MobileTogether Archives

Tag Archive for: MobileTogether

How to Build Apps for Barcode Scanners

October 1, 2024/in App Development, apps, Low Code, Mobile /by Erin Cavanaugh

Handheld barcode scanners are indispensable in many sectors today, from retail and logistics to healthcare, shipping, and manufacturing. These devices play a critical role in capturing real-time data, such as inventory updates, order tracking, and customer details. However, integrating scanned data seamlessly into backend systems is just as important as collecting it. Barcode scanner apps can bridge the the gap with the ability to transfer scanned information to databases and business systems.

While the need to integrate barcode scanner data into mobile apps is a common requirement, building scanning apps is often a challenge. Traditional development methods require specialized expertise and can take too long, especially in industries that demand rapid deployment.

Support for connecting to barcode scanners in Altova MobileTogether changes all of that. With this low-code app development framework, you can create, test, and deploy barcode-scanning solutions in a fraction of the time compared to conventional coding approaches.

A worker in a warehouse scanning a barcode to send data to a tablet

New in MobileTogether 10.0

September 24, 2024/in App Development, Low Code, Mobile /by Erin Cavanaugh

The latest version of Altova MobileTogether introduces frequently requested support for building apps that connect to mobile barcode scanners. This addition makes the low-code development framework even more useful for creating solutions across industries that rely on barcodes and QR codes to update data in real time.

Version 10.0 also includes a new Styles Inspector in the app simulator, new controls, options for boosting flexibility and performance, and more.

Here’s a look at the highlights.

working in a warehouse scanning boxes with a handheld barcode scanner

Modularization for App Development

September 10, 2024/in App Development, Development, mobile development /by Erin Cavanaugh

In programming, modularization is the practice of dividing functionality into separate, independent modules. Modularization in app development is an efficient way of organizing app components and enabling collaboration within development teams. A modular approach also helps make testing, debugging, and maintenance of the app easier and more straightforward.

MobileTogether offers some classic – and some unique – approaches to modularization.

Configuring MobileTogether Server to Work With Your Network

April 1, 2024/in App Development, mobile development, MobileTogether /by Ty Shuff

Configuring MobileTogether Server to work properly on your network will require some changes to be made. MobileTogether Server is designed to sit within your network’s DMZ, and enabling it to accept connections from clients both inside and outside your network will require your network administrator to open a collection of ports.

This video tutorial will walk you through the ports required to make MobileTogether function. It provides you with a baseline setup that will work inside most corporate networks. Please note, however, that every network is different and some configuration changes may be required. To support this, every port MobileTogether Server uses can be customized; all the ports listed in this tutorial are default and can be changed.

The image below outlines the network ports required by Altova LicenseServer to properly validate files.

Clients will need to be able to connect both internally and externally. We recommend using the default MobileTogether ports, and remapping them to 80 and 443 at each of your firewalls. This is discussed in greater detail in the video.

Finally, a set of ports will need to be opened for administrator purposes. These ports should be limited to your internal network only.

Using a Reverse Proxy Server

When setting up a MobileTogether Server for a public-facing app that will be accessed via URL in a web browser (in addition to from MobileTogether client apps), it may be helpful to hide the precise URL that is being used on the server to start the solution.

Solution URLs follow this convention: https://server.name/run?d=/public/SolutionName. You can customize the URL to hide the “run?d…” portion by deploying a reverse proxy server in front of the MobileTogether Server.

Tags: Altova Online Training, Database, mobile development, MobileTogether, MobileTogether Server

Refactoring Mobile Apps

March 6, 2024/in App Development, Mobile, MobileTogether /by David McGahey

The best ideas for new features and other improvements to existing software apps often come from enthusiastic users. Implementing new features creates opportunities for refactoring mobile apps. After several years using the MobileTogether Solar Data Tracking app to monitor the performance of a rooftop solar system, my friend Casey had a suggestion.

The app displayed one page of charts and tables to report production by month over a year and another page to report daily production for the last 30 days. Navigation buttons on each page enabled easy switching between views. Casey’s suggestion was to revise the app to place all the charts and tables on a single page. Over time mobile users have become accustomed to mobile apps that present data in long pages that scroll with a quick one-finger swipe motion. A one-page app would feel smooth and more up-to-date.

MobileTogether 9.0 with MQTT Support and More

January 16, 2024/in App Development, Low Code, Mobile /by Erin Cavanaugh

Version 9.0 of MobileTogether, Altova’s low code app development framework, is now available with new features including comprehensive MQTT support, support for new gestures, drawing barcodes and QR codes, dark mode, and much more.

