Sharing Mobile Apps with IBM Watson Content Hub – A Demo
Vinod Appajanna, Matthias Falkenberg August 10, 2017
MobileFirst_Foundation Watson Watson_Content_Hub App_Store Application_Center
Overview
IBM Watson Content Hub offers a rich set of powerful public APIs for the authoring and delivering of assets and content. In this post, we shall showcase how you can use the Content Hub for distributing the apps (like an App Center or App Store). The demo application combines several of the Content Hub APIs to allow users to upload and share mobile apps (.apk/.ipa) for installation on devices. The following sections explain how the sample leverages Watson Content Hub APIs and also gives information on where you can find the corresponding API documentation.
Login service
Purpose:
To upload a mobile apps, we use the Watson Content Hub authoring APIs that require prior authentication. The login service allows the sample to log on to our Watson Content Hub tenant that stores the mobile apps.
API documentation: > Documentation > Login service
Authoring resources data service
Purpose:
When uploading a mobile app, the user selects an image and the application archive file. The authoring resources data service makes sure those files are safely stored in our Watson Content Hub tenant. The integrated MD5 checksum support helps the sample to detect and react to any data transfer issues.
API documentation: > Documentation > Authoring resources
Authoring assets data service
Purpose:
In Watson Content Hub, resources are binary data. Assets on the other hand describe resources. Therefore, an asset always references a specific resource. Among others, the authoring assets data service allows the sample to automatically tag an uploaded application archive file with “Android” or “iOS”.
API documentation: > Documentation > Authoring assets
Authoring content data service
Purpose:
The sample stores mobile apps as content in Watson Content Hub. The content authoring data service is involved whenever a user uploads a mobile app. After creating the resources and the corresponding assets, the sample also creates new content. It brings the mobile app title, package name, version, image, and application archive file together in one managed entity. Using the content authoring data service again, the content is published.
API documentation: > Documentation > Authoring content
Watson Content Hub palette
Purpose:
The Watson Content Hub palette allows users to browse assets and content. It is a great way to integrate Watson Content Hub into other applications. The sample uses the palette to allow users to browse the available application archive files.
More information:
Delivery search service
Purpose:
Once published, users can download mobile apps from an Application Catalog that is part of the sample. The sample uses the delivery search service to fetch all available mobile apps without the need to authenticate. The delivery search service returns the data required to present users a list of mobile apps and allow them to download the corresponding application archive files from Akamai.
API documentation > Documentation > Delivery search
If you have questions about Watson Content Hub APIs, please check with the community in the Watson Content Hub forum.
Demo - Mobile App Sharing via Watson Content Hub
Sample App
Resources
Inclusive terminology note: The Mobile First Platform team is making changes to support the IBM® initiative to replace racially biased and other discriminatory language in our code and content with more inclusive language. While IBM values the use of inclusive language, terms that are outside of IBM's direct influence are sometimes required for the sake of maintaining user understanding. As other industry leaders join IBM in embracing the use of inclusive language, IBM will continue to update the documentation to reflect those changes.