Create Your Branded App
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Create a project in Setup for Mobile Publisher and complete the forms.
- Explore available settings for your branded app in Setup for Mobile Publisher and Experience Builder.
What’s Next
It’s time to introduce you to Setup for Mobile Publisher. This is where you send Mobile Publisher all the information it needs to build your branded app. (For apps built from Experience Cloud sites, there are also extra Mobile Publisher settings you can use in Experience Builder. More on this later.)
Important!
Mobile Publisher isn’t available in Salesforce Setup until your organization licenses the feature. Contact your Salesforce rep for more information.
After you create your first Mobile Publisher project, you receive an automated email about Mobile Publisher’s Onboarding Buddy program. The program provides two 30-minute sessions to discuss your app project with a Customer Success Engineer to ensure accurate data submission by you and your team. Accurate data submission enables Salesforce to build, submit, and approve your app quickly.
When you’re ready to start filling out the information for your branded app, the first thing you do is create a project in Setup for Mobile Publisher:
- From Setup, enter
Mobile Publisherin the Quick Find box, then select Mobile Publisher.
- Click Create New App.
- You can choose to create a branded mobile app from an Experience Cloud site or the Salesforce mobile app.
- Click Next.
- Enter a name for the Mobile Publisher project. Choose wisely—you can’t edit the project name after you set it. (This is for internal reference only. It won’t display publicly in the Apple App Store or Google Play.)
- Click Next.
After creating your Mobile Publisher project, you see a page that lists both versions of your branded app: one for iOS and one for Android.
Mobile Publisher Setup Form
Let’s do a quick tour of some of the key information you can provide in your Mobile Publisher project. Remember to take your time going through the forms and thinking through the best app configuration for your users.
Brand and Publish
The iOS and Android forms of your Mobile Publisher project are where you submit your branded assets and set important app-publishing details, such as your app’s store listing information and how your app is distributed.
This table summarizes a few important sections that are found across Mobile Publisher for Experience Cloud and Mobile Publisher for Salesforce App project forms.
Section Name |
Purpose of the Section |
|---|---|
App Distribution Method |
Determines who submits your app for Apple or Google review. See App Distribution in Salesforce Help. |
App Distribution |
Defines if your app is publicly or privately distributed and associates the app with your Apple or Google verified corporate developer account. See Set Up Public Distribution and Set Up Private Distribution in Salesforce Help. |
Salesforce Connected App |
Sets the details for your app’s connected app. A connected app integrates the mobile app with Salesforce using APIs. |
Product Details |
Defines the app name that’s displayed on mobile devices. |
Icons |
Sets your app’s icons shown in the app store and on mobile devices. See Prepare Your App’s Information for Android and Prepare Your App’s Information for iOS in Salesforce Help. |
Store Presence |
Defines the information on your app’s listing on the App Store or Google Play. |
Mobile Publisher for Experience Cloud Features
In Mobile Publisher for Experience Cloud projects, you can also enable and configure features specific to the mobile experience of your Experience Cloud site.
This table summarizes a few key sections in Mobile Publisher for Experience Cloud project forms where you can configure mobile features for your Experience Cloud app users.
Section Name |
Purpose of the Section |
|---|---|
URL Management |
Configures how your app opens URLs that are outside of the Experience Cloud site’s base URLs. See Manage How URLs Open from Your App in Salesforce Help. |
App Permissions for Device Capabilities |
Configures the permissions that your app requests on mobile devices and defines the text that’s shown to users when your app requests permissions. See App Permissions for Device Capabilities in Salesforce Help. |
Experience Builder Fields for Mobile Publisher
If you’re creating an app from an Experience Cloud site, you’re likely already familiar with Experience Builder. In addition to the settings in Setup for Mobile Publisher, you’ve got some additional app-specific settings at your disposal in the Mobile Publisher tab of your site’s Experience Builder settings. Note that all settings mentioned here are completely optional.
Important!
Any changes that you make to the settings in the Mobile Publisher tab of your site’s Experience Builder settings take effect in the app immediately. You don’t need to republish the Experience Cloud site to deploy the changes to the app.
Tab Name |
Settings Available |
|---|---|
Navigation |
Configure the tab bar menu and the navigation options available on your app. See Set Up the Navigation Tab Bar and Configure App Navigation in Salesforce Help. |
App Settings |
Define the minimum app version and configure whether app users are encouraged or required to update their app to the minimum version. See Urge or Require Users to Update to the Latest Mobile Publisher App Version in Salesforce Help. |
Tip
If you make changes to your Experience Cloud site, you can use the Publisher Playground app to see how your changes look on the mobile app! See Preview Your Mobile Experience Cloud Site with Publisher Playground (Beta) to learn more and get set up with the app.
Enter Information About the App
Let’s check in with D’Angelo Cunningham, the Salesforce admin who is creating DreamHouse Realty apps for brokers and customers. Let’s help him submit information about the DreamHouse iOS app for his brokers.
- On the Mobile Publisher page, click Start for the iOS app.
- Complete all the fields we learned about in this unit. If you’re confused about a certain field, hover your cursor over the info bubble to see helpful tips and guidance.
- When you’re done entering all the information, click Submit.
- Click Submit again to confirm that you want to submit the form. The app is now a draft, and you can see the status of the app on the iOS page.
D’Angelo repeats similar steps for the Android version of the app because DreamHouse wants to release the iOS and Android apps simultaneously. He also repeats similar steps for the DreamHouse Experience Cloud site app for its customers. But if you prefer, your organization can launch one app at a time.
In this unit, you learned how to create a Setup for Mobile Publisher project and how to complete the forms. You also learned about the settings available in Experience Builder for Mobile Publisher for Experience Cloud apps. In the next unit, we talk about the processes for testing and submitting your app to the App Store or Google Play.
Resources
- Salesforce Help: Mobile Publisher for Experience Cloud
- Salesforce Help: Mobile Publisher for Salesforce App
- Salesforce Help: Get Started
- Salesforce Help: Prepare Your App’s Information
- Salesforce Help: How It Works
- Salesforce Help: Test and Submit the App
- Salesforce Help: Set Up Distribution
- YouTube: Getting Started with Mobile Publisher iOS