Deploying Magic xpa Applications on Android

I've enjoyed the recent series of videos on mobile development for Magic xpa Application Platform. As readers of this blog know, Magic Software's Magic xpa Application Platform allows you to build and deploy applications including mobile apps. Deploying those apps on Android emulators and Android smartphones is straightforward enough. Deployment on the emulator is presented in a recent video in the Developing for Mobile Series: "Running a Magic xpa Application on the Android Emulator." 

When it comes time to deploy your ANdroid apps, you can choose from four basic deployment methods:

The Run Method. One way to deploy an application is to run the APK file on your Android. This is usually done when you receive the file as an email attachment. All you have to do is click on the attachment. 

Over the Air Method. As you might guess from the name, the Over the Air method of deployment for Android allows you to use your Internet browser to browse to a URL on an Internet server where the .apk file is located and then click to download. For this to work, you need to put the APK file on an exposed folder on the web server. If the application does not run, configure the web server to support download of the APK file as follows: Open the Internet Information Services (IIS) manager, navigate to the Default Web Sites, open the Mime Types and add a new one as follows:

• Extension=.apk
• MIME type=application/vnd.android.package-archive
  
  Using the Android Market. 
  You can also upload your application to the Android market.To do this, you use the ADB command line utility – when installing on a simulator or on a device using a cable. You can install the APK by using the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) utility, which is located in the platform-tools folder in your SDK folder, usually at: C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools.Finally, to install your APK, run the following command: adb install –r my.apk.

Enjoy the video!

Mobile Enterprise Application Platform: Any App...

Enterprise mobility is in part a decision about “how to” develop and deploy mobile applications but it also involves serious questions about “what” applications to deploy. The fact that a good mobile enterprise application platform can make core enterprise software systems accessible remotely by a handheld device does not necessarily mean that all data and functionality should be exposed. Serious decisions need to be made about which data is accessible and which business functions are to be mobile-enabled. In this regard, it is important that you have all the tools in place to allow you to selectively integrate enterprise applications rather than simply providing wholesale access to your back end systems and processes.

With the announcement of Magic Software’s Mobile Offering yesterday, a new discussion of the importance of complex mobile business process and workflow was begun. See for example, the article in Dr. Dobbs Journal subtitled: “complex workflow support for mobile deployment of enterprise apps.”

Magic Software offers the mobile enterprise application platform you need to develop and deploy mobile apps and it provides the integration platform that enables connectivity and data interchange with your existing enterprise applications. Rather than engaging in extensive retooling of an existing application, you can use Magic Software’s iBOLT integration platform to automate the orchestration of data transformations, business transactions and application messaging with backend systems.

This automated approach to integration is the first step in reducing the effort required to mobilize any application. We then return our consideration to the mobile enterprise application platform itself. As a metadata engine, Magic Software’s uniPaaS application platform is a ready‐made business application engine containing pre‐written technical and administrative functions and services. It frees the developer to bypass the intensive technical code‐writing stage of application development and move quickly and efficiently to deployment.

The easiest way to grasp this concept is to see uniPaaS in action. The uniPaaS development environment is really a visual representation of application ‘assets’ and business rules stored in XML based ‘metadata’. This metadata business structure can be easily transferred from one deployment scenario to another (for example, Windows Mobile to BlackBerry) with minimal effort. And as discussed in our previous entry, it isn’t a matter of developing one core application and force fitting it onto various devices. Applications designed for iPhone and Android should have the unique look and feel of those devices. Instead, Magic Software’s Mobile offering allows you to customize your core business application for each device without having to refactor your core business logic or data structures.

For more information, please click here to download Magic Software’s Mobile Offering FAQ.