Wrapping and Deploying Windows Phone 8.1 Apps with Citrix XenMobile 10.x

On more and more Citrix XenMobile projects I see Windows Phone 8.1 devices. The enrollment of a Windows Phone 8.1 device is a little bit different than those of iOS and Android, and so is the application wrapping process. You have to enroll a Windows Phone device via the Workplace (under settings). By default, there is no WorxHome application available. You have to download it from the Citrix.com website, sign it with your Symantec certificate and publish it as Enterprise Hub policy within the XenMobile console. Once the WorxHome Enterprise Hub is installed on the Windows Phone device, users can start with installing the published Citrix Worx applications. At this moment only WorxMail and WorxWeb are available for Windows Phone 8.1 but I hope that more Worx applications will be available as Windows 10 for Phone is official released.

The wrapping process is also different than for of iOS and Android. There is a MDX Toolkit, but it’s command-line based. No worries, in this blog I will show you all the necessary steps and requirements to wrap and publish Windows Phone 8.1 applications.

Requirements:

• Microsoft Company Developer Account (see: Registration Info)
• Enterprise Certificate from Symantec (see: Enterprise Mobile Code Signing Certificate)

Software Requirements:

• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.1 (see: Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.1 – Offline Installer)
• Microsoft Silverlight 5 runtime and SDK (see: Get Silverlight 5)
• Visual Studio Express 2013 for Windows (see: Visual Studio Download page)
• MDX Toolkit for Windows Phone 8.1 (see: MDX Toolkit)

Get the following information:

• Windows Phone publisher ID (see: Account settings)

Step 1 : Install the software requirements

Install the software requirements as listed above (.NET, Silverlight and Visual Studio Express). All these installations are straightforward (next, next, finish), so I don’t add screenshots from these installations in this blog. All download links are provided in the list.

Step 2 : Install the Symantec certificates

See: How to install the Windows® Phone Private Enterprise Root and Intermediate certificates for the step-by-step instructions. After importing these two certificates you need to import your own Enterprise Mobile Code Signing Certificate. To get this certificate see: Enterprise Mobile Code Signing Certificate.

Step 3 : Create an Application Enrollment Token (AET)

First export your Symantec Code Signing Certificate (see: How to Export a Certificate with the Private Key). To make things easy, I create a folder in the root of my C drive called “AET” and copied my exported Code Signing Certificate in .PFX format in this folder.

Next, localize the AetGenerator.exe path. On my Windows 10 machine it was installed in this folder:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v8.1\Tools\AETGenerator

Open a Command Prompt (as Administrator) and navigate to C:\AET

Run the following command (Replace data between ” < > ”  with the correct information) ;

<PATH TO AETGenerator.exe> <PFX File> <Password>

In my case it is:

“C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v8.1\Tools\AETGenerator\AETGenerator.exe” Symantec.pfx MyPassword

After running this commando an AET.xml, AET.aet and AET.aetx file are generated.

Step 4 : Extract the MDX Toolkit and Wrap WorxHome for Windows Phone

 To wrap WorxHome of Windows Phone 8.1, download the following items;

 Download the MDX Toolkit for Windows Phone 8.1 from the Citrix.com website

Download the Worx Home for Windows Phone 8.1 App

Extract the MDX Toolkit zip file. To make things easy, I extract the files to C:\MDXToolkit. I have saved the WorxHome .xap file into the C:\WorxHome folder.
Note: Create also a folder for the destination (signed WorxHome), this cannot be the same folder as the source because all the files in the destination folder will first be deleted. Therefor I also created a C:\WorxHome-signed folder.

Open a Command Prompt (as Administrator) and navigate to C:\MDXToolKit (the folder were the MKX Toolkit is extracted) and run the following command (Replace data between ” < > ”  with the correct information) ;

CGAppPrepTool.exe -in:”<Path to WorxHome.xap file>” -out:”<output location>” -C:”<path to Symantec cert>” -password:<certificate password> -verbose -resign -PhonePublisherId:<PhonePublisherID> -mdmServerURL:”<MDM URL>”

In my case;

CGAppPrepTool.exe -in:”C:\WorxHome\WorxHome_10.0.3.69.xap” -out:”C:\WorxHome-Signed\WorxHome_Signed_10.0.3.69.xap” -C:”C:\AET\Symantec.pfx” -password:MyPassword -verbose -resign -PhonePublisherId:xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx -mdmServerURL:”https://mdm.robinhobo.com/zdm”

Step 5 : Wrap WorxMail and WorxWeb for Windows Phone

Download the WorxMail and WorxWeb for Windows Phone 8.1 applications from the Citrix.com website. I will save the WorxMail application to the C:\WorxMail folder and WorxWeb application to C:\WorxWeb folder.

Note: Create also a folder for the destination, this cannot be the same folder as the source because all the files in the destination folder will first be deleted. In this case I have created a C:\WorxMail-Signed and a C:\WorxWeb-Signed folder.

Open a Command Prompt (as Administrator) and navigate to C:\MDXToolKit (the folder were the MKX Toolkit is extracted) and run the following command (Replace data between ” < > ”  with the correct information) ;

CGAppPrepTool.exe -in:”<path to WorxMail.xap>” -out:”<path to output file>” -T:”<path to WorxMail icons and manifest>” -C:”<path to Symantec Certificate>” -password:<cert password> -verbose -resign -phonePublisherId:<Publisher ID>

In my case;

CGAppPrepTool.exe -in:”C:\WorxMail\WorxMail_10.0.7.31.xap” -out:”C:\WorxMail-Signed\WorxMail_10.0.7.31.mdx” -T:”C:\MDXToolkit\Templates\WorxMail” -C:”C:\AET\Symantec.pfx” -password:MyPassword -verbose -resign -phonePublisherId:xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

Repeat this step for WorxWeb.

Step 6 : Publish WorxHome, WorxMail and WorxWeb in Citrix XenMobile 10.x

The final step is publishing WorxHome, WorxWeb and WorxMail in Citrix XenMobile 10.x. First we need to create an Enterprise Hub policy to publish WorxHome for Windows Phone 8.1.

Login to the Citrix XenMobile 10.x console. Go to the Configure tab and open the Device Policy page. Click Add to create a new policy

Click on Enterprise Hub

Fill in the Policy Name and optionally the Description. Klik Next

First browse to your AET.aetx file created in step 3, then browse to the signed WorxHome application. Click Next

Select the correct Delivery Group you want the Enterprise Hub assign to and click Save

Browse to Configure > Apps to Add the WorxMail and WorxWeb application. When adding the new application, select Windows Phone on the left side under Platform and upload the .mdx file

Configure the policies you want to configure and click Next 3 times (assign the correct Delivery Group if not already configured) and then click finish.

Now you are able to install WorxHome, WorxMail and WorxWeb with an enrolled Windows Phone 8.1 device as shown below.