Base stores and device view stores

Documentation App Store Guide
1

Base Stores and Device View Stores are stores that exist within the Snap Store and are provided by Canonical. To explain them more clearly, we have broken down the concepts here:

In the Base (Snap) Store:

  • Private snap names can be registered
  • Uploaded snap revisions can be published

The Device View (Snap) Stores are visible to connected devices:

  • They can “include” access to all the snaps in the Base store, thus providing access to its snaps
  • They can also include public snaps from the global Snap Store.
  • Thus, you can curate a specific set of Brand and public snaps for each of your device types (known as device models)

There are a few points to note about Base Stores and Device View Stores. Firstly, production images may only point at a Device View Store, never at the Base Store. Secondly, only your devices can download, install, and refresh snaps from your private Snap Store.

Additionally, for image builds, developers can use their SSO credentials to download snaps from the dedicated Snap Store (please see the Switching to a Developer Account section).The authentication method used by devices is described below.

Illustration of the App Store architecture, demonstrating use of a combination of public and private snaps

A standard store configuration using a Base and Device store

Snap stores are represented by the cylinders, with the Device Snap Store is represented by the cylinder with Acme in the top-right. Acme view store 1 has been configured to include snaps from the Global snap store and the Serial Vault is used by the company’s devices to authenticate and thereby gain access to private snaps.

1 Like
2

The illustration on this page is the same as on the Introduction page, which is confusing because this page explains the difference between the Base and Device View stores. Here’s the raw image from our Brand Store On-Boarding template document which actually shows an example of a Base and Device Store:

image4

1 Like
3

I’m going to re-up this reply since I was just about to leave the same comment.

Accompanying question: text says, “Firstly, production images may only point at a Device View Store, never at the Base Store.” Does that mean a non-production image can point at the Base Store?

4

No, devices should always point to Device View Snap Stores.

5

I get that – the point is that the current wording is potentially very misleading.

6

This page clearly refers to a graphic which is not included on the page.

7

@degville would it be possible to update the docs with the graphics @awe shared? Or how should we rephrase the explanation?

8

Hello! I’ve embedded the graphics from @awe and also updated the explanation. Please feel free to tweak this if it’s inaccurate or requires further detail.