I am developing apps (for MAC) which will NOT be hosted on the app store.These apps will be installed by dmg file. Can someone please confirm my assumptions?
Even if I dont sandbox the apps, app will still work on OSX 10.7 and above (provided see point 2 below)
If the security setting is "Mac Appstore and identified developer", in a non sandboxed scenario, user needs to right click and open the dmg file instead of double click it and installer can install apps to Application folder. Once installed applications can -
-Interact each other
-Access files
Yes, out of the app store apps don't have to run in sandbox.
The security setting has nothing to do with how your app is installed. If you build a installer (Xcode can do it for you) or you if you send the .app bundle in a dmg to be dragged into applications folder is a thing of your choice. An app that is not running in sandbox can interact with any other app and with any system resource, only limit is user permissions. OS X is still Unix and the fact that app store has rules about sandbox doesn't change the world out of app store.
Related
I have an application written in VB.NET that I want to move to Win10. It will always be a desktop application, however I would like it to have a start icon / tile in Win 10. Looking around I found this exact question which suggests to create a Metro App (now I believe called Windows App) which launches the desktop app. This is also discussed in this thread. So the questions;
These threads are a little old is the best way in Win10 to give a desktop app a Windows App Tile by using a Windows App as the Launcher for the desktop app?
It appears that in Win10 Microsoft has now allowed non-store apps to be installed in Update Security > SideloadApps. This needs to be enabled to install the App, but does this need to be always enabled. For example what happens after install if the user turns it off, will the app then not start?
For example I see in this link that there are 2 Registry keys to change, basically AllowAllTrustedApps and AllowDevelopmentWithoutDevLicense. Is it possible for my desktop installer to change these keys, install the Windows App (and everything else) and then change the keys back again?
Uninstalling? If I created a Windows App which only launched my desktop app then there is a possibility that the user uninstalls or deletes the Windows App, meaning my desktop app would be orphaned and lost. Any suggestion on solving this?
According to your description, I think what you need is Desktop Bridge. There is no need to use a Windows App as the Launcher for the desktop app.
You can try with Desktop App Converter, with this you can bring your existing desktop apps written for .NET 4.6.1 or Win32 to the Universal Windows Platform (UWP).
And after converting, you can replace the Assets generated by Desktop App Converter (DAC) automatically to provide custom Tiles/Icons. For more, you can refer to Manually convert your app to UWP using the Desktop Bridge.
I'm new to windows phone, and I don't have a real device to test on.
I know that one can install .XAP files from SD card.. but does this process reqires internet access to check that the app is on the store or I just installs it as in Android?
Thanks in advance
You can debug your app on your physical device in Visual Studio. Your device has to be connected via usb cabel to your computer and has to be developer unlocked. You can developer unlock your phone with the Windows Phone Developer Registration Tool, which is a part of the Windows Phone SDK. You can find more information about the process here.
No, you cannot install the xap package on other people devices until unless their phones are not developer unlocked. When you build a .xap package in Release mode, you need to first upload it to Store where the Microsoft team checks package for security concerns. Once that has been checked, package verified, then the packages can be installed, basically uploading the app.
To debug the app, its better to unlock your friend's phone and then test it on it. After that if you wish you can also un-register the phone to revert back to original developer locked mode.
There is one more method which I use when my app is completed but do not wish to release the app on store, but instead, I wish that first these apps be used by my friends first, they give feedback and after that I finally submit the app on Store.
To do this, I submit the app in private visibility on Store. There is an option while submitting the app which indicates whether you want that other users can see your app on phone. I mark it Hidden. Once my app is verified and is on store, I download the app from store by going to the appropriate link of app on store which is given in app profile at dev-center. I choose 'Download and Install Manually' option to download the xap. This xap can be installed on other devices without unlocking their device.
I know that Windows 8 apps can't directly launch executable files, but recently I downloaded an app that can launch something similar. The app could launch Steam games (which are run in executable files). I figured out that the app did this because any Steam game can be launched using a URL, for example for Alan Wake the URL is steam://rungameid/108710 (I got this by creating a desktop shortcut for a game in Steam and viewing the shorcut's properties)
How can I create these kinds of URLs for other application .exe files? (using a desktop app is fine, but using a Metro app would be even better)
The technique is known as protocol activation (JavaScript reference | C#/VB/C++ reference) and you set most of this up in the manifest (see image below). If there is only one application that's installed and set up to handle protocol "XYZ" then that app will launch for the given URI; if there are multiple one that can handle it, then the user is prompted for which app they would like to launch.
Jerry Nixon has a great walkthrough on his blog as well.
I have made iOS apps in the past but this is my first desktop mac app. We have a strange problem. I build for archive, validate it and send to test users. The app loads but doesn't get past the splash screen for those users. I tested with two non-developer users on my machine (same machine as development) and the same thing - it stalls on the splash screen in both Lion and Mtn Lion. For the two developer users, it is working fine.
Now something tells me there's a permissions or signing problem. But if that's the case, wouldn't the app not load at all? The other thing is that we are writing to the Library/Application Support folder. For these test users all the files that are supposed to be there are there - so the app is launching and writing.
Does this problem sound familiar at all or any tips on how to diagnose?
is it normal that I have to search "spotify:app:$FOLDERNAME" after each restart of spotify to get my app active again even I "added my application to the sidebar"?
Other apps installed by the App Finder are kept as expected.
Best regards
Yes. The manifest from local apps are read at start. The client removes apps from the sidebar that are not available in the finder.