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Configure App Catalog in Sharepoint 2013

One of the power advantages of SharePoint 2013 is Apps. Definitely apps provide the following advantages:

  1. Extensibility of SharePoint Platform for the end user
  2. Revenue Opportunity for the developer

An App Catalog is the page from where users can choose new apps; there are paid and free apps available. But, the App Catalog does not come pre-configured. We need to do 10-30 minutes of activities to configure it, depending on the farm complexity.

App Catalog

Choose Site Settings > Add an App page option. You can see the following pane.



Click on the SharePoint Store link.



You will get the preceding error message if the App Catalog is not configured.

How to configure the App Catalog

The following are the activities involved:

  1. Configure Service Applications
  2. Create App Site, Configure Zone
  3. Create Zone
  4. Configure App Settings
  5. Test App

Procedure

The following is the procedure involved in installing an App Catalog.

Step 1: Configure Service Applications

We need to create the following 2 service applications:

  1. App Management service application
  2. Subscription Settings service application

Open Central Administration > Manage service applications.

If you cannot see the App Management service application, you need to create one using the New button.



You can ensure the App Management service is created. This service is required to store App licenses and the validity of the App requests.



The second service application would be the Subscription Settings service application. This service application cannot be created from the toolbar since there is no menu item provided. You need to use the following PowerShell script to create it.

if ((Get-PSSnapin "Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -eq $null)
{
Add-PSSnapin "Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell"
}
New-SPSubscriptionSettingsServiceApplication -ApplicationPool "SharePoint Web Services Default" -Name "Subscription Settings Service Application" -DatabaseName "SubscriptionDatabase" | New-SPSubscriptionSettingsServiceApplicationProxy

After running the script you can see the service application created as shown below.



Step 2: Create App Site

We need to create a site collection for Apps. Open Central Administration and choose the Manage App Catalog link from the Apps section.



In the page that appears choose the Create a new app catalog site option and click Ok button.



Wait for a few seconds and you will get the app catalog site created.



Now we are ready to move to the next step.

Step 3: Create Zone

We need to create a forward lookup zone for the App Catalog. Apps are hosted in separate zones based on Trust factor.

Open the DNS application from your server.



Expand the Forward Lookup Zone and choose New Zone.



Choose the defaults for the wizard.



In the zone name page, enter a unique name for the zone.



Click Next to continue towards the Finish page. Click Finish and the new zone is created.

Right-click on the new zone and choose the New Alias (CNAME) option.



Enter the following values:

  1. * for Alias name
  2. Leave second TextBox as it is
  3. Enter the fully qualified domain name of your machine in the third text box.


Click Ok to save the changes. Now you are ready with your zone hpvmapps.net.

Step 4: Configure App URLs

Now we have enough URLs to configure. Open Central Administration and choose the Configure App URLs option.



In the page that appears enter your URL matching with the Forward Lookup zone.



Choose the prefix as app.

Save changes and you are ready for the next step.

Step 5: Test App

Ensure the following before testing the app:

  1. If you are using a Virtual Machine, use the browser within the VM
  2. Use Internet Explorer as your browser

Do not use the System Account or Administrator account.

Now open your SharePoint Site. Choose Add an App and Visit the SharePoint Store. You should be able to see the following Apps from Office App Store visible.



If you can see the preceding page then you are good.

Please note the following:

  1. Choose free apps first
  2. Greyed ones are for SharePoint Online and won't work in our case of On-Premise

I tried with a Content Management App named Bright Banner, went ahead and Trusted it and after waiting for few minutes it appeared in my left pane.



On clicking it took me to the full-fledged app page.



This concludes our App Catalog configuration.

In production environment app hosting, you should get help from the Network Administrator in configuring DNS and Zones.

References

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fp161236(v=office.15).aspx

Summary

In this article we have explored App Catalog configuration.


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