Benefits of Building HTML5 Mobile Enterprise Applications

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Dora Cox
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1 Benefits of Building HTML5 Mobile Enterprise Applications Product Version 2.0

Table of Contents Introducing OpenText Gupta TD Mobile and HTML5... 3 Challenges of Mobile Enterprise Application Development.

2 Table of Contents Introducing OpenText Gupta TD Mobile and HTML Challenges of Mobile Enterprise Application Development... 3 Mobile Application Development with HTML Mobile Application Development with TD Mobile... 4 How OpenText Gupta TD Mobile Saved One Customer s Business... 5

3 Introducing OpenText Gupta TD Mobile and HTML5 Smart phones and tablets have come to be ubiquitous throughout our society. Mobile devices are part of our daily lives. They serve us in business and personally in many important and profound ways. And yet, mobile enterprise applications have not come close to reaching their full commercial potential, while most businesses are just beginning to discover the power of mobile computing. In 2014, research firm IDC surveyed organizations about which benefits they most expect to gain by deploying mobile applications. The top five answers cited were: 1. Improved productivity 2. Increased sales 3. Better customer support 4. Greater competitive advantages 5. Ease of information access HTML5 mobile, web-based enterprise applications developed in the TD Mobile IDE enable software developers to quickly deliver powerful and sophisticated solutions truly limited only by the imagination. Challenges of Mobile Enterprise Application Development Typical approaches to mobile application development are excessively challenging for developers because multiple and complex technologies are necessary and require the employment of expensive technical specialists. For example, on the front end are JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS. On the back end, are technologies such as Java,.NET and web services. In addition to the low-level coding that is required with these technologies, a variety of toolsets are used that produce differing file types. The developers are then challenged with integrating, testing and deploying a collage of disparate components. Back end challenges Enterprise applications are often heavily data driven. Many of the tools and technologies used require developers to code the back-end connections and data bindings. Front end challenges Heavy coding in JavaScript on the front end is typical and presents several challenges: No compile time checking or type safety makes it easy to introduce code errors that are discoverable only during run time. JavaScript lacks formal class and namespace structures. While these structures can be emulated, large-scale applications become difficult to build and maintain. Some APIs are available to help build front ends, but doing so still requires certain skills that are rare among business application developers. Challenges are further compounded when the front end must support multiple devices and display configurations that are characteristic of mobile devices. ENTERPRISE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT 3

Mobile Application Development with HTML5 Of the three primary types of mobile applications native, hybrid and HTML5 some debate still exists as to which type is best.

4 Mobile Application Development with HTML5 Of the three primary types of mobile applications native, hybrid and HTML5 some debate still exists as to which type is best. While each type may serve the unique needs of an organization, HTML5 meets the broadest requirements of most organizations, including cost, utility and functionality. When HTML5 is used with JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and as it is supported by multiple browsers and platforms, it is an unbeatable solution that has rapidly gained widespread adoption among mobile application developers. While using HTML5 has many practical benefits, a few of the more salient include: Cross-platform and cross-screen code portability Low development costs Usability by Web developers, rather than expensive and hard to find mobile application developers Six important characteristics of mobile enterprise applications are specifically addressed by HTML5: 1 They require support for multiple devices and display sizes. 2 They require support for special tools, such as GPS and barcode scanning. 3 They require support for back end data retrieval and delivery. 4 They require support for web services. 5 They require support for data security. 6 They require support for offline functionality with limited web access. Such characteristics are important functions for organizations, yet they are easily and cost-effectively supported with HTML5-based applications. Mobile Application Development with OpenText Gupta TD Mobile OpenText Gupta TD Mobile provides a comprehensive solution for developers who must quickly build and deploy full-featured enterprise mobile applications. The technologies and components needed to develop sophisticated applications are provided in an integrated development environment, which includes comprehensive features and controls, a powerful MVC architecture and easy connection to back end data sources. Applications for ios, Android, Microsoft Windows, Mac, Kindle and BlackBerry are all maintained from a single source code. TD Mobile simplifies data binding without HTML5/JavaScript coding. Application design is performed through a WYSIWYG screen designer that does not require coding HTML. Supporting multiple tablet and smartphone screens is a big task without help from the development system. TD Mobile apps come with built-in support for smartphone and tablet screens of all display sizes. OpenText Gupta TD Mobile eliminates the heavy coding that is typically required in web and mobile development. Developers of all skill levels can use Gupta TD Mobile without specific mobile development expertise. It allows developers to focus on user interfaces, features and functionality of their applications. OpenText Gupta TD Mobile makes mobile enterprise application development fast, easy and accessible to developers, whether they have mobile development skills or not. Gupta TD Mobile offers the following benefits: Bring the multiple technologies needed into one easy-to-use development system. Use intelligent data binding and automated data connections to tie the front end to corporate data sources. Include a rich drag and drop layout editor that reduces the need to manually code the layout in HTML. ENTERPRISE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT 4

5 Minimize JavaScript coding through tools that allow developers to define front end business logic without any JavaScript coding. Build the user interface once to run across multiple devices and display sizes. Simplify deployment to speed user field testing. No need to submit the app to a third-party app store for approval. How OpenText Gupta TD Mobile Saved One Customer s Business A Texas road maintenance company was having difficulty recording and reporting job material and labor costs. Accurate job cost data was typically either inaccurate or missing completely. At each month-end accounting, cost estimates were discovered to be grossly different than what was recorded in the field. The problems came to be so serious that the company was regularly on the verge of insolvency. The company found its solution with OpenText Gupta TD Mobile. With TD Mobile, the company quickly developed and deployed a mobile cost-recording application that its maintenance crews now use to record and deliver real-time cost data from the field. With its new mobile application, the crew foremen are able to easily record labor hours, materials used, job conditions and operating locations. Crews can even photograph and report the conditions of each job, a valuable feature in the contracting business. Thanks to the highly-customized mobile applications that were developed and deployed with TD Mobile, our Texas road maintenance customer is still in business, and cash flow and profit margins have never been better. Copyright 2016 Open Text SA or Open Text ULC (in Canada). All rights reserved. Trademarks owned by Open Text SA or Open Text ULC (in Canada). (06/2016) EN

Oracle Mobile Application Framework

Oracle Mobile Application Framework Oracle Mobile Application Framework (Oracle MAF) is a hybrid-mobile development framework that enables development teams to rapidly develop single-source applications