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Could someone give me some advice on how I can deploy the Android app remotely?
Things to take note are:
1).No access to android market (it will run on intranet)
2).About 300 devices
3).I don't want the user to do many steps to update the app.

If there is no easy way to do the deployment, I can do it manually(probably down load from Intranet website and manually run it) for the first time but for the subsequent updates, is there a way to update the application by itself?

Riddle
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  • This may seem a little low-tech, but how about emailing it to their gmail accounts? – Phillip Fitzsimmons Jul 13 '11 at 15:36
  • You could perhaps upload the app to the market but restrict launch of the app using some sort of password which is given to your intranet users only. The downside: if an intranet user leaks the password the app can be installed by someone else as well. – Mandel Jul 13 '11 at 15:39
  • You can post the .apk on a website and tell the app to navigate to it. That will setup the file for installation but you'll probably have to accept it each time (permissions and such specific to the app)(IE 'gps','internet', etc) – ethrbunny Jul 13 '11 at 15:39
  • @Phillip and Mandel- they will be using the intranet and no gmail account and Market access. – Riddle Jul 13 '11 at 15:44
  • @ethrbunny I am also thinking of that way but if possible, I want user to do less step. If the browser doesn't prompt then user have to find the apk and run it. – Riddle Jul 13 '11 at 15:50
  • I have an app that does something similar - when it first starts it compares its version with a version stamp on the server. If the server is newer it asks 'do you want to upgrade' - then (optionally) takes them to the browser page that dl's the new version. All they have to do is accept the upgrade. – ethrbunny Jul 13 '11 at 15:54
  • @ethrbunny I tried that on dell strek last time and it just downloaded and didn't promp me to install. Is that available in all android version browser? Any settings? – Riddle Jul 14 '11 at 01:26

1 Answers1

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I don't think there's anything in the standard device to do this; the Android Market client doesn't provide that kind of flexibility. You can certainly download and install .apk files through the browser (provided the server is offering them up with the right MIME type), but that doesn't solve your update problem.

The only approach I can think of is what Amazon did: write your own app management app. It could also run as a service that would periodically check for updates (or, better, receive push notifications of updates) and download and install them in the background. It's a lot of work, but probably fairly straightforward to do.

Ted Hopp
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  • Can it be done in one app without checking periodically? The app will do the checking for update on launch , download it and prompt to install itself? The reason I don't want to run the scheduler is because it is already running one for location update and user need to use it for at least 8 hours. Btw, I will be doing it for a Tablet. – Riddle Jul 13 '11 at 16:08
  • Take a look at [Google's C2DM](http://code.google.com/android/c2dm/) framework. Another possibility is to use [MQTT](http://mqtt.org/) (see [this blog post](http://tokudu.com/2010/how-to-implement-push-notifications-for-android/) for info on using it). Both can be used for having the server tell the devices on which the app is installed to check back with the server for updates. – Ted Hopp Jul 13 '11 at 17:07
  • Hopping I am currently using Mqtt for my push notification. What I would like to know is that if it is possible to update the application programmatically by itself. – Riddle Jul 14 '11 at 01:20
  • [This thread](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4967669/android-install-apk-programmatically) explains how to install an update programmatically. – Ted Hopp Jul 14 '11 at 02:22