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For up-to-date product documentation, see the IBM MobileFirst Foundation Developer Center.


Install the client on an iOS mobile device

We can install the mobile client, or any signed application marked with the installer flag, on your iOS mobile device by entering the access URL in your browser, entering your credentials, and completing the required steps.


Before you begin

Important: To install applications on iOS devices, we must first configure the Application Center server with SSL. See Configure Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).  For experts 

The ibm.appcenter.ios.plist.onetimeurl JNDI property of the IBM® Application Center Services controls whether One-Time URLs are used when the mobile client is installed on an iOS mobile device. Set this property to false for maximal security. When we set this property to false, users must enter their credentials several times when they install the mobile client: once when they select the client and once when they install the client.

When we set the property to true, users enter their credentials only once. A temporary download URL with a cryptographic hash is generated when the user enters the credentials. This temporary download URL is valid for 1 hour and does not require further authentication. This solution is a compromise between security and ergonomy.

The steps to specify the ibm.appcenter.ios.plist.onetimeurl JNDI property are similar to the steps for the ibm.appcenter.proxy.host property. See Defining the endpoint of the application resources.


Procedure

Install the mobile client on an iOS device is similar to installing it on Android, but with some differences. The installer is automatically started directly after download. Your user name and password credentials are requested for almost all the installation steps.

  1. Start the browser on your mobile device.
  2. Enter the following access URL in the address field: http://hostname:portnumber/applicationcenter/installers.html

    Where hostname is the address of the server and portnumber is the number of the port where the Application Center is installed. Your system administrator can provide this information.

    The Application Center also provides an alternative URL for installing the client on a mobile device: http://hostname:portnumber/applicationcenter/inst.html. The page of this URL works better with some older or some nonstandard mobile web browsers. If the page installers.html does not work on your mobile device, we can use inst.html. The page is provided in English only and is not translated into other languages.

    If you open the page with HTTPS and use self-signed certificates, the browser displays a security warning about the SSL certificate, but we can proceed to the website after confirmation that you consent to an unsafe connection.

  3. Enter your user name and password.

    See the prerequisites in The mobile client.

    When your user name and password are validated, the list of compatible installer applications for our device is displayed in the browser. Normally, only one application, the mobile client, appears in this list.

    If you open the page with https:

    • If the web server uses a real SSL certificate that is provided by a trusted certificate authority, proceed to step 5.
    • If the web server uses a self-signed CA certificate, proceed to step 4.

  4. If the web server uses a self-signed CA certificate, install the certificate at least once on the device.

    The Application Center administrator provides the certificate. See Managing and installing self-signed CA certificates in an Application Center test environment for details.

    1. Tap the SSL-Certificate tab and select the certificate.
    2. Tap Install. You do this only once for the device. We can verify whether the certificate is installed by looking in Settings > General > Profiles on the device. This view shows the SSL certificates that the user installed on the device. If the self-signed CA certificate is not installed on the device, the iOS operating system prevents you from downloading the mobile client in the following steps.

      Before we can see the mobile client in the list of available applications, the Application Center administrator must install the mobile client application. The administrator uploads the mobile client to the Application Center and sets the Installer property to true. See Application properties.

  5. Tap the Installers tab and select an item in the list to display the application details.
  6. Tap Install to download the mobile client.
  7. Enter your credentials to authorize the downloader transaction.
  8. To authorize the download, tap Install.

    Figure 1. Confirm app to be installed

    Screen capture showing choices to confirm or cancel the installation.

  9. Enter your credentials to authorize the installation.
  10. Close the browser.

    The app icon appears on the home screen and we can watch the download progress on the home screen.


Results

Note: Installing an application on a device requires a provisioning profile that enables the application to be installed on the selected device. If you accidentally try to install an application that is not valid for our device, some versions of iOS might try to install the application in an endless loop without ever succeeding or indicating any error. The application icon that shows the progress of the installation appears on the home screen, but, because of the endless loop, it is difficult to delete this application icon to stop the endless loop. A workaround is to put the device into Airplane mode. In this mode, the endless loop is stopped and we can delete the application icon by following the normal steps to delete apps on iOS devices.

The installation might be blocked for one of the following reasons:


What to do next

After the mobile client is installed on the device, you can open it.

In general, iOS applications can be installed on the device only if they are signed with a provisioning profile. See Importing and building the project (Android, iOS, Windows Phone).

Since iOS 9, when a company application is opened, depending on the type of the provisioning profile, an Untrusted Enterprise Developer message might display. This message explains that the provisioning profile is not yet trusted on this device. In this case, the application does not open, unless trust is established for this provisioning profile. Establishing trust must be done only once per provisioning profile.

To establish trust for a provisioning profile after the application is installed:

After the trust is confirmed, no application that uses that provisioning profile shows the Untrusted Enterprise Developer message. For more information, see the Apple web site at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204460.

Parent topic: The mobile client