You’ve done everything right, making sure your app has powerful access to back end data, a beautiful and intuitive UX, and availability for iOS, Android, and even Windows phones. It’s in the app stores and ready for those five star ratings. What could you possibly have overlooked?
You’re too mobile.
An incredible variety of mobile phones and tablets exist in the world today and new models are announced continuously. All these mobile devices have different specifications and capabilities, which can be a problem for developers creating mobile apps. Tablets have large screen sizes, but don’t necessarily include cellular data, default color sets vary by phone manufacturer, and built-in mobile features may behave differently in each mobile operating system. Fortunately, the MobileTogether Designer provides an integrated development environment that lets users quickly design and build cross-platform mobile app features ideally suited to each end-user’s device.
“We need an app for that.”
This simple declaration carries with it underlying implications that can be anything but simple to implement: an app must be available for all devices, it must delight end users – and it must be ready yesterday.
As the need for mobility in data centric apps has increased, so has the number of products claiming to provide the best in cross-platform mobile development. But how can you cut through the flowery marketing claims? We’ve put together a list of the top 10 criteria for choosing a mobile development framework.
MobileTogether empowers developers to populate mobile apps with information retrieved from external sources via REST and SOAP Web services, and consume the data received whether it is XML, JSON, or HTML. MobileTogether support for both REST and SOAP provides mobile app developers with access to vast online data resources for a wide range of applications.
Google recently announced their next generation of managed MySQL offerings on Cloud SQL, so we wanted to take it for a spin and create a cloud-based SQL database that we could then utilize as the back-end for mobile apps, or even for advanced data analytics from our desktop.
According to Google, the two principal goals of the second generation of Cloud SQL were better performance and scalability per dollar. It seems that they succeeded in these goals: the second generation Cloud SQL is more than seven times faster than the first. And it scales to 10TB of data, 15,000 IOPS, and 104GB of RAM per instance — well beyond the first generation. So it looks like the ideal, scalable cloud-based database back-end for mobile apps.
You’ve probably signed an electronic display recently to make a credit card purchase or accept a package delivery. Now Altova MobileTogether 2.0 lets you incorporate signatures into your own mobile apps for all platforms.
When we demonstrate MobileTogether at tradeshows, we often get asked this question: “So is it just a native app wrapper around HTML5 and JavaScript?” The simple answer is: “No.”
MobileTogether is a complete mobile app development framework that is based on our very own rendering and processing engine, which gives us a lot more flexibility and power to provide a true native app experience on each mobile operating system platform and also make important mobile platform functions that are not commonly accessible from JavaScript or HTML5-based web apps available to the developer.
Microsoft’s recent announcement of their new PowerApps product comes at an interesting time, considering that MobileTogether has been on the market for over a year now. Though Microsoft is a bit late to the game with this offering, their announcement serves to underscore the importance of enterprise mobility and the challenge that MobileTogether was created to solve: businesses need to mobilize essential processes – for all devices – in a reasonable amount of time.
MobileTogether has been filling this need for over a year now, allowing developers and power users with no mobile development experience to build powerful, data-centric apps. If you can build formulas in Excel or write simple SQL queries, you have the technical skills needed to build a robust, sophisticated app using MobileTogether. While PowerApps may be a boon for Office users who need to mobilize simple productivity tasks via basic apps, MobileTogether lets customers take it many steps further, adding rich functionality for processing, analyzing, and collecting data in ways that add value beyond simple mobile access to services.
And in the 2.0 version of MobileTogether, Altova brought the same ease of developing cross-platform business solutions to building fully native apps for all mobile platforms. This is something that PowerApps promises to do – but you only get native apps from PowerApps if you develop the mobile app by hand via the native SDKs on each platform or use a cross-platform framework like Xamarin and then access PowerApps APIs on Azure. In contrast, building cross-platform native AppStore apps in MobileTogether 2.0 is really just a matter of selecting the “Generate code” command from the menu.
The Microsoft PowerApps announcement can be really confusing to parse, so we’ve put together a list of the top 10 reasons why we believe MobileTogether is superior to PowerApps.
Apps built with MobileTogether include the ability to use SSL encryption between the mobile app and the back-end server, and with it come restrictions on importing and exporting the app in the United States and potentially other countries. If you intend to submit the AppStore App to Apple’s App Store or Microsoft’s App Store (and potentially others), their submission processes will ask whether the app includes encryption. Since all AppStore Apps built with MobileTogether include the ability to use the OS-provided libraries for SSL use in mobile apps and in particular for the encryption of the communication between the mobile app and server using the https protocol, the answer to this question is “YES.” At some point in the process, this answer will then trigger a prompt to upload your Encryption Registration Number (ERN). So how does one obtain an ERN?
