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Building mobile apps

Mobile applications in Profound UI are developed using the same techniques as Profound UI web applications for the desktop.  The Profound UI runtime framework automatically detects the user’s application environment (mobile vs. desktop) and adjusts the behavior of the widgets within the application accordingly.  Examples of this include:

  • Grid widgets providing for swipe scrolling on a mobile device vs. a standard desktop-like scrollbar
  • Slider widget displaying a bigger handle so that it is easier to slide with a finger
  • Charts switching to HTML5 mode vs. Flash, so they can render on iOS devices
  • Signature Pad widget responding to touch events
  • Textboxes for numeric fields automatically bringing up a numeric keypad
  • Dropdowns utilizing the native device look-and-feel vs. a desktop browser look-and-feel
  • Drag and drop operations using touch events vs. mouse events
  • Google Maps Widget providing pinch to zoom capabilities

Although the runtime environment handles a lot of issues automatically, a few details must be taken into consideration by the developer; such as how to deploy the application, how to take advantage of native features on the device, and how to accommodate for different device screen sizes.

When modernizing green-screen applications on the fly with the Profound UI Genie module, the Tablet skin can be used for deploying to a mobile device.  The Tablet skin ensures that all 5250 functionality is accessible through touch actions and provides a pop-up keypad for special emulation keys such as Attention, Sys Request, and function keys.  You can copy and modify the Tablet skin to tweak the look- and-feel and the functionality of your application.  You can also add various enhancements using the Genie Designer.

For Rich Display File applications, the mobile screen size must be taken into account.  For example, clickable elements should be large enough so that they are easy to trigger with a touch of the finger.  Likewise, layouts can be used to adjust for varying screen sizes or device orientation changes.

Deploying mobile apps

A Profound UI mobile application can be deployed within a mobile browser or as a native app packaged through PhoneGap (when packaged this way, it is often referred to as a hybrid application).

Deploying using the browser on the device is the quickest way to deploy.  The browser can be pointed to a URL, which can execute a Profound UI RPG program (typically a program registered as Anonymous within Profound UI) or a PHP controller.  A bookmark or shortcut to the URL can be created on the user’s device and placed on the desktop for easy access.

In some instances, however, you may require native app deployment.  This offers several advantages:

  • You can achieve a truly native look-and-feel (no browser address bar)
  • You can deploy the application to an App Market/Store for users to download or purchase
  • You can take advantage of native device features, such as camera and the accelerometer

Profound UI relies on an open source tool called PhoneGap (also known as Apache Cordova) to deploy native apps.  The Profound UI runtime environment is tightly integrated with PhoneGap API.  Profound UI also ships with prebuilt PhoneGap templates so that the packaging process is as simple as possible.

The steps involved in deploying native apps with PhoneGap vary based on the type of device you are targeting.  To deploy for Android, you will be working within Eclipse or RDp.  To deploy for iOS (iPhone or iPad devices), you will be working within XCode on an Apple Mac computer.

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