What is the Best Approach for the Offline Capability APPS?

[Former Member]

What the best approach for a device level development if there are multiple device OS involved.

I mean what is the best choice between native code and code generating applications when the app should be offline capable.

I need OFFLINE Capability App but for multiple devices.

HWC or Native APP...

Thanks in Advance.

Sunil G

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[Jitendra_Kansal · Accepted solution]

Hi Sunil,

there are multiple device OS involved.

If your requirement is for lightweight app then HWC should suit and that will cover multiple device OS.

we can't expect much from HWC based app as compared to native app.

but when I talk about HWC offline capabilities, hwc doesn't execute cache<---> client DB synchronization in the same way the native object API does. Instead, its offline behaviour follows a more business process oriented push model, in which messages can be pushed to the device, store locally, read locally, operated on and submitted back to the server. If the device is disconnected, the submit operations can be queued in a local store and retried.

Please check these links for more inputs respect to offline behaviour of HWC:

http://scn.sap.com/thread/3405801

http://scn.sap.com/message/14322595

Regards,

Jitendra

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Jitendra,

thanks for the quick reply.

My application is not light weighted app. So I should go for Native Approach.

Thanks,

Sunil G

[Jitendra_Kansal · Accepted solution]

yeah.. that would be the best approach in case there are multiple OS are involved.

Regards,

Jitendra

[midhun_vp]

When you say offline what all you want to do from app? showing the data while the device is offline or operations/transactions to be done too ?

SAP recommended way of developing native apps is using Odata. In this case you can extend the local DB of the device to show the data while the device is offline. But operations/transactions cannot be performed while device is offline  through APIs(available in future). So you need to think before deciding to go with MBOs. (A migration of MBO based projects has to be done later with this approach)

HWC apps are light weight apps recommended for approval kind of scenarios.

Since you need to support the app in different platforms you need multiple platform based developers. The major mobile OS and their skills set are, Android(Java), BB(Java), IOS(Objtive C) and Win Mob(C#). In this case Appcelerator is a good option, It is based on HTML5, that runs in all major platforms.

- Midhun VP

[Former Member]

My app has large volume of data, which is to communicate with the device.

My Understanding is in HWC approach device Cache cannot hold large volume of data, whereas SUP CDB can hold large volume of data compared to device Cache.

So the approach should be the Native APP Development.

correct me if i am wrong...

[midhun_vp]

You are right. You have to go for native approach. But in native you have two options online apps and offline apps. Online apps are based on Odata and offline apps are based on MBOs. The SAP is discouraging the MBO based app development now since Odata based development is the recommended approach. Which will later have offline capabilities (in SMP 3.0). So if you choose MBO based offline app at this stage will lead you to a migration of the app to OData approach.

- Midhun VP

[Former Member]

Thanks Midhun for the reply.

So if i developed the app using MBO based, i have to migrate to Odata approach. In the sense i have to develop the app from scratch using OData or there is any possibility of apps to migrate from SMP 2.3 to SMP 3.0 automatically as from SUP 2.2 to SMP 2.3.

[midhun_vp]

I am not sure on how we can migrate apps from MBO to Odata based. When SMP 3.0 is released to customers only we can find more information on this.

- Midhun VP

[Former Member]

Thanks for very helpful information

Thanks

[Former Member]

OData is for Online apps. However, using Off line query supporter, you can add offline capability to OData online nature but that is a bit complex process.

[midhun_vp]

You are right Muhammad. I had used Odata that time when SUP was not started supporting Android. I extended the local DB of the device to provide limited offline capabilities to the app. But in SMP 3.0 complete Odata offline capabilities are included. APIs that support offline will be available, that reduces the complexity.

[Former Member]

Yes Midhun, I also heard that stuff. Lets see whats available in SMP3.0. But don't you think compared to MBO approach OData offline APIs will be difficult to use? Do you have any white paper addressing specifically to OData offline capabilities in SMP3.0?

[midhun_vp]

I can't make a comparison on MBO and OData offline till I get more information on OData offline (It will not use middle-ware caching).

New features of SMP 3.0 you can find here,

http://scn.sap.com/community/mobile/blog/2013/10/22/sap-mobile-platform-30-launches-at-teched-in-las...

http://scn.sap.com/community/mobile/blog/2013/10/22/smp-30--my-notes-from-asug-pre-conference

- Midhun VP

[agentry_src]

Hi Sunil,

You may want to provide a little more detail on what the app needs to do.  Depending on the application requirements, you may want to look at the Syclo/Agentry apps.  They are superb for offline, but may be more difficult to develop in from scratch if that is how you have to go.  Agentry is here to stay has the standard apps listed each with a brief explanation.  There is also a document there outlining how to develop an app from scratch using SMP 2.3 and the associated Agentry Addon.  Just another option to consider.

Regards, Mike

SAP Rapid Innovation Group - RIG