Version 5.0 of Altova MobileTogether was announced on November 7, 2018. Learn about all the new features below and update to the latest version.
MobileTogether Clients |
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Major rewrite of MobileTogether web client |
Android 8 support |
MobileTogether Designer |
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New UI design options |
Support for padding |
Support for borders in tables |
Buttons with images and text |
Options for text auto-fit |
Ellipsis display for long text |
Copy/Paste for project stylesheets |
New actions |
Ability to write (not only read) to XPath targets via variable |
Update more than one node at once |
Load/Save to/from text files |
Support for sending files and binary data via REST interface |
New functions |
mt-get-page-source-structure |
create-hash-from-string |
mt-table-rowgroup-count |
mt-table-rowgroup-index |
mt-called-by-enter-key |
mt-called-by-escape-key |
New database functionality |
Database structure retrieval |
Load/Save file actions with page sources determined at runtime |
Support for additional database versions |
Usability updates |
Global find & replace |
MobileTogether Server |
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Support for authentication via any LDAP server |
Automated backup of the MobileTogether Server internal database (Advanced Edition) |
In MobileTogether 5.0, the web browser client has been completely rewritten with a fresh, modern look. Controls and icons have been redesigned, and overall the UI of your web apps will be more crisp, clean, and attractive.
While MobileTogether is best known as a rapid mobile application development (RMAD) framework for iOS, Android, and Windows apps, the platform is equally well suited for building sophisticated web applications.
Because MobileTogether lets you build apps very quickly using a low code approach, it makes it possible for in-house web developers, citizen developers, and power users to rapidly build data-intensive web apps and deploy them instantly over enterprise intranets or the Internet.
Opting for a web app has numerous benefits. Because the app is available in any web browser, users don’t need to have a client app pre-installed on their device or computer, making deployment easy in large organizations as well as for customer-facing apps. There’s nothing to download: users simply access your app via URL. Of course, security options are available as required. All of these factors make life easier for enterprise IT departments and end-users alike.
Because a single design in MobileTogether Designer generates native apps for all platforms as well as a web app, the same functionality and sophistication available for building custom, feature-rich mobile apps is extended to developing web apps for any industry or purpose.
MobileTogether provides numerous options for tables, including new support for adding borders to tables, rows, columns and cells.
There are two ways to define border properties: in the Styles and Properties entry helper window or in a new Border Settings window that makes it easy to configure multiple border properties at once using familiar formatting menus and buttons. As you work, affected table elements are highlighted and you can see the result of every change immediately.
This frequently-requested functionality makes it easier to define and style tables with flexible options.
In addition to defining margins, MobileTogether developers can now add padding to relevant controls. Padding adds space between a control’s content and the inside edge of the control. Using the Styles and Properties entry helper, you can set padding for a control with a single value for all sides of the control’s content or configure it separately for left, right, top, and bottom.
To bring even more flexibility to UI design, you can now assign both an image and text to any button control. To add an image to a button, choose from a collection of predefined images or upload your own. You can also configure the image to be to the right or left of the button text.
It is now possible to set the text size to automatically fit the text, which means that the font will be made smaller automatically if the text doesn't fit the available width. This way, developers can ensure that apps will be readable and attractive on a wide variety of devices and screen resolutions. It is also possible to group multiple controls on a page to have the same automatically-determined text size, so that the overall design is adapted consistently.
In addition to the text auto-fit option described above, developers can configure controls that have text to display an ellipsis if the text doesn’t fit the width of the control. This again ensures that the UI will look good on all form factors and also helps account for differences in localized versions of your app, where some words may be longer or shorter depending on the current language.
MobileTogether Designer includes project stylesheets that make it easy to define global styles that can be applied at the project, page, table, and control level. It is now possible to copy an existing stylesheet and paste it into a new one, which makes it faster and easier to start a new stylesheet based on previously defined styles.
You can paste stylesheets to copy styles in the same app or in another app design file – a huge time saver.
MobileTogether 5.0 introduces several new functions for designing sophisticated app behavior, described below.
mt-get-page-source-structure
When creating new data trees or their parts, it is now possible to use the definition of a page source to create the structure automatically.
create-hash-from-string
This function creates a hash string from any text using different hashing algorithms. This is important, for example, to avoid saving user passwords in plain text.
mt-table-rowgroup-count & mt-table-rowgroup-index
These new functions can be used in tables with repeating rows, for example, to display the table with alternate row colors based on the index, as shown to the right.
mt-called-by-enter-key & mt-called-by-escape-key
In certain scenarios it’s useful for the developer to determine app behavior based on whether a button was activated with a touch on a mobile device or by the user pressing the escape or enter key on his/her keyboard. Now, it's easy to design app behavior for any of these scenarios.
