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Configuring App Services

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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.