Fastpath: Admin Console: Add-ons > App Services
Some Apps in the Market rely on remote services in order to deliver functionality. In many
cases, such as with cloud-based services, an App developer may be able to supply a known URL
for accessing the service through the JiveConnects API. However, in the case of services with
unknown URLs such as applications installed in the same environment as the Jive instance, the
App developer may not be able to supply this information. In this case, you can use the App
Services page in the Admin Console to provide the App with the required service connection
information. (If you are looking at the Jive Apps Market and click on the name of an
unavailable App that requires this kind of setup, you will see JiveConnects as one of the
requirements listed at the bottom of the right pane.)
You can set up a single service connection for an App, or you can provide
connections to several possible services which the user may be able to choose from on App
installation. For example, you might need users to connect to a different remote service from
the App depending on their geographic location.
The information required for setup depends on the service. See the Jive Apps Developer
Community for detailed information about configuring services for some
known Apps. For a helpful setup example, see here.
Click
Add New Service to provide information about a service you plan to connect to. The required fields depend on the authentication type you select. However, at a minimum you need to provide:
- The name of the service. This name will be displayed when a user installs the app (see
Apps Market Behavior, below) and is prompted to grant access to personal information, so
make sure the name you choose describes the service clearly and appropriately. If users
will select from several services, this is especially important. For example, you could
name the services after the geographic location of the service if the user must choose
from several different installations of the service in different offices. The information
about the service
- The tag or tags beginning with jive:service:// from the app's
gadget.xml file. This information should be provided by the App
developer.
- The URL that the web service will use to send requests to this service provider. This URL will be completed based on path segments specified in the application code.
Optionally, you may want to limit who can access a particular service. Use the
Groups with Access to this Service setting to specify which Jive
groups can connect to a specific App service provider. Users who don't belong to these groups
will not be able to install the App.
Apps Market User-Facing Behavior
The information you supply in the App
Services page determines the naming of the service(s) displayed during an app installation.
When a user starts to install an app that relies on a remote service, one of three things
happens:
- If the app only relies on one possible service and it's available, the user is prompted
to connect to the service.
- If multiple services are available, the user is prompted to choose a service before
connecting.
- If no service is available (because it hasn't been configured in the Admin Console, or
because the user doesn't have rights to the service) the user is informed that a required
service is unsupported and s/he should contact an administrator. The user won't be able to
continue installing the App.