StoreFront 3.0

The following content is a brief and unofficial prerequisites guide to setup, configure and test StoreFront 3.0 along XAD 7.6 FP2 or FP3 to deliver a X1 UX for the Citrix Receivers (X1)prior to deploying in a PoC, Pilot or Production environment by the author of this entry. The views, opinions and concepts expressed are those by the author of this entry only and do not necessary conform to industry descriptions or best practises.

Shortened Names
XENAPP – xa
XENDESKTOP – xd
XENAPP/XENDESKTOP – xad
STOREFRONT SERVICES – sfs
VIRTUAL MACHINE – vm
HIGH DEFINITION EXPERIENCE – hdx
X1 – Experience First
RECEIVER FOR WEB – rfw
USER EXPERIENCE – ux

What’s New
0: X1 is a Citrix project name.
1: Receiver for Web within StoreFront 3.x.n – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/storefront/3/manage-citrix-receiver-for-web-site/sf-receiver.html powers the next generation of Citrix’s eXperience 1st (X1) User eXperience (UX) that provides end-users with a truly organisation branded UX (logo + colours, style, app bundles*) that is provides consistent and seamless UX across any device or form factor e.g smart phones, tablets, PC’s, Mac’s, HTML5 Internet Browsers etc. Citrix SysAdmins can also setup app bundles technically referred to as “Manage Featured App Groups” enabling users to subscribe faster to one or many published apps by resource type, role or application category check out – http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/storefront/3/manage-citrix-receiver-for-web-site/sf-manage-app-groups.html for how-to configure and set them up.
2: Citrix announced at Citrix Synergy 2015 the latest and next generation Citrix Receiver (Project X1) for desktops and mobile which provides that seamless and consistent UX that I just touched upon. To see it in action for the desktop Citrix Receivers there is a simple yet powerful demonstration from Synergy 2015 available below.

The new unified Receivers for Mobile will include a unified architecture that consists of HDX, MDX support with a new UX architecture powered by StoreFront 3.x.n Receiver for Web. To get a high level overview watch Mark Templeton’s overview of it at – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkZh669DsvU during the Citrix Synergy 2015 Keynote but be sure to forward to circa 56 minutes. Finally watch the following Citrix SynergyTV session entitled “SYN321: Technical deep dive on Receiver” covering the off the architecture of the new project X1 Receivers, branding and customisations.

Branding Your Enterprise App Store
The following Blog articles from Citrite’s e.g Citrix employee’s provide and in-depth overview of how-to customise and brand you organisation’s enterprise app store to provide that seamless and consistent X1 UX. The review the following blog articles by Richard Hayton – https://www.citrix.com/blogs/author/richardha/ and also – http://blogs.citrix.com/2015/09/04/storefront-3-web-customization-branding-your-deployment/ entitled “Storefront 3 Web Customization: Branding Your Deployment”.