New in MobileTogether 10.0

Many industries, from warehousing and shipping to retail, take advantage of handheld scanners for collecting information. Data captured by the scanner can be used to update inventory levels, order statuses, customer information, and other data in real time. However, the scanner alone is not enough: data collected must be parsed and processed before interacting with backend databases and systems, and new functionality in MobileTogether makes that easier than ever before.

Adding to longtime support for scanning barcodes and QR codes with a device camera, MobileTogether now includes support for storing and processing codes from handheld scanners. MobileTogether customers can take advantage of its low-code approach to rapid app development to build these types of solutions in record time – without the need for specialized mobile development teams and long development cycles. MobileTogether’s affordable, scalable pricing model makes apps that connect to mobile scanners as accessible to small businesses as to large industrial organizations.

Support for handheld scanners is implemented with a new set of MobileTogether page sources, Actions, functions, and variables for processing data from scanners. Once implemented, barcodes and QR codes can be scanned by external barcode scanners and have their data passed to a MobileTogether solution.

MobileTogether also lets developers simulate the use of barcode scanners using sample data during app testing.

Support has been added for the most popular handheld scanners: Zebra, Zebra Mobile Computer, and Datalogic Mobile Computer. Some scanners, like Zebra Mobile Computers and Datalogic Mobile Computers, are Android mobile devices with an integrated scanner. The MobileTogether solution can reside directly on these devices. In other cases, the scanner connects to a device like a tablet or laptop running the MobileTogether app via a Bluetooth or USB connection.

Support for mobile scanners has been requested by a number of MobileTogether customers. This functionality allows developers to build apps for industries like retail, logistics, healthcare, and manufacturing that rely on real-time data collection.

Because MobileTogether uses a low-code approach to rapid app development, teams can add previously complex features like mobile scanner integration without needing to write extensive code. This dramatically speeds up the development process, especially in industries where access to real-time data is critical.

Styles Inspector in simulator

When simulating an app in MobileTogether Designer, a new Styles Inspector shows detailed information about the computed styles of the controls on the current page.

You can open the Styles Inspector with a button in the simulator toolbar. All controls used in the app will be listed, and clicking on one displays its styles definition. Alternatively, you can Ctrl-click the control you wish to investigate, and the Inspector will open with the information about that control displayed. The Styles Inspector displays information about the control’s configured styles and values, as well as how each has been calculated.

The Styles Inspector in the MobileTogether simulator is a huge help when an app includes many controls: Developers can immediately understand why a control is shown in a particular scenario and why it is rendered with the current styles.

Support for grid view of available apps on web browsers

When an organization runs multiple MobileTogether apps on their MobileTogether Server, they’re shown in a user-friendly grid on iOS, Android, and Windows client apps. Previously, web browsers displayed the apps in a list. Now, users accessing the server through a web browser can also enjoy the grid view, where each app’s name and icon is clearly displayed for quick, easy access.

Support for control variables

When adding controls to a design, the developer can now define control variables. Control variables are defined for individual controls and are evaluated when the control is created. Control variables provide more flexibility to set values according to the context of a specific control.

New in MobileTogether 9.0 and 9.1

MobileTogether 9.1 includes the latest version of RecordsManager, a built-in, no-code solution for building business database solutions.

For instant generation of a full-featured database, RecordsManager now includes an AI Assistant that creates databases based on natural language prompts. Users can enter simple or complex prompts, and RecordsManager will use AI integration to generate the corresponding database, tables, and sample data.

With the new AI-powered RecordsManager, app developers don't have to spend time planning a database structure or even understand the technical details of how databases work. You just tell the software what kind of information you want to store, and it takes care of designing and setting up the entire database for you. You can channel your energy into refining the system, improving functionality, and enhancing user experience, rather than getting bogged down in the details of database creation.

RecordsManager even generates display forms, data entry forms, reports, and other app elements based on the AI-generated database.

Learn more about the RecordsManager AI Assistant .

This new functionality allows end users to drag to reorder table rows. You can enable row dragging on a per-table basis and define actions to be performed when the row is dropped in its new position.

