New in MobileTogether 5.0

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
Major rewrite of MobileTogether web client
Android 8 support

MobileTogether Designer
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
Support for authentication via any LDAP server
Automated backup of the MobileTogether Server internal database (Advanced Edition)

Major rewrite of MobileTogether Web client

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.

New in MobileTogether Designer

Support for borders in tables

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.

Configuring app table borders in MobileTogether

Support for padding

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.

Buttons with images and text

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.

Options for text auto-fit

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.

Ellipsis display for long text

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.

Copy/paste for project stylesheets

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.

Load/Save to and from text files

Now, in addition to support for data in XML, HTML, and JSON formats, MobileTogether supports reading and writing to plain text files. A new action called Load/Save Text File makes it easy to specify the required node and text file as well as error handling options.

Support for sending files and binary data via REST interface

In response to customer requests, MobileTogether apps now have the ability to send files and binary data with HTTP requests using the REST interface.

New functions

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.

Database structure retrieval

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.

Support for new database versions

MobileTogether apps can now connect to the latest versions of these databases:

Firebird 3
Informix 12.10
MariaDb 10.3
Microsoft SQL Server 2017
MySQL 8
PostgreSQL 10

Global find & replace

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.

New in MobileTogether Server

Support for authentication via any LDAP server

Adding to support for authentication via Active Directory integration, MobileTogether Server now also supports LDAP.

Automated backup of the MobileTogether Server internal database (Advanced Edition)

It is important to back up the internal database for MobileTogether Server periodically. Now, the process can be fully automated, and the server administrator can configure automatic backups to occur as required.

New Features in Other Recent Versions

MobileTogether 4.1

Version 4.1 of Altova MobileTogether was announced on February 27, 2018.


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

Support for services

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.

Service built in MobileTogether Designer

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.

Read / write to device calendars

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:

Read all calendars (information about the calendars on the user’s device)
Read calendar events (information about events scheduled during a given timeframe)
Write to calendar (opens an event in the user’s calendar app with prefilled information; user may edit and save the entry)

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.

Ability to use Outlook contacts and calendar for simulation

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.

Rich text control

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.

Pop-up windows

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.

New action: Save/Restore Page Sources

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.

New action: Delete Append Node

The Delete Append Node action makes it possible to delete sub-nodes from a given node in a page source, and then add new node(s) to the same target node, either as the first child or last child.

New property: Text Size Auto-fit

Controls that have a Text Size property now also have a Text Size Auto-Fit option, which enables longer text to be re-sized to fit the width of the control.

Multi-select combo boxes

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.

Multi-select combo box in MobileTogether app

New style: Enforce Light Theme

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.

Ability to specify tab ordering for web and Windows

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.

Ability to set a default enter/escape control for web and Windows

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.

Automated tests per user / device

Now, during automated testing, the developer can specify a test version of apps to run only on specific devices or only for specific users. This is a great way to allow a QA team to test a new version of your app without affecting existing users.

Support for additional databases

MobileTogether supports numerous popular back end database types, with additonal new support for:

Teradata 16
MariaDB 10

New XPath functions

New MobileTogether XPath extension functions include:

mt-image-width-and-height: Get the dimensions of the submitted Base64-encoded image
generate-guid: Generate globally unique identifier

New in MobileTogether Server 4.1

New MobileTogether Server Advanced Edition

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.

Services configured on MobileTogether Server

New predefined “admin” user role

The new admin role for MobileTogether Server makes it faster and easier to add multiple users to the role.

Ability to move/rename existing containers and solutions in Web UI

It’s now possible to rename solutions or move them into different folders via the MobileTogether Server web interface.

This functionality is only relevant for enterprise apps – compiled app store apps should not be moved or renamed.

Logging of server settings changes

Now all changes to server settings will also be logged, making it easier to track changes and troubleshoot any resulting issues.

Update

Existing customers may update to Version 4.1

Download

Download the free MobileTogether Designer to try MobileTogether now!

New in Version 4.0 of MobileTogether

MobileTogether 4.0

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

Support for Push Notifications

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.

Support for Embedding a MobileTogether Solution in a Web Application

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.

New Action: Load/Save String

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.

New Action: Read Folder

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.

New Action: Set Language

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.

New Action: MapForce Transfer

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.

Server Usage Statistics App

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:

Users/Devices/Requests
Usage by time of day
OS/Manufacturer/Platform/Device kind

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.

Update

Existing customers may update to the latest version here

Download

Download the free MobileTogether Designer to try MobileTogether now!

New Features in Previous Versions

Learn about all the additional capabilities that have been added in each MobileTogether release.

Version 3.2 (May 10, 2017)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
MobileTogether is made available as a public beta.

Update

Existing customers may update to the latest version here

Download

Download the free MobileTogether Designer to try MobileTogether now!