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
