Disconnected Mobile App

[de la Rosa]

Hi Bruce,

About to dive into developing a mobile app but need to clear up a couple of things as follows:

1. Only the Javascript part of the Clarion-NT9 app will be loaded into the device?

2. The device app is a stand-alone client/server app?

3. The device will have an equivalent native DB to whatever DB is used on the pc server app, which will be syned and form the basis of the connection between the device and the pc server DB app?

4. What if the mobile app involves logging transactions to a file, the db will grow fast and huge, how does that play out against device memory?

5. Assuming connectivity isn't an issue, is it possible to use a Webservice client on the mobile app to the pc server app instead?

6. Will embedding Javascript be able to hurdle any issues to make it work like a regular web app on the device?


Thanks,
Vic

[Bruce]

Hi Vic,

>> 1. Only the Javascript part of the Clarion-NT9 app will be loaded into the device?

correct. (Actually Javascript, HTML and CSS, but no Clarion which I think was your question.)

>> 2. The device app is a stand-alone client/server app?

Actually it's a stand-alone app. The data is local to the device. By default it "syncs" the data on the device with the data at the server, but strictly speaking this isn't "required". So it's not "client/server" in the sense that I would describe "client/server" as a client that _needs_ to be connected to the server in order to function.

Hence the description "Disconnected Client" which implies that it's self-functioning, but syncs to a server from time to time.

>> 3. The device will have an equivalent native DB to whatever DB is used on the pc server app, which will be syned and form the basis of the connection between the device and the pc server DB app?

In short yes. If I'm being pedantic I prefer to refer to "Data store" rather than "Database" because "Database" might imply certain functionality, whereas the data may be "stored" in any shape or form - not limited to "databases".

>> 4. What if the mobile app involves logging transactions to a file, the db will grow fast and huge, how does that play out against device memory?

You get around a maximum of 5MB per data store (ie per app). So you should think long and hard about minimizing data sent to the device as much as possible.

>> 5. Assuming connectivity isn't an issue, is it possible to use a Webservice client on the mobile app to the pc server app instead?

Depends what you mean by "web service client". If connectivity is not an issue then it makes sense to just use the web app "directly" rather than via a local app. There are was to "pin" a web app to the desktop etc so it "seems" like a native app - but will only run (directly against the server) when the device is connected. This consumes no storage resources on the phone so is the best solution if connectivity is not an issue.

>> 6. Will embedding Javascript be able to hurdle any issues to make it work like a regular web app on the device?

ultimately yes. At the moment functionality is rather more limited though as I work through the feature set of what is available in "disconnected" mode, and what is not yet available.

cheers
Bruce

[de la Rosa]

Got it Bruce. Thanks!