10.6. Citrix
Custom application development, whether for web portals or for Objective-C, are native to the iPhone and iPod touch and can result in delays in getting applications to market. If you do not need to access your application while the device is offline, and you already have a Citrix infrastructure in place then it is possible to leverage the Citrix client for the iPhone and iPod touch to deploy an application store of your own. Using the Citrix Receiver application from Citrix, you can access any application that has been published from Citrix's XenApp.
To download the Citrix client for the iPhone and iPod touch, first open iTunes and tap on the link for the App Store. Alternatively, you go directly there using http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=313735334&mt=8. Once you have downloaded the application, install it on the iPhone or iPod touch and then look for the Citrix application in your list of available applications. When Citrix is first opened it will prompt you for connection information:
Address: the host name or IP address of the server you will be logging into.
Username: the user account that you will be using on the server.
Password: the password for the user logging in.
Domain: the Active Directory domain name on the server.
Sign in automatically: choose whether to log into the server automatically.
Citrix Access gateway: tapping here opens a new screen with the following settings.
Access gateway: controls whether you are using an access gateway.
Gateway type: only Standard Edition is supported as of the writing of this book.
Gateway authentication: allows you to select No Authentication, Domain Only, RSA SecurID Only, or Domain + RSA SecurID authentication.
Citrix has published a fair amount of information regarding iPhone support, and will likely continue to publish more as the product matures at http://community.citrix.com/iphone.
NOTE
The negative side of deploying applications through Citrix to iPhone and iPod touch devices is that the application will require a constant Internet connection and will not be useful to end users while they are not online.
In addition to the Citrix client, there are a few applications available that will allow you to access standard RDP-based sessions being published from Windows (or AquaConnect for that matter). These are as follows:
Jaadu Remote Desktop: allows access to most versions of Windows (or at least those that support Remote Desktop). Available at http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/
wa/viewSoftware?id=299002339&mt=8.Remote Desktop: allows access to Windows XP. Available at http://itunes.apple.com/
WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=288362053&mt=8.Jaadu VNC: Allows remote access to Mac and Windows PC's via the VNC protocol. Available at http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=288362053&mt=8.