MobileTogether has long provided support for connecting to MySQL and MariaDB (as well as numerous other databases) via generic ADO/ODBC/JDBC connections. Now, the framework supports native connections to MySQL and MariaDB without the need for external drivers, which is much faster and more convenient.

It is now possible to enable charts to be generated directly on the client device without making a round trip to the server. This means, for example, that a displayed chart will change instantly when an end user changes some of the underlying data or its settings. Overall, this makes chart generation much faster and smoother.

By popular demand, MobileTogether Designer is now available in dark mode, as well as a crisp new light mode. The previous theme is still available as classic mode. You can switch between classic, light, and dark themes at any time, depending on your working preferences. The MobileTogether client apps have, of course, already supported dark and light themes since version 7.2.

Support for multiple row groups in each table makes it possible to enable a flexible header size for a fixed header. This way, the header is dynamic and can contain multiple rows while still remaining fixed at the top of the table during scrolling of the contents below.

New in MobileTogether 8.1

MobileTogether automatically creates apps for iOS, Android, Windows, and the web simultaneously, based on your single design. However, the look and feel of default elements — such as default fonts and colors, button looks, margins and padding, and so on — often differs among operating systems. When a MobileTogether developer wants an app to look as close to the same as possible across all platforms instead of using the native look-and-feel of each, it is now possible to enable this automatically using the new UI Compatibility Mode option.

When this option is set to True, MobileTogether will make the default style values in your project as similar as possible. This saves developers a tremendous amount of time previously spent on fine tuning styles per OS.

Support for large server side files has been extended to accommodate files 100 MB and larger. This capability further enforces use of MobileTogether as a powerful development framework for large enterprise apps.

When a database is loaded hierarchically, it can be useful to make sure that only modifications to the top table are saved and child tables are not modified. For instance, when editing data in a parent table and the app loads data in its child table(s) for display purposes, it’s useful to ensure that only changes in the parent table are saved. This helps with editing concurrency when multiple users are editing data in different tables.

Developers can add images to buttons in their MobileTogether apps, either by selecting from a list of built-in images or using a custom image. A new image showing the web is now available in the list of built-in options.

Apps built in MobileTogether can take advantage of all the features and functionality in the latest version of the Android operating system.

New in MobileTogether 8.0

Previously, working with backend data in relational databases required quite a bit of hand-written SQL work to perform commonly required tasks. For instance, including data from two tables in a single form required two separate database queries. As such, saving the same data back to the database was also complicated.

MobileTogether 8.0 takes an entirely new approach that lets developers more readily build a query that returns hierarchical data and write the data back in hierarchical form. The new Database Wizard provides an easy way to build SELECT statements visually, and any parameter to the SQL query can now be directly expressed using an XPath statement, i.e., there is no longer a need to explicitly declare parameters.

The Database Wizard also lets developers add tables connected via foreign keys to the result – all in a single step. This means an entire hierarchy can be retrieved at once.

Any changes made during app execution will be intelligently written back to the relationally linked database at once. When saving hierarchical data, the app developer can choose whether to save modifications only or to replace all the data for the current record. This decision can be made on each level independently. Data replacement is the preferred option when multiple users are allowed to edit the same record at the same time.

The new approach to working with hierarchical data in otherwise flat relational databases in MobileTogether will prove to be a huge time saver that makes app development that much simpler.

Server Libraries are a new type of MobileTogether design file. When an app or solution utilizes a Server Library, the library can be exchanged at any time without needing to redeploy the app. This allows for much quicker roll-out of app updates and changes, especially for complied apps – which no longer need to be recompiled and sent through the app store approval process.

A Server Library is a MobileTogether design file that contains one or more Action Groups, and its functionality is limited to processing these Action Groups. At runtime, a solution can send a call to a Server Library with or without parameters. The Server Library processes the specified Action Group and returns the result to the calling solution.

