Using the Ionic Framework with Oracle Mobile Cloud Services (MCS)

One of the goals of the Oracle Mobile Cloud Service (MCS)  is to be client agnostic. So, you should be able to connect to your MCS hosted mobile backend from any client technology out there.

If you are a JavaScript developer you might be familiar with the very popular Ionic Framework.

Now, if you want to use an Ionic-based mobile app with the Oracle Mobile Cloud Service backend we have created a starter project for you that will show you how to perform the basic tasks and get you going in no time.

Have a look or clone the following GIT repo: https://github.com/mjabali/ionic-starter-mcs

The Readme file provides the instructions on how to get started with this sample.

Have fun!

Oracle Mobile Cloud Services - Mobile Application Accelerator (MAX) Demo

To satisfy the many, many enterprise use cases for mobility we need a new way to satisfy the demand without having to involve a mobile app development project.For many, the answer lies in giving business-side workers the ability to mobilize their own business processes. To address this requirement, Oracle is announcing the preview of Mobile Application Accelerator (MAX) , a new capability in Oracle Mobile Cloud Service. MAX is a cloud-based offering that brings mobile application development capabilities to professionals with no previous software development experience. With MAX, program managers, power users, and business professionals can develop mobile applications quickly and visually through their web browser.

Here are a few highlights of the Mobile Application Accelerator (MAX):

• Browser based development

• No coding required

• Easily map to business services

• App Preview

• Edit, Test and Publish from the web browser

Have a look on the following demo what MAX looks like:

How to Change Oracle JDeveloper 12c Font Size on Mac OS X

There are a few references to this on the Internet but they all seem to describe the behavior of Oracle JDeveloper 11g and not the current version 12c.

If you, like me, have been using Oracle JDeveloper 12c on a Mac OS X and wondered how can you change the IDE's font size then look no further :) Here are the instructions that worked for me:

• After installing Oracle JDeveloper 12c go to the Help menu and Check for Updates. Install the necessary extensions to do the kind of work you want (i.e. Mobile Application Framework) and restart JDeveloper.
• You'll probably see an undesired font size after you restart JDeveloper like the picture below. 

• Shut down JDeveloper and open a Terminal session.
• Go to /Users/<username>/.jdeveloper/system12.x.x.x.xx.xxxxxx.xxxx/o.jdeveloper.12.x.x.x.xx.xxxxxx.xxxx (i.e. /Users/Marcelo/.jdeveloper/system12.1.3.0.41.140521.1008/o.jdeveloper.12.1.3.1.41.150325.1239)
• Open the file ide.properties (you can use vi, nano, etc). Any text editor will do it.
• Find the line Ide.FontSize.Aqua=10. It should be something similar to:

 # The default Ide.FontSize for Mac OS X.  
 Ide.FontSize.Aqua=10  

• Update the IDE's font size replacing the lines above with the following:

 # The default Ide.FontSize for Mac OS X.  
 Ide.FontSize=10  

• Save and close the file. Start JDeveloper again and you should see the updated IDE's font size similar to the picture below.

How to dial a phone number from Oracle Mobile Application Framework?

Sometimes you need to dial a number from within a mobile app and for my surprise that functionality was not directly exposed through the Oracle Mobile Application Framework APIs.

Oracle MAF provides a component called Link (Go) available under the General Controls palette that can be used for navigation between pages but it can also be used to enable linking to external URLs.

Using the tel: URL scheme with the Link (Go) component gives you the capability to dial phone numbers from within an Oracle Mobile Application Framework app. 

So, here is how to do it:

On your MAF page, drag and drop a Link (Go) to the Panel Page and then set the URL in the component properties to the desired phone number. You can also use a Managed Bean to set the value if you want to do some processing before displaying the number to be called.

MAF Page source code after adding a Link (Go) component

Link (Go) component property panel

If you have mixed UI content on your Oracle MAF app and you want to get the same behavior on a HTML page you just need to add the following on your source code:

<a href="tel:+1-800-555-1234">call this number</a>

The sample code is also available here: https://github.com/mjabali/PhoneSample 

Working with Device Information in the Oracle Mobile Application Framework

With the proliferation of new device models, form factors and operating systems, you may be thinking about the challenges to make your application work handle all of these different device properties information as there may be features that rely on specific characteristics or capabilities.

As an example, how frustrating it would be for the user trying to use a mapping feature if the device doesn't support geolocation? Or, just getting the device screen height and width to make sure the content fits nicely and also dynamically present different things on the smaller / larger real state you have available. As a developer, it's your responsibility to make sure everything works and looks good on all devices (even though this is a hard task).

