So I made a small Android App for inhouse use in my company. The App is supposed to run on dedicated Android 6 devices (portable computers with bar code scanners attached) to scan bar codes and talk to our servers within the company wireless network.
This inhouse wireless network does not allow internet access for security reasons.
Now I am looking for a simple way to roll out version updates of my Android App. With no internet available, the normal app stores are ruled out.
I would prefer, if version updates could be installed silently without user interaction.
I am aware of F-Droid Server, a custom App Store Repository. As far as I understand, it would be quite some effort necessary to get that up and running in my environment. Maybe too much, considering that the devices need to run only one single app.
Is there a more simple way? Maybe like programatically downloading a new version of my .apk from a url and then autoinstall?
Any ideas are appreciated.
Is there a more simple way? Maybe like programatically downloading a new version of my .apk from a url and then autoinstall?
Yes, it seems more simple (25 lines of code) to programatically download an apk from your own server and launch an install. Here is a question with lots of details (and checkout the 2 questions it links along to): Android: install .apk programmatically
The install may require user interaction; a prompt where the user clicks ok or cancel.
Also you have to host the APK somewhere. If you don't want to build a web service for this you could host static files and use a naming convention or timestamp to decide what/when to download and install.
Any ideas are appreciated.
A suggestion about programatically updating is to write a separate simple and robust app that only does that, vs having code in the main app to self-update.