Store configuration

Store

This article is a reference document to help you set up your environment after you install Citrix Workspace app.

A store aggregates available applications and desktops for a user into a single place. A user can have multiple stores and switch across stores as needed. An admin delivers the store URL that has preconfigured resources and settings. You can access these stores through the Citrix Workspace app.

Types of stores

You can add the following store types in the Citrix Workspace app:

• StoreFront
• Citrix Workspace
• Custom web store

StoreFront

StoreFront is an on-premises server that aggregates published virtual apps and desktops, web and SaaS apps into a single easy-to-use store for users. For more information, see StoreFront documentation.

Citrix Workspace app connects either directly to StoreFront, or through a Citrix Gateway.

Citrix Workspace

Citrix Workspace is a cloud-based service providing similar functionality to StoreFront, as a service managed by Citrix. For more information, see Citrix Workspace Overview.

Custom web stores

This feature provides access to your organization’s custom web store from the Citrix Workspace app for Windows. To use this feature, the admin must add the domain or custom web store to the Global App Configuration service allowed URLs.

For more information about configuring custom web store URLs for end-users, see Global App Configuration service.

You can provide the custom web store URL in the Add Account screen in Citrix Workspace app. The custom web store opens in the native Citrix Workspace app window.

To remove the custom web store, go to Accounts > Add or Remove accounts, select the custom web store URL, and click Remove.

Adding a store to Citrix Workspace app

You can provide users with the account information that they need to access virtual apps and desktops using the following methods:

• Providing users with account information to enter manually
• Configuring email-based account discovery
• Adding store through CLI
• Provisioning file
• Using the Group Policy Object administrative template

Provide users with account information to enter manually

Upon successful installation of Citrix Workspace app, the following screen appears. Users are required to enter an email or server address to access the apps and desktops. When a user enters the details for a new account, Citrix Workspace app tries to verify the connection. If successful, Citrix Workspace app prompts the user to sign in to the account.

To enable users to set up accounts manually, be sure to distribute the information required to connect to their virtual apps and desktops.

• To connect to a Workspace store, provide the Workspace URL.
• If the client can reach the StoreFront deployment without going through a Citrix Gateway, you have the following options:
  • To present a list of all of the non-hidden stores on the server for the user to choose from, provide the base URL. For example:https://servername.company.com.
  • To connect to a specific store, provide the Store URL. For example:https://servername.company.com/Citrix/Store. Note this is different from the store website URL.
• If the user must connect to StoreFront through Citrix Gateway, you have the following options:
  • To present all stores configured for remote access, provide the Citrix Gateway fully qualified domain name.

  • To connect to a particular store, provide users with the Citrix Gateway fully qualified domain name and the store name in the form:

    CitrixGatewayFQDN?MyStoreName:

    For example, if a store named “SalesApps” has remote access enabled for server1.com and a store named HRApps has remote access enabled for server2.com, a user must enter:

    • server1.com?SalesApps to access SalesApps or
    • server2.com?HRApps to access HRApps.

    CitrixGatewayFQDN?MyStoreName form requires a new user to create an account by entering a URL and isn’t available for email-based discovery.

Once Citrix Workspace app is configured with the store URL, the account can be managed from the Accounts option in the profile menu.

On client machines configured for proxy authentication, if the proxy credentials aren’t stored in the Windows Credential Manager, an authentication prompt appears, asking you to enter the proxy credentials. Citrix Workspace app then saves the proxy server credentials in Windows Credential Manager. This results in a seamless login experience because you don’t need to manually save your credentials in Windows Credential Manager before accessing Citrix Workspace app.

Configure email-based account discovery

When you configure Citrix Workspace app for email-based account discovery, users enter their email address rather than a server URL during initial Citrix Workspace app installation and configuration. Citrix Workspace app reads configuration from Global App Config Service or DNS to find the store URL.

Global App Config Service

You can configure email discovery using the Global App Config Service. For more information, see Configure settings for cloud stores or Configure settings for on-premises stores.

DNS SRV records records

For StoreFront stores, you can use DNS SRV records to configure which StoreFront server Citrix Workspace app must use for an email domain.

On your DNS server for your email domain add a SRV record with the following properties:

If your environment includes both internal and external DNS servers, you can add a SRV record specifying the StoreFront server FQDN on your internal DNS server and another record on your external server specifying the FQDN. With this configuration, local users are provided with the StoreFront details, while remote users receive connection information.

DNS discoverReceiver record

For StoreFront stores, as an alternative to the other methods, you can create an DNS alias to the StoreFront server discoverReceiver on the email domain. For example if your email domain is example.com, create a DNS alias called discoverReceiver.example.com. If no SRV record is found in the specified domain, Citrix Workspace app searches for a machine named “discoverReceiver” to identify a StoreFront server.

