Creating Mobile Apps in SCCM the Easy Way

Simplified Mobile App Creation in SCCM: Utilizing PowerShell for Easy Deployment

With the move to the latest servicing model for System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), Microsoft has also signaled a commitment to mobile device management as well as feature parity with the cloud-based Intune service. Among the first steps in implementing a hybrid SCCM/Intune environment is setting up the mobile applications that will be managed on end user devices. For the apps publicly available in the Google Play and iTunes app stores, this means tracking down the URL for the app in order to create the Deployment Type. In this post, we’ll not only provide you with the URLs of the common Microsoft applications, but also with some handy PowerShell scripting to automatically create these apps in your SCCM environment.

Here is a list of the links for common Microsoft mobile applications as well as a few others (Adobe Reader, Azure Authenticator/MyApps) that may be useful:

Click Here –> List of Links to Common Microsoft Mobile Applications PDF

Now that we have the information, we can create the applications in SCCM. It’s important to note that the PowerShell cmdlets have been updated since mobile application support was originally introduced, with the generic Add-CMDeploymentType being deprecated in favor of cmdlets for the specific DT such as Add-CMGooglePlayDeploymentType:

Microsoft MVP, Nickolaj Andersen, has created a fairly robust PowerShell script to create some of the Microsoft mobile apps in SCCM 2012 R2 SP1, however because his script only contains some of the applications and relies upon the now-deprecated cmdlets we’ll go ahead and provide you with a simple, updated PowerShell script to create the apps. The intention here is not to re-invent the wheel, so you can alternatively download Nickolaj’s script and update it with the appropriate information.

The PowerShell scripting below performs a few basic actions:

  1. Loads the Configuration Manager PowerShell module and connects to the site
  2. Creates a folder under Applications for the mobile apps
  3. Creates an array of mobile apps with Google Play and iTunes links
  4. Iterates through the array, creating an app and relevant deployment types, and moving the app to the folder we created

Click Here –> PowerShell Script PDF

Upon running the script, the list of apps should be created and show up in the console under the appropriate folder (in this case, Mobile Apps).

Contact the Netrix custom web application development team for more information or to discuss your requirements today.

Written by: Phil Schwan, Netrix LLC