New in MobileTogether 6.0

Version 6.0 of Altova MobileTogether was announced on November 19, 2019. Learn about all the new features below and update to the latest version.


Control Templates and Placeholder Controls
Support for dark/light modes
Ability to call Action Groups via XPath
Subpages now have parameters
Local variables in Action Groups, Sub Pages, Templates
New Action to execute a FlowForce job
New Action: Break loop
Option to install MobileTogether Server without sample apps
Option to deploy package via MobileTogether Server command line
New option for restarting apps/solutions
Support for split-screen on Android
Resizing of RichEdit control based on content
New XPath functions to convert JSON trees to/from string
New image buttons for Undo/Redo, Cut/Copy/Paste
Ability to specify order of database commands on save (delete, update, insert)
Support for additional database versions
Support for strikethrough text in Labels

Control Templates & Placeholder Controls

A major breakthrough in dynamic design for MobileTogether apps, Control Templates and Placeholder Controls facilitate design reuse and make it easy to implement efficient, flexible options for various scenarios.

A Control Template is a new design component that allows you to design and group several other controls in a way that makes this group of controls easily reusable on multiple other pages. Control Templates support parameters, and each template can be reused in different locations across the various pages and subpages of an app development project.

Control Templates provide flexibility by allowing you to:

Create multiple Control Templates in one project
Reuse a Control Template at different locations in the design
Change the design of a page by switching templates
Select a template based on runtime conditions or user input
Modify the contents of a template based on runtime conditions or user input

A Placeholder Control is used to place a Control Template at a desired location on a page. You can use multiple Placeholder Controls to place a Control Template at multiple locations.

There are countless ways this new functionality can be applied. For example, you can show an edit field for editable content and a read-only label for the same content, based on the app user permissions. This removes the necessity to design different input forms for different users - the form itself can change. Or, you can show different Controls at the same location, depending on the situation.

The simple example below shows a Control Template that defines a set of dynamic horizontal radio buttons. This portion of the app asks users to first select their continent, followed by their country and city, values for which are shown dynamically based on the previous selection.

Control templates for easy reuse in MobileTogether

Control Templates and Placeholder Controls represent a major step forward in elegant app design by enabling easy reuse and enhancing flexibility.

To help developers get started quickly with these powerful features, MobileTogether Designer 6.0 ships with four example projects that highlight defining, implementing, and reusing Control Templates and Placeholder Controls.

Support for light/dark modes

With the release of Android 10 and iOS 13, dark mode is enjoying a resurgence in popularity for a variety of reasons, from increased battery life to decreased eye strain caused by bright screens.

MobileTogether 6.0 gives app developers the ability to force light or dark mode for their apps, or detect the user’s preferred mode based on the device system settings.

Enabling dark theme during app development

Ability to call Action Groups via XPath

MobileTogether Action Groups define a series of actions to execute with an app. Once defined, an Action Group can be reused throughout a project. With the ability to pass Action Group names and parameters via XPath, the Action Group to be executed in a particular scenario can be determined dynamically at run time (for example, by getting the name of the Action Group to execute from a page-source node, based on the device OS, desktop vs. mobile devices, and so on), providing additional flexibility for closely customizing app behavior.

Parameters for Subpages

You can now pass parameters to the sub-page to control how the subpage performs in various conditions, helping to further enable efficient dynamic design. Since subpages can include all UI features, parameters essentially help the developer treat a subpage like an Action Group call with a UI.

You can declare parameters and variables for a subpage by clicking its Add Parameters/Variables button.

Local variables in Action Groups, Subpages, Templates

Now, in addition to global variables, MobileTogether supports local variables that only exist within the scope of the current function for calculations you don’t need elsewhere.

Support for local variables in Action Groups, subpages, and templates is another feature added to this release that offers advanced programming functionality to MobileTogether developers.

Local variables in MobileTogether app development

Action to execute a FlowForce job

Through integration among Altova high-performance server software offerings, FlowForce Server jobs can be triggered by MobileTogether apps. For instance, a FlowForce job might execute a complex data mapping that calculates real-time sales report figures, then delivers the report instantly to the MobileTogether app user in a beautiful, native-client form.

Now, in addition to specifying a FlowForce job as a data source, developers can execute such jobs via Actions. This simplifies calling FlowForce, especially when passing parameters.

New Action: break loop

This new Action makes it easier to break a loop during execution of an action script. Previously, the Break-loop-if Action required the developer to specify conditions for breaking a loop. Now, it’s possible to break a loop immediately and proceed to the next statement following the loop.

New option to restart an app/solution

There is a new extension to the Solution Execution Action that allows the developer to specify when to restart a solution – for example when switching languages or databases – without requiring user intervention. For browser-based solutions, the app can either be restarted completely or a new copy can be started in a new tab.

Support for split-screen on Android

On devices running Android 7 or higher, apps can be shown in split screen mode, e.g., with one app running in the top half of the device screen and another in the bottom half. MobileTogether apps now support running in this manner.

New image buttons for Undo/Redo, Cut/Copy/Paste

App designers can add custom icons and images to any button, and MobileTogether also ships with a collection of ready-made images for the most common button operations (e.g., email, fast forward, calendar, etc.).