The Oracle Mobile Application Framework (MAF) utilizes Apache Cordova to provide access to device properties, SMS, Email, Contacts, Camera, Pictures/Photo Library, Geolocation, Accelerometer, Network, etc. that can either be accessed from Java, JavaScript and Expression Languages in order to support these requirements on your mobile application.

Additionally, the most common functionality (sendEmail, getPicture, createContact, sendSMS, etc) is exposed as a Data Control and can be simply dragged-and-dropped onto an AMX page reducing the need for coding calls to the API and constructing the necessary screens.

The MAF documentation covers all in details but here is a list of what's currently supported by the framework (through the embedded Apache Cordova API):

• device.name
• device.platform
• device.version
• device.os
• device.model
• device.phonegap

• hardware.hasCamera
• hardware.hasContacts
• hardware.hasTouchScreen
• hardware.hasGeolocation
• hardware.hasAccelerometer
• hardware.hasCompass
• hardware.hasFileAccess
• hardware.hasLocalStorage
• hardware.hasMediaPlayer
• hardware.hasMediaRecorder
• hardware.networkStatus

• hardware.screen.width
• hardware.screen.height
• hardware.screen.availableWidth
• hardware.screen.availableHeight
• hardware.screen.dpi
• hardware.screen.diagonalSize
• hardware.screen.scaleFactor

Most of the property names are self-explanatory and I won't go into the details of each one of them but there is a demo available for you that shows how to get started and use some of the information that the framework provides. Screenshots on both platforms are available below so you can take a peek what it looks like:

iOS Simulator

Android Emulator

The demo itself uses EL (expression languages) to get the values and then present them in different ways on the AMX page including outputText, buttons, etc and also change the availability of the component based on the feature capability.

In summary, integrating the device features into a Oracle MAF application is easy and flexible, the declarative drag and drop support suits most of the use cases and you can get deeper control programatically.

The source code is available here: https://github.com/mjabali/DeviceFeatures

Have fun!

Oracle Mobile Application Framework Hands-On Workshops

We are kicking off the US-based series of the Oracle Mobile Application Framework hands-on workshops that are going to cover the details of the platform and get you started with Oracle mobile development in a heartbeat. By the way, this is a FREE event!

These are one-day workshops where you will get technical insights into the new product enhancements, see live demos, and best of all, get hands-on experience with mobile app development. 

All you need to do is register for the workshop, pre-install/configure the development environment (MAF) on your laptop and you will be ready to go (don’t worry, we’ll send you detailed instructions on how to do this as well as contact information, should you need it). We also plan to set this up so that you can BYOD to test out your completed app (details will be provided in the invite).

Here are the links for the currently scheduled workshops so that you can register. If you don’t see your city listed be sure to send me an email letting me know where you would like to see a workshop added – we’re working to prioritize additional workshops now and your input will be valuable.

 Click the city of interest below. 

• San Diego: 8/19/14

• Cincinnati: 8/26/14

• Indianapolis: 8/26/14

• Tampa: 8/27/14

• Houston: 8/28/14

• Calgary: 9/16/14

• Kansas City: 10/28/14

• Omaha: 10/30/14

• Raleigh: 11/4/14

• Pittsburgh: 11/5/14

• Rochester: 11/6/14

See you at the workshop!

Mobile Emulation on Google Chrome

If you want to see what your web page will look like on a mobile device and also do debugging during development on your desktop, here is a very useful resource for you.

Google Chrome allows you to emulate different mobile devices, screen resolutions, user agents and things like touch screen, geolocation and the accelerometer.

To enable Mobile Emulation on Google Chrome, open the Developer Tools, go to Settings and enable "Show 'Emulation' view in the console drawer".

 

Then, press 'Esc' to bring up the Developer Tools console drawer and finally select the Emulation tab. You'll find four sections: Device, Screen, User Agent and Sensors.

 

A quick test to understand this powerful feature can be done by simply navigating to www.google.com, select a device (i.e. Google Nexus 5) and then click Emulate. You'll be able to see that Google Chrome will show you the mobile optimized version of the Google website.

 

To go back to the original settings, just hit Reset and you'll see the regular Google Chrome rendering of the web page.

 

Have fun playing with the other features!

 

 

An Introduction to Oracle Mobile Suite

Here is a quick overview and introduction to the Oracle Mobile Suite. There are basically four areas that the Oracle Mobile Suite helps with your mobile strategy:

• Development of multichannel applications with Oracle Mobile Application Framework
• Data and services integration across the enterprise with Oracle SOA Suite
• Uniform information security across all layers of enterprise and mobile applications with Oracle Identity Management
• Deployment and management (cloud and on premise) of multichannel applications with Oracle Cloud Application Foundation

The video below shows the core capabilities of the Oracle Mobile Suite and how can you benefit of it.

