Configure the Apps on SharePoint 2013

In this post you will learn how to configure Apps for  SharePoint 2013 on-premises.

The new app model requires some additional configurations on your environment
to allow you to start a development process for the SharePoint apps.

Before even configuring the Apps for SharePoint 2013, lets understand
What is Apps ? Apps are fundamentally a self-contained pieces of functionality that extends
the capability of a SharePoint Site.

There are three basic steps to configure App.

1.  Configure an Isolated domain on the Domain Server for App
2.  Create App Management and Subscription Setting service Application
3.  Configure SharePoint to use App domain

Step - 1  : Configure an Isolated domain on the Domain Server for App

The first step is to create an isolated domain where your apps for SharePoint will run. This domain
should be a URL namespace that you reserve as a namespace for organizing apps. You have the option
to create a new unique domain such as yourappsdomain.com or create a sub-domain of the existing
domain such as apps.yourdomain.com.

Typical App URL Format  -  http[s]://[app prefix ]–[app id].[app domain]/[site collection path]/[app path]

 e.g  -  https://Apps-1234567ABCDEF.yourappsdomain.com/sites/sitename/webname/appname/default.aspx

Create a new forward look up zone

   

Create a wildcard alias record ( CNAME ) for the DNS domain name that allows for individual apps to create unique domain names within your app domain. Right click on the App domain and clickon the New Alias( CNAME ).

In the "Fully qualified domain name (FQDN)" for target host box, insert the domain name of the
target that hosts the SharePoint sites.

Create a wildcard certificate SSL Certificate for the newly created App domain.Since this is a development environment, I am just using a self-signed certificate. 

Step - 2  : Create App Management and Subscription Setting service Application

For Apps make sure the following services are running in your farm

      -  App Management Service
      -  Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Subscription Settings Service 

 

Once the services is up and running , we can now create the App and Subscription service application. 

Again open the Power Shell Console,  Run as  "Administrator" , and execute the below script.

 Once the script is been executed, the App Management and the Subscription Setting service application is
 up and ready.

The App Management service is responsible for storing App instance metadata, tracking App specific
configuration data that deals with App permission, App Security principals and App licensing.

The Subscription Setting service is responsible for managing tenancy.

Step - 3 : Configure SharePoint to use App domain

Navigate  to the Apps section in Central admin. Click on the Apps.

 

Once you get to the Apps page, click on the Configure App URLs.

 Provide the App Domain and the app prefix and click ok. Once we have configured the App URL. We will
need to create an App catalog site collection to hold our Apps. Select Manage App Catalog. Leave the
Create a new app catalog site choice selected and hit OK to advance to the Create App Catalog  page.

That's all the minimum set of configurations required to develop apps on SharePoint 2013.Office 365 does
have all these configuration out of the box ,so there is no overhead to configure the apps on Office 365.

Note :: The Apps also do require to have the User Profile and the Managed Metadata service application up
and running.