I have a question regarding to native app version management and direct update on Mobilefirst 8.0.
We may publish native app updates every couple weeks. We want to avoid creating a new app version on mobilefirst console (1.0, 1.1.. etc), unless the update is significant enough for us to force users to update (disabling older version on mfp console.) To achieve that, we have been updating android-versionCode and ios-CFBundleVersion in config.xml while keeping "version" the same. All works fine for previous versions of MFP (6~7). Direct update works as expected.
However, for MFP 8.0 we noticed following scenario behave abnormally.
Package app v1.0 with web_resource v1.0. Submit to app store.
Build web_resource v1.1, upload to MFP console.
--- Download app from app store, direct update triggers without a problem.
Package app v1.2 with web_resource v1.2. Submit to app store. (Note app "version" doesn't change, no new app created on MFP console)
--- new app goes on app store, user receives update notification and decides to ignore it.
Build web_resource v1.3, upload to MFP console.
User decides to open app and receive direct update for web_resource v1.3.
User finally decides to update app through app store.
--- After updating the app, the app runs web_resource v1.2 instead of v1.3. And no direct update triggered. This is not what we expected...
I understand this app version management may not be officially supported but there is an obvious reason we are doing it this way, that is to keep the MFP console app versions from going out of control.
The question becomes.. why didn't app run web_resource v1.3 after step 6? The app storage is never cleared as far as I can tell so web_resource v1.3 should still exist. Even if web_resource v1.3 is invalidated after app update, app should still starts and ping MFP server with web_resource v1.2 and triggers direct update to download web_resource v1.3.
Is there some underlying mechanism that's causing this? I suspect there is another "timestamp/last updated time" stored somewhere that's causing this. I hope this can work as it was in MFP 6~7.
Related
Today we have an app in applestore with a version labeled as 7.6.2 and internal build number as 1.0.0. We are using mobilefirst 7.1 to develop. Problem is that now we have a new app, that is 7.6.2.1, but we would like to know if is possible continue to use 7.6.2 app from applestore onto 7.6.2.1 mobilefirst app (asking it because we would like to keep our customers using just a single app from applestore). We also have an app on google play and would like to apply same idea.
Maybe this is an edge case, so do we have a way to control this directupdate by ourselves?
Customization of direct update is limited to the UI and options when you receive a direct update push.
As for version management, if both versions 7.6.2 and 7.6.2.1 are deployed in the MFP server, end users can have these versions deployed on their devices. Direct update or other configurations can be separately configured for these different versions.
However, if an end user is on v 7.6.2 and they take an update from AppStore or Playstore, and the version on the device becomes v7.6.2.1, this updated application on the device will start connecting to only v7.6.2.1 in the server. And only direct updates this version on the device ( 7.6.2.1) will receive are the ones uploaded to 7.6.2.1 in the server.
Direct update feature is meant only to push small web resources changes into your application. If the MFP Application Version numbers for both app versions(i.e 7.6.2 and 7.6.2.1) are different, you can continue to use both the versions and push direct update indvidually based on version number.
(1). MobileFirst APP will crash or unstable (sometimes) when the following conditions occur :
We used WL.Client.connect API to trigger direct update at the same time when iOS native code is running (some native process we wrote) .
(2). We found that different version of timestamp will not trigger direct update. for example:
Our MobileFirst console version is 7.1.0.00-20151107-1647.We deployed wlapp(builded by 7.1.0.00-20151107-1647 Studio) to that console.
If the mobile client APP version is 7.1.0.00-20151114-1616 then the direct update won't trigger
Should we make sure that MobileFirst server and client version must be the same?
If so, How to deal with old MobileFirst version APP in Apple store or Google Play to connect new version of MobileFirst server and make sure the direct update , notify and remote disable still work.
If the Studio build that you're using contains fixes/changes to the underlying native component of MobileFirst, then Direct Update may not work. You can see this when building in Studio - you get a warning stating this.
In such cases you will need to up the environment version value in application-descriptor.xml and upload a new .ipa/.apk to the App Store/Google Play.
I am testing WSO2-Emm system for managing our android mobile app. We have an app for taxi drivers. We deploy it using our tablets and a single gmail account. Our problem is that google allows up to 10 signed in devices for a single google account.
