Creating Mobile Applications
This tutorial describes how to create Mobile Applications with m-Power.
The first step is to configure the data dictionary to work with mobile applications. Click Admin., click Edit Data Dictionary Files, and then click Dictionary Configuration.
This opens into the Mobile Options tab. The first option is the devices_to_support property. This property specifies which HTML layers can be created within your current data dictionary. For instance, if I select PC and Tablet from the dropdown, I would not be able to create smartphone applications within my dictionary.
The next three options allow you to select which HTML layers can be displayed on different device types. For instance, if a PC is used to run an application, the end-user can only view the application in the layers I’ve specified by the device_options_pc property. This is often set to PC, Tablet, and Smartphone for testing purposes. After selecting your options, click ‘Accept’ to save. (These three properties can be specified at the Application level, within Application Properties.)
At this point, any new applications will automatically generate the HTML layers specified by the data dictionary settings. Existing applications will need to be recompiled in order to generate the HTML layers. However, recompiling these applications is a little different than the standard recompile process.
To recompile, open the application and click Build. Choose ‘Yes’ to override both the HTML and Application Properties. Note that you can override individual HTML layers, and can deselect the PC layer if you do not want to override your existing HTML. Click Accept. m-Power is now creating the necessary HTML layers for the Mobile Applications.
My application is currently displaying the PC layer. I can change to the Tablet or Smartphone layer through the ‘Options’ button in the right hand corner (These options come from the device_options_pc setting as the application is being run on a PC). After switching to the Tablet layer, notice that the application has been optimized for a smaller screen, and has plenty of space for touch screen navigation. Like the PC HTML layer, you can customize the HTML layers for tablet and smartphone display.
In order to edit the mobile layer, open this application in m-Painter. Hover over the file menu and click Open File. Next, under Device, choose the desired tablet or smartphone layer and select the appropriate HTML page. Click OK. You can now customize the mobile application.