Here’s a look at all the highlights.

Image showing a drawing of a factory setting using MQTT messages

Building Apps with an Intelligent Database Wizard

March 20, 2023/in App Development, Database, Development, Low Code /by Erin Cavanaugh

Data-driven solutions like database and enterprise apps rely on connection to, and interaction with, backend databases. Backend relational databases, however, store data in tables that reflect complex data relationships. This provides numerous advantages for effective data management and data integrity but can make it difficult to access and work with the data stored therein in new ways. App developers need to have a comprehensive understanding of database design principles and the SQL query language just to get started.

In contrast, real world data relationships most often represent parent-child relationships or even deeper hierarchical structure. As such, working with hierarchical data where relationships can be visualized in a tree structure can be much simpler and more flexible, leading to faster development. This approach is also more accessible to developers without extensive SQL expertise.

To make building apps that connect to the backend relational databases that are ubiquitous in today’s enterprise easier, faster, and available to a wider range of developers, Altova MobileTogether takes an entirely unique approach. Its visual Database Wizard lets developers easily build a query that returns hierarchical data, work with that data in the app, and then easily save the data back in hierarchical form, letting MobileTogether take care of normalizing the data and writing it back to the corresponding linked tables. Let’s take a look at how it works.

New App Development Tools

January 25, 2023/in App Development, Development, Mobile /by Erin Cavanaugh

Altova releases new versions of its app development framework multiple times a year to introduce new features added in response to customer requests and feedback, as well as to add support for newer OS and database versions as they become available.

The latest release of MobileTogether and RecordsManager introduces important new functionality for building low-code and no-code apps.

Introducing the latest MobileTogether release

The Easy Way to Track GDPR Compliance

September 28, 2022/in apps, MobileTogether /by Erin Cavanaugh

GDPR is an acronym that has been top of mind for of privacy officers, CIOs, and even marketers across the EU since the early months of 2018. Now that it’s been a few years since the regulation went into effect, organizations should have a handle on what type of data is impacted and how to handle compliance. The ongoing challenge is tracking and documenting the steps required for GDPR compliance as a business evolves over time.

While numerous one-off templates to create GDPR reports based on a moment in time are available, Altova has created the first long-term solution for documenting and tracking the entire GDPR compliance management process.

Let’s take a look at what GDPR compliance entails and how the Altova GDPR Compliance Database makes managing it organized and straightforward.

An easy way to document and track GDPR compliance

MobileTogether Gets a Major Update

June 1, 2022/in App Development, Low Code, MobileTogether /by Erin Cavanaugh

Version 8.0 of MobileTogether adds several exciting new features to the innovative platform for building enterprise and mobile apps, giving existing customers a major upgrade and paving the way for new customers to create full-featured apps even faster than before.

Major additions to the platform include a brand new way of interacting with relational databases, support for modularization, and much more.

Version 8.0 also coincides with the launch of Altova RecordsManager, a new offering that gives system administrators a completely no-code option for creating business database apps in MobileTogether Designer.

Let’s take a look at the highlights.

InfoPath Alternatives from Altova

April 27, 2022/in App Development, MobileTogether, XML /by Erin Cavanaugh

InfoPath, the popular business forms software from Microsoft, was sunset by the company starting in 2016. Without a direct replacement, customers have turned to InfoPath alternatives to facilitate forms creation and automated data collection.

Altova offers two alternatives that meet different customer implementation requirements. This article will walk you through some background information and help you decide which product to choose.

Mobile App Themes Improve User Satisfaction

March 2, 2022/in App Development, mobile development, MobileTogether /by David McGahey

Mobile app themes improve user satisfaction by letting each user customize the app appearance with personal preferences. One way to implement multiple themes in apps that report and visualize data is to offer users a choice of color palettes for charts and graphs. MobileTogether uses a combination of drag-and-drop UI design, the powerful Action Tree visual programming language for event handling, and standardized functional programming for data selection and processing. Developers use MobileTogether every day to create elegant cross-platform apps with rich charts and graphs in all popular formats.

The main chart configuration settings let mobile app developers choose any of four built-in color palettes or even define a custom color palette for charts and graphs as they design an app. Combined with dark mode and light mode display settings, that creates ten colorful possibilities for display customization. Rather than impose a design-time color choice, developers can leverage MobileTogether features to let users choose for themselves. Let’s look at an example.

