How to Deploy and Install SharePoint-Hosted Add-in

We have created a SharePoint-Hosted Add-in, Country and States. Here are the steps to create it.

Below are the steps to Deploy and Install SharePoint-Hosted Add-ins.

Create App Catalog. Here is a link to create App Catalog.

Package the Add-in and upload it to App Catalog.

Open your project in Visual Studio,right click the project in Solution Explorer and click Publish.

Click Package the App. You can also see “Package the add-in” button depending on the version of Visual Studio.

An .app file will be created and stored in the solution’s bin\Debug\app.publish\app-version-number.

Open App Catalog and select Apps for SharePoint (or SharePoint Add-ins as per your SharePoint version) on Quick Launch bar. Upload the .app file in this library.

Install the add-in

Go to your site collection. SettingsAdd an App  From your organization. Click on your App.

Trust your Add-in

Site Contents page will automatically open showing that your add-in is still installing. You can see it in grey color as well. Once done, you can click it and start using it. You will not be able to see your lists separately in your site and can access then only via your add-in.

App Package (.APP)

A SharePoint App is deployed as App Package file with .APP as an extension. SharePoint Solutions used to have .WSP as an extension and are .CAB files. SharePoint Apps are not .CAB files, they are simply .ZIP files. Just replace .APP extension with .ZIP. Open this folder in Windows Explorer and you will many files under it including AppManifest file and other files needed for app deployment.

The AppManifest file is an XML file and the most important one as it contains lots of information like App title, unique id, start page security settings etc. Below is a sample of the AppManifest file.

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″ ?>
<!–Created:cb85b80c-f585-40ff-8bfc-12ff4d0e34a9–>
<App xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/2012/app/manifest&#8221;
Name=”SampleSharePointApp”
ProductID=”{78abc125-ef63-6789-abcd-1ab23ef7878b}”
Version=”1.0.0.0″
SharePointMinVersion=”15.0.0.0″>
<Properties>
<Title>Sample SharePoint App</Title>
<StartPage>~appWebUrl/Pages/Default.aspx?{StandardTokens}</StartPage>
</Properties>
<AppPrincipal>
<Internal />
</AppPrincipal>
</App>

When an app is deployed to the SharePoint Site, it appears on the Site Contents page. There are three types of web included in an app: host web, app web and remote web.

Host Web

Every app will have a host web. Host Web refers to the SharePoint Site in which app will be installed. Host Web contains elements like:

• App Parts: These are Client Web Parts same as Web Parts. But their logic does not reside on server. Their logic reside on client web browser or on remote web site.
• Custom Actions: These are custom ribbon and menu options.
• Redirect Page: When a user navigates to and fro from an app, this redirect page help user to redirect to the appropriate page in an app. This is based on the AppManifest file’s configuration.

App Web

App Web is a separate SharePoint site that is deployed to host the components of an app. It included lists, libraries, SharePoint Pages, Style Sheets and Client Side Scripts. SharePoint Pages does not contain the server side code blocks, but only the server controls.

App Web is deployed to SharePoint farm but not in the same domain as rest of the site. T is deployed using a specialized site template, App Site Template. Pages of this site use app.master master page by default.

Remote Web

Remote Web is normal ASP.NET web site which is designed to deploy outside of SharePoint like in Windows Azure. Here server-side code is allowed. Remote Web can make secure calls to host web and app web whenever needed.

NOTE: Remote Web does not run within SharePoint and hence does not have access to SharePoint Server Object Model. It uses SharePoint’s client-side APIs. CSOM for .NET can be used by server-side code in remote web and JavaScript CSOM is available to the pages served from a remote site.