In Version 6.0 new, easily recognizable images are available for undo/redo, cut, copy, and paste.

Ability to specify order of database commands (delete, update, insert) on Save

When saving data to a database, it is often important to control the order in which delete, update, and insert statements will be executed. This is now supported in MobileTogether 6.0.

Support for additional database versions

MobileTogether apps can connect to all popular relational databases. In this release support has been updated to include the latest versions of several, as follows:

SQL Server 2019
Access 2019
Oracle 18 and 19

Update

Existing customers may update to Version 6.0 for free

Download

Download the free MobileTogether Designer to try MobileTogether now!

New Features in Other Recent Versions

New in MobileTogether 5.4

Version 5.4 of Altova MobileTogether was announced on June 12, 2019. Learn about all the new features below and update to the latest version.


Geolocation Map Control
Record-video Action

Geolocation Map Control

Adding to existing geolocation functionality in MobileTogether, a new Geolocation Map control lets developers display a map directly in their app. The map can display the street, satellite, or hybrid view of the specified geographic area. Points of interest in the area can be shown by different colored markers in the map.

Viewport, Control Width, and Control Height properties provide flexibility for controlling how the map is displayed.

The control has a OnGeoMapMarkerClicked event, which lets the app developer define actions to perform when a particular marker is clicked by the user.

Add a map to your app with the geolocation control in MobileTogether

New variables and extension functions have been created to support map functionality:

$MT_GeolocationMapMarker: dynamic variable that contains information about the marker last clicked or tapped by the user
mt-geo-map-marker: creates a marker on a map
geolocations-bounding-rectangle: creates a bounding rectangle around a set of submitted geolocations

Record-video Action

The new Record-video Action makes it possible to record video from a MobileTogether app.

Developers can define triggers that start the device’s video recording app and specify:

The name and location of the video file to save when the recording ends
The maximum recording duration or file size
The picture quality of the video recording

Video recording adds to existing functionality for playing videos in an app built with MobileTogether.

New in MobileTogether 5.1

Version 5.1 of Altova MobileTogether was announced on February 27, 2019. Learn about all the new features below.

MobileTogether Clients
Support for Android 8.1 and 9

MobileTogether Designer
Ability to detect links in labels and make them clickable
Option to restrict label height to N lines
Action Tree for the event of page orientation change
New options for Read Folder Action

MobileTogether Server
Full support for free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates

Support for Android 8.1 and 9

Support has been added for building apps that include the native look, feel, and functionality of these latest Android versions.

Ability to detect links in labels and make them clickable

Starting with MobileTogether 5.1, developers have an option to automatically display web page URLs and email addresses in Labels as live links. Clicking or tapping the link opens the targeted website page in a browser or a new email in the device's email app.

Automatic link detection is configured in the Styles & Properties pane and can be set to:

None: links are not auto-detected
Explicit links: the developer can set the property to only create live links when the text fragment starts with http://, https://, rtsp://, or mailto:
All links: any text that indicates a page URL or email URL is automatically detected to be a link, for example, www.altova.com, altova.com, niki@nanonull.com, etc.

Option to restrict label height to N lines

Now, in addition to configuring a Label control to display multiple lines of text, the developer can set a maximum number of lines to be displayed, providing even more flexibility when designing an app UI.

Action Tree for orientation change

The OnPageRefresh event of each page in an app now has a new option: refresh due to orientation or size change.

This makes it possible to define actions to occur when the user changes the orientation (portrait/landscape) of the device, as well as when the he/she re-sizes the app window. (The latter is only applicable to devices that support resizing the app window, such as a desktop or laptop running a MobileTogether Windows client.)

New options for Read Folder Action

Now, in addition to retrieving a list of files and sub folders from a folder on the MobileTogether Server or client at runtime, options have been added to allow:

Multiple filename patterns to be specified in the action's file filter
Recursing into subfolders
When recursing into subfolders is specified, the ability to read the information of empty folders

Full support for free Let’s Encrypt SLL Certificates

MobileTogether supports secured SSL connections between MobileTogether Server and client devices running MobileTogether apps. Now, in addition to allowing you to upload a certificate purchased from a certificate authority, MobileTogether Server makes it easy to obtain and auto-renew a free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt directly in the MobileTogether Server admin interface.

Let’s Encrypt is a certificate authority created by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG) to provide free digital certificates to enable HTTPS (SSL/TLS) connections. With the stated goal to create a more secure Internet, the IRSG provides certificates at no charge and strives to make the process as easy as possible. As such, software running on a web server can interact with Let’s Encrypt to obtain a certificate, securely configure it for use, and automatically renew the certificate when required. Let’s Encrypt certificates are valid for 90 days and may be renewed at any time during that period.

A new dialog makes it easy to request a free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt, directly in the MobileTogether Server admin interface. Once the certificate is obtained and installed, MobileTogether Server will automatically renew the certificate every two months.

We've prepared a short demo video showing how easy it is to request an SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt in MobileTogether Server.

Automatically receive and renew Let's Encrypt SSL certificates

New in MobileTogether 5.0

Version 5.0 of Altova MobileTogether was announced on November 7, 2018. Learn about all the new features below.

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.

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.

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.

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!