I have tried to load the apk to the WSO2 store. The problem is that when I want to upload a new version of the same app I get a warning message saying that this APK already exists in the store. When I try to rename it and add it as a new apk it works. The problem is that when I go to App-Management, the application appears under 'installed'. The Emm system doesn't detect there is a new version.
To be more specific, my question is is there a way to manage mobile application versions using the WSO2 store and not the google play store.
If there is a way we can go on with this system. If not, we will stop testing it.
The only way I've figured out how update an already installed app is by going to the App Management tab, selecting your latest version of the app in question, and hitting the install button under the Roles tab (NOT the Users tab). It will send the install command to any devices listed under roles you have checked, even if they already have the app installed. Keep in mind this will install the app on all the devices, even devices that already have the version you're trying to put out.
It looks like you already know about the patch on EMM-686 that must be implemented in order to upload multiple versions of the same app to the Publisher. Just in case you want to confirm it's implemented correctly, see my answer here for instructions on how to implement it.
When looking at the contents of Version 6.1.0 Fix Pack 1, it doesn't appear to list PI06519 as one of it's constituents, yet when applying the fix pack in a bid to address the slow start up issue, it appears to fix the problem.
Is this supposed to be the definitive list of the contents of the fix pack and is simply an oversight, or should I be looking somewhere else for the full contents of it?
There is some problem with listing this APAR in the list of fixes which has yet to be resolved.
Here is a copy of the fixed APARs in Worklight 6.1.0.1:
Changes since: 6.1.0.0
Fixes (APARs):
PI12596 A HYBRID APPLICATION MAY FORCE CLOSE OR FAIL TO CAPTURE DATA WHEN RETURNING FROM THE CAMERA VIEW.
PI12471 RICH PAGE EDITOR'S PERFORMANCE SUFFERS WHILE TYPING.
PI12337 WHITE LINE AT THE BOTTOM IN IOS 7.1
PI11962 SECURITY ISSUE WITH WORKLIGHT CONSOLE
PI11561 STUCK IN A DIALOG ENDLESS LOOP IN ECLIPSE WORKLIGHT PREFERENCES
PI11502 EVENT LISTENERS ATTACHED WHEN CONNECT() IS INVOKED BUT NEVER UNBOUND.
PI11350 IN THE WL STUDIO WITH BUILT-IN SERVER, THE FEATURE OPEN WORKLIGHT CONSOLE DOES NOT START THE SERVER AUTOMATICALLY.
PI11168 WORKIGHT PAGE DOES NOT RESPOND TO CHANGING RICH PAGE EDITOR DEVICE ORIENTATION TO PORTRAIT
PI10959 JSONSTORE FAILS TO REMOVE ALL DOCS IN THE DOC ARRAY WHEN A DOC ARRAY IS PASSED
PI10818 FAILURE WHEN DEPLOYING WORKLIGHT APPLICATION ON WORKLIGHT PUREAPPLICATION PATTERN WHEN SCALING POLICY IS IN EFFECT
PI10775 SERVER CONFIGURATION TOOL DEPLOYMENT CAN NOT PROCEED WHEN USING DB2 DATABASE IF DB2 INSTANCE OWNER ID DOES NOT HAVE SSH ACCESS
PI10398 PROBLEM CUSTOMIZING TIMEOUTS WITH WL.CLIENT.CONNECT API.
PI10149 MOBILE BROWSER SIMULATOR IS BLOCKED IN BROWSER WHEN USING ORACLE JAVA 7 UPDATE 51 WITH "HIGH" SECURITY SETTING
PI10127 NATIVEPAGE FEATURE DOES NOT WORK PROPERLY ON WINDOWS PHONE 8
PI09913 WORKLIGHT UNDER HIGH VOLUMES SHOWS MEMORY INCREASE WHEN REPORTING ENABLED
PI09863 IF REMOVING THE OPTIONAL FIELD "BADGE", AN ERROR IS RECEIVED: "MANDATORY FIELD 'BADGE' NOT FOUND."
PI09770 IOS PUSH NOTIFICATION ERROR AFTER UPGRADING OR APPLYING FIX
PI09711 [WINDOWS 8] - CANNOT OPEN A WL.SIMPLEDIALOG AFTER IT WAS OPENED AND CLOSED
PI09666 ADDING ENVIRONMENT WAITS ON "BUILD PREVIEW PAGES"
PI09569 WHEN BACKEND IS STALE/SLOW UNDER LOAD THEN GOES BACK TO NORMAL SERVER CANNOT RECOVER UNTIL RESTART
PI09530 ADAPTER INVOCATION IS FAILING IN IOS 5 IN WORKLIGHT 6.1 ENVIRONMENT.
