In version 2.5 we have finally added an integrated terminal client into our mobile apps. This was a very important feature because external third-party apps on mobile operating systems are extremely limited. Due to these limitations, many features from our desktop apps were not available. With our newly integrated terminal connections, many of these limitations no longer apply, and we have been able to enable those features.
Please note that Royal TSD Lite and Royal TSi Lite still have to use external apps.
Limits of third-party apps
Android and iOS have some security and battery-saving features that heavily limit how we can interact with third-party apps.
Passwords with special chars
As the connection parameters must be sent to other apps with a URL, it cannot contain special characters which are usually part of a URL. Some apps even disabled passwords in URLs completely because they deemed them insecure.
When using the integrated terminal, this is no longer an issue, which means you can log on automatically.
Connect using private keys
No SSH app accepts a private key in the URL to connect to the target. Furthermore, the keys are usually too long to place them in a URL.
If you embed your key in the Royal TS/X document, it can now also be used in the mobile app.
Secure gateways (SSH tunnels)
We have always been able to open an SSH tunnel, but when starting an external app, the OS closed our network connection to save battery. Therefore, secure gateways could also not be used with third-party apps.
With the integrated client, our app remains active, and the secure gateway will not be closed.
Key sequence tasks
Since external apps don't know how to handle our key sequence tasks, they could not be used.
The integrated terminal can execute them at any time.
Other connection options
Third-party apps only accept the most important connection parameters. Many options which you can configure in our desktop apps were therefore ignored.
Now we can access those options and react accordingly.