MobileTogether Adds In-App Purchasing

July 7, 2021/in App Development, mobile development, MobileTogether /by Erin Cavanaugh

The latest release of MobileTogether introduces new tools for monetizing your apps and integrating them in new ways – making the platform even more flexible and useful for developers in firms of all types and sizes.

If you haven’t tried the MobileTogether framework for rapidly building enterprise apps and native apps for iOS, Android, Windows, and more, now is the time. Learn about all the new features below and try MobileTogether Designer for free.

Announcing new features in MobileTogether

Create Mobile Apps that Automatically Support Dark Theme

December 28, 2020/in App Development, mobile development /by David McGahey

Android and Apple mobile devices support a display option called Dark Theme, which you can think of as almost a negative image of the normal screen display. In Dark Theme white is black, black is white, and color intensity in general is adjusted. Dark Theme reduces power requirements, which can extend runtime for a battery charge, and can be easier to view in low light.

Altova MobileTogether includes features to let developers create mobile apps that automatically support Dark Theme by detecting the user setting when the app is launched.

Let’s look at an example:

New Features for Refining Your App UI

December 15, 2020/in App Development, mobile development, MobileTogether /by Erin Cavanaugh

The latest release of Altova’s rapid application development (RAD) framework introduces several new features that make it easier to customize and refine the UI of your app, with new features for styling controls, flexible options for users, and new logging tools.

Let’s take a look at what’s new in MobileTogether 7.2.

Mobile App Debugging

August 5, 2020/in App Development, mobile development, MobileTogether, Tools /by David McGahey

MobileTogether is a tool for building highly complex, elegant, cross-platform solutions. Developers need mobile app debugging tools to troubleshoot during development and understand app behavior. The MobileTogether Designer offers full-featured debugging of app execution flow inside action trees and debugging of XPath/XQuery functions. These features are provided in two mobile app debugging views integrated into a single tool.

The Actions Debugger view allows developers to debug the Actions of a Control event or a Page event. This view is available when an Action that has been selected for debugging is encountered during processing. The XPath Debugger view opens the XPath/XQuery evaluator window for in-depth tracing and debugging of expressions.

Developers can set breakpoints at various locations and the app, then execute one step at a time, pausing in either view to allow examination of the complete execution environment.

Let’s see mobile app debugging in action:

Design Templates for Mobile Apps

July 28, 2020/in App Development, mobile development, MobileTogether, Tools /by David McGahey

In an earlier post we wrote about using software design templates for mobile apps to facilitate design reuse and make it easy to build efficient, flexible options for various app requirements. We described an example of a Control Template designed to present multiple levels of hierarchical data based on user selection at runtime.

Our example was built using MobileTogether, Altova’s RMAD (Rapid Mobile App Development) tool to help developers build cross-platform apps that deliver dynamic, sophisticated app performance that delights end users.

You can also build Control Templates for cross-platform mobile apps by combining multiple controls into a larger unit, like a complex sub-assembly built from individual parts. This creates design templates for mobile apps that can easily be dropped in anywhere, speeding development and ensuring consistency.

MobileTogether Adds a Full-Featured Debugger

July 14, 2020/in App Development, Low Code, mobile development /by Erin Cavanaugh

MobileTogether is an easy to use, low-code app development framework that allows you to create sophisticated apps for all platforms from a single app design. Because MobileTogether is capable of building highly complex, elegant solutions, developers need the ability to troubleshoot during development to understand and debug app behavior.

In its latest release MobileTogether introduces a brand new, enterprise-grade debugger alongside other new features for defining controls, actions, and UI refinements.

Programming Techniques for Mobile Development

July 1, 2020/in App Development, Low Code, mobile development, Tools /by David McGahey

MobileTogether is an easy to use, low-code app development framework that lets you create sophisticated apps for all platforms from a single design.

Low-code doesn’t mean no code. A database specialist might start with a few SQL queries and use the MobileTogether drag and drop interface to create an app with elegant tables and graphs to report up-to-the-minute enterprise data, while experienced developers often use familiar programming techniques in mobile development to build highly complex, elegant MobileTogether solutions.

Developers define user functions, parameters, variables, loops, or a complex data structure when that’s the right tool for the job. MobileTogether makes it fast and easy to control all the features in the device – camera, microphone, GPS, SMS, handwriting capture, and more. MobileTogether helps you achieve your vision fast and build really cool mobile apps with charisma enough to go viral.

