Portal, you can create and manage categories to group and classify apps. For more information, see Managing Categories.
- Search: Find apps in this App Catalog.
- Updates: Lists apps with new versions that are available for installation.
- All: Lists all the apps and other files in the App Catalog that you have permission to access and that can be installed on your type of device.
The first page that you see is the Popular page. If you are logged in from an iOS device, the page lists the Apple App Store app that you added in Step 2. If you are logged in from an Android device, the page does not list the Apple App Store app because that app can't be installed on an Android device.
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If you tap on the Wikipedia app you'll see a page with information about the app and a link for downloading the app from the Apple App Store. App information and download links are also available for Google Play apps on Android devices.
Next Up
You've seen how easy it is to perform some key administration tasks and log in to the web App Catalog.
Digital.ai App Management offers many more features that enable you to manage the complete mobile app lifecycle and empower your mobile workforce. For example, you can:
- Add additional web and native apps.
- Sign apps to ensure safe delivery to your users.
- Control user access to apps by organizing users into groups.
- Create your own app categories.
- Run reports to monitor App Catalog access.
- Apply policies to your apps.
For a list of typical Digital.ai App Management tasks, see App Management Workflow.