Server Libraries are well suited for situations, for example, in which data is retrieved from a data structure that is outside of the developer’s control and that changes arbitrarily and at irregular intervals. It might be difficult to modify and deploy a new main solution and update already downloaded solutions each time this data structure changes. However, a Server Library could deal with the modifications of the data structure outside the main solution, process the modified data structure, and return data to the main solution so that the returned data conforms to the structure expected by the solution. Server Libraries are also helpful for efficiently addressing issues with internal data processing.

Advantages of this approach include:

Use of Server Libraries requires MobileTogether Server Advanced Edition.

It is now possible to add a list of files to be deployed with a MobileTogether design to the MobileTogether Server directly in the design file itself - instead of copying the files manually. On deployment, the developer can choose to overwrite the files if they already exist on the server. Server-side solution files are specified on the Files tab.

This Action renames the selected file/folder on the client/server when the Action is executed.

MobileTogether apps and solutions support switching themes, such as between dark and light displays, either defined during development in the project settings or based on the device’s default setting. Now there is a new Action for changing themes that will allow the end user to select the desired theme inside the app itself.

It is now possible to choose the database file behind your app at runtime using a new Action called DB Switch Connection. This gives the developer the option to let the end user decide which database to use. The connection can be changed as many times as required.

This feature requires MobileTogether Server Advanced Edition.

Apps built in MobileTogether can take advantage of all the features and functionality in the latest versions of the Android and iOS operating systems.

MobileTogether Server is now available for macOS Big Sur, macOS Monterey, and Linux Debian 11 in addition to previous versions.

New in MobileTogether 7.3

It is now possible to integrate one or more MobileTogether solutions in a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) application using the universal MobileTogether Windows client. This way you can take advantage of MobileTogether for quick, easy development of sophisticated functionality and then integrate it seamlessly in another application.

This is a must for building more complex enterprise solutions on the Windows platform and gives you the ability to extend the functionality of your solution if the built-in controls and views provided by MobileTogether are not sufficient for your particular use-case.

A MobileTogether solution is placed in a UWP app via a new SolutionView control that Altova has introduced specially for this purpose. Each UWP app can integrate more than one MobileTogether solution, all of which can run at the same time.

To help you get started, the MobileTogether Designer installation contains an example C# project that shows how to use the SolutionView control in a simple UWP app.

Adding to support for previous versions of Android is compatibility with the latest version of the OS.

New in MobileTogether 7.2

Version 7.2 of Altova MobileTogether was announced on December 15, 2020. Learn about all the new features below and update to the latest version.

For increased flexibility in styling and refining an app UI, developers can now pick the color for any of the pre-defined button images that come with MobileTogether Designer.

This function makes it possible to configure different functionality when the same app is running on different servers, for instance, on a test vs. production server.

When you show a message box or a dialog in your app, it may overlap important information behind it. Now, the end user can easily drag the pop-up to a new location on the screen to see information behind it before deciding how to proceed.

Syslog is a standard protocol used to send system log or event messages to a specific server, called a syslog server. Developers often use a syslog server to collect logs from various machines in a central location for further analysis.

This is now supported as an option on MobileTogether Server Advanced Edition.

New in MobileTogether 7.0

Version 7.0 of Altova MobileTogether was announced on July 14, 2020.

Introduced in MobileTogether 6.0, Control Templates are powerful design components that allow you to design and group multiple controls to be easily reused in different locations across the various pages and subpages of an app development project. Place Holder controls are used to add a Control Template in a desired location.

The ability to modify Control Template behavior makes this powerful functionality even more flexible for efficiently re-using work to define sophisticated app functionality.

See an indepth how-to on working with control templates.

Additional options for scrolling let the developer scroll a specified row in a table to top, center, or bottom of the screen. This adds to the previous option of minimum scroll to bring the target into view.

MobileTogether Designer includes a host of pre-defined button looks that make it quick and easy for developers to add attractive icons for common tasks to their apps. This latest release includes several additional options:

A MobileTogether Service is a set of MobileTogether actions deployed to MobileTogether Server that can execute independently of any app running on a mobile device, based on a variety of triggers. For instance, a service could query a database based on some external criteria and perform an action such as sending a notification or an email.

