SAP BusinessObjects Mobile iOS SDK, Install Failure

[Former Member]

We're having an issue with installing the BusinessObjects Mobile iOS SDK after compiling with xCode and then wrapping it with MobileIron AppTunnel.  MobileIron AppTunnel serves as our MDM, reverse proxy, and creates the secured connection into our network.  We initially had this working with an older version of xCode and the SDK version SBOP_IOS_SDK_500_7-20010768.  With the latest version of xCode and using SDK version SBOP_IOS_SDK_501_6-20010768 the app will fail to install onto an iPad.  The app downloads and says its' installing, but it just hangs and never completes the install.  We are running the latest version of iOS7 as well.

My technical resource is wondering if this is the issue and is posing this question.....

Does the bundle identifier need to be "com.sap" or does it need to be "com.<mycompanyname>"?

Thanks,

Rick

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Found the issue.  Seems like the order of the steps to compile in xCode had change with the release of xCode.  Apple was able to provide the order for us to follow and resolve the issue.

[bill_winters · Accepted solution]

Hi Rick.  We are attempting the same setup as you (Mobile Iron proxied BI Mobile app).  Currently we are not able to connect to the BI server via the mobile app, it says server not found.  We are able to hit the launchpad from MI though.  All ports are open between the MI and BI server.  Did you do anything special on the MI or BI server tp get the mobile app to work?

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

There were a few things that we had to get right.  We made some adjustments to the SDK and used AppTunnel to create a secure connection into MobileIron in our DMZ.  We also used secured SSL ports and needed a certificate on the BOE web servers.

Most of this is referenced from the SAP BusinessObjects Mobile iOS Developer Guide.
http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/sbo41/en/608_mobiOS_Developer_en.pdf

SDK Adjustments

Self-signed Server Certificates

This key adjustment should allow self-signed certificates to be automatically accepted. This is implemented by MobileIron item pairs.  Or you can have this in the SDK code as well.

• The PLIST is here:
  "\<SDK file>\src\xcode\Resources\DefaultSettings.plist"

          Original

          <key>feature.connection.trustallservers.default</key>

           <string>false</string>

          Custom

          <key>feature.connection.trustallservers.default</key>

           <string>true</string>

Predefined connections

This is implemented in xCode and we have not yet got it to work with MobileIron item pairs.

Steps

1. Open “Xcode>Resources>Bundles>DefaultSettings.plist”
2. Find the “Customizations” section of the “DefaultSettings.plist”
3. Set feature.predefinedconnections.enabled.default = “true”
4. You can define a single predefined connection or multiple predefined connections by specifying values within this parameter. It is of the type "Array" and each Item in the array is of the type "String".  Value of each item corresponds to a connection URL.

String below:

sapbi://addconnection?ConnectionType=BOEConnection&connection_name=YourConnectionName&server_url=https://yourdomain.com&cms=YourCMS&authType=YourAuthType&editable=false

[bill_winters · Accepted solution]

Thanks very much.  I have configured the BI server for SSL on 443 using self signed certs.  We weren't aware of how to get the app/device to recognize the cert so we went into the security exceptions portion of the mobil app and allowed untrusted certs to be accepted from the BI host.

Main issue is, we can get the app to work from the simulator connected to the internal network, just not through the real app on a device via Mobile Iron.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

So are you using AppTunnel as well?  Has MobileIron been figured to pass your app through the firewall.  I'm not personally versed on how that is done, but I know we had to do some config there to point to the web server.

[bill_winters · Accepted solution]

No apparently we are not licensed for apptunnel.  I'm Basis so I'm not exactly sure what methodology we're using although I do know it's "supported" as MI is wrapping the apps for us, I believe it's similar to the method we're using to punch through into launchpad over HTTPS which works.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Bill,

For us AppTunnel handles directing all traffic from the app directly to the MI century servers.  So the app can directly reference the BOE web servers address.  In your case, its a 2 step process.  You will have to point your app at the MI server URL and then have MI redirect the traffic to the BOE web servers.  If you're not familiar with it, it called a reverse proxy.  You'll also want to make sure that there is some sort of authentication from the app to the MI century.  We evaluated this, but it was much simpler and user friendly to let AppTunnel provide that functionality.

[bill_winters · Accepted solution]

Well we got it working, although we don't know what the magic bullet was.

Perhaps we'll know more when we move to staging.