PI09432 CALLING ACQUIREPOSITION AFTER STARTACQUISITION HAS BEEN CALLED WITH A GEO POLICY, MAY NOT ACTIVATE TRIGGERS FOR NEW POSITIONS.
PI09373 RARELY, ON NATIVE ANDROID, MULTIPLE SUCCESS CALLBACK EXECUTIONS CAN TAKE PLACE FOR WLDEVICE.ACQUIREGEOPOSITION.
PI09372 IN NATIVE ANDROID, USE OF THE WLGEOACQUISITIONPOLICY MUST BE DONE IN A LOOPER THREAD.
PI09370 WHEN USING GEO DWELL TRIGGERS, WLGEOFAILURECALLBACK INSTANCES MAY BE EXECUTED AFTER WLDEVICE.STOPACQUISITION() IS CALLED.
PI09356 ADAPT APPLICATION CENTER PUBLISH SHORTCUT TO HANDLE XAP FILES
PI09349 WHEN IMPORTING THE IBMAPPCENTER HYBRID PROJECT, AN INCORRECT WARNING SUGGESTS TO INCREASE THE VERSION
PI09326 APPCENTER OTA INSTALLER: TITLE TRUNCATION ON DETAILS VIEW
PI09325 APPCENTER CLIENT TABLET PORTRAIT, BUTTON TRUNCATION ON DETAILS VIEW
PI09324 APPCENTER CLIENT IOS: DATES APPEAR A PHONE NUMBERS
PI09323 APPCENTER OTA CAN START IN TABLET MODE ON A PHONE IN LANDSCAPE ORIENTATION.
PI09321 WORKLIGHT APPCENTER MOBILE CLIENT: AFTER SENDING A REVIEW, THE APP IS MISSING FROM LISTS IF ITS POSITION CHANGED
PI09315 APPLICATION CENTER MOBILE CLIENT ON TABLET: SOME APPLICATIONS MAY NOT BE DISPLAYED IN CATALOG.
PI09233 WORKLIGHT SERVER THROWS EXCEPTION WHEN RE-AUTHENTICATING WITH THE ANTIXSRF REALM
PI09224 WHEN MIGRATING A PROJECT FROM WORKLIGHT 6.0 TO 6.1, AN ERROR OCCURS STATING THAT THE UPGRADE PATH IS NOT SUPPORTED
PI09029 IOS APP LINK FAILS WHEN SETTING IOS DEPLOYMENT TARGET TO 7.0
PI08960 WL RUNTIME LOGS THE FULL CLIENT REQUEST WHEN AN ERROR HAPPENS
PI08819 INCORRECT DATA MAY RETURNED WHEN SUBSCRIBING/UNSUBSCRIBING FOR SMS EVENTS
PI08807 DESIGN PANE FOR JSF PAGES FAILS TO UPDATE
PI08806 INACCURATE JSP VALIDATION
PI08789 FIX WLJQ.JS TO SUPPORT WINDOWS 8 AND WINDOWS PHONE 8
PI08777 "ITMS-SERVICES" PROTOCOL DOES NOT WORK
PI08689 INCORRECT DATA MAY BE RETURNED FROM THE SERVER TO THE APPLICATION
PI08685 IMPROVE PERFORMANCE WHEN USING THE IBM SDK FOR JAVA
PI08632 APP CLIENT CLOSES WHEN CONNECTING TO SERVER WITH ANALYTICS ENABLED.
PI08609 CLUSTER SYNC TASK REPEATEDLY TRIES TO DEPLOY OLD APP FROM THE DB TO A NEW PROJECT
PI08601 WL.SERVER.INVOKEHTTP WITH DELETE METHOD DOESN'T ACCEPT QUERY PARAM
PI08583 BLACK LINE APPEARS AT TOP OF SPLASH SCREEN ON IPAD RUNNING IOS7
PI08580 ECLIPSE CRASHES WHEN OPENING WORKLIGHT APPLICATION FRAMEWORK VIEW.HTML ON WINDOWS
PI08574 FAILURE TO MIGRATE WORKLIGHT PRE-5.0.5.0 APPLICATIONS TO WORKLIGHT 6.1.0.0
PI08511 OLD LTPA TOKEN IS BEING USED WHEN USER LOGIN AGAIN WITHIN A MINUTE OF LOGOUT
PI08189 ERROR WHEN CONNECTING TO SERVER AFTER SETTING APP TO ACTIVE IN THE CONSOLE.