It is now possible to retrieve a database structure during runtime.
A new action, DB Read Structure, enables the structure of a database to be read and for data in the database to be stored in a new $MT_DBSTRUCTURE page source. Data in this page source can be used in the same way as data in any other page source.
This functionality makes it possible to create sophisticated apps that read the database structures of unknown databases on the fly and is most applicable to IT-focused apps.
To make developing and refactoring complex apps easier, MobileTogether 5.0 introduces a new Find & Replace Pane for searching for and/or replacing strings in XPath expressions, functions, and action groups in a design. Searching using regular expressions is also supported.
For quick navigation, search results are hyperlinked to the relevant objects in your design.
Support for services (UI-less solutions that run on the server) |
Read / write to device calendars |
Ability to use Outlook contacts and calendar during simulation |
Rich text control |
Pop-up windows |
New action: Save/restore Page Sources |
New action: Delete Append Node |
New property: Text Size Auto-fit |
Multi-select combo box |
New style: Enforce light theme |
Ability to specify tab ordering for Windows and Web clients |
Defining a default action for Enter/Escape buttons on Windows and Web clients |
Automated tests per user / device |
Support for additional databases: Teradata and MariaDB |
New XPath functions |
64-bit support for Android |
New in MobileTogether Server |
New MobileTogether Server Advanced Edition with services support |
New predefined “admin” user role |
Ability to move/rename existing containers and solutions in WebUI |
Logging of server settings changes |
Services are solutions with no UI that are built in MobileTogether Designer and run on the customer’s MobileTogether Server to provide background functionality to other apps.
Once a service is deployed to the customer’s MobileTogether Server, various triggers such as time, file system events, and so forth can be defined to trigger the service to run. For instance, a service could be defined to monitor the Orders table in a sales database and trigger an action - such as sending a notification in an app, sending email to one or more recipients, and so forth - when an order arrives in the table. Another example is using a service to check XML feeds from a web site and send a notification to users when updates or changes are available.
Services offer MobileTogether developers another layer of sophistication for adding real-time functionality to their data-driven apps.
Please note that services require use of the new MobileTogether Server Advanced Edition, described in more detail below.
For developing apps that include scheduling functionality, this new calendar action provides rich integration with the calendar(s) on the user’s device. Support is provided for accessing multiple calendars to read events as well as to write events to a calendar. Specific functionality includes:
When the Access Calendar action is added to an app design, the $MT_CALENDAR data source tree is automatically added, allowing the app developer access to information for detecting scheduling conflicts and enabling the user to seamlessly add events to his device calendars.
During app simulation in MobileTogether Designer, it’s now possible to use the Outlook contacts manager for testing apps with email sending functionality. Outlook Calendars may also be used during simulation of the new Calendar action described above.
This new control allows developers to implement solutions that support rich text: text that includes formatting such as font sizes, bold, and italics. This support is especially important for MobileTogether solutions used in the Windows 8/10 client and the web browser, where users can enter and format rich text. For Android, iOS, and Windows Phone devices, the rich text control is read-only.
Rich text support was the final requirement for customers successfully transitioning their Altova Authentic Browser Edition solutions to MobileTogether for desktop and web browser access.
Authentic has long been available as a browser plug-in in addition to a desktop application. However, the more recent versions of popular browsers are discontinuing support for NPAPI and ActiveX and are in the process of ending support for browser plug-ins altogether.
Luckily, customers have a path to continue using existing Authentic forms built in StyleVision by exporting a StyleVision design file to a MobileTogether design as the starting point for a new app. Completed MobileTogether solutions can be accessed easily in a web browser – but without the need for a plug-in.
With added support for rich text, Authentic developers and end users will have access to all the same functionality - and more - using MobileTogether.
Often times it makes sense to deliver a notification or let an end user complete a simple task via a pop-up dialog window that doesn’t interrupt the user’s progress by taking up the whole device screen.
This new support makes configuring a pop up window as easy as defining a sub-page as a modal dialog in the app design. The app developer specifies the height and width of the pop-up window in the “Go to Subpage” action. During app execution, the pop-up will open in a window on top of the main page, allowing the user to receive the notification or complete the dialog before proceeding.