If you use this mechanism, ensure that discoverReceiver is included as a subject alternate name in the HTTPS certificate for your StoreFront server.

Adding store through CLI

Install Citrix Workspace app for Windows as an administrator using the command-line interface.

For more information, see List of command-line parameters.

Provide users with provisioning files

StoreFront provides provisioning files that users can open to connect to stores.

You can use StoreFront to create provisioning files that include connection details for accounts. After installing Citrix Workspace app, users simply open the file to configure Citrix Workspace app. For more information, see To export store provisioning files for users in the StoreFront documentation.

If users have access to a store using a web browser, they can go to account settings and download a provisioning file by themselves.

Using the Group Policy Object Administrative Template

To add or specify a Citrix StoreFront or Gateway using the Group Policy Object administrative template:

1. Open the Citrix Workspace app Group Policy Object administrative template by running gpedit.msc.
2. Under the Computer Configuration node, go to Administrative Templates > Classic Administrative Templates (ADM) > Citrix Components > Citrix Workspace > StoreFront.
3. Select Citrix Gateway URL/StoreFront Accounts List.
4. Select the Enabled option and click Show. If you enable this policy setting, you can enter a list of StoreFront Accounts and NetScaler Gateway URL.
5. Enter the URL in the Value field.

6. Specify the store URL that is used with the Citrix Workspace app:

   STORE0="storename;http[s]://storeurl/discovery;[On, Off]; [storedescription]"

   Values:

   • storename - The name that the user sees for this store.
   • storeurl - The URL for the store.
   • [On, Off] - The store enabled state.
   • storedescription - The description that the user sees for the store, such as HR App store.

7. Add or specify the Citrix Gateway URL. Enter the name of the URL, delimited by a semi-colon:

   Example: STORE0= HRStore;https://ag.mycompany.com#Storename;On;Store

   In the preceding example, #Storename is the name of the store behind Citrix Gateway.

Note:

• The Citrix Gateway store URL must be first in the list (parameter STORE0).
• In a multi-store setup, only one Citrix Gateway store URL configuration is allowed.
• The Citrix Gateway store URL configured using this method does not support the PNA Services sites that are using Citrix Gateway.
• The /Discovery parameter is not required when specifying a Citrix Gateway store URL.

Starting with Version 1808, changes made to the Citrix Gateway URL/StoreFront Account List policy are applied in a session after app restart. A reset isn’t required.

Note:

Citrix Workspace app version 1808 and later doesn’t require resetting on a fresh installation. If there’s an upgrade to 1808 or later, you must reset the Citrix Workspace app for the changes to take effect.

Limitations:

• Citrix Gateway URL must be listed first followed by StoreFront URLs.
• No support for Multiple Citrix Gateway URLs.

Note:

Users can also access the store using a web browser. Users can sign in to the Citrix store from a web browser and open a virtual app or desktop from the web. The opening of virtual app or desktop uses the capabilities of the natively installed Citrix Workspace app.

In this case, it might be desirable to hide the Add Account prompt from users. This can be achieved using the following setting:

• Renaming Citrix execution file: Rename the CitrixWorkspaceApp.exe to CitrixWorkspaceAppWeb.exe to alter the behavior of Add Account dialog. When you rename the file, the Add Account dialog is not displayed from the Start menu.
• Group Policy Object administrative template: To hide the Add Account option from the Citrix Workspace app installation wizard, disable EnableFTUpolicy under Self-Service node in the Local Group Policy Object administrative template as shown in the following image. This is a per-machine setting and hence the behavior is applicable for all users.

Through store website require Citrix Workspace app

You can configure StoreFront and Citrix Workspace so that when users open a store website in their browser, it automatically opens Citrix Workspace app and adds the store.

For more information on Citrix Workspace stores, see Customize store access.

For more information on StoreFront stores, see Require use of Citrix Workspace app.

For more information on StoreFront stores accessed through a gateway, see Require Citrix Workspace app when connecting through a gateway.

Domain Name Service name resolution

You can configure Citrix Workspace app for Windows that uses the Citrix XML Service to request a Domain Name Service (DNS) name for a server instead of an IP address.

Important:

Unless your DNS environment is configured specifically to use this feature, Citrix recommends that you do not enable DNS name resolution on the server.

By default, DNS name resolution is disabled on the server and enabled on the Citrix Workspace app. When DNS name resolution is disabled on the server, any Citrix Workspace app request for a DNS name returns an IP address. There’s no need to disable DNS name resolution on Citrix Workspace app.

