Publishing our First App

Keeping up with new technologies is a challenge. It requires foreseeing trends before they emerge and building capabilities so they are ready when needed. For example, I signed up ComDesigns for an Apple developer account long before we had the opportunity to do an app. I knew that, one day, the mobile and tablet market would warrant having the capability.

I am proud to say the opportunity to exercise our developer account arrived. At the beginning of 2012, we submitted compiled native code for the INL Nuclear Research App to the iTunes store for their review. At the same time, another version of the app was submitted and accepted in the Android Market.

The INL Nuclear Research App project began with a client request to develop a virtual tour of nuclear research capabilties at the Idaho National Laboratory. Cary Hart and Cassie Hemphill kicked off the project with a review of INL Nuclear Research capabilities. Their review was roughly based on a discourse analysis model, which basically meant they poured over everything they could find concerning INL and its research. Their review allowed them to create a structure that would articulate the work INL performs in a meaningful way. 

With the initial design of the app's structure completed, we turned to Imageworks to build a web application using a framework optimized for upload to mobile devices. Web apps, as they are called, require an internet connection to function. We wrote the content, collected the images and inserted them into the new framework. After a comprehensive review of the collected content, the web app was launched in October 2011.

The next step was translating the web app into a native platform. For this, we turned to long-time partner NorthWind, who rebuilt the entire code in Adobe Flash Builder so it could be exported for Android and iOS loading. When the base work was completed, we pulled the code in-house to correct the remaining functional issues and typos. After several rounds of compiling beta versions of the native app and review by our testers, we finally had an app that was ready for submittal to iTunes.

Despite Apple Computer's reputation for excellent user interface and design, the back end of the iTunes store is obtuse. Digital certificates tied to the developer account must be converted from one format to another. App IDs and provisioning files must be developed. Certificates must be generated and tied to digital keys that are in turn embedded into the App code. And eventually, the final binary must be compiled, a process that chews through computer time. Submittal was a trial-and-error process; each attempt to get the sequencing correct took about half an hour. Eventually, the app was submitted.

The ball is now in Apple's court. With luck, it will be in the iTunes store next week.

Here is a link to the App Tutorial Video I did yesterday…

INL Nuclear Research App - Overview from ComDesigns on Vimeo.

Update on Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 11:25AM by Mike Hart, President

This week, INL released the app (available at nuclearapp.inl.gov) as part of its celebration and acknowledgement of National Nuclear Science Week.  Check out their press release. We are still anxiously awaiting approval from Apple to make the iPad version available through the iTunes store.