Is there (or will there be) a distribution channel with Windows 8 that allows Metro apps to be built for internal company use only, or for a select group of partners? Or is the app-store the only possible route?
The Primer for current Windows Developers on Microsoft's site indicates that for Metro apps,
Side-loading is available for enterprises and developers.
So, yes, you can side load applications, but it's currently limited to individual developers and enterprise customers.
The TechNet article on Managing the Windows Store provides more details:
Sideloading, which is available in both Windows 8 Consumer Preview and
Windows Server “8” Beta, refers to installing apps directly to a
device without going through the Windows Store. LOB apps do not need
to be certified by Microsoft and cannot be installed through the
Windows Store but they must be signed with a certificate chained to a
trusted root certificate. It is recommended that IT administrators use
the same technical certification that is done by the Windows Store on
LOB apps.
The TechNet Article on How to Add and Remove Apps provides the specifics on how to sign and side load applications on Windows 8 and Windows Server 8.
Related
I am developing Mobile App .Net server and want to use the service on self hosted servers for production usage. The service will be deployed on IIS instead of Azure portal. I am working on offline data sync feature using Microsoft.Azure.Mobile.Server package. And for client Microsoft.Azure.Mobile.Client is being used. And all these packages and dependent libraries are open source as its available on github.
So, what about its licencing? Is there any limitation or licencing clause that restricts from using these applications without Azure portal?
Or its free to use?
As you mentioned, these libraries are open source licensed with Apache 2.0. So, you can use them without any problem, as long as you mention the original authors.
I've seen similar posts but most are for consulting companies who work with clients so the situation is slightly different for us.
We have an onsite developer preparing to design a Windows Metro App to interface with our system. This app will be 100% unique for our business and would serve no public person any purpose. We will be designing this app for our sales team (8-10 users) to use out in the field so as you can tell it is only associated with our business. I believe people have been referring to this as a LOB app. I've seen posts about publishing to the windows store or using a "side-loading" process but one is meant for consumers and the other is meant for enterprise publishing which is way overkill for us.
Can someone please assist me with our options as a small business to publish private apps and deploy them to our own equipment?
I'm open to using the Store but obviously wouldn't want just anyone to be able to download & install our app.
The easiest way for you would be to hide the app in the store. Unfortunately this is only available for Windows 10 apps, not for Windows 8.1!
Is Windows 10 an option for you, maybe? In the developer dashboard you can choose to hide the app but you can access it with a direct link.
I wonder what is the security level for azure hosted websites. Is it Medium/High or Full?
They run in Full Trust (source).
However, they use a Sandbox mechanism, and as a result some APIs are not available (e.g. Sockets using IPv6), or do not work as expected (for example, the Socket.Available property is unavailable, which restricts the use of some libraries such as NetFTP).
If you are considering using WA Websites for scenarios in which .NET Security might be a problem, I suggest you to get in touch with Microsoft support to ensure that the specific features you may need are supported on this environment.
I want to use some of the APIs provided by Firefox OS. But many APIs are accessible only for privileged and certified apps. Firefox OS documentation suggests (as far as i understood) that "the apps which are deployed in marketplace are privileged apps". But how can i deploy an incomplete app to the marketplace without even testing the functionality of those APIs? Is there any other way to access those APIs? Thanks in advance
You can test your app using the FirefoxOS Simulator:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Firefox_OS_Simulator
Depending on the APIs you're testing the simulator can help. Some aren't available due to hardware not being available on a desktop device.
Also, if you are developing a "hosted app", you have access to APIs which use web permissions. If you need more than that you would need to create a "packaged app" with type=privileged and specify which permissions you want access to in your manifest. This is described here: https://marketplace.firefox.com/developers/docs/packaged
The app permissions table will tell you if the APIs you want required hosted, packaged, or certified (only available shipped on device).
I'm currently developing an app which has single sign on via Windows Azure Access Control Service. I am using the Access Control Service for Windows Phone NUGET package (the same control can also be found in the Windows Azure for Windows Phone toolkit).
I am just wondering if there is a new way of doing this in Windows Phone 8?
These current controls haven't been updated for about a year and a lot seems to have changed since then. I have searched but search engines still seem to be returning Windows Phone 7 results mostly.
Azure Mobile Services (still currently in preview) has new functionality designed to help make user authentication easier. See http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/mobile/tutorials/get-started-with-users-dotnet/