MobileTogether is about getting the work done efficiently, not limiting how you do it. Let’s check out a couple examples of programming techniques in MobileTogether apps.

Software Design Templates in Mobile Development Projects

January 21, 2020/in App Development, Mobile, Tools /by David McGahey

Software design templates streamline mobile app development by eliminating implementation of repetitive components. Creating a design template also simplifies revisions and upgrades when a change to the template can roll through an entire project.

MobileTogether supports software design templates for user controls in cross-platform mobile apps to facilitate design reuse and make it easy to build efficient, flexible options for various app requirements.

A Control Template in MobileTogether is a design component that allows developers to specify and group user controls in a way that makes them easily reusable. Control Templates support parameters, and each template can be customized based on parameter values at runtime.

Let’s look at an example.

CbC Reporting Made Easy

December 8, 2019/in apps, Data Integration, Mobile, MobileTogether /by Erin Cavanaugh

A recent mandate from the OECD called on large, multinational companies to report financials annually for each country in which they do business to their local tax authority. The OECD specified that this detailed Country by Country (CbC) Report be filed in an XML document according to their reporting schema. But for tax departments that work largely in Excel or other accounting software, this presented a significant stumbling block – and companies found themselves scrambling to meet the requirements by the deadline.

What was needed is a way to automatically generate valid, properly formatted CbC XML reports based on existing data. Altova created the Country by Country Reporting Solution to do just that, either based on manually entered data or figures imported directly from Excel. Let’s take a look at how it works.

Accelerate Low Code App Development with MobileTogether 6.0

November 19, 2019/in App Development, Low Code, Mobile /by Erin Cavanaugh

With the right tools, a low code approach to development doesn’t mean a sacrifice of functionality or sophistication of the end result. On the contrary, low code app development frameworks like MobileTogether make advanced programming functionality more accessible and faster to implement.

Whether you’re building apps for iOS, Android, Windows, the web – or all of the above – the latest release of MobileTogether adds a mix of features that elevate programming on the platform to the next level and give developers easy access to the latest mobile device trends.

Build Custom Maps in Mobile Apps

September 18, 2019/in Mobile, mobile development, MobileTogether, XQuery /by David McGahey

In an earlier post we described how to integrate maps into cross-platform mobile apps with each end-user device’s native map application. Our example app generated a map with pins locating major airports in the United States. Illustrations showed maps generated by the same app on an Android phone, an iPhone, and Windows desktop.

What if a list of locations to be mapped is not known in advance, but generated based on user activity at run-time? MobileTogether, the low-code cross-platform mobile development tool from Altova, also empowers developers to build custom maps in mobile apps on the fly based on a list of geolocations generated at run time.

Top 5 Requirements for RMAD Tools

July 24, 2019/1 Comment/in Applications, Development, Mobile /by Erin Cavanaugh

Originally coined by analyst firm Gartner, RMAD (rapid mobile application development) isn’t just a hot acronym in app development for 2024 – it’s an absolute necessity. Waiting six to eight months for an app ensures that it will be completely obsolete once it’s finally ready for prime time: requirements will change, another app will fill the niche, or end users will already be entrenched with another solution.

In addition, a traditional, non-RMAD approach assumes you have a team of mobile developers ready to tackle the project, and for many businesses, hiring experienced app developers is a lengthy, expensive process. Outsourcing your app development work that well, either. Many have tried, but few have succeeded in getting third-parties to realize the original vision of the app, on time, and while ensuring the integrity of their intellectual property rights.

Luckily, with the increasing prevalence of RMAD tools, developing a sophisticated, full-featured app in a week or two – and with your existing tech team – is suddenly a reality. Of course, not all RMAD tools are created equal. Let’s take a look at the five top requirements you should demand in an RMAD solution.

Mobile app end users

Integrate Maps into Mobile Apps

July 17, 2019/in App Development, Mobile, mobile development /by David McGahey

Developers can create highly-customized location-based apps by leveraging geolocation functionality in mobile devices. Now MobileTogether, the cross-platform, low-code mobile development tool from Altova, supports deep integration of maps into applications for all popular mobile platforms.

Developers can integrate maps into mobile apps, add dedicated markers, and define custom actions based on user clicks on the map. For instance, an enterprise might want an app to include a map of all branch office locations, then display the current inventory when an office is clicked.

In a previous post we described a mobile app designed to let users check the status of major US airports by selecting an airport code from a combo box. An alternate technique would be to replace the 47 combo-box entries with pins on a map.

