Chapter 19

Deploying Applications Over the Air

What's in this Chapter?

  • Using App Store vs. Ad Hoc vs. Enterprise distribution
  • Creating an in-house catalog for internal apps
  • Facilitating over-the-air app installation
  • Updating management for internal apps
  • Using a third-party solution for creating an app catalog

Now that you've determined the best hardware deployment approach and properly secured and provisioned the devices, it's time to deploy software to the mobile hardware.

First, you'll look at the three deployment models for distributing applications publicly through the App Store, privately for testing through Ad Hoc deployments, and internally to an organization for enterprise applications.

Then you'll look at the mechanics of actually deploying native applications over the air by using a special Apple-provided custom URI scheme, along with an XML-based application manifest file, the binary, and any resources or metadata.

You'll also examine the different approaches for creating an internal app catalog and deploying it, either through a Web Clip or as a native application. After the applications are deployed, you'll look at the different ways the applications can be kept up to date.

And while this is a capability that can be built internally, there is also the option of using a third-party vendor to obtain these features off the shelf.

Selecting the Deployment Model

When it comes to deploying iOS applications, three different deployment models can be used: App Store, Ad ...

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