Delivering Mobile Apps to the Field with Oracle

Copyright © 2018, eProseed and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | Confidential
DELIVERING MOBILE APPS
TO THE FIELD WITH ORACLE
Simon Haslam

ABOUT ME
Simon Haslam
• Platform / Infrastructure
Architect
• Focus includes HA, DR,
security, automation
Relevant to this session
• Worked on a mobile
project before “mobile”
and “app” where things ☺
• Technical lead on:
MAF projects from 6/2017
JET project from 7/2018
@simon_haslam

ABOUT EPROSEED
• Focussed only on Oracle technology
• Globally distributed with centralised delivery
management and local resources
• 5 active ACE Directors, 2 Dev Champions, 8 OCM
• 19 Oracle Excellence Awards in 8 years
25 Oracle Specializations… and counting.
Local offices in UK, NL, PT…
& Head Office in Luxembourg

3 Membership Tiers
• Oracle ACE Director
• Oracle ACE
• Oracle ACE Associate
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500+ Technical Experts
Helping Peers Globally
Connect:
Nominate yourself or someone you know: acenomination.oracle.com
@oracleace
Facebook.com/oracleaces
oracle-ace_ww@oracle.com

5
• Real-world ‘field’ environments & Oracle technologies
• Oracle MAF
• Apache Cordova
• Oracle JET for mobile apps
• User experience
• Learning points & summary

WHY APPS FOR MOBILE DEVICES?
• Nature of work - desktop or laptop is not suitable for many job roles:
– Outside, materials handling, etc (e.g. warehouse)
– Highly mobile (e.g. sales rep, ticket collector/issuer)
– Hazardous or clinical conditions (e.g. doctor or electrician)
• Reduce barrier for customer interaction
• Bring your own device - extending corporate IT
• Tablet might simply be better means of interacting with IT
6
Photo from
https://www.pexels.com

BUT FIRSTLY: HOW RETAIL “APPS” HAVE EVOLVED
7
UK car importer/
distributor
App calculates personalised finance terms
for a customer, e.g. at end of test drive
IT to assist salesperson
in a car showroom
1997

AGENDA
• Real-world ‘field’ environments
• Typical integration challenges
• User experience
8

WHAT DO YOU NEED FOR A MOBILE ENTERPRISE APP?
9
Data services
‘Functional’ services
Offline
persistence
App dev
tools
Mobile
Device
Management
SDLC
tools
Security
tools
Notification
services
Tracking &
analytics
Operating
System inc app
packaging
Device-specific
features
Identity services
A
P
I
….and this is before you consider microservices!

ORACLE PRODUCTS TO MEET THESE NEEDS
10
Data services
‘Functional’ services
Offline
persistence
App dev
tools
Mobile
Device
Management
SDLC
tools
Security
tools
Notification
services
Tracking &
analytics
Operating
System inc app
packaging
Device-specific
features
Identity services
Mobile Cloud Service
Mobile
Cloud
Service
Integration
Cloud
SOA
Suite Service Bus
Identity
Cloud
Service
ADF
ERP
JET
MAF
MAF
(CDM)
Persist.
Toolkit
DevCSAPI
Platform

TYPES OF MOBILE APP
11
Native Hybrid
Progressive
Web Apps
Platform-specific
(multiple teams
for different platforms)
Cross-platform Cross-platform
Ultimate performance
Usually acceptable
performance
Expected to be acceptable
performance
Native APIs Cordova Cordova(?)
This presentation
PLATFORMSSPEED
DEVICE/OS
FEATURES

WHAT DO YOU NEED* TO DEVELOP HYBRID MOBILE APP?
Cordova
JET
PackagingOffline
Phone photo by Terje Sollie from Pexels
MAF
or
* Oracle tools - other tools are available!

OFFLINE PERSISTENCE
• Offline is required in many/most mobile apps to either:
– give illusion of better performance
– provide application functionality under all network conditions (variable or
none)
• Biggest challenge is cache coherency across devices
– May not be as bad as you think – perhaps first or last “wins”
• You may not need to provide offline capability for all functions
– Most functions may be read-only anyway; transactional ones may have to wait
for connectivity if rare
13
MAF: Container Data Model (fka AMPA)
built-in
JET: use Oracle’s offline persistence toolkit
https://github.com/oracle/offline-
persistence-toolkit

14
• Oracle MAF
• Apache Cordova
• User experience

TRADITIONAL ORACLE TOOL FOR MOBILE APP DEV
Mobile Application Framework
• Declarative dev env, similar to ADF
• JDeveloper IDE (MAF extension)
• Java-based (mostly)
• Pre-integrated Cordova
• Built in navigation, security, login
• Model (binding) layer that integrates
nicely with SOAP & REST
• Discovery feature when using ADF BC
exposed as REST APIs
• Offline persistence built-in (uses
encrypted SQLite database)15
2014 / 4 years ago:

Copyright © 2018, eProseed and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | Confidential17
MAF: 02. An Introduction to Oracle Mobile Application Framework (Oracle MAF)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rN1kQncy0E
2014

MAF DEMO
18

FIRST TWO APPS: MAF OUTCOMES
• Lots of new technologies for the team (ADF supported by MAF consultant):
– Android SDK, standard PC build
– Emulator, building, deploying to .apk / device
– Build server integration
– JavaScript (Cordova plus some fixes like the “enter” button on Android keyboard)
• App 1: Lots of Java bean & persistence layer debugging
– Sub-optimal REST APIs (following data model)
– A couple of bugs (fixed in MAF 2.5.1+)
• App 2: Much smoother
– Reworked both data model & APIs, simplifying app
• Once through pilot, rollout was fast & no bug fixes needed
19

20
• Oracle MAF
• Apache Cordova
• User experience

CORDOVA ARCHITECTURE
Bluetooth Serial
Barcode Receiver
https://cordova.apache.org/docs/en/latest/guide/overview/index.html
JavaScript
JavaScript
Android: Java
Physical
connection
to hardware

THE LASER SCANNER
• Scanner is proprietary feature of the Honeywell hardware
– Including hardware buttons on both sides of device
• Honeywell-customised flavour of Android
– Android Intent (android.scan) for successful scan completed
• We used the cordova-plugin-battery-status as an
example/starting point for our custom Cordova plug-in
https://cordova.apache.org/docs/en/latest/reference/cordova-plugin-battery-status/
We could add more features of the Honeywell APIs/SDK to
the plug-in, e.g. enable/disable scan button, multi-scan
22

THE BLUETOOTH PRINTER
• Used BluetoothSerial plug in to communicate with printer
https://github.com/don/BluetoothSerial & in npm
• Bluetooth needs to be paired
• Error handling left a lot to be desired – we’ve made some
improvements (PR imminent)
Printer control language feels
like a step back in time!
23

24
• Oracle MAF
• Apache Cordova
• User experience

MODERN ORACLE TOOLS FOR MOBILE APP DEV
25
• JavaScript Extension Toolkit (JET)
– Integrated & stable collection of open
source frameworks
– Oracle contributions for visual elements
– Many IDEs available for JavaScript
– Oracle offline persistence toolkit
– Apache Cordova is used to access device
features
– Deployment to iOS, Android as hybrid
apps, but also regular web apps e.g. for
desktop usage
• Visual Builder Cloud Service (VBCS)
– Low-code tool, highly graphical
– Runs in the cloud, has a runtime
component
– Builds regular web apps, but can also
build mobile apps to run from cloud
– Access to full range of JET components
– Export JavaScript code so you can use as
JET if you need to go deeper

JET DEMO
26

30
• Oracle MAF
• Apache Cordova
• User experience

BACK TO BASICS: OUR USERS
• Who are our users?
• How IT-literate are they?
• What is their working process?
– How much focus do they have on the app
– How does “happy path” compare to non-standard flows?
– Quick wins and process improvement
31
➢Importance of Business Sponsor & Product Owner
➢Mobile app usage means lots of opinions!
➢Management of expectations

MOCK-UPS
32

THE DEVICE
Don't underestimate device requirements, even if you think app is simple!
Consider:
• Processor speed & memory
• Screen brightness
• Features, e.g. pen, scanning, bluetooth, NFC
• Battery life
– Replacement batteries
– Charging docks
• Physical resilience
– Drop resistance
– Water resistance (or even hygiene, e.g. for hospital use)
• Supported lifespan: service & spare parts34

35
• Oracle MAF
• Apache Cordova
• User experience

LEARNING POINTS
• Tool choice is very important, especially due to pace of change
• We love the JET cookbook & training, e.g. MOOC
• Do mock-ups early and carefully, ahead of dev sprints
• Cordova plug-in dev: create test harness to reduce debug scope/cycle time
• Give developers real devices – emulators only go so far
• CI, automated build & deployment
• Automated testing, especially WAN simulation if possible
36
Credit: https://gfycat.com/CompleteDimpledGoitered

SUMMARY
• Plenty of quick win scenarios where employees need to
access IT through mobile devices
• Oracle JET or MAF, coupled with Cordova, provides mature
means to build mobile apps.
JET re-uses of JavaScript & desktop skills
• Hybrid mobile apps offer good compromise between
development flexibility and cost. Keep an eye out for
Progressive Web Apps though
• Various integration options & cloud services – some overlap
so consider carefully
• Positive user experience is central to success of your project
– consider usage, device, convenience, etc
37

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38
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