Let’s look at this example.

Build Apps with Maps and Video

June 12, 2019/in App Development, Mobile, mobile development /by Erin Cavanaugh

The latest release of the MobileTogether app development framework adds additional support for defining geolocation and video integration in your apps for iOS, Android, Windows, and other platforms.

Let’s take a look at how these new features enhance existing map and video tools in MobileTogether.

Build apps that include maps and video recording with MobileTogether

Visual Feedback in Mobile Applications

April 4, 2019/in App Development, Mobile, mobile development, MobileTogether, Tools /by David McGahey

Visual feedback in mobile applications provides a more enjoyable user experience, and mobile apps that are fun to use get launched more frequently than static, boring apps. MobileTogether, the rapid mobile app development (RMAD) framework from Altova, incorporates all the tools you need to develop cross-platform mobile apps with attractive visual feedback features.

The drag-and-drop controls palette in the MobileTogether Designer includes a button control that automatically changes its appearance when clicked. You can also define conditions that add or change text, images, or other features of any button as the app executes.

Additionally, many other controls can also be defined to act like buttons, where one or more actions are performed when the control is clicked. We have written previously about applying icon images as tool buttons in mobile apps to create a stylish and elegant menu of tools. In this post we will add interactivity to our tool images to provide attractive visual feedback for each click.

Automatic Link Detection for Mobile Apps

March 20, 2019/in Mobile, mobile development, MobileTogether, Tools /by David McGahey

Integration between a mobile app and the vast information resources of world wide web makes the user experience more convenient and responsive, especially when targeted web content may be frequently updated.

The latest release of MobileTogether, Altova’s low-code, cross-platform mobile development framework, includes support for automatic link detection of URLs and email addresses in labels. Clicking or tapping the link opens the targeted website page in a browser window or as a new draft message in the device’s email app in a new window without quitting the mobile app. No further special coding required by the developer.

Let’s see how it works.

Enabling Let’s Encrypt in MobileTogether

March 6, 2019/in App Development, mobile development, MobileTogether /by Ty Shuff

MobileTogether Server, the backend hub for apps built in MobileTogether Designer, now supports the ability obtain SSL certificates using Let’s Encrypt. Let’s Encrypt is a free service aimed at encrypting all HTTP traffic on the web. This feature is supported in MobileTogether Server starting with version 5.1 and adds to the ability to upload your own certificate.

The video tutorial above walks you through configuring MobileTogether Server to utilize SSL encryption when communicating with MobileTogether clients. It covers the use of both Let’s Encrypt and certificates generated using a trusted certificate authority.

SSL certificates generated using a trusted certificate authority can be uploaded directly to MobileTogether Server. This configuration can provide several advantages to system administrators. These types of certificates are typically good for a much longer period of time, requiring fewer maintenance windows. In addition, you can keep your MobileTogether Server completely isolated from the outside world as this method does not require any external ports to be opened. The process to obtain these certificates can be much more complex and expensive. Verification typically requires you to provide information to the issuer and wait for a response which can delay your implementation.

Let’s Encrypt integration was added in MobileTogether 5.1. Let’s Encrypt is a certificate authority whose goal is to provide encryption to the entire Internet. Certificates generated are free of charge. Unlike other methods of generation, though, Let’s Encrypt certificates are only good for 90 days. MobileTogether Server is capable of automatically renewing these certificates every 60 days, but requires a scheduled server reboot each time this action occurs. Lastly, Let’s Encrypt requires your server to be accessible from the outside world; they will need to communicate with MobileTogether Server on port 80 to verify your server’s identity.

The ability to encrypt communication between client and server is becoming ubiquitous. MobileTogether allows you to easily secure all communication to your mobile clients using SSL encryption and new support for Let’s Encrypt greatly reduces the set up complexity.

Tags: Altova Online Training, Encryption, mobile development, MobileTogether, MobileTogether Server

Simplified Security Options & More in MobileTogether 5.1

February 27, 2019/in App Development, apps, mobile development, MobileTogether /by Erin Cavanaugh

The latest release of MobileTogether, Altova’s low-code, cross platform mobile app development framework, offers a simplified method for requesting and implementing SSL certificates by utilizing Let’s Encrypt integration. Now, developers can secure communications between the backend server and user devices quickly, seamlessly, and for free.

Other updates include support for the latest versions of Android and multiple new options for flexible app development. Let’s take a look.

