Mobile Development

customaware

I now have my app working as I wanted for the desktop and wish to turn attention the the mobile version.

Having never done this before, please forgive me if I ask some really dumb questions.

The first one is...

Is it possible to produce a report (pdf) and display it on a mobile device?

aware_support

No, reports are not supported in the mobile version yet

customaware

Thanx Support.

Can you advise if there are plans to implement this functionality any time soon?

hpl123

eagles9999 wrote
Thanx Support.

Can you advise if there are plans to implement this functionality any time soon?

Also, is further development of the mobile platform on the roadmap?
Thanks

aware_support

Yes, it is planned (not in 5.8, though) and the mobile version is definitely on the roadmap.

rocketman

If by Mobile, you mean tablets, the general consensus is you would be better off developing with normal AwareIM using a theme with bigger fonts etc.

See this post for some great ideas

hpl123

The existing workarounds are great e.g. using standard templates for tablet BUT I still think the ideal would be continued development of the existing mobile/tablet platform so we have native functionality on both mobile/tablet ("matched" functionality desktop/tablet/mobile).

rocketman

Henrik, I entirely agree with you regarding matched functionality across all platform. I do have this long running debate with friends however regarding the status of an iPad (have no knowledge of the workings of other tablets)

Is it really a mobile device or a replacement for a laptop. I know it was originally conceived as an alternative to the ill fated netbook concept but it really pisses me off that so many developers limit the functionality on these devices for no good reason. The other day - whilst looking into how to get PayPal Gift vouchers working within AwareIM, I had to fire off a tirade of abuse at their techie guys because there is no (easily identifiable) way of redeeming a gift voucher on an iPad or Mobile device.

Using apps such as iTap or splash top, I can monitor and control my servers on an iPad - I can even carry on my AwareIM development long into the night from the comfort of my armchair whilst my wife watches some mundane crap on TV ...... but I can't redeem a bloody PayPal gift voucher?

Give it a couple of years, one or two Processor upgrades and I think the tablet will very definitely be consider the next generation laptop.

So come on AwareIM .... get ahead of the game. Full matching functionality across all platforms and a vastly improved Mobile look and feel. Lack of button icons and the like leaves out apps looking very outmoded compared to native apps created with Apple and Android SDK's

Join the debate ... what does everyone think?

RocketRod

I'm for developing the mobile version. It's a long way behind the standard version and it's really a pain for me as I have to develop my own vertical mobile menu system etc. Lack of icons, uploading pictures everything is so painful. But I have customers using it daily mainly on iPhones and AwareIM works well. It's just that it is lacking so much. Also we should have an app that we can use to launch AwareIM apps to make it look more professional. So I'm hoping that in this coming release there is something for us at least at a minimum fixing the picture issue.

Having the ability to access ones app from a mobile phone or tablet is a big selling point for me. So hopefully soon the mobile version will have it's own major upgrade.

Cheers Rod

aware_support

If you have a specific list of features you would like added to the mobile version please send it to us.

RocketRod

Thanks Guys. I'm sure everyone has their list but my top 10 would be:

Vertical menu system with sub folders just like setting up a menu on the standard version that displays like a query does on the phone.
Icon support.
Time picker for datetime attributes.
Display pdf docs and hopefully soon zoho docs.
Upload pictures on iPhone without PICUP utility.
Upload multiple pictures and resize BEFORE upload so it's a lot quicker.
Mobile app launcher which a user can setup and store items like domain/ip address, BS name, testing or live version, username. And we can add a logo/branding. Also store several items so they can just select the one they want and it prompts them for a password. Instead of setting up bookmarks or the like.
Allow SAVE/CLOSE form buttons to be placed at top of form.
Buttons at bottom of screen for say a PICK operation to be bigger in size like the SAVE/CLOSE buttons on forms.
Allow standard queries to display column headers.

Cheers Rod

hpl123

Rocketrods top 10 is a good list I think. Regarding mobile menu systems, the ideal would be to have multiple options e.g. IOS iconbar, flyout menu. Other great things would be mobile calendar, charts.

This has also been discussed in other posts and if i remember correctly quite a few of good ideas, things have been discussed before so there you can gather ideas.

rocketman

A way of resizing column widths on iPad + being able to get at the tick boxes to add remove columns (which are in a sub menu) would be good for starters. and not having to disable finger gestures pinch - zoom etc because they actually work (these using native AwareIM)

aware_support

Thank you very much. We will consider all requests for the post-5.8 release.

RLJB

Having used mobile option extensively, and normal version (with changes to theme etc) extensively.... I would suggest the normal vp is the way to go for tablet.... If awareim could give us some features as per the link above (mostly a good fly out menu) then you can do what you need right now

ACDC

RLJB
If you use a normal VP then how would one handle a date selection and a drop down reference- This is an issue for me as they are not large enough for touch, unless of course one creates a customised version for these types of attributes to facilitate touch

ACDC

it would be great if one could use the Mobile date picker and drop down in a normal VP, this would solve the problem and make a normal vp for the tablet very viable

RLJB

We played with the theme quite a bit, I can't remember exactly but the date selectors is a variable in the scss we just made it larger to be finger friendly, it was a bit of playing around. Same for a ref attribute, the drop down just appears in screen (not as a scroll on mobile devices) but it is finger friendly.

I think the most important thing is that our tablet login still looks like our desktop version, you just can't do that using the mobile option, and when your app gets complex this is an important point.

Gabbitas

In addition to the requests above there are three things that I would like to see in the mobile version. I'm not sure if the are doable in some way now and if they are not, if they would even be possible in future versions.

The ability to be able to get the GPS (Longitude/Latitude) position of the mobile device both at each time the user logs in and say every few mins whilst the user is logged in.
When a user is editing a form on their mobile and the phone receives a phone call the connection to the server is instantly cut and all data that was entered and not saved is lost! This is the biggest grumble I get from users in the mobile version.
If you have a text box that displays say 4 lines high and the user types in more than 4 lines of text it is not possible to scroll back through the text box to review what has been entered. The only way to get around this is to have very large (long, 30 lines high or more) text boxes displayed.

Thanks

rocketman

Having thought about this some more, the best birthday present you could give me would be the ability to detect the device type and then (via a login process) to allow us to switch perspectives for the logged in user. I noticed from my latest google analytic that I can get numbers of visitors by Pc's tablets and mobiles, and even deeper it tells me the device model (iPads, IPhone, Samsung, Nexus etc. so clearly, modern browsers are sending this info to a website.

At the moment, via a login notification, I can get stuff like session Id and referring URL, If we can get device type as well (PC, tablet,mobile would suffice - but the more you can give us the better) then using a process We can make our app switch VP's on the fly or offer the user the option to choose

Most of the modern websites I visit already have this ability built in.

Big advantage - we only have to give out one login URL string