- Sign up to the Apple Enterprise Development Program. Key points to note are:
- The cost is $A299 per year (NOT any other option)
- The organisation must have a DUNS number from Dun & Bradstreet
- The organisation is limited to In House distribution
- The organisation must only distribute the app to employees (no third parties)
- All collateral requirements are the same as submitting an app to the iTunes app store
- Full details are found in the document http://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/enterprise/
- Create Certificates and In House provisioning profiles for the app to be distributed This is done via the iOS membership/provisioning portal, to which the client organisation is given access upon being accepted by Apple. It involves filling in a few text fields with information identifying the app and the organisation.
- Prepare your package of images to be used with the application. This includes the splash screens (horizontal and vertical) and icon. Please ensure that these images are the recommended sizes as described in "What are the Application Shell artwork sizes?". Non recommended sizes will result in the images being distorted or rejected by the Blink App Shell Portal process.
- Register at the Blink App Shell Portal and build your iOS app shells.
- Once build you can then distribute your apps via your own Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution or the Apple App Store via Apple iTunes Connect.
Further notes on Apple Enterprise Distribution.
Note that a decision needs to be made as to where the app will be downloaded from, and what authorisation is required to download the app.
The following points should be considered:
- If the app accesses Enterprise Systems or confidential information the app should probably only be available for download behind the corporate firewall.
- If the app is downloaded from an external provisioning website, then the download should probably be over an SSL link only accessible after logging in via corporate authenticated credentials.
The easiest way for an iOS device user (iPhone, iPad) to get an app installed is via an Over The Air (OTA) download. This is as simple as clicking on a link in an email or a web page.
The alternate and more traditional approach is to install the app via either iTunes or the iPhone Configuration Utility – both of these methods require that the device be physically connected to a desktop computer (Windows or Mac OS) that has iTunes or the iPhone Configuration Utility installed.