What's new in MobileTogether, Altova's low-code app development framework

How Low-Code Can Solve the Developer Shortage

January 15, 2019/in App Development, Mobile, mobile development /by Erin Cavanaugh

The shortage of software developers in recent years is hardly news – and it’s not getting any better. A recent study arrived at a stunning revelation: software developers are now more valuable to companies than money.

Let’s take a look at some of the factors contributing to the problem – as well as how the emergence of low code tools is helping to solve it in a few surprising ways.

Configuring MobileTogether Server & LicenseServer

December 12, 2018/in App Development, mobile development, MobileTogether /by Ty Shuff

Part of the Altova MobileTogether framework, MobileTogetherServer is the back-end hub that powers your native apps for Android, iOS, Windows, and the web. The server provides high performance data processing, comprehensive caching, instant deployment of apps, and more.

Every developer looking to install MobileTogether Server will also need to obtain a copy of Altova LicenseServer. LicenseServer is a free product that simplifies license management for all Altova products, including MobileTogether Server. Licenses are managed via an easy-to-use web-based administrator console.

The video tutorial below will walk developers through the steps needed to install both MobileTogether Server and LicenseServer. It covers obtaining and running the installer followed by a basic configuration that will have you deploying enterprise apps in under an hour. This video is the first part in a short series that will eventually discuss SSL Certificate deployment, network configuration, and deploying apps to each of the app stores.

If you’re new to MobileTogether and would like to learn more about developing mobile apps, please head over to the MobileTogether Demos page where we have a collection of video tutorials.

Tags: Altova Online Training, Database, mobile, mobile development, MobileTogether

Design and Refine your Apps with MobileTogether 5.0

November 5, 2018/in App Development, mobile development, MobileTogether /by Erin Cavanaugh

In its latest release, the MobileTogether app development framework adds several new features for building native mobile apps and enterprise solutions, including a totally rewritten web client, numerous new UI design options, powerful new Actions and functions, and much more.

Whether it’s refining the look and feel of your app’s UI or designing sophisticated app behavior, MobileTogether 5.0 adds numerous tools that make it easy.

Let’s take a look.

New in MobileTogether 5.0

Implementing Basic Filtering in Your App

October 24, 2018/in Development, mobile development, MobileTogether /by Ty Shuff

There are numerous ways to implement searching and filtering within mobile apps. MobileTogether Designer allows developers to perform filtering on either your mobile app or on the server via a SQL query. Knowledge of each of these methods, along with the use cases for them, is an essential tool every mobile developer should possess.

This video tutorial continues to build out the books database project that has been constructed in previous tutorials. It will cover the steps needed to implement basic filtering in your mobile app. Additionally, it also introduces developers to the usage of user defined XQuery functions which provide a method to centralize application logic.

If you’re new to MobileTogether Designer, please take a moment to view the MobileTogether Demos page where we have provided links to additional video tutorials and demo apps.

Tags: Altova Online Training, Database, mobile, mobile development, MobileTogether

Images, Icons, and Tool Buttons in Mobile Apps

September 21, 2018/in App Development, mobile development, MobileTogether /by David McGahey

We have written previously about Integrating APIs and Mobile Apps to create a rich and entertaining user experience. Since publishing our previous post, we continued to enhance the GPS demo app with additional API support to get current weather conditions and scheduled events nearby.

One challenge with offering all this functionality on a small mobile screen is to provide users with a clear, consistent, and easy to use navigation scheme across all views in the app.

Applying icon images as tool buttons in mobile apps can create a stylish and graceful navigation menu, especially if the icons are chosen based on recognizable and commonly-agreed conventions. For instance, an arrow pointing left often indicates go back, and a floppy disk icon frequently represents save data, even when the ultimate destination might not be a new file nor a disk.

In this post we will describe how to use image icons to build cross-platform navigation menus with tool buttons in mobile apps using MobileTogether.

Early Software Testing Validates Design

July 2, 2018/in App Development, Mobile, mobile development, MobileTogether /by David McGahey

“Test early and often,” is a strategy from agile software engineering that has evolved to become a mandate for software developers in every field. Early software testing is especially important for developers working on cross-platform apps, who must support mobile devices with varying physical characteristics and operating system functionalities.

MobileTogether includes features to incorporate early software testing into the development process without time-consuming compile, deploy, and debug cycles for each mobile platform. The Altova Web site describes the MobileTogether Simulator early software testing feature, and we have blogged about the ability to record and re-run specific sets of actions in test cases.

