packaging AppStore apps

[#1]

Hey folks,

Seems to me that more and more apps are being sent over to the AppStore and only available for download via the AppStore
Like most of you, we are not allowing the AppStore to operate on our units. At the same time we do grant our users a higher level of accessibility and freedoms.
One of those is the use and installation of Twitter.

Twitter, (formally known as Tweetie) is now only available via the AppStore. (looks like Trillian is also AppStore only now)

So, I know these are not "mission critical" apps and many times the default answer would just be that these apps are not needed for work.
Yet, this all makes me wonder, what if more developers head down this road?
What if one day Firefox is only available via the AppStore?

For fun, I downloaded the Twitter app via my account in the AppStore. The app is self contained and since its free, I went ahead and made a Composer DMG of it and deployed to a user on the floor.
The user on the floor does not have the AppStore on his computer and has now been able to use this app for 5 days without any issue.

I have not tested this with a purchased app and don't plan on it. My hunch is that a purchased app will behave much like a DRM music file and will want to check in with the AppStore. That also opens up an entire new chapter in a book that I am not ready to look at. So for the near future I'm only looking at the free apps.

The beauty in using JSS for this is that if we go wrong with this free app, we can quickly remove it.
Would love to hear some feedback, comments and general banter on this subject.

Nick Caro Senior Desktop Support Administrator

Phone +1 212-839-1587 Fax 212-946-4010 nick.caro at rga.com<mailto:nick.caro at rga.com>

R/GA 350 West 39th Street New York, NY 10018
www.rga.com<http://www.rga.com/> www.twitter.com/rga<http://www.twitter.com/rga> www.facebook.com/rga<http://www.facebook.com/rga>

The Agency for the Digital Age(tm)

[#2]

Free apps can check for validation; similarly, paid applications do not
On 5/2/11 8:57 AM, "Nick Caro" <Nick.Caro at rga.com> wrote:
have to. It is up to the app developer to decide whether they will
implement receipt checking. This is not like the iOS App Store, where the
OS handles all the validation.

The mechanism behind the App Store is that when the app is downloaded, the
Store writes out a signed receipt in the file
[App.app]/Contents/_MASReceipt/receipt. This file includes the app
identifier and the computer's GUID (but that seems to mean "MAC address"). Apps are to verify their receipt, if they want, and then signal the
system if the validation fails - if it fails, Finder will trigger an App
Store login and the Store will attempt to download a new receipt that
matches the computer.

--Jim

[talkingmoose]

Read the licensing agreement for the Mac App Store.
On 5/2/11 7:57 AM, "Nick Caro" <Nick.Caro at rga.com> wrote:

http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/terms.html#APPS

One line says it all: "(i) You may download and use an application from
the Mac App Store ('Mac App Store Product') for personal, non-commercial
use on any Apple-branded products running Mac OS X ('Mac Computer') that
you own or control."

Apple is unlikely to seriously worry about Twitter, Firefox or other free
applications, however, application developers really need to release
applications independently of the Mac App Store if they want them approved
for enterprise use.

I'm not a lawyer and won't say you can or cannot use these applications.
You need to contact your own institution's legal counsel for this matter.
It's not a technology issue.

--

William Smith
Technical Analyst
Merrill Communications LLC
(651) 632-1492

[jarednichols]

Download the source and compile it yourself

</snark>

:)
--
Jared F. Nichols
Desktop Engineer, Client Services
Information Services Department
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
244 Wood Street
Lexington, Massachusetts 02420
781.981.5436

[RobertHammen]

I know that Citrix sent us a non-App Store version of Receiver 11.3.3 (after we found a huge proxy PAC-parsing bug in 11.3). I was then able to package it up with Composer without a care.

Contact the developer first; chances are they have heard this from other corporate and/or educational users, and can send you non-App Store versions of their products.

--Robert