To match the speed of business, mobile app development must be simple, fast, and efficient. Your apps must meet user demands on all platforms and mobilize essential processes seamlessly. Sounds easy enough, right? With MobileTogether, it is.
In true version 2.0 fashion, MobileTogether delivers the final piece of the puzzle: you can build your own, custom-branded app to submit to the app stores.
The new AppStore Deployment process is well suited for customer-facing or specially-branded apps. This option adds to existing support for Instant Deployment of enterprise app solutions using the MobileTogether Mobile Apps. With either approach, you’ll still get your app in end users’ hands in record time – much faster than any other approach.
If you live in the 21st century and are not actually hiding underneath a rock or living in a cave, you probably are suffering from some form of information overload and feel overburdened by the number of things you have to do at any given moment in time. New information is constantly coming at you in the form of Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, text messages, or the latest social media app you installed on your smartphone, as well as good old radio, TV, newspapers, and magazines in their classic or digital versions, not to mention work or school email, personal email from friends and family, and all the social obligations from clubs, charities, and local community organizations.
So how do you actually manage to stay productive and deal with this onslaught of information without going crazy? How do you get things done, achieve your goals, and get to the mountaintop despite the constant head-wind?
With projections of the smartphone market growing more than 10% every year for the next few years or more, and enterprise use of tablets soaring, it is imperative to any business today to ensure a strong mobile strategy. Here are some great thought provoking ways to get ahead of the competition and bring your mobile strategy to the next level.
A recently published Forrester study reveals that tablet sales, once soaring as Apple, Samsung, and other tablet producers fought for market share, have plateaued. The allure of these larger screens has waned as the size of smartphones has grown over time, and existing customers just aren’t as enthusiastic about upgrading their tablets to a new version as they are about getting the latest and greatest smartphone.
One area where tablet use isn’t slowing appears to be the enterprise, as end users continue to utilize iPads and Android tablets for business-related tasks, and employers are willing to let them BYOD.
This is great news for MobileTogether developers building enterprise mobile apps for tablets (as well as phones and desktop devices) – but really, they don’t care.
Altova MobileTogether empowers companies of any size to quickly design and deploy custom enterprise mobile solutions that run on all mobile platforms. The Actions dialog in the MobileTogether Designer is one key feature that makes it possible to develop robust mobile solutions in days, not months.
The Actions dialog lets developers create sophisticated event handlers, control flow, and operations that work the same on iOS®, Android™, Windows® Phone 8, and Windows 8 devices, as well as an HTML5 browser-based client, without worrying about the unique details of the API or SDK for each mobile operating system, because the ActionTrees built with MobileTogether are independent of any particular device-specific programming language.
We’re proud to announce MobileTogether Version 1.5 with more than 18 important new features and enhancements, adding even more power for building and deploying multi-platform mobile app solutions for enterprises of all sizes.
We are pleased announce version 1.4 of MobileTogether, Altova’s multi-platform mobile development framework that empowers organizations of any size to quickly design and deploy custom enterprise mobile solutions that are accessible on any mobile device.
In the past it was difficult and time consuming to synchronize development of cross-platform mobile enterprise applications because each mobile operating system required a different tool set or unique steps to build a compiled result.
Altova MobileTogether simplifies and accelerates cross-platform mobile development with the MobileTogether Designer. Using MobileTogether, developers create a single Solution file for Android, iOS, Windows Phone 8, Windows 8, and in HTML-5 browsers on other platforms.
Even better, the MobileTogether Designer includes a Simulator window that lets developers instantly execute the Solution to test logic, view the design as it will appear on a variety of devices, and examine changes in workflow data during execution.
Here is a view of the BizBudget example Solution as seen in the Simulator representations for iOS and Android devices:
Both views were generated from the same solution file, simply by changing the simulation preview device.
Read more…
When an offsite manager can read and reply to company email on a mobile phone, it’s only a short step to wanting access to all up-to-the-minute company data from the most convenient device.
Previously we’ve written about using FlowForce Server to generate HTML output that communicates data integration results. And yes, HTML results can be made available to Web browsers on mobile phones and tablets, but that’s an inferior solution for several reasons – the data will be cumbersome to view because it is not formatted for each device, and there is no interactive support for user interface controls built into mobile operating systems like buttons, combo boxes, edit fields, etc.
Fortunately, FlowForce Server jobs can be triggered by Altova MobileTogether solutions. The results are delivered directly to the mobile device and presented in a beautiful native-client form.
Altova MobileTogether is a unique cross-platform mobile development solution that includes functionality to work with FlowForce Server, and by extension MapForce Server, to bring data integration results to mobile devices to integrate business intelligence dashboards, elegant enterprise forms, and much more.
