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Digital Transformation

WebSphere Portal Mobile Accelerator

 

The mobility problem

  • Too much diversity for a small set of new pages or JavaScript to handle.
  • From infrastructure point of view, there are a lot of different apps that need to be mobilized.
MPA solutions
  • Extends IBM Portal to mobile devices
  • One set of code delivered to many different devices.
    • Developer needs to include only one set of XDIME pages for all devices.
  • Thin client solution – uses native browser on the device
  • Based on standard HTTP request /response
  • Server code updates all users at once
  • No restriction on device or carrier or OS
MPA Architecture
  • Installs into existing Portal
    • Multichannel server (MCS)
    • New aggregator to deliver different themes
    • New admin portlets to manage mobile pages
  • MCS repository stores profile info for assets, markup, layout, theme and device
    • Currently over 9300 device profiles
    • IBM has an update service to keep profiles updated
  • Media Access Proxy
  • Mobile portal toolkit plugs into RAD
MPA Components
  • XDIME jsps are added to portlets to deliver content in device independent XML format.
    • XDIME = XML device independent markup extension
  • Portal filter redirects mobile traffice to mobile aggregator.
  • Aggregator build page using conitent from portal and sends the XML to MCS
  • MCS gEts device profile and builds device dependent HTML
  • Layout policies can define what content appears on the page plus lays it out. – each device can have a different layout
  • Image policy can change the size of an image or change an image that is displayed
    • Can be a problem when you have a lot of images – in this case use the Media Access Proxy
    • MAP automatically converts images to proper size, color depth, crop, watermark, and file size.
      • it’s a good idea to use a caching proxy for this
  • V7 now handles WCM content throught the rendering portlet
  • Client framework that includes JavaScript widgets for smart mobile devices
    • Over 50 widgets are included us sample portlets.
Testing
  • DeviceAnyWhere is a service you purchase by the month and you get a pixel perfect rendition of each device.  The actual device is plugged into servers around the world.
  • Use device emulator from the manufacturers.
  • Firefox with agent switcher plugin -this is quick and dirty solution
    • Need additional plugins
    • Allows you to view source and debug
Value of Accelerator
  • Reduce time to delivery
  • Reduces risk
  • Leverages all devices
  • Performance and scalable
Conference sample app:  http://ls2012.ibmconf.com/wps/portal

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Mark Polly

Mark Polly is Perficient's Chief Strategist for Customer Experience Platforms. He works to create great customer, partner, and employee experiences. Mark specializes in web content management, portal, search, CRM, marketing automation, customer service, collaboration, social networks, and more.

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