Rewriting Entgra App Manager UI

A screenshot from the newly developed APIM Publisher

In the modern world, many companies shift towards mobile-first workplaces. Apps place a vital role in such enterprises. Mobile Application Management (MAM) provides IT administrators to efficiently control and secure corporate data which is essential in any mobile strategy, especially in Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programs.[1]

Entgra App Manager (APPM) is a complete solution for publishing and managing all aspects of an application and its lifecycle — from installation to deletion and updating apps, managing configurations, etc. This is an Open Source project maintained by Entgra and it is pre-built with Entgra IoT Server.[2]

In 2019, Entgra initiated a project to improve the existing APPM. Both the backend and the frontend were proposed to rewrite to provide an optimum application that is capable to fulfill the current enterprise requirements. I was assigned to lead the front end of the application and it was a prime turning point of my entire career path.

The existing frontend was written using the UUF (Unified UI Framework). Since UUF is a kind of outdated technology, we decided to use ReactJS to write the new UI to make it more flexible and highly configurable. To build UI components, we used AntDesign; a well-known React UI library that comes with enterprise-class UI components.

In APPM there are two separate UI applications; named Publisher and Store. The APPM publisher is to add, edit, and publish apps as well as to maintain the application lifecycle. On the other hand, the APPM store is working as an enterprise app store with install functionality and feedback components such as ratings and reviews.

Here are some screenshots of the old UI,

A screenshot from WSO2 APIM Publisher

Screenshots from WSO2 APIM Store

These screenshots are from the new UI:

A screenshot from the newly developed APIM Publisher

A screenshot from the newly developed APIM Store

The newly built application comes with the following features,

• Supports Public apps, Enterprise apps, and WebClips
• Manage the lifecycle of apps
• Install apps on multiple devices
• Scheduled installing
• Manage installed apps
• Android Enterprise support
• Ratings and reviews
• Extensible and highly configurable user interface

References

1. Google LLC (2012) Mobile application management: Google Patents
   Available at: https://patents.google.com/patent/US9792585B2/en (Accessed: 19 August 2020).
2. Entgra (2020) Entgra Product Documentation: Entgra.io
   Available at: https://entgra-documentation.gitlab.io/home/ (Accessed: 20 August 2020).