With this release, the same localization options available for enterprise and app store apps have been extended to Services. Languages supported for localization include English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish.

MobileTogether Server Advanced Edition is required for services.

New in MobileTogether 6.0

Version 6.0 of Altova MobileTogether was announced on November 19, 2019.

You can now pass parameters to the sub-page to control how the subpage performs in various conditions, helping to further enable efficient dynamic design. Since subpages can include all UI features, parameters essentially help the developer treat a subpage like an Action Group call with a UI.

You can declare parameters and variables for a subpage by clicking its Add Parameters/Variables button.

Through integration among Altova high-performance server software offerings, FlowForce Server jobs can be triggered by MobileTogether apps. For instance, a FlowForce job might execute a complex data mapping that calculates real-time sales report figures, then delivers the report instantly to the MobileTogether app user in a beautiful, native-client form.

Now, in addition to specifying a FlowForce job as a data source, developers can execute such jobs via Actions. This simplifies calling FlowForce, especially when passing parameters.

There is a new extension to the Solution Execution Action that allows the developer to specify when to restart a solution – for example when switching languages or databases – without requiring user intervention. For browser-based solutions, the app can either be restarted completely or a new copy can be started in a new tab.

MobileTogether apps can connect to all popular relational databases. In this release support has been updated to include the latest versions of several, as follows:

New in MobileTogether 5.4

Version 5.4 of Altova MobileTogether was announced on June 12, 2019.

The new Record-video Action makes it possible to record video from a MobileTogether app.

Developers can define triggers that start the device’s video recording app and specify:

Video recording adds to existing functionality for playing videos in an app built with MobileTogether.

New in MobileTogether 5.1

Version 5.1 of Altova MobileTogether was announced on February 27, 2019. Learn about all the new features below.

The OnPageRefresh event of each page in an app now has a new option: refresh due to orientation or size change.

This makes it possible to define actions to occur when the user changes the orientation (portrait/landscape) of the device, as well as when the he/she re-sizes the app window. (The latter is only applicable to devices that support resizing the app window, such as a desktop or laptop running a MobileTogether Windows client.)

MobileTogether supports secured SSL connections between MobileTogether Server and client devices running MobileTogether apps. Now, in addition to allowing you to upload a certificate purchased from a certificate authority, MobileTogether Server makes it easy to obtain and auto-renew a free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt directly in the MobileTogether Server admin interface.

New in MobileTogether 5.0

Version 5.0 of Altova MobileTogether was announced on November 7, 2018. Learn about all the new features below.

New in MobileTogether Designer

In addition to defining margins, MobileTogether developers can now add padding to relevant controls. Padding adds space between a control’s content and the inside edge of the control. Using the Styles and Properties entry helper, you can set padding for a control with a single value for all sides of the control’s content or configure it separately for left, right, top, and bottom.

It is now possible to set the text size to automatically fit the text, which means that the font will be made smaller automatically if the text doesn't fit the available width. This way, developers can ensure that apps will be readable and attractive on a wide variety of devices and screen resolutions. It is also possible to group multiple controls on a page to have the same automatically-determined text size, so that the overall design is adapted consistently.

In response to customer requests, MobileTogether apps now have the ability to send files and binary data with HTTP requests using the REST interface.

It is now possible to retrieve a database structure during runtime.

A new action, DB Read Structure, enables the structure of a database to be read and for data in the database to be stored in a new $MT_DBSTRUCTURE page source. Data in this page source can be used in the same way as data in any other page source.

This functionality makes it possible to create sophisticated apps that read the database structures of unknown databases on the fly and is most applicable to IT-focused apps.

To make developing and refactoring complex apps easier, MobileTogether 5.0 introduces a new Find & Replace Pane for searching for and/or replacing strings in XPath expressions, functions, and action groups in a design. Searching using regular expressions is also supported.

For quick navigation, search results are hyperlinked to the relevant objects in your design.

Adding to support for authentication via Active Directory integration, MobileTogether Server now also supports LDAP.