PI08127 SLOW SERVER PERFORMANCE AND REPEATED DATABASE QUERIES WHEN REMOTE DISABLE IS ENABLED
PI07660 MISSING API GETDEFAULTMOBILECONFIGURATION4ANDROID_IOS() IN LOGINCONFIGURATIONSERVICE INTERFACE
PI07549 SHELL COMPONENT CHANGES ARE NOT SHOWN PROPERLY IN BROWSER DURING PREVIEW
PI07263 SCREEN TURNS BLACK ON IPAD DURING DIRECT UPDATE
PI07256 INAPPBROWSER NOT ABLE TO OPEN LOCAL URL LINKS ON ANDROID 4.4
PI06943 DIRECT UPDATE NOTIFICATION WHEN NONE AVAILABLE, THEN FAILS UPON UPDATE ATTEMPT
PI06828 ANT DEPLOMENT TASKS DON'T WORK WHEN CONSOLE IS PROTECTED WITH LTPA AUTHENTICATION
PI06652 DIRECT UPDATE ALLOWS USERS TO KEEP USING OUTDATED VERSIONS.
PI06586 INCORRECT PUSH NOTIFICATION RECEIVED WHEN MULTIPLE WL APPS ON AN ANDROID DEVICE
PI06568 DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF A WORKLIGHT APPLICATION ENVIRONMENT GET WR ONG SECURITY TEST IF SECURITY TEST IS CHANGED BETWEEN VERSIONS.
PI05454 WORKLIGHT APPLICATION CENTER ON LIBERTY PROFILE 8.5.5 PRODUCES "LAST-MODIFIED" DATES IN BAD FORMAT.
PI05447 NULLPOINTEREXCEPTION OCCURS WHEN CALLING WL.SERVER.LOGACTIVITY.
Status: Fix Pack
Additional Information: Please see http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27028172 for information on installing the fix.
With Direct Update, the mobile application can be automatically update with a new version of the web resources. In order to update the native resource, a new version of application must be uploaded to application store.
Consider the case that I have an update for my Worklight app with both native and web resources code update which has already been in application store.
Questions:
Is the following a correct way to update the app?
Step 1. Package the app in .ipa / .apk (with native + web code) and submit to application store
Step 2. Deploy an updated .wlapp file (with web code) to Worklight Server.
In application store, I can specify the application version when uploading the application. Will the application version be incremented automatically once I deploy the .wlapp to Worklight Server?
If the user does not update his application in application store and open the application, since there is a new web resource update in Worklight Server, it means that there will be a direct update alert box to prompt the user to download the latest application and in this case only web resource will be downloaded. There are some problems when the native code and web code are correlated?
Thanks a lot.
This would essentially be the correct order of steps, yes.
However, since you say you're updating both the native and web resources, I would make sure that the existing app can work with just the web resources update (without updating the native), because once deploying the .wlapp to the Worklight Server, existing users will receive a Direct Update.
If this scenario is not one you want to support, then in application-descriptor.xml you should also up the value of the version=" " attribute in the environment's element. When building the app after doing so, this will create a new .wlapp (for example: myProjectNameMyAppName-1.1.wlapp instead of ...-1.0.wlapp).
This means that the existing 1.0 users will not receive any Direct Updates, unless you deploy an updated ...-1.0.wlapp to the Worklight Server.
In relation to the above, no, the application version is not incremented automatically, it is something you need to control manually.
Also, I don't think the version value is something you control in the application store interface...
IFAIK the application version is changeable in Xcode prior to creating the .ipa for iOS and in AndroidManifest.xml prior to generating the .apk for Android (and in similar fashion for other environments).
EDIT: Actually... I think that changing the version value in application-descriptor.xml will also up the application's version number. Need to look at the end result (in AndroidManifest.xml or the Xcode project, in Xcode).
This would really depend on the behavior of your application and how resilient you've written it to be in the face of updates. I have slightly covered this in #1 above.
Other than talking about it theoretically I would suggest taking the jump actually upload an app to an application store, and test it privately, of course. This would be the most convenient to do using Google Play where publishing an app is near-instant.