Enterprise app exchange

This article is a guide on how to use Tulip’s Enterprise App Exchange feature to share content between multiple plants.

Tulip allows users to import apps from two different types of Libraries:

1. Tulip Library: Publicly available apps created by the Tulip team across many use cases
2. Enterprise App Exchange: Apps that are shared internally within your company or with specific external service providers

This guide focuses on the setup and use of the Enterprise App Exchange (EAE). This feature allows users with certain privileges to create a library of apps within a Workspace and then easily share those apps with other workspaces and Instances.

A prerequisite to create EAE apps is to enable Workspaces in order to have a designated Workspace to manage the EAE applications.

What is the Enterprise App Exchange?

The Enterprise App Exchange feature allows users to share apps across multiple workspaces or instances. It is meant for sharing internal standards that are relevant to multiple plants within your company.

It is not meant for sharing between dev/test/production instances.

It can also be used to share apps in a secure way if your company wants to define a standard process that should be shared with contract manufacturers or contract development and manufacturings orgs (CDMOs).

There are two participants in the EAE:

1. Publisher: The origin workspace or instance
2. Recipient: The patron workspace or instance that received the content

In the Enterprise App Exchange, you are sharing versions of apps. This is ideal in situation where you want a template solution for apps, or the ability to create iterations based on a single template.

There are two ways to enable the feature:

1. Sharing apps between workspaces
2. Sharing apps between instances

Setup - share apps between workspaces

To enable the Enterprise App Exchange feature:

1. Click your user icon on the top right, then select to Account Settings
2. In the left navigation, click on App Exchange.
3. Toggle Enable Enterprise App Exchange and select a workspace from which you can add apps to the Enterprise App Exchange.

Once you have more than one app on the app exchange, an expandable list reveals data associated with the apps installed across multiple instances/workspaces and subscriptions to the EAE.

Setup - share apps between instances

First, follow the steps in Setup: share apps between workspaces. The same Tulip user should complete the steps below.

To connect your App Exchange content to another instance:

1. Navigate to the App Exchange page within Account Settings.
2. In the parent instance, click + Invite.

3. Enter the URL of the patron instance and click Get Key.

The key acts as a secure password to sync the instances. Copy the key, which has a unique one-time use.

4. In the patron instance's App Exchange page, click + Add App Exchange on the App Exchange page.

5. Enter the Instance URL of the parent instance and paste the secret key. Click Subscribe.

Add an app to the Enterprise App Exchange

1. Navigate to the workspace specified for the Enterprise App Exchange and publish a Version of an application.

2. Go to the published application and click the Add to Enterprise App Exchange button.

3. Type a description for the app, and click Publish.

The app icon changes after it has been published. This icon indicates that this app has been added to the instance's Enterprise App Exchange.

Import from the Enterprise App Exchange

To import from the Enterprise App Exchange, make sure you are in the patron workspace or instance.

Create a new app, and select from one of the apps under the "Find Apps" heading.

All applications added to the Enterprise App Exchange are listed under this tab.

The following metadata is included with each app:

• Origin: Did the app come from the Enterprise App Exchange or Tulip Library?
• Version History: Who published this app, and when?
• Version Compatibility: Optional warning if the two instances are on different versions
• Source link: The installed app keeps a link to its source version on the exchange, so that it can receive in-line updates and its version status is trackable across instances.

Update the app version on EAE

In cases where you would like to update the app version shared via the EAE:

1. Publish a new version in the origin workspace
2. Navigate to the app's Versions list and select Update App Exchange.

The new version is now the latest acceptable version for all patrons.

Update an app on the patron instance/workspace

When the publisher updates an app on the Enterprise App Exchange, patron workspaces/instances that installed the app can update their copy. The update installs as the app's Development Version to preserve the app's identity and lineage. Your published app is not affected until you publish the new version.

On the Apps page, when a newer version is available from the exchange, the Update tab will show a notification.

To apply the update as a new app version:

1. Open the app and go to the Versions tab.
2. Select the Update action for the version available from the Enterprise App Exchange.
3. In the update dialog, review the description of what changed, and choose whether to snapshot your current development version first (recommended) or not.
4. Click Confirm.

After updating, review the app's configuration, such as connectors, tables, and station assignments, before publishing to ensure correct environment mapping.