In this article, we will show you how to add your own (self-developed) Android apps to the Cortado administration portal and then assign them to your users' devices.
Note! This feature is only available for customers with a Pro or Enterprise subscription. Customers without Pro or Enterprise subscription cannot add self-hosted apps.
Install the app initially
- In the Administration Portal select Administration→ Apps.
- Click on the plus button (left arrow in illus.) and then select Android (right arrow in illus.).
- Select Self-Hosted Apps, if you want to add your own (self-developed) apps.
A description for adding apps from the Google Play Store can be found here.
- Then select your self-developed app (.apk file) by clicking on Select File.
Note! You can upload the same app several times and configure it differently and thus make the differently configured app available to different users/groups/devices, without deleting the administration.
The upload of the app is then started. All necessary information is read from the app's metadata and automatically added to the administration portal.
You can then change the following settings:
- Name: Enter the app name.
- Description: Enter a description of the app.
- Only rollout on devices with OS versions from ... to ...: Specifying a minimum/maximum OS version is optional. If the versions are entered, the app will only be made available to those devices with an operating system that meets these requirements.
- App icon: At the bottom, select an icon in .png or .jpg file format with a maximum size of 100 KB. The icon is then displayed in the administration portal.
- Rollout initially: Enable this checkbox if the app should be pushed to the users‘ devices immediately (regardless of the synchronization interval and regardless of whether the Mandatory checkbox is enabled).The users can then individually delete the app later.
- Hide in kiosk mode: Activate the checkbox if the app should only run in the background on devices in kiosk mode.
- Confirm your settings with OK.
You can now find the app in the Administration Portal (left column).
- Assign the apps to the users or groups.
Under Administration→ Devices→ Apps→ State, check whether the app was installed successfully. If the installation fails, you will find an error message there. Correct the error. You then have the option of starting a retry (via the Retry button behind the cause of the error). You can find a list of possible errors and their meaning in our help article Possible error messages when installing self-hosted Android apps.
Update of a self-hosted app
If you have already assigned a self-hosted app to your users, you can easily update the app here.
- To do this, select your app in the administration portal under Administration→ Apps (upper arrow in illus.).
- Then click on Edit (lower arrow in illus.).
Note! If you want to downgrade a self-hosted app, you must first remove the new version and then reinstall and distribute the older version of the app. A downgrade via the edit button is not possible.
- Upload the new version of your app now (arrow in illus.).
The new version of the app is pushed to users' devices during the next synchronization and then automatically installed on COBO devices. On devices with a work profile (BYOD or COPE), users must install the new version themselves. Further information on self-hosted apps can be found in the Android app user guide.
Under Administration→ Devices, you can see in the Apps tab whether an app update was successful. A separate status is displayed here for each version of the app (with the same package ID).