This article explains how to register an application and publish it in the platform's app market. The article assumes you are developing an application that will be able to interact with the platform's API.
Contents
Introduction
The EM platform has an application market that allows the user to install applications to extend the functionalities of the platform by using the platform's open API. You can find more information about the API here.
Requirements
You will need a superAdmin user in order to register an application for your account. You will need the URLs of your application for installation, uninstallation and any views and/or reports that the application will generate.
How does it work?
Access the “Account management” menu, by clicking the button with your initial in the top right corner of the platform's screen.
Once in the Account Management menu click on "Market Apps":
Press the "New Market App" button to register a new application. The app registration form will appear with the following areas:
- General info
- URLs
- Reports
- Permissions
General Info
You can input the app general information, such as:
- Name: the app name
- Description: A brief description. It allows simple html formatting, images and gifs.
- Image: The app icon that will appear when listed in the app market
- Contact: contact information (such as an email address)
- Software by: who developed the app
- Visibility: Choose the app visibility in the platform:
- Private: the app will only be available for your organisation and clients.
- Public: the app will be available for any user of the platform (outside of your own organisation and clients)
URLs
These are the main URLs that the platform will access when it needs to interact with the app, during setup or when the user accesses the app. They should point to endpoints of the app. For this example we will assume that the app is hosted in the domain app.domain.com.
The following need to be informed:
- Terms of service: Optional. You can list a site with the terms of service that should be reviewed and accepted by the user before using hte app
- Install: Required. This endpoint will be queried when the app is installed by a user in an account. Your developers can learn more about the app installation process here.
- Clean up url: Optional. This endpoint will be queried when the app is uninstalled.
- Views: Optional. The app views that will be accessible from the platforms interface and where in the interface they will be available. Depending on the type of app being developed, you will want to indicate different screens. It will need the following for each screen
- Name of the view
- URL endpoint that the platform will query
- The screen where it will be shown.
If your app only creates reports, the views can be left empty.
You can add several views for a given app.
Examples for these could be as follows:
Reports
If your app creates reports, they will have to be informed in this section. The app report will be accessible in the Reports section of the platform, and will be selectable when creating a new report.
You will need to inform the following when registering the app:
- Name: The report template name
- Image: An image for the report (optional)
- URLs: 3 different URLs have to be specified here:
- Report create form
- Report edit form
- App URL
You can add several reports for a given app.
Permissions
Determine which parts of your account will be accessible for the app as read and or write access. If the app needs access to Readings but the permission has not been set, the app will not be able to access the readings.
Once you have setup everything, hit the save button and your app will appear in the app list on the Market Apps section within Account Management in case you need to edit it:
The app id and app secret hashes (greyed out in the image) will be required and should be saved in your app, as they will be needed each time the app is installed in one of your accounts. Your developers can learn more about the app installation process and how theses hashes are used here.
You will now be able to test your application, as it will appear available on the market for your accounts. Once you are ready to share the app with your users, you can publish the application.
Publishing the application
In the market apps list, click on "Select an action" and press "Publish" to publish your application. Your publish request will then have to be validated by the EM platform support team. Its status will remain pending until your request has been processed.