Mobile App Management provides granular control at the application level, thus enabling the administrators to manage and secure app data. It helps to protect devices and manage data.

The rapidly evolving technology has driven businesses to use various apps throughout their organization. Apps have now become an integral part of an organization to boost productivity. Hence, IT admins are in dire need of a solution that can efficiently deploy, manage, and secure applications.

The comprehensive Applications module lets you install, control, and secure apps seamlessly and silently. This article will guide you to install Android apps on your devices remotely. FieldX simplifies the process for IT admins to install apps to multiple devices.

Steps

• Upload the APK file to any of your File server that is reachable by HTTP protocol with SSL (https).
• Create a Web link in FieldX Files Library.
• Finally, Add new app under Manage Apps section to push the App.

Upload APK to File Server

FieldX does not allow users to upload their Android App (APK file) on our Servers for security and copyright reasons. Hence the installation file should be pushed in any of your private servers reachable on Internet through HTTPS protocol. The link to file should be a direct link. There’s NO support for downloads from Google Drive or Dropbox or any other similar services.

We recommend using Amazon S3 or any Shared File Hosting server. As long as the hosted file is directly reachable from Android client securely, the App will be properly downloaded and installed through FieldX.

Add App Download URL to Files Library

• Go to the Files Library tab
• Click New > Add Web link
• It will prompt you to enter App name and Download URL and hit the submit button with the valid details
  • The download URL should be the directly reachable URL of the Android app (as mentioned in step above)
• Once the URL is verified, the web link will be saved and shown in the list of Files Library
• To edit/delete a link click on the edit/delete icon at the right side column accordingly

Push the App to Devices

The final step is now to push the App to the devices

• Go to Applications page from Side menu.
• Click on Add > New App
• In the form, enter app name and select the file name that was uploaded in above step.
• “Download Order” is optional. The order helps FieldX client in prioritising the download queue.
• Choose the groups from “Select Included Group” dropdown in case you wish to push apps for a group of devices. Leave the dropdown blank in case you want to push app to all devices registered in the portal.
• “Auto Grant Runtime” Permissions, helps enterprises auto grant all the runtime permissions that an app might require.
• “Temporarily Disable App from Install” will disable the app from being installed on the devices. Organizations can use this option to selectively turn-off / turn-on the apps download process on the devices.
• In case the organization is using “FieldX App Store”, then enter the Icon URL, select Category and enter description for the App.

Points to Remember

• Use Amazon S3 or Direct Web Sharing URLs. Avoid using Dropbox or Google drive kind of services that do not provide direct download links
• Same version can be pushed to different groups through Manage Applications.
• Contact FieldX support team if you want to activate the “App Store” plugin.