To disable DNS name resolution for specific user devices:

If your server deployment uses DNS name resolution and you experience issues with specific user devices, you can disable DNS name resolution for those devices.

Caution:

Using the Registry Editor incorrectly might cause serious problems that require you to reinstall the operating system. We do not guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of the Registry Editor can be solved. Use the Registry Editor at your own risk. Back up the registry before you edit it.

1. Add a string registry key xmlAddressResolutionType to HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Citrix\ICA Client\Engine\Lockdown Profiles\All Regions\Lockdown\Application Browsing.

2. Set the value to IPv4-Port.

3. Repeat for each user of the user devices.

Connect

Citrix Workspace app provides users with secure, self-service access to virtual apps and desktops, and on-demand access to Windows, web, and Software as a Service (SaaS) apps. Citrix StoreFront or legacy webpages created with Web Interface manage the user access.

To connect to resources using the Citrix Workspace UI

The Citrix Workspace app home page displays virtual apps and desktops that are available to the users based on their account settings (that is, the server they connect to) and settings configured by Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops or Citrix DaaS administrators. Using the Preferences > Accounts page, you can configure the URL of a StoreFront server or, if email-based account discovery is configured, by entering the email address.

After connecting to a store, the self-service shows the tabs: Favorites, Desktops, and Apps. To open a session, click the appropriate icon. To add an icon to Favorites, click the … icon and select Add to favorites.

StoreFront to Workspace URL Migration

StoreFront to Workspace URL migration enables you to seamlessly migrate your end users from a StoreFront store to Workspace store with minimal user interaction.

Consider, all your end users have a StoreFront store storefront.com added to their Citrix Workspace app. As an administrator, you can configure a StoreFront URL to Workspace URL mapping {‘storefront.com’:’xyz.cloud.com’} in the Global App Configuration service. The Global App Configuration service pushes the setting to all Citrix Workspace app instances, on both managed and unmanaged devices, that have the StoreFront URL storefront.com added.

Once the setting is detected, Citrix Workspace app adds the mapped Workspace URL xyz.cloud.com as another store. When the end user launches the Citrix Workspace app, the Citrix Workspace store opens. The previously added StoreFront store storefront.com remains added to the Citrix Workspace app. Users can always switch back to the StoreFront store storefront.com using the Switch Accounts option in the Citrix Workspace app. Admins can control the removal of the StoreFront store storefront.com from the Citrix Workspace app at the users’ end points. The removal can be done through the Global App Configuration service.

To enable the feature, do the following steps:

1. Configure StoreFront to Workspace mapping using the Global App Configuration service. For more information, see Global App Configuration service.

2. Edit the payload in the app config service:

   {
    "serviceURL": {
   "url": "https://storefront.acme.com:443",
   "migrationUrl": [
     {
       "url": "https://sampleworkspace.cloud.com:443",
       "storeFrontValidUntil": "2023-05-01"
     }
    ]
   },
   "settings": {
   "name": "Productivity Apps",
   "description": "Provides access StoreFront to Workspace Migration",
   "useForAppConfig": true,
   "appSettings": {
     "windows": [
       {
         "category": "root",
         "userOverride": false,
         "assignmentPriority": 0,
         "assignedTo": [
           "AllUsersNoAuthentication"
        ],
         "settings": [
         {
          "name": "Hide advanced preferences",
           "value": false
         }
        ]
       }
      ]
     }
    }
   }
    

   Note:

   If you’re configuring the payload for the first time, use POST. If you’re editing the existing payload configuration, use PUT and check that you have the payload that consists of all the supported settings.

3. Specify the StoreFront URL storefront.com as the value for URL in the serviceURL section.

4. Configure the Workspace URL xyz.cloud.com inside the section migrationUrl.

5. Use storeFrontValidUntil to set the timeline for the removal of the StoreFront store from the Citrix Workspace app. This field is optional. You can set the following value based on your requirement:

   • Valid date in the format (YYYY-MM-DD)

     Note:

     If you have provided a past date, then the StoreFront store is removed immediately upon URL migration. If you have provided a future date, then the StoreFront store is removed on the set date.

After the app config service settings are pushed, the following screen appears:

When the user clicks Switch to Citrix Workspace now, the Workspace URL is added to Citrix Workspace app and the authentication prompt appears. Users have a limited option to delay the transition up to three times.

Support for local app discovery within the Citrix Workspace app

Starting with the 2112.1 release, admins can configure the discovery and enumeration of locally installed apps within the Citrix Workspace app. You can configure this feature by using the Global App Configuration service. For more information, see Global App Configuration service. This feature is ideal for devices that runs in the kiosk mode and for those applications that can’t be virtualized within the Citrix Workspace.