Version 4.1 of Altova MobileTogether was announced on February 27, 2018.

Services are solutions with no UI that are built in MobileTogether Designer and run on the customer’s MobileTogether Server to provide background functionality to other apps.

Once a service is deployed to the customer’s MobileTogether Server, various triggers such as time, file system events, and so forth can be defined to trigger the service to run. For instance, a service could be defined to monitor the Orders table in a sales database and trigger an action - such as sending a notification in an app, sending email to one or more recipients, and so forth - when an order arrives in the table. Another example is using a service to check XML feeds from a web site and send a notification to users when updates or changes are available.

Services offer MobileTogether developers another layer of sophistication for adding real-time functionality to their data-driven apps.

Please note that services require use of the new MobileTogether Server Advanced Edition, described in more detail below.

During app simulation in MobileTogether Designer, it’s now possible to use the Outlook contacts manager for testing apps with email sending functionality. Outlook Calendars may also be used during simulation of the new Calendar action described above.

Often times it makes sense to deliver a notification or let an end user complete a simple task via a pop-up dialog window that doesn’t interrupt the user’s progress by taking up the whole device screen.

This new support makes configuring a pop up window as easy as defining a sub-page as a modal dialog in the app design. The app developer specifies the height and width of the pop-up window in the “Go to Subpage” action. During app execution, the pop-up will open in a window on top of the main page, allowing the user to receive the notification or complete the dialog before proceeding.

The Delete Append Node action makes it possible to delete sub-nodes from a given node in a page source, and then add new node(s) to the same target node, either as the first child or last child.

Now, during automated testing, the developer can specify a test version of apps to run only on specific devices or only for specific users. This is a great way to allow a QA team to test a new version of your app without affecting existing users.

New MobileTogether XPath extension functions include:

The new admin role for MobileTogether Server makes it faster and easier to add multiple users to the role.

Now all changes to server settings will also be logged, making it easier to track changes and troubleshoot any resulting issues.

New in Version 4.0 of MobileTogether

Version 4.0 of Altova MobileTogether was announced on November 7, 2017. Learn about all the new features below.

MobileTogether 4.0 introduces the ability to send push notifications to one or multiple devices running MobileTogether apps. Users are familiar with receiving push notifications that provide information, such as news related to the app, and they can also be used to drive actions, such as accepting invitations, linking to a website, or modifying a database.

MobileTogether push notifications can include a short message, a “big” message, and a payload consisting of data structured as key–value pairs. Typically, the short message is what is displayed on the device when the notification is received. When the user taps the short notification, the big message is displayed in the notification area.

Messages can have buttons that allow the user to determine what action to take when the message is received. The payload of the notification is transferred to a data tree on the device and can be used by other actions; this enables new data related to the notification event to be freely processed by the whole range of MobileTogether actions and used with MobileTogether controls.

Deciding which devices receive a particular push notification is highly configurable. For instance, it can be sent to specific users (defined by name or role) or all users of an app. It may also be sent to users that have subscribed to receive news about specific topics (e.g., news, travel, etc.).

These flexible options for implementing push notifications give MobileTogether app developers yet another tool for building today’s most sophisticated apps.

This new action pair is particularly applicable for use when embedding MobileTogether app solutions in other web applications, as described above. The Load from String action can take the XML or JSON string and generate a page source. Conversely, an XML/JSON page source can be serialized to a string with the Save to String action and stored in a page source node.

The MobileTogether Server 4.0 installation includes a powerful app for the server administrator that displays various statistics about individual solutions running on that server.

The Statistics app presents stats and charts on numbers of users, devices, app starts, server requests, and more, in a selected time frame. Granular filters allow you to view these stats per operating system, device type, or manufacturer; per app; and so on. You can also see stats on request counts and app starts.

The app has three tabs:

Each tab provides filters that let you customize the report.

This new app makes it easy to get an accurate view of the usage and popularity of each app on your MobileTogether Server.

New Features in Previous Versions

Learn about all the additional capabilities that have been added in each MobileTogether release.