This new action makes it much easier to define when and how data is changed by a user’s input, and to roll back to the previously saved data when necessary. The developer can now easily define when to save a page source temporarily, and then to accept or discard further modifications depending on a user’s subsequent actions.
For instance, as an end user is filling in a mobile form, the app can save page sources before entering a sub page. Then, depending on what happens next, the app can continue with the changed data (and therefore discard the saved page sources) or roll back to restore the previously saved page sources.
This is helpful, for example, when a user decides to cancel before submitting a completed form or abandons a process before it’s complete.
This new action also allows developers to implement a transaction mechanism similar to transactions in a database.
A combo box normally offers a choice of multiple options, of which only one may be selected. In MobileTogether 4.1, the combo box control has been enhanced with the option to allow an end user to select multiple values at once.
This is easily configured by setting the multi-select property to "true" in the Properties entry helper window.
Newer Android and Windows devices now have their default theme set to the light background with dark text long used by iPhones and iPads. The new Enforce Light Theme style in MobileTogether helps developers easily extend this theme to older Android and Windows Phone clients. This saves significant development time and results in better performance because the styles don’t have to be applied individually at runtime.
Simply set Enforce Light Theme to true in the Styles & Properties entry helper to apply the theme project-wide. When Ensure Light Theme is set to false, the default theme of the user’s device is used.
This makes it possible to specify the order in which controls are selected when a user taps the Tab button.
Users on desktop and laptop devices are used to hitting Tab to move to the next field in a form, for instance, and this gives developers better control for creating the expected user experience and controlling how they navigate through a page.
Controls that have an OnClicked event (buttons, charts, images, and labels) can have their click events triggered via the client's Enter or Escape key in a Windows app or web browser.
Like defining Tab behavior described above, app developers can specify which control should be activated when a user presses Enter or Escape.
Version 4.1 includes a new edition of MobileTogether Server that provides additional features for the most sophisticated app development scenarios.
The debut release of MobileTogether Server Advanced Edition provides support for managing and running services, which, as described at the top of this page, are solutions with no UI that run in the background according to predefined triggers.
Once a service is defined in MobileTogether Designer, it is deployed to the customer’s MobileTogether Server, where the administrator can configure the service to start automatically according to a customizable system of triggers. These include including time triggers, file system triggers, HTTP triggers, or a combination of multiple criteria.
Version 4.0 of Altova MobileTogether was announced on November 7, 2017. Learn about all the new features below.
Support for Push Notifications |
Support for embedding a MobileTogether solution in a web application |
New action: Load/Save String |
New action: Read Folder |
New action: Set Language |
New action: MapForce Transfer |
Updated Android support for Android 6.0, 7.0, 7.1 |
Support for PostgreSQL 9.6 |
Server usage statistics app |
MobileTogether 4.0 introduces the ability to send push notifications to one or multiple devices running MobileTogether apps. Users are familiar with receiving push notifications that provide information, such as news related to the app, and they can also be used to drive actions, such as accepting invitations, linking to a website, or modifying a database.
MobileTogether push notifications can include a short message, a “big” message, and a payload consisting of data structured as key–value pairs. Typically, the short message is what is displayed on the device when the notification is received. When the user taps the short notification, the big message is displayed in the notification area.
Messages can have buttons that allow the user to determine what action to take when the message is received. The payload of the notification is transferred to a data tree on the device and can be used by other actions; this enables new data related to the notification event to be freely processed by the whole range of MobileTogether actions and used with MobileTogether controls.
Deciding which devices receive a particular push notification is highly configurable. For instance, it can be sent to specific users (defined by name or role) or all users of an app. It may also be sent to users that have subscribed to receive news about specific topics (e.g., news, travel, etc.).
These flexible options for implementing push notifications give MobileTogether app developers yet another tool for building today’s most sophisticated apps.
This functionality allows developers to embed one or more MobileTogether solutions directly in a web page to, for example, enable web-based form applications. Once the solution is embedded, data can be exchanged easily between the web page and its embedded MobileTogether solution using JavaScript.
The MobileTogether solution itself interacts with MobileTogether Server as usual and receives data that can then be communicated back and forth with the web application.
MobileTogether apps are embedded via an iFrame element in the HTML code of the web page, and multiple options for user or device authentication are available, if required.
This functionality has been requested by several customers and now makes MobileTogether even more useful for browser deployment and web development.
