I guess this could be a validation of our strategy that HTML/5 is rich enough platform to build mobile apps and given a Hybrid path to building these applications could be a substitute for building native applications multiple times for various platforms. With its phonegap acquisition Adobe is enabling a hybrid path but lacks the key mobile E2E integration technology that is critical to a secure mobile landscape. There is also a trend by other vendors trying to support HTML5 as a platform e.g (Lua)Kony, (Ruby)Rhomobile to fit into this open web paradigm.
Some of the key elements to consider in a Mobile Platform above and beyond the ability to build applications in web paradigm.
Data synchronization
Reliable Data Push
Device Management
Mobile Data Models
Non-HTML5 platforms
Posted
on September 22, 2011, 7:43 pm,
by Himagiri Mukkamala, Sr. Dir of Eng,
under Mobility, sup, WorkSpace.
Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) enables iOS devices to receive notifications from SUP when the Hybrid Web Container is not in the foreground. These alerts could be alerts, beeps, badge on the container application. Attaching a document that gives step by step instructions on how this can be enabled with the Hybrid Web Container source code shipped in %SUP%\ClientAPI\Workflow\iOS\MobileWorkflow-2.0.1.tar.gz
Posted
on August 31, 2011, 1:44 pm,
by Himagiri Mukkamala, Sr. Dir of Eng,
under Mobility, sup, Teched, TechWave.
Here are the hottest sessions at Teched. Couple of my colleagues Andrew Lee and David Brandow are going to present around 10 sessions on Hybrid Web Container. If you are either a new developer or advanced developer who want to get more details about this technology that is part of SUP, attend these sessions. Better, tell them Hima sent you and they may have a surprise gift for you if they are impressed with the question
At the end of day, Does it matter? This question came up while I was having an interesting conversation with a partner regarding our Hybrid Web Container approach in SUP.
His characterization of the approach was that customers considered this as a mobile web app and hence not powerful enough to build “real” mobile applications for a long period of time using this technology path. I didn’t want to get into religious argument on what name you can give to a technology as this is always a loosing battle on both sides and a job well left to the analysts. My take on it was more from the perspective of what does a customer need to build mobile applications and does this technology enable that. At the end of day customers need access to native services like scanner, bar code reader, etc within their applications in various business domains.
The fact that the Hybrid Web Container meets those requirements using a Web programming paradigm doesn’t diminish or restrict the usecases that can be targeted by this approach. This actually simplifies and enables a larger developer audience to participate in the mobile development eco system unlike the pure native approach where the barrier of entry is high because of learning curve associated with the programming model.
You can call it a Web App or Native App or a Hybrid App, ultimately what determines the validity of the approach is whether the programming model and the SDKs available to the developer are rich and powerful to build enterprise mobile applications.
I plan on recording a set of screencasts for describing Mobile Workflow functionality that is included in SUP 2.0 Hybrid Web Container. Please post comments indicating any topics that you’d like to see. No promises but will try to get the team to record them.
It has been a long break from the blog world. Lot has been happening within the SUP space over the last 6 months. We’ve been working on a new SUP release that has some exciting architectural changes within the product. I’ll be around at Sapphire and look forward to hearing the Mobility ASUG sessions.
Few interesting things in the mobility world since I last blogged.
a) Android has gained significant market share
b) Lot of buzz about HTML5 and its adoption among various industries
c) Launch of playbook
d) HP pushing Web OS across all nodes in the computing environment
e) Adobe launching CS5.5 with support for iOS coming out soon.
I’m hoping I’ll be able to comment more on these topics as the new release gets out.
I had an earlier blog post on how to configure Eclipse 3.5.x installed with SUP to download BB JDE Eclipse plugins.
Recently, RIM has taken down this URL as they’ve started supporting Eclipse 3.6. Unfortunately SUP 1.5.5 only supports Eclipse 3.5.x
and hence won’t work with 1.3 version of BB JDE Eclipse Plugin. Currently there are 2 options.
a) Use the full installer for BB JDE 1.1 and choose eclipse location of %SUP%\Unwiredplatform\Eclipse. This version is only available until mid Feb on RIM’s developer page.
b) Use the full installer for BB JDE 1.3 and install it completely independent of SUP.
SUP Release that supports iOS 4.2 for both iPhone and iPad is out. This enables developers to leverage iOS4.2 SDK
functionality while building iOS applications using Objective-C Object API.
EBF 18563: 1.5.5 ESD #1
Workflows can also be run on iOS4.2 either using the Workflow client in the CRM Application or by building a Client using the sample project shipped with the product.
It’s not a new year resolution to post more blog entries.. Just want to make sure people don’t have their expectations up.
If I’ve to summarize what has been happening in the SUP world, there was a new upgrade release 1.5.5
that went out few weeks back. Some of the new features in this release
- Improvements to accessing real-time information from EIS from Mobile Workflows
- Better exception handling information for clients
- Availability of additional contextual information like DeviceId, username, etc for using in Mobile Workflows
- Cache enhancements.
Refer to this link for additional information on this release.
We are currently working on the next release which has some cool new technology that mashes up Mobile Web and Native technologies enabling best of Web (Developers) and Native (Access to OS functionality). Pretty excited about it.
Disclaimer: The individuals who post here work at Sybase.