Here’s how a month-to-date sales report can appear on a mobile phone as a MobileTogether solution:
When the solution launches, the sales manager selects the region and product, the report is generated by execution of the FlowForce Server job running on a server back in the enterprise data center, and the results are displayed.
We are pleased to announce commercial availability of MobileTogether. Altova’s brand new, cross-platform mobile development framework lets you design mobile solutions in record time and deploy them to all device platforms, including Android, iOS, Windows 8, and Windows Phone 8 smartphones and tablets, as well as Windows 8 tablets and computers, or any other browser-based client.
‘MobileTogether brings control of mobile data in-house, where your team can create, test, and deploy mobile solutions quickly, moving from business requirements to live mobile solutions within hours. Your organization retains full control of your data, user security, access control, and the entire development cycle.
MobileTogether works for enterprises of all sizes, across all verticals. Whether you need to create BI reports, data collection forms, department-specific dashboards, or something else altogether, MobileTogether makes it easy.
MobileTogether consists of three components that unify the development experience with a visual designer, a powerful simulator, and a streamlined deployment process:
With today’s release, MobileTogether introduces several new features based on invaluable feedback from beta test users, including enhanced support for images captured directly from a camera or stored in a photo gallery, new Actions that can be assigned to UI controls or included in Action Groups, new XPath functions for image and geolocation processing, and additional new XPath functions.
MobileTogether is designed to be affordable for firms of all sizes. The MobileTogether Designer and MobileTogether Mobile App are free to use – so teams can get to work immediately. When they’re ready to deploy custom mobile solutions, the MobileTogether Server provides powerful data processing and affordable scalability that is licensed based on the number of mobile devices the enterprise needs to support.
Visit the Altova Web site for detailed information about MobileTogether, watch a MobileTogether demo video, or to get started yourself, download the MobileTogether Designer!
Software engineers have long wanted to create an application once and run it on multiple platforms. With today’s rapidly evolving mobile devices, the problem is even more urgent, as iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Surface tablets all compete for developer resources.
If you’re working on apps to communicate with enterprise users, you risk disenfranchising and alienating influential and important subsets of your colleagues when you build for each device sequentially or deliver unequal functionality.
Altova MobileTogether lets you create a cross-platform mobile solution once and deploy it in seconds to all mobile users in the enterprise, who may run it on iPhones, iPads, Android phones or tablets, Windows Phones, Surface tablets, or even laptop or desktop computers.
And these are not simple .html-based one-size-fits-all Web pages, but true native mobile solutions that take advantage of all the rich interface features users already know, delivering mission-critical data from databases, XML files, or by issuing HTTP requests to remote servers and filtering and formatting the response as necessary.
The MobileTogether Designer is an easy-to-use development tool for creating high-quality business intelligence dashboards, interactive reports, enterprise forms, and other mobile applications by using drag-and-drop functionality. You simply drag various controls into the work area and assign data structures and actions to build a cross-platform solution.
UPDATE: MobileTogether exited Beta with the formal launch on November 10, 2014. Check out the more recent post announcing the MobileTogether launch to learn about even more new features added during the Beta period.
Packed with new features, the Beta 2 version of Altova MobileTogether is now available for download. If you’ve already participated in the first round of MobileTogether Beta, then you already know how easy it is to create sophisticated app solutions and get them into your end-users’ hands.
But if you’re new to MobileTogether, it works like this: you can connect to your backend data and use the information found in relational databases, XML documents, or on the web to create powerful, cross-platform business solutions, including BI dashboard, electronic forms, and even complex business workflows. Once constructed in the MobileTogether Designer, you can test your solution with the built-in simulator to ensure it works on all devices. Finally, your solution is effortlessly deploy to your end-users on the device of their choice—whether that’s a mobile phone, a tablet, a laptop, or all three! What takes other app developing approaches weeks, months, or even a year to complete, takes less than a few days with MobileTogether.
What’s new in Beta 2?
With the release of a new product version, comes a host of new updates. Here is a list of the new features and fixes available in the latest Beta 2 version:
During the Beta period, all three components of the MobileTogether system (the Designer, the Mobile App, and the Server) are available as a free-to-use download. The Beta provides you with a great opportunity to take MobileTogether for a test drive by creating app solutions and then deploying them to your end-users.
After the beta period concludes later this year, the Mobile App and Designer will continue to be free to use, and the Server pricing – based on the number of client devices connected – will be extremely affordable.
If you’re a current beta customer, you may need to update your MobileTogether Designer and Server software on the MobileTogether Beta pages. Your MobileTogether Mobile App will be updated through the respective app stores.
