TILES IN A MOBILE APPLICATION FRAMEWORK

• US 20150040104A1
• Filed: 10/24/2013
• Published: 02/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Mall, Sanjeet, Kedefors, Hans, Hinrichs, Karsten, Farkas, Zoltan, Egresits, David, Nyisztor, Karoly
• Granted Patent: US 9,161,156 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/121
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits

Abstract

In an example embodiment, a mobile application framework is added to a metadata-driven application. The mobile application framework includes generic libraries having one or more references to one or more configuration files stored on a platform server. Then the one or more configuration files can be updated to include one or more tiles, each tile comprising a user interface element or screen view, each tile being either a primitive tile or a tile embedding other nested tiles within it, thereby updating the metadata-driven mobile application without recompiling it.

Claims

1. A method for providing a metadata-driven mobile application, the method comprising:

adding a mobile application framework to a metadata-driven application, the mobile application framework including generic libraries having one or more references to one or more configuration files stored on a platform server; and

updating the one or more configuration files to include one or more tiles, each tile comprising a user interface element or screen view, each tile being either a primitive tile or a tile embedding other nested tiles within it, thereby updating the metadata-driven mobile application without recompiling it.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata-driven mobile application is fully metadata-driven.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata-driven mobile application is partially metadata-driven and partially driven by custom code defined by a developer.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising combining the one or more tiles with controls and views native to a particular mobile device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a root tile of the metadata-driven mobile application is metadata-driven, wherein the root tile represents the metadata-driven mobile application'"'"'s initial user interface upon launching.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the tiles includes a manually coded view.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising calling one or more delegates before and after tile creation, wherein the one or more delegates automatically create a tile on behalf of a developer.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding a metadata-driven tile, in the one or more configuration files, as a subview to a manually programmed view controller.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding a metadata-driven tile, in the one or more configuration files, inserted in a navigation chain.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more tiles is metadata-driven.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein a metadata-driven tile is defined assigning a custom data source adapter delegate for the tile or passing context to the tile upon creation.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising, upon execution of the metadata-driven mobile application, fetching data, validating the data, and transforming the data to one or more generic business objects to be displayed in accordance with the one or more tiles.

13. A metadata-driven mobile application, executable by a processor and capable of being called by code in a mobile application, the mobile application framework comprising:

a mobile application framework including;

a core component configured to expose one or more application program interfaces (APIs) that initialize the mobile application framework when executed;

a user interface component configured to retrieve one or more configuration files identified by the core component and to use the one or more configuration files to generate a user interface, the one or more configuration files including one or more tiles, each tile comprising a user interface element or screen view, each tile being either a primitive tile or a tile embedding other nested tiles within it;

a data component configured to provide bindings to one or more business objects defining data for the mobile application; and

a configuration component configured to read and parse metadata in the one or more configuration files and transform the metadata to constructs native to the mobile application.

a custom code portion containing one or more calls to the mobile application framework;

14. The metadata-driven mobile application of claim 13, wherein the mobile application framework includes one or more libraries.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions, which when implemented by one or more machines, cause the one or more machines to perform the following operations:

adding a mobile application framework to a metadata-driven application, the mobile application framework including generic libraries having one or more references to one or more configuration files stored on a platform server; and

updating the one or more configuration files to include one or more tiles, each tile comprising a user interface element or screen view, each tile being either a primitive tile or a tile embedding other nested tiles within it, thereby updating the metadata-driven mobile application without recompiling it.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the metadata-driven mobile application is fully metadata-driven.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the metadata-driven mobile application is partially metadata-driven and partially driven by custom code defined by a developer.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise combining the one or more tiles with controls and views native to a particular mobile device.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein a root tile of the metadata-driven mobile application is metadata-driven, wherein the root tile represents the metadata-driven mobile application'"'"'s initial user interface upon launching.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein one or more of the tiles includes a manually coded view.