Set up the Visual Studio project and build the Windows app

AEM Forms provides the complete source code of the AEM Forms app. The source contains all components to build a custom workspace application. The source code archive, adobe-lc-mobileworkspace-src-<version>.zip is a part of the adobe-aemfd-forms-app-src-pkg-<version>.zip package on package share.

To get the AEM Forms app source, perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to package share
   URL: http://<server>:<port>/crx/packageshare.
2. Download the source package. When you download the package, it is added in your AEM Forms package manager.
3. After it is downloaded, navigate to: http://<server>:<port>/crx/packmgr/index.jsp, and install adobe-aemfd-forms-app-src-pkg-<version>.zip.
4. To download the source code archive, open http://<server>:<port>/crx/de/content/forms/mobileapps/src/adobe-lc-mobileworkspace-src-<version>.zip in your browser. 
   The source package is downloaded on your device. 

The following image displays the extracted contents of the adobe-lc-mobileworkspace-src-<version>.zip.

The following image displays the directory structure of the windows folder in the src folder.

For Windows devices, you need:

• Microsoft Windows 8.1 or Windows 10
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2015
• Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova

Perform the following steps to set up the AEM Forms app project in Visual Studio.

Perform the following steps to build and deploy AEM Forms app.

There are two ways to install the application on a Windows device. 

1. Right-click on the PowerShell file (Add-AppDevPackage.ps1), and choose Run with PowerShell.
2. The setup prompts you to get a developer license. Use Microsoft account credentials to acquire developer license.
   This license is valid for 30 days, and you can renew it for free.
3. When you acquire the developer license, the setup installs the self-signed certificate on the system and application installs successfully.

For enterprise owned devices that are joined to the domain of the enterprise, acquiring a developer license is not required. 

Enterprise owned devices use Professional and Enterprise editions of Windows.

Microsoft recommends that you install a trusted authority issued public certificate such as VeriSign. 

To deploy the app:

• Ensure that the device is joined to the domain of the enterprise. 
  
• Enable group policy setting. 

To enable group policy setting:

1. In your device, run gpedit.msc.
2. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Component > App Package Deployment.
3. Right-click on Allow all trusted apps to install.
4. Click Edit and select Enabled.
5. Click OK.

Edit the Visual Studio generated PowerShell script to stop it from acquiring developer license.

In the PowerShell script, set the variable: $NeedDeveloperLicense = $false.

For devices that are not domain-joined, side-loading product activation key is required. You can purchase it from a Windows reseller.

For Windows 8.1 Home edition, there is no group policy, the enterprise side-loading is not allowed, and you cannot join it with the enterprise domain. Deploy the app on a Windows 8.1 Home Edition device using developer license.

For more information, click here.

To install the app on Windows using Visual Studio:

1. Connect the device using remote debugger.
   For more information, see Run Windows Store apps on a remote machine.
2. With your app open in Visual Studio, choose Windows-x64, Windows-x86, or Windows-AnyCPU from the Solution Platforms list, and select Remote Machine.
3. Your app is deployed on the remote machine.