This new action pair is particularly applicable for use when embedding MobileTogether app solutions in other web applications, as described above. The Load from String action can take the XML or JSON string and generate a page source. Conversely, an XML/JSON page source can be serialized to a string with the Save to String action and stored in a page source node.
This new action makes it possible to retrieve a list of files and sub folders from a folder on the MobileTogether Server or client at runtime. This is important when the folder structure is not known to the app.
When a MobileTogether app is available in multiple languages, the language selection is set based on the default language of the device operating system. This new action makes it possible for the language of the app to be manually changed by the user. This way, the app can be restarted in an alternative language when desired, for instance, if you’re traveling abroad or communicating in an app with users who don’t speak the same language you’re using on your device.
You can see this action already in use in the Altova Group & Gather app, which is available in five languages. Users can switch back and forth as needed.
Altova MapForce Server provides high-speed automation of data mapping projects defined in the MapForce data integration tool. With this new action, it is now possible to call MapForce Server directly from MobileTogether Server to perform data transformations required by an app.
The MapForce Transfer action enables one set of data structures to be converted (mapped) to a second set of data structures. Each data structure of the output set can be written to a file or to a node of a page data source in the MobileTogether app design.
Because MapForce supports EDI, XBRL, flat files, Excel, Web services, and other data formats in addition to XML, JSON, and relational databases, this new action lets MobileTogether apps now utilize a wider range of legacy and other back end data sources.
To enable this functionality, MapForce Server must be installed on the same machine as the customer’s MobileTogether Server.
The MobileTogether Server 4.0 installation includes a powerful app for the server administrator that displays various statistics about individual solutions running on that server.
The Statistics app presents stats and charts on numbers of users, devices, app starts, server requests, and more, in a selected time frame. Granular filters allow you to view these stats per operating system, device type, or manufacturer; per app; and so on. You can also see stats on request counts and app starts.
The app has three tabs:
Each tab provides filters that let you customize the report.
This new app makes it easy to get an accurate view of the usage and popularity of each app on your MobileTogether Server.
Learn about all the additional capabilities that have been added in each MobileTogether release.
Version 3.2 (May 10, 2017) |
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Near Field Communication: |
Support for NFC messages |
New Actions: |
Ability to access mobile device contacts |
Text to speech |
Wait cursor and optional message |
Actions for date and time pickers |
Get file info |
View and image full screen |
Enhancements to Existing Actions: |
Pre-defined sounds for common scenarios |
Support for reply-to in emails |
Significantly extended scroll-to action |
Goto page/subpage via XPath |
New Features for Tables: |
Dynamic table growth: left to right |
On-demand loading of tables |
Additional Features: |
New pre-defined button looks |
Support for JSON5 |
Numerous chart enhancements |
Improvements in Browser execution |
Single-thread execution option for MobileTogether Server |
Version 3.0 (October 10, 2016) |
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Support for barcodes |
Multi-level style sheets |
Automated testing facility - to record and re-run tests in Designer and on clients |
New action: print to PDF, Word, or RTF from client |
Ability to open files (e.g., PDF) on client |
Significant speed increase for Windows and Windows Phone client |
Completely re-written browser client |
Version 2.2 (May 31, 2016) |
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New action for recording audio |
New action to play audio |
New action to play video |
A new control to embed video within an app |
Audio and video XQuery extension functions |
A new Simulator feature for LAN connections |
End-user file dialog |
Enhanced context menu for tables |
Version 2.1 (April 4, 2016) |
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Completely new pricing |
New control: Slider |
New control: Vertical line |
New button looks: Share and Email |
New action: Share. Familiar option for sharing via Facebook, Email, Messaging, etc. apps |
New action: DB Bulk Insert Into. For quickly inserting multiple rows into a database at once – speeds up to 100x faster * |
New action: Let. Allows definition of temporary variables in action trees |
New action: Return. Allows an action group to return a result of any complexity; action group can act as a programming subroutine |
Subpages: possibility to return result on close (in conjunction with Let action) |
Action groups: possibility to pass parameters (and even other action groups) to an action group |
New action: Try/Catch. For sophisticated error handling and recovery |
New action: Throw. As part of the Try/Catch action, Throw allows definition of exception conditions |
New action: Cancel Action Execution. For example, at a validation error in user-entered data |
