Update Configurations for Private Mobile Apps – App47, Inc.

Introduction

This article explains how to manage the configuration groups for a specific mobile app in your account.

Configuration Groups

Remote configuration is one of the unique features of the App47 service. It allows an administrator to manage the configuration of a mobile app remotely based on a policy. A configuration group consists of an unlimited number of configuration items and a set of rules that make up the policy for the configuration group. Configuration items may be string, number, date, on/off switch, or a file.

Some common uses of configuration groups are:

Back-End System Connections - Configuration information for communicating with back-end systems, such as a URL, JDBC connection string or host name.
UI A/B Testing - Configuration information is pushed out immediately, you can switch between A and B modes within your UI for a real time comparison of UI effectiveness.
Content Update - using the file type for the configuration, you can update sounds, help files, movies or other file based content to your application without having to update your mobile App.
Feature Enablement - turn features on or off based on real time behavior. For example, if several ad networks are being used simultaneously, and one of those networks is causing your App to crash, turning off that feature would prevent the Ad network from loading.

We will be using the Milton App for example here, it is a free mobile App that allows you to explore all the features of the service.

View Apps That Can be Configured

Under the Manage selection in the header banner, navigate to the Configuration tab.
Select a private app from the For app drop down selection to view or manage its configurations.

The configuration settings for the selected app will be displayed.

Search for app configuration groups

Under the Manage selection in the header banner, navigate to the Configuration tab.
Select a private app from the For app drop down selection to view or manage its configurations.

Locate the search text field on the upper right, immediately above the user list area.
Click in the Search text field area in the upper right and type the name of the configuration group you are searching for. As you type, the list will be filtered to match the text entered.

Remove the text to clear the search.

About Group Actions

Group actions allow you to take one of the following actions for one or more groups currently selected.

The actions are:

Activate - Make the configuration group Active, meaning it will be downloaded to all mobile Apps that match the policy.
Deactivate - Make the configuration group Inactive, meaning it will NOT be downloaded to a mobile App, regardless of the policy.
Delete - Will delete the selected configuration group(s).

Under the Manage selection in the header banner, navigate to the Configuration tab.
Select a private app from the For app drop down selection to view or manage its configurations.

Click on the selection box to select one or more configuration groups in the list.
Use the action pull down list to choose your action.

Click on the OK button to confirm your action.

How to Add a New Configuration Group

Under the Manage selection in the header banner, navigate to the Configuration tab.
Select a private app from the For app drop down selection to view or manage its configurations.

Click on the New configuration group link in the lower left.
- See the Anatomy of a Configuration Group subsection below for details on configuring a configuration group.
Click on the Save button to add this configuration configuration group.

Anatomy of a Configuration Group

A configuration group consists of meta data, one or more configuration items and a set of rules that determine the policy of the configuration group.

Metadata

Name - Name of the configuration group, this will be used in your mobile App to find the configuration items in this group.
Active - If this configuration group is active or not. If active, the rules will be used to determine which App instances received this configuration group.
Version - Automatically incremented for each change that is made. Used to determine when a new configuration group should be updated on the App.

Configuration Items

A configuration group can contain one or more configuration items.

Key - The name of a configuration item within this group.
Type - The type of configuration item.
Value - The value of the configuration item.

Policy

The rules for the configuration group dictate which App instances will receive this configuration group.

App Version - Select the App versions this configuration should be applied to. Select this rule by clicking the checkbox to the left.
OS Version - Select the OS versions this configuration should be applied to. Select this rule by clicking the checkbox to the left.
Platform - Select one or more platforms this configuration should be applied to.