We have an existing internal web app called http://sexywebapp
The goal is to enable seamless remote access on employee devices to SexyWebApp.
Currently we target native Safari on iOS 8.1+/Android 4.4+.
While we've been able to use Citrix Receiver to get folks using SexyWebApp via Chrome/IE on top of XenApps, it's really clunky. Forcing desktop browsers onto iPhones just isn't going to fly.
Ideally there's a way we could go into iPhone's native Safari and navigate to http://sexywebapp just like we can when physically in the office.
It seems like if we set up a standard VPN this might be possible - any thoughts?
Thanks!
Yes it's certainly possible. If you're looking for a Citrix way of doing this then look at XenMobile and the Worx suite of apps. Citrix WorxWeb is a native browser for your iOS and Android devices. However it uses a micro-VPN to connect into your data-center, allowing you to access internal company web sites.
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This question was asked a couple of years ago (iOS app Blocker possibilities) and I'm wondering if there is anything that has changed in IOS since this question was answered in 2017 that would allow a third party app to prevent an app from being opened or used (that doesnt use the Device Enrolment Program)?
As mentioned in the linked post, the freedom app prevents the use of other apps via a VPN. I am wondering if there is a more straightforward means of a third party app blocking other apps or whether sandboxing means that the use of a VPN is the only way of a third party app blocking other apps?
I am not an expert, but it seems like Freedom is routing an iPhone's network traffic through a "local" VPN. This means that, while you could open an app like Chrome and navigate to google.com, Freedom's VPN would not forward the request.
I haven't installed or tested the app, but their website is carefully worded: "Install App Blocker" to install the Freedom app blocker. This blocks content on other browsers like Google Chrome and for apps."
I read "blocks content" to mean you can open the app, but it will fail to load content without a network connection. I haven't tested, but I suspect that you could still use "offline" apps.
Here is a screen grab of their website.
As you noted, Apple's mobile device management (MDM) solution is capable of preventing apps and other activities. Here is the list for MDM restrictions, and a list of Supervised restrictions.
It's my belief that a third-party app cannot prevent another app from functioning. Freedom is playing a network trick. To stop an app from actually booting would require a jailbreak. But I haven't explored this space in depth.
What are the differences between a PWA and a hybrid app? This question was asked before but I haven't found found a proper answer to my question.
I know a PWA runs in the browser and you get a hybrid app from an app store.
But both are using JavaScript with HTML and CSS and both enable offline support and I can access native features like camera and local storage.
Once I have added a PWA to my Homescreen, it uses a web view to render the app right? And a hybrid app uses a web view as well, so what exactly are the differences between PWA and a hybrid app?
With Ionic I can even use the exact same code for a pwa and a hybrid app...
Roughly it is like this below:
web app (PWA) is just a web-site that declares certain capabilities using manifest file etc which can get it some special treatments (like leverage service worker, sign up for web notifications, go full screen etc IF target browser supports it). As a web-app it is super limited in its "privileges" on a system level (like persistence quota etc)
hybrid app (like Cordova for example) is a binary code that is "wrapping" your web-code and exposes certain "native" SDK capabilities via plugins. You can potentially also write your own plugin and in theory access any native SDK API this way. But since your main app code is still a web-app that runs inside of a webview it still has a lot of penalties like performance etc. But at least you can get things like storage etc.
native app is a binary build using target platform's SDK. That in
theory gives you max access to capabilities and performance at
expense of having to write separate code for each platform.
Makes sense?
Progressive Apps
Today, these apps only work on Opera, Chrome, and the Samsung mobile browser. However, these browsers take up only less than half of the mobile browser market.
In some devices, some of the features will not work. For instance, notifications on iOS devices will not work.
In some apps, cameras, fingerprint scanner, and GPS may not work or work with glitches.
Cordova/ Ionic based hybrid apps
Making the hybrid apps run efficiently on multiple platforms is no easy task. In some instances, it could cost almost the same as running native apps. The cost will depend on how close you want to get to the native app experience.
Since these apps will launch using a browser-like component, they are only as good as the component on which they run. Earlier, Google and Apple did not agree on the WebView. While it has vastly been improved, it does not have the same efficiency as running a native app.
For 'check-in' purposes, my staffs have a mobile device (ios and android) that opens my web app through a browser. They then open a page and it allows them to scan a customer's qr code to check them in. I would like it to have as little user interaction as possible. All they staff needs to do is to keep the webapp open, and scan the qr code. The web app will then call an api on my server which check this customer in. So accessing the camera's view is best, i can then run a qr code scanner.
I've been able to do it for android (using getUserMedia) but it doesnt work for ios. (duhhh)
I'm currently using Vue.js(V1), and would like to keep it as it is.
Hybrid Apps: I've looked at OnsenUI(which seems to only work with vue2), Ionic(which doesnt allow me to build/run ios platform as i am using windows).
webapp is coded with vue.js(v1), running on a tomcat7 server, HTML, JS.
Are there any suggestions?
I've found a way to use Phonegap to allow this.
Edit: Phonegap allows you to create a hybrid app that seems like a native app(ios or android). All i did was install phonegap and used one of their plugins (barcodescanner). This is the refrence i used.
But, from my understanding, You'll need to publish the app on the app store, which is a lot of hassle (and cost money).
I am developing a consumer product.
My product is accessable via any web browser for easy setup.
I've come to the conclusion that it would be smart to actually
use a web interface to view any content of the product.
That way I technically don't need to create specific native apps for
Windows, OSX, iOS or Android, but instead the user uses the web browser.
However, I am wondering if it is allowed to create a native iOS app
that uses an native interface to show a list of devices on the network
where the user can select one of the devices, which then shows a WebKit view that simply
presents whatever Safari would present if the user would've visited
the product manually via Safari.
So the native iOS app would be a hybrid of native iOS app for the sole
purpose of giving the user the option to select one of the available devices on the network, and the rest is handled via WebKit.
Is this allowed by Apple?
I wanted to make an application for the iPad that will be controlled from an iPhone-app. Is there a possibility to access the PhoneGap-App on the iPhone?
I don't want to use an external server because the app should run offline in an Ad-Hoc network.
First I thought of creating a local webserver on the iPad, but I couldn't find anything PhoneGap related. Any Idea?
You were probably on the right track with the web server idea.
I am not sure how well the various solutions are supported in PhoneGap, but I would think you could use some sort of WebSockets implementation for the bi-directional communication between the iPhone and iPad apps.