Oracle Mobile Development Platform Workshop

It has been almost five months since I started at Oracle and I have been busy working on a bunch of different technologies including WebLogic, Coherence, Service Bus, API Gateway and obviously Mobile. If you are interested in the Oracle Mobile Development Platform, we are offering a free technical webinar on October 30th at 9:30 AM Pacific/10:30 AM Mountain.  This is going to be a 90 minute technical presentation and demonstration where you will see how:

• You can develop Mobile Applications once and deploy natively to both iOS and Android
• Resulting  Applications allow your company’s employees and customers to securely access your internal packaged and custom applications from any device
• Your Mobile Applications are written Java and HTML5, but leverage native device functionality such as GPS, Camera, Address Book and Accelerometer
• The Resulting Applications look, feel, and perform as though they were natively developed, i.e., these are not just web applications running in a phone’s browser
• Oracle is using the Mobile Development Platform for their own application delivery
• Oracle’s Mobile Platform enables full lifecycle support of Mobile Applications covering their development, end-to-end security, service connectivity and integration, deployment, distribution and management

To attend the webinar, please contact me at: mqjabali [at] gmail dot com

See you online...

Using TIBCO Silver Mobile with TIBCO Web Messaging

Every company has or it's planning to have a mobile app these days and among other top priorities like Social, Event Processing, Analytics and Cloud, Mobility is a hot topic for CIOs looking for how they can change the game and put on their internal and external consumers' fingertips the right information at the right time with the right context. Not only that requirement but also how to capture, sense, act and respond to business events and notify mobile users of actions they need to take or what just happened that's so important to them.

Sometimes, there is a big disconnection between the "App" and all the backend systems that really do all the heavy lifting.

Integrating those two distinct worlds is getting easier primarily because of technologies like TIBCO Silver Mobile and TIBCO Web Messaging. Those product already have their huge value attached to their capabilities but when you combine them then the value brought to the table is extreme. 

TIBCO Silver Mobile is an open mobile development application platform (MDAP) that lets you build and manage mobile apps and create your own secure enterprise app portal. The platform lets you leverage whatever investments you've made in back-end automation infrastructure, whether from TIBCO or another provider.

Some of the Silver Mobile benefits are:

- Helps decrease mobile application development time and cost with a cross-platform, write-once environment and simplified Java and HTML5 back-end integration capabilities
- Lets you easily build onto your web application code base and add provisions for using pictures, video, contacts, and other data collected by mobile workers to mobile applications
- Deploys mobile apps securely on your own mobile app portal using your existing security standards and controls access to app downloads and the information available through them
- Supports Android, iOS, and others – and provides a familiar mobile app download process
- Gives front-line mobile workers access to the full resources of the enterprise by letting them access and contribute information in real time

You can download TIBCO Silver Mobile from the TIBCO Access Point (TAP) here: http://tap.tibco.com/storefront/trialware/tibco-silver-mobile/prod15310.html

On the other hand, TIBCO Web Messaging overcomes traditional HTTP-based web architectures that simply don't provide the real-time, bidirectional communication that today's new applications and services demand by using HTML5 WebSocket.

Some of the Web Messaging benefits are:

- Build compelling real-time applications using the new HTML5 WebSocket standard for low-latency web communication with a fraction of the overhead of existing web architectures.
- Use HTML5 API for Java Message Service, support legacy browsers, and natively integrate TIBCO EMS for faster and at less costly web and mobile application development.
- Don't sacrifice enterprise readiness to get next-generation web services with TIBCO Enterprise Message Service integration, enhanced security, and connection offloading.
- Natively integrate with TIBCO Enterprise Message Service to extend the reach of enterprise IT infrastructures through asynchronous or synchronous communication.
- Provide real-time full-duplex communication for web applications with HTML5 WebSocket at a fraction of the overhead of existing web architectures.
- Simplify application development for multiple client platforms with a JMS-client API familiar to enterprise developers.

In conclusion, combining these two powerful technologies give the business users not only full access to the information they need at any time and any place but also leverage the resources your company already invested on.

Removing Click Delays on Mobile Browsers

If you ever wanted to get rid of the 300ms delay between a physical tap and the the firing of a click event introduced on mobile browsers then the polyfill those guys from Financial Times created is the answer you are looking for.

Available on GitHub, FastClick is a simple, easy-to-use library for eliminating that delay and make your application feel more responsive to, for example, the touch of a button.

Have a look and fork the project at: https://github.com/ftlabs/fastclick 

You can also give it a try running one of the demos on your mobile device pointing your browser to: http://ftlabs.github.com/fastclick/examples/layer.html (it won't work on your desktop browser as the library doesn't attach any listeners to them).

Fascinating and job well done...