This article would cover Citrix Xenmobile wrapping support for SAP BusinessObjects Mobile Android version. SAP BusinesObjects Mobile for Android starting 6.2.12 release supports Citrix Xenmobile App wrapping. The article would cover up on how to wrap and use the Xenmobile platform with minimal configuration settings required to run successfully the wrapped application and won't focus more from the feature perspectives of Citrix XenMobile platform offerings.
For iOS , please refer to the following article :
http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-74286
Pre-requisites
1. SAP BusinessObjects Mobile Android SDK (Can be downloaded from SAP service market place)
2. Citrix XenMobile Platform for wrapping and applying policies
3. MDX Toolkit (Available from Citrix )
4. Android Studio Installed
What is Citrix XenMobile Platform for wrapping :
Mobile application management allows you to securely manage and deliver mobile apps to users. Citrix Xenmobile provides is a cloud based platform which helps wrap applications helping in enhancing security(customized) and enforce policies specific to organizations and as the apps can be distributed to to the enterprise users securily through the CitrixWorx app . Its easy for larger organizations consuming multiple applications which helps them unify the experience with common security and policies for distribution and accessing the application with managed controlled timely updates to their deployed apps. Applications can be wrapped with Citrix Xenmobile platform using the citrix MDX Toolkit, ones.The MDX Toolkit inserts logic and policies into each mobile app. The wrapped MDX toolkit app has to be uploaded to the Xenmobile platform for applying different policies and as well as assigning the distribution details.
How to make SAP BusinessObjects Mobile for Android work
On high level, I have divided this process into four steps namely :
- Getting SAP BusinessObjects Mobile BI for Android APK.
- Wrapping with MDX Toolkit.
- Uploading to Xenmobile Platform and Configuarations.
- Wrapped app distribution.
Lets begin !!!
Step 1 :
Please go to SAP service market place and download the SAP BusinessObjects Mobile for Android SDK . SAP Bi Android SDK project made made simple for usage so that it helps you do some cusmizations on top of our native offering of our app in the Google Playstore and if not interetsed in any customization, you can extract the built APK from the project and use it for your distribution/wrapping .
SDK project is a ZIP file which needs to be unzipped and imported into Android Studio for getting the project ready . Once imported, its a Android project in itself having libraries consisting of SAP Bi Mobile core content and a few properties file for customizations. For in-depth details on how to setup this project, Please refer to the blog which has complete details:Mobi Android SDK setup using Android Studio
You can even leave it without doing any customization. Clean and build the project and there you have the APK in your output bin which is nothing but your SAP BusinessObjects Mobile Android APK file.
Step 2 :
Download MDX Toolkit from Citrix website. MDX toolket is available for Mac OS X and Windows platform.
I will cover from Mac OS X perspective which has a UI based wrapping toolkit , In case of Windows , its a JAR with a command line tool.
You can refer to the following link for MDX instalaltion details :
http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/mdx-toolkit/10/xmob-mdx-kit-install.html
Installation of MDX toolkit in mac is simple , Double click the DMZ and just install . Once you install, You would be required to
MDX Toolkit to wrap Android app successfully requires a configurations file to be set called android_settings.txt .
This is nothing but the environment variables required for Java Runtime , Android SDK location details and other environemnt variables required.
MyPath file looks as below:
PATH = /Users/USER_NAME_MAC_LOGGED_IN/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools:/Users/USER_NAME_MAC_LOGGED_IN/Library/Android/sdk/build-tools/19.1.0:/Users/USER_NAME_MAC_LOGGED_IN/Library/Android/sdk/tools:/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_79.jdk/Contents/Home/
// paths to be PATh variable below.
PATH = /usr/bin:/usr/sbin
Once the configuarations for Android settings are set, Start the MDX Toolkit installed and provide the details as required like APK file, your Android Keystore etc and click finish . It generatesa file with an extension .MDX which would be used for uploading to the XenMobile platform.
I have provided the completely workflow screenshots as below:
Step 3 :
Open your browser and go to your Citrix XenMobile administration console login page and provide your login credentials.
Click the Tab Configure.
In the new Page, Clock the Tab "Apps"
Click the link "Add" for adding the newly created mdx file
Choose the option "MDX"
In the new screen, On the left panel , Uncheck iOS and Windows since we are only going to do this for Android
On the right side of the screen, provide the name , some description and you can select your enterprise app category which has been provided by your admin, for me its default and click NEXT
Choose the MDX file and upload
Once uploaded , you will reach the settings screen where you would be required to configure the settings as required for SAP BusinessObjects Mobile Android app.
Please follow the below configurations which are required mandatory for the app to run successfully, i will try to explain as well why these settings are required.
a. Under Encryption settings , select the disabled option for the "Private File Encryption" and "Public File Encryption" .
Encryption used by default by SAP BusinessObjects Mobile Android version has one of the highest standards of encryption and is followed by FIPS standards. Doing second level of encryption by Citrix Platform is not supported by Citrix as Citrix Xenmobile Platform has some issues with it.
You can find complete details in the following link :
b. Under App Interaction Option "Document exchange (open in)" and Inbound document exchange (open in)" as "Unrestricted"
This is required since the app has features in which data does flow outside the app like for the feature Send to email where-in screenshot and SAPBi Link information is transferred to email app. similarly, app uses SAPBi link to open the app where-in parameters are passed from an externally hosted links.
c. Under App network Access , make the network access "unrestricted" or if your organization supports VPN through Tunnel setup ready , use that.
This is required since the app uses network communication and Citrix Xenmobile by default has the settings which blocks any network connectivity for apps.
Apart from these policiues, rest of the policies can be specific to your organization which can as well be applied as per your need.
Step 4
Once the policies are set, The app is available for download through the Citrix Worx Home. Download the application from google Play store and login to the application as provided by your administrator. If the user logged in has been given access for download of the app, he or she can download the same to your mobile directly from this Citrix Home app .
Thats it !!
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