Mobile Web Dynpro - platform and browser support

[Former Member]

Hi, guys!

Has anybody got an idea of where to find the list of supported mobile devices for Mobile Web Dynpro 7.11 (Composition Environment 7.1 EhP1)? PAM only shows browser support for Web Dynpro Java on desktop browsers.

As far as I know additional platform/browser support is delivered via support packages, correct? Has anybody got an idea if SAP continues to add browser/plattform support for Mobile Web Dynpro 7.11 for new mobile devices/operation systems/browsers until end of mainstream maintenance of SAP NW CE 7.11?

What is SAPs recommendation on the technology to choose for development of web applications for mobile devices - personally I don't think that investing in Mobile Web Dynpro is a good choice due to the fact that Web Dynpro Java itself is not going to be developed any further?

Any hints/guesses or official SAP Guru statement is appreciated!

Best Regards,

Thomas

[Former Member]

Hi again!

As nobody answered yet, allow me to again raise this topic as it seems to me quite interesting - not only because of existing requirements in that have to be implemented, but also in a more strategic aspect:

Mobile WD was praised as THE platform for web-applications for mobile devices. Now to me it seems that the restrictions Mobile WD imposes (browser version, OS version, hardware version) do not conform to the rapidly changing mobile device market. Not to speak of the fact that WDJ itself isn't going to be developed any further, so we as customers cannot expect to see the technology and its use cases in SAP environment grow.

What is SAPs plan B for this special requirement: platform (browser, os, hardware)-independent web-applications for mobile devices interacting closely with SAP ERP backend.

And please don't come with SUP - I' m not interested in suggesting to spend even more money on new SAP infrastructure and technology after realizing that the recent investments propagated by SAP (SAP NetWeaver CE, WDJ, Mobile WD) fade away and do not pay off.

Regards,

Thomas

Edited by: Thomas WÜRCHER on Dec 1, 2011 10:35 AM

[daniel_ruiz2]

Hi Thomas,

My two cents, I do not speak for SAP - but I'm using knowledge I've acquired along the way working with WDJ.

Recently I've being developing Mobile Applications using Flex 4.5.1 (and now 4.6 was released) - this is quite nice if you do know AS3 or Flex. Pretty much, you can do cross-platform (iOS, Android and Playbook) with the same source and media queries (CSS) for each one.

- Pros: Development speed is just too fast. Flex is such a nice product, you can use Flash Builder or FDT to help you out packaging and using Services. Cross-platform.

- Cons: Not 'really' native. Some platform native controls are yet not available (thou you can code anything on any platform now with ANE) but it requires a little more effort. Rendering speed on iOS only is not too great since the AIR is not embedded into the device. On Android, runs really fast!

• Recently Adobe has announce it will be moving the Flex SDK into Apache Foundation, which IMO is great. Not sure how tied this will be with AIR development, I hope the best.. (but only time will tell)

Adobe also announced (and there is a preview version) of Adobe Edge - which is Adobe counter-measure to the hit from Apple not letting Flash stay on iOS devices. It will work out the same way as flash but generating HTML5, CSS3 and JS.

I would never use SUP on any Project I work with.. I did consider it's benefits, but taking a deep look into it's cost and what it really offers you, I don't find it any good for most scenarios. (and the scenarios SUP would cover I would choose another tool)

In browser development (which WDJ for instance cover with Mobile Rendering Clients) - I've being using Pie03Client and it has always worked fine. Fine in a way that, "okay, we are still 10 years behind everything else" but the users already accepted that.

jQuery Mobile seems to be a nice choice if your device can extensively use CSS and JS, there is also PhoneGap. I've tried to move forward into J2EE with some other technology for Mobile instead of WDP, but I'm yet to find something that runs nice and smooth on the devices we use for that particular Project.

• SAP had somehow manage a super stunt once saying that WDP would go OpenSource... - I think that could also bring some new cards into the field, since a new client could easily be developed that uses good practices and technologies to render WDP Components. It's being a while and I never heard about it anymore.. In fact, it was when Oracle acquired Sun and there was a lot of crap flying around everywhere.

I would like to know your considerations about the topic as well, it's very very very hard to have anyone from SAP replying on these boards; I think same question on WD ABAP board would give you better results.

Regards,

Daniel

PS: I have attached a Sample code for your http_destination thread, take a look if you still need.. (i think the watch is gone)

[Former Member]

Hi, Daniel!

Thanks for the hint on Flex as mobile option - we already have that platform in the company for intranet browser applications, but I don't think that there have been thoughts about a possible usage for mobile devices, too. I' ll dig into that deeper.

jMobile Query has already been mentioned in another corner of the network - there are nice examples for that framework together with BSP in the weblog sections. Probably, we' ll also go for that approach.

Once in a while you' ll get an answer of a SAP employee in the forums, too, that' s why I hoped there would be dragged some attention to that topic.

And also thanks for the code regarding the other thread, I just checked it out and will give it a try!

Best Regards,

Thomas