New action: Scroll to Table Bottom. For example, when adding new rows to a scrollable table |
New action: Load Image. Load an image for further processing, for instance to transfer to a database |
New action: Show Route. Adds to geolocation functionality; show a route between two points |
New Action: Loading/saving files on client devices. Users can save files / share between apps on device |
Creating folders automatically when saving files on client or server. When saving to a folder that doesn't exist, it can be created |
New action: Delete Files/Folders. As permitted by the client operating system or server administrator |
New action: Restart/Stop Page Timer. Interrupt the page timer and even reset the timer interval |
New action: User Cancel Behavior. More flexibility for letting user cancel at predefined safe locations |
Flexibility to set some existing properties via XPath |
New property: text size in pixels |
New XPath function: mt-connected-via-wifi |
New XPath function: mt-font-height |
New XPath function: mt-control-width |
New XPath function: mt-user-tried-to-cancel-actions |
Quick search in XPath function dialog |
New option to hide page title bar |
Customizable login/index page for browser client |
Speed up of app starts when connection is slow |
New keyboard style: Visible Password |
New demo app: MyCollections |
Version 2.0 (November 10, 2015) |
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Build your own AppStore Apps |
New server licensing option: per server core |
Support for REST and SOAP Web services |
Support for JSON data |
Support for Firebird databases |
Other supported databases updated to include newest versions |
Parallel processing of multiple solutions |
Signature / simple drawing control |
Load/save files with filename calculated via XPath |
Simulate missing Server access |
Support for Windows 10 |
Support for Windows 10 Edge Browser |
New XPath functions for color handling |
Support for multiple languages: English, German, French, Japanese, Spanish |
New flag for source trees: Keep data on client |
New page action: OnServerConnectionError |
Version 1.5 (April 28, 2015) |
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Send emails to one or more recipients and optionally include attachments |
Action loops for repeated execution of a sequence of actions |
Start app solution via a link that includes parameters (can also send link via email functionality above) |
OnClick vs. OnLongClick |
Hide keyboard |
Update display during execution of a series of actions |
Automatic save for database tables without primary keys |
Execute actions on typing in the Browser |
Support for Radio Buttons as an alternative to On/Off Switch controls |
New horizontal line properties for dashed and dotted lines |
Button Look properties to add symbols to buttons |
Support for user CSS and font files for solutions running in Web browser windows |
A property to set any control width as a percent of screen width |
Unified data types for relational database tables |
Optionally remove source nodes that are inserted by Append/Insert node action |
Multiple versions of the same solution may coexist on server to accommodate outdated client apps |
MobileTogether Client configuration may be sent via email link to simplify set-up for end users |
Several convenient and time-saving editing shortcuts have been added to the MobileTogether Designer |
Version 1.4 (February 2, 2015) |
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Robust support for geolocation services |
Support for Android version 5.0 |
Support for XPath and XQuery 3.1 (adds to support for previous versions) |
String localization (enhances existing support for localization) |
Support for additional specific headers in HTTP requests |
Feature allowing one MobileTogether solution to start another solution when it terminates |
iOS 7/8 rendering in the Simulator portion of the MobileTogether Designer |
Ability to edit the XML tree directly in the Simulator |
Additional refactoring support |
Display versions of connected clients on the MobileTogether Server |
MobileTogether Commercial Release (November 10, 2014) |
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MobileTogether Server available for Linux and MacOS, in addition to Windows |
New action: Let User Choose Image from gallery or camera |
Image embedding |
New action: Save Image to File |
New action: Execute on Server/Client |
New XPath functions for image processing |
New XPath functions for geolocation processing |
Additional new XPath functions |
MobileTogether Beta 2 (September 17, 2014) |
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Support for SQLite databases |
Support for dynamic SELECT statements fully generated with XPath/XQuery) |
Automatic retrieval of auto-number primary key after Save action to database |
Support for data retrieval in DB Execute action |
Support for user authentication via Windows Active Directory |
Support for user to choose his/her own password in client |
Support for user to change his/her password on first login |
Auto-correcting HTML parser |
Mobile Apps translated to German, Spanish, Japanese |
New variables: $MT_ButtonBackgroundColor, $MT_ButtonTextColor, $MT_EditFieldBackgroundColor, $MT_EditFieldTextColor, $MT_LabelBackgroundColor, $MT_DBExecute_Result, $MT_SimulationMode |
New functions: mt-has-serveraccess, mt-refresh-userroles, mt-external-error-code, mt-external-error-text |
MobileTogether Beta (July 22, 2014) |
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MobileTogether is made available as a public beta. |