Don’t Just Take Our Word for It
MobileTogether has been in Beta testing for just a few weeks and we have already been garnering a lot of positive feedback. Here is a sample of what your colleagues have told us:
“Excellent approach. The ease with which one can develop data driven apps with this is just amazing.”
“Very effective tool, congratulations!”
“I’ve found MobileTogether very easy to use, even with my lack of experience.”
Isn’t it about time you see what everyone is talking about? Begin your MobileTogether experience now by downloading the Designer.
Learn more about MobileTogether:
MobileTogether Support Forum
MobileTogether Video Demonstrations
MobileTogether product page
MobileTogether intro video
A Gentle Introduction to XPath
The MobileTogether Beta period is moving along at a brisk pace as more and more users have downloaded the MobileTogether Designer to create custom mobile solutions for their organizations. This easy-to-use mobile development platform just got a lot easier to implement as the MobileTogether Mobile App is now available for download in every major device’s app store.
Once you’ve perfected your first mobile solution in the MobileTogether Designer and run it through the built-in simulator, you’re ready to connect your device to the Designer for further testing. Be sure to follow the steps laid out on the Beta Getting Started page, and then visit the app store for your mobile device to download the free MobileTogether Mobile App:
Please continue to ask questions, share feedback, and collaborate with other users in the MobileTogether Support Forum.
Learn more about MobileTogether:
· MobileTogether Beta page
· MobileTogether Support Forum
· MobileTogether Video Demonstrations
· MobileTogether product page
· MobileTogether intro video
· A Gentle Introduction to XPath
By now you’ve heard of Altova MobileTogether, the new cross-platform, mobile development environment that delivers lightning-quick access to your data via mobile devices. Now we are happy to announce the MobileTogether public beta period, which gives developers an opportunity to test this game-changing system for FREE and render their data into eye-catching mobile solutions, quickly and securely.
The MobileTogether beta period begins July 22, 2014.
Start the beta process by exploring the MobileTogether Beta information page and then downloading the MobileTogether Designer. This is where you will begin building your mobile solutions and discovering what you can accomplish with MobileTogether. From BI dashboards to enterprise forms to department reports and more, MobileTogether is THE choice for your mobile business solutions.
Creating a mobile solution is easy. Forget about learning multiple mobile languages or using Java, .NET, or Objective-C to create a mobile solution. As soon as you open the MobileTogether Designer, you can immediately start creating impressive-looking mobile solutions using drag-and-drop functionality and a bit of XPath or XQuery knowledge. Once you’ve finished, run it through the Designer’s built-in simulator to make sure it works correctly. Get started now.
After you mastered crafting your mobile solutions—help can be found on the video demonstration page as well as in our Gentle Introduction to XPath —download the Mobile App for your mobile device. Then install the MobileTogether Server, which is also known as “Mission Control” for the MobileTogether system. You will then be able to empower your colleagues with the data they need as you deploy the mobile solutions. Full directions for these steps can be found on the MobileTogether Beta Page.
During the beta period, we will be relying on invaluable feedback from customers like you to refine processes and add new features. Please ask questions, share feedback, and collaborate with other users in the MobileTogether Support Forum. For more information, read all about MobileTogether at the MobileTogether page on the Altova web site.
Learn more about MobileTogether:
We are so excited to announce a brand new product from Altova for the mobile space, which we will be unveiling today at the sold-out TechEd North America show in Houston, TX.
Armed with smartphones and tablets, we are constantly connected to touch screens – yet when it comes to true business productivity, these devices still only provide email, calendar, and contacts connectivity, and not much else. Think about it: when’s the last time you used your work phone for anything other than email? There has to be a better approach. Altova MobileTogether is the answer. It brings control of mobile data in-house, where your team can create, test, and deploy mobile solutions quickly, moving from business requirement to live mobile solution within hours.
Your organization retains full control of your data, user security, access control, and the entire development cycle.MobileTogether is a revolutionary approach to creating mobile app solutions for corporate data. Instead of cumbersome and time-consuming native app development tools, MobileTogether unifies the development experience and provides a visual designer, a powerful simulator, and a stream-lined deployment process. It allows you to build one solution for all platforms – in record time – and deploy it seamlessly to all the mobile devices in your workplace.
MobileTogether supports all platforms with free, native client apps:
Cross-platform support makes MobileTogether perfect for today’s ubiquitous BYOD scenarios and provides for easy adaptation to changes.
Availability
In the weeks following the MobileTogether announcement at TechEd, we will make a public beta available to interested customers, with full commercial availability expected this fall. If you’re attending TechEd, stop by booth 2027 for a demo! Learn more and stay tuned for more details about this revolutionary new platform for building mobile business solutions!
