Developing a Mobile App

Uniface's mobile solution is based on web technologies, so mobile development starts with creating a responsive web application that is tailored to the possibilities and limitations of mobile devices.

For more information, see Requirements for Mobile App Development.

  1. Model the application data and default behavior. For more information, see Modeling the Application.
  2. Construct one or more DSPs that use the mobile app framework to define headers, footers, menus and navigation tools. For example, you can define:
    • One DSP to serve as the main user interface of the app. It could contain two DSP container fields that are bound to the header and content of the Mobile App Layout. For more information, see Mobile App Layout .
    • Other DSPs that contain the content to be displayed in the main DSP.

    For more information, see Develop a Uniface Web Application.

  3. Program the application behavior using ProcScript for server-side code, and JavaScript for client-side code.

    To address Uniface objects, use the Uniface JavaScript API. For more information, see Scripting Application Behavior and APIs: JavaScript.

    To address device-specific objects, use hybrid framework plug-in APIs (for example, Cordova plug-ins).

  4. Create the icons and splash screens that are required on your target platform. For more information, see Icons and Splash Screens for Mobile Apps.

  5. Use your preferred hybrid framework to package the mobile app. You can choose to:

    • Provide the URL of your web application to the hybrid wrapper. This is the simplest option, but it requires all resources to be downloaded from the server when the app is run.
    • Deploy the DSP runtime and static content (including CSS, icons and splash screens, JavaScript) to the framework so they can be packaged into the app. This ensures that these resources are available locally, providing better performance.

    The specific instructions will vary, but the basic steps are typically to:

    1. Create a project for your app in the hybrid framework.
    2. Configure this project with information such as the application name, URL, target platforms, application page, and so on required to create the mobile app package.
    3. Specify or install any hybrid framework plug-ins you will be using to access native device functionality.
    4. If you are including the Uniface JavaScript runtime (common/uniface.js) and static resources, copy them from the Uniface web folder to the framework web root. For example, depending on your application, you might copy the /common, /css, /dspjs, /images, /fonts, and /images folders.
    5. Build the package using the framework commands.