This post describes Trial Run on Client. It’s built into the MobileTogether Designer to let developers instantly examine app designs and validate logic and functionality across any supported mobile device or platform – Android, iOS, and Windows Desktop or Windows Phone.

Working with Rich Text in Enterprise Apps

April 11, 2018/in App Development, Applications, apps /by Erin Cavanaugh

Developing enterprise apps often involves integrating text that includes embedded formatting information in the form of rich text – whether it’s from back end CMS systems or content entered directly by users.

The Rich Text control in MobileTogether makes this easy.

Rich text control in enterprise app

Mobile App Calendar Integration with MobileTogether

March 27, 2018/in App Development, Mobile, mobile development, MobileTogether /by David McGahey

MobileTogether gives developers holistic access to the rich feature sets of mobile devices for cross-platform deployment of native apps for Android, iOS (iPhone, iPad), Windows 8 & 10, Windows Phone 10, and HTML5 browsers for other users. MobileTogether apps created from a single design can seamlessly access mobile device camera, messaging, GPS, audio, email features, and even feature mobile app calendar integration.

Since MobileTogether uses a combination of visual drag-and-drop UI design and easy-to-understand functional programming for data selection, it’s easy for any programmer or web developer to build highly sophisticated apps to read and write calendar events for all platforms. For instance, a mobile scheduling app for a large, distributed user base could help everyone easily sync their calendars.

Efficient MobileTogether Services on Backend Servers for Mobile Apps

March 19, 2018/1 Comment/in Mobile, mobile development, MobileTogether /by David McGahey

MobileTogether Server Advanced Edition services on backend servers for mobile apps execute independently of any app running on a mobile device, based on a variety of triggers. MobileTogether services can provide background functionality to mobile apps or perform automated standalone actions without requiring any end user to interact with a mobile app. For instance, a MobileTogether service could generate a report and email it to the server administrator at a specified time. Or, a service could query a database based on some external criteria and perform an action such as sending a notification or an email.

A MobileTogether Server service is a set of MobileTogether Designer actions deployed to the server as a specialized solution file.

How to Make a Pop-up Window in an App

March 6, 2018/in App Development, Development, Mobile, mobile development /by Erin Cavanaugh

During mobile app development there’s often a quick action the developer wishes to let the user to complete or a message that can be delivered on top of the current app view – otherwise known as a pop-up window. These are useful for letting the end user complete a process or view a message payload without interrupting his or her progress in the app.

MobileTogether makes it easy to configure pop-up windows of any size. Let’s take a look at how it works.

User interacting with app

Mark Your Calendar for this MobileTogether Release

February 27, 2018/in Mobile, mobile development, MobileTogether /by Erin Cavanaugh

The newest version of Altova’s cross-platform framework for mobile app development includes comprehensive calendar integration for building apps with scheduling functionality. You’ll also find support for building and triggering services, easy to configure pop-up windows, and much more.

Whether you’re building enterprise apps or native apps for the major platforms, this release has the tools you need to add even more great functionality — without increasing development time.

Let’s take a look at what’s new.

How To Build Your First App

February 13, 2018/in Development, Mobile, mobile development, MobileTogether /by Ty Shuff

MobileTogether Designer provides a powerful drag and drop interface that allows for incredibly quick cross platform app development. To help developers get started I have produced this video tutorial, which covers the interface and the steps needed to build your first app.

By the end of the video developers should be able to navigate the Designer’s interface and create a basic app that takes user input and performs an action with it at the press of a button. This is the first in a series of tutorials aimed at familiarizing developers with the ins and outs of app development in MobileTogether.

Tags: Altova Online Training, mobile, mobile development, MobileTogether, XML

Push Notifications Headline Latest MobileTogether Release

November 8, 2017/in apps, Development, Mobile, mobile development /by Erin Cavanaugh

The latest release of MobileTogether, Altova’s framework for cross platform mobile app development, adds easy-to-use tools for defining push notifications, the ability to embed apps inside web applications, and more.

Let’s take a look at these new features, which only add to the long list of functionality available for building today’s sophisticated, data-centric mobile apps.

MobileTogether 4.0 Adds Push Notifications

Text-to-Speech for Mobile Apps

August 28, 2017/in Mobile, mobile development, MobileTogether, Tools /by David McGahey

Altova MobileTogether supports text-to-speech functionality for cross-platform mobile apps, empowering developers to add speech and build a rich multi-media user experience.

Speech can be fully integrated with text anywhere it appears in an app. For instance, an app like the Parcel Delivery MobileTogether example can be enhanced by speaking the next delivery address aloud – especially if the driver is in traffic! Or, text in message boxes of other information blocks can also be spoken by the mobile device.

We created a simple demo to experiment with the functionality of text-to-speech for mobile apps then added text-to-speech features to the Parcel Delivery app.

Text-to-speech for mobile apps

Support for JSON5 in Altova MissionKit, Server Products, and MobileTogether

June 28, 2017/in JSON, Tools /by David McGahey

Altova products have supported JSON for several years. Now, Version 2017 Release 3 of MissionKit and Server products, and MobileTogether Version 3.2 all include support for JSON5 across the product line.

The JSON data format was originally designed to be machine-written and consumed, promoting efficient communication between servers. Usage has expanded and JSON5 is a proposed extension intended to make JSON code easier for humans to write and read. JSON5 extends JSON by adding some ECMAScript 5 features and, like JSON, is a strict subset of JavaScript. Specifically, JSON5 permits inline and block comments, allows long strings to be split over several lines, and defines alternate legal syntax options for quotes and commas. These features are not permitted in standard JSON, so files containing the proposed enhancements are typically identified with the .json5 filename suffix.

This post details specific support for JSON5 in each Altova product.

Learn about JSON5 support in Altova tools

Show Off Your Collections with MyCollections 2

June 9, 2017/in Applications, Mobile, mobile development /by Erin Cavanaugh

The MyCollections app from Altova has become a popular tool for Android, iPhone, iPad, and Windows users to catalog and keep track of their collections of books, watches, recipes, vacation destinations – you name it.

It’s easy to share portions of or entire collections with your friends who have the MyCollections app, and now you can even publish your carefully curated creations to the web – and then share them via email or on your social media accounts.

Publishing collections is just one of the new features in MyCollections 2 – let’s check out the full list of improvements.

MyCollections App

Mobile Apps for Enterprise Operations Management

June 7, 2017/in Development, Mobile, Tools /by David McGahey

Combining rapid mobile app development (RMAD) with a single development environment for building cross-platform apps makes Altova MobileTogether an ideal tool to create specialized mobile apps for enterprise operations management at all levels.

The development schedule using MobileTogether can be as short as a few days vs. weeks or months for traditional native platform coding. That kind of productivity makes it practical to build specialized apps that might only be used by a small number of operations managers, but greatly improve enterprise efficiency.

For instance, an app for the inventory manager for a manufacturing operation with just-in-time supply chain management can link to back-end systems to monitor inventory levels using any mobile device from anywhere in the plant or even offsite.

New Features for Mobile App Development in MobileTogether 3.2

May 9, 2017/in Applications, Development, Mobile /by Erin Cavanaugh

The latest release of Altova’s mobile app development framework introduces over 18 features with highlights including support for NFC messages, text-to-speech, the ability to read device contacts, flexible options for dynamic tables, and more.

Read more below or check out our quick MobileTogether 3.2 video.

New in MobileTogether

Converting a StyleVision Design to MobileTogether

April 27, 2017/in Applications, Mobile /by Erin Cavanaugh

StyleVision, Altova’s visual XSLT stylesheet designer and report designer, is also a powerful enterprise form designer popular with customers who need to get their XML or database data into e-forms for use with Altova Authentic.

Authentic is a WYSIWYG editor for non-technical users and is available in desktop and browser plug-in versions. However, due to increasing security issues, support for native plug-ins is being phased out in most modern web browsers. If you are an Authentic Browser Edition customer, fear not – you can now convert any existing StyleVision design to a MobileTogether design to deploy it via MobileTogether Server as a simple URL that can be accessed by web browsers, or even as a native app on a mobile device.

Let’s take a look at the advantages of that approach.

Enterprise Form to Mobile App
Read more…

Tags: Android, enterprise forms, iOS, mobile development, MobileTogether, StyleVision

Build a Mobile Dashboard to Wow Any Executive

March 16, 2017/in Development, Mobile, Software /by David McGahey

In an earlier post on Creating Elegant Mobile Apps, we showed examples of a simple app and a complete mobile dashboard running on multiple mobile devices. Mobile developers can also delight end users by empowering them to customize the app experience. MobileTogether lets developers tailor cross-platform apps to each mobile platform and empower users through a simple and intuitive custom text size control.

Allowing each end user to set the preferred text size for viewing conditions and the device is both courteous to users and relieves developers of the task of determining the appropriate text size to work across all devices.