iOS 8.4 is now public. All the flagship features such as JSONStore, authentication, notifications, app management capabilities, server connectivity and adapter invocation/chaining, Cordova plug-ins, common UI controls, native pages, native elements in hybrid pages, Analytics and logging all work as expected....more

If you're developing Hybrid applications for Windows Phone, you might have noticed that Visual Studio allows you to retarget your apps to Windows Phone 8.1. If your using the Visual Studio 2013 Profession Edition (Update 2 or higher), you have the choice on whether your can retarget your app or not. However, if you are using the Express edition of Visual Studio, you will be forced to retarget your app....more

In this blog we will do the following: Create an iOS app and use MobileFirst native API Use a MobileFirst HTTP adapter Implement tag-based push notifications to notify users when new tweets are posted Register a Twitter app and use the Twitter API to obtain a list of recent tweets Use an event source to periodically check for new tweets Create a WatchKit app that displays the list of tweets and handles notifications Pass data between the iOS and WatchKit app...more

Starting with MobileFirst Platform 7.0, you can send and receive arbitrary data to your client's device using Java Adapters....more

I introduced some basic concepts around using Git with IBM MobileFirst Platform in the last post. This post will build on that through an example using IBM Bluemix DevOps Services as the host for my repository....more

This is a high level overview of managing the source code of your mobile application project in the IBM MobileFirst Platform (MFP). You should come away with enough foundational knowledge to start implementing Source Code Management (SCM) in your own project....more

MobileFirst Platform Foundation with React Native for iOSIn the video below I go through a simple app using the MobileFirst Platform Foundation iOS SDK and a MobileFirst Platform Foundation HTTP Adapter with React Native for iOS as the front end framework. Below I will include important snippets of how to export the native MobileFirst iOS SDK methods into the React Native javascript code....more

Today we put the spotlight on a new section in the MobileFirst Platform Developer Center, to which we call Labs....more

IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation provides a robust and extendable API for implementing custom authentication flows. This video blog explains each of the components required to create a custom server-side authentication infrastructure with emphasis on developer productivity and reduction of required roundtrips. After watching this blog you'll learn how to leverage Worklight Authentication Protocol, its sequence flows and how to build custom Authenticators and Login Modules....more

If you have a Worklight Foundation or MobileFirst Platform Foundation application deployed in the Google Play Store, you may soon receive the following warning issued by Google:...more

Managing the lifecycle of mobiles apps, often referred as Mobile Application Management (MAM), is one of the key features of MobileFirst Platform Foundation. It includes:...more

Re-post from Ionic.Also see the IBM press release....more

In recent years OAuth has become a de facto industry standard for authorization. It allows client applications to securely access protected resources on behalf of the data owner without compromising data owner's credentials....more

One of the things to be aware of when working with MobileFirst platform is that you can often have installed multiple versions of tools simultaneously, with a little care. This is something as IBM consultants we frequently need to do, as we work with different customers, but might also be of value to you, our customers, as you test out upgrades and other changes to your MobileFirst applications....more

Earlier this year, IBM released MobileFirst Platform Foundation v7.0. Among the many enhancements, this release provided standards based integration and authentication for mobile applications. MobileFirst applications can now use the MobileFirst security framework to access third party protected resources via OAuth....more

Recently (April 2015) Apple has tweaked a bit the tests performed on .ipa files as part of the App Store app submission review process.The change now disallows unsigned .sh type files inside the application bundle....more

Important:IBM Watson Question and Answer service has been disconinued. See https://developer.ibm.com/watson/blog/2015/11/11/watson-question-and-answer-service-to-be-withdrawn/...more

OverviewCloudant is a DBaaS, Database-As-A-Service, that manages and scales fast growing data sets. Cloudant is built under Couchdb, a NoSQL database which uses dynamic schemas instead of predefined schemas seen in relational database. The user has the complete power to be create a very structured database or non structured database. In this blog post, I will create a Hybrid app that uses a Cordova Plugin to read raw data and store it into Cloudant. In addition, I will use a HTTP adapter to retrieve that content from Cloudant. The raw data will be an base64 encoded string of an image.I......more

OverviewIn the 7.0 release of MobileFirst Platform Foundation, the WLAnalytics API for native iOS has been expanded to include 2 new utility methods: generateNetworkRequestMetadataWithURL: and generateNetworkResponseMetadataWithResponseData:andTrackingId:. These methods can be used in conjunction with networking APIs to record request metadata and send it to the Analytics server. The advantage of doing so is to have analytics recorded for any network events, even to non-MobileFirst services, while still retaining full control over the implementation of the requests and responses....more

Last year, Microsoft released Update 1 for Windows Phones 8.1, also known as GDR1. While initially, this update was available only on device that were shipped new and for those with had the Preview for Developers installed, later on the update proliferated to almost all of the Lumia models. Known as the Denim update for Lumia phones, it was a major update with several changes to Internet Explorer that comes bundled with the OS....more

For the past few weeks, I've been spending a lot of time exploring hybrid mobile applications with IBM MobileFirst. I have a lot of experience with hybrid mobile applications using Cordova, but as a new IBMer, I'm still getting up to speed with MobileFirst. As part of exploration, I did some tests to see how difficult it would be to use the Ionic framework with MobileFirst. If you have not yet heard of Ionic, I strongly urge you to check it out. Ionic provides numerous services that are useful for hybrid developers. These include:...more

iOS 8.3 is out in the open and things look good for IBM MobileFirst Platform customers and developers.All the major features such as authentication, JSONStore, App management capabilities, server connectivity and adapter invocation/chaining, notifications, Cordova plug-ins, native pages, common UI controls, native elements in hybrid pages, Analytics and logging all work great.Advanced device security features like App Authenticity, Device Provisioning and others works as expected.All the features of IBM MobileFirst Platforms v6.0, v6.1, v6.2, v6.3 and v7.0 all work as expected.Watch this space as we continue to test all MFP service releases and publish the useful information related to iOS......more

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this article is a refreshed version of a previous article updated for IBM MobileFirst Platform 7.0. Indeed, the version 7.0 has introduced a new way to develop adapters using JAX-RS. Having the ability to use a Javascript or a Java based model gives the developer more flexibility to create optimized mobile services. Whilst each model has its own advantages, the particular use case described here is more elegantly implemented using the Java based approach....more

In April 2014 Microsoft announced Universal Apps for Windows 8.1 . Universal app development is a paradigm in which you can use a lot of shared code between Windows Tabs and Windows Phone. In 8.1 – Microsoft introduced the Windows Runtime API (Win RT) that works on the Windows Phone 8.1 as well. Up until Windows Phone 8.0 – the Windows Phone apps were Windows Silverlight apps. Silverlight Phone apps don’t migrate to the Windows tablet world; they have to be re-written. Starting 8.1 you can write Windows Phone apps using the Win RT API – the same API you......more

OverviewOne of the features of the IBM MobileFirst Platform is to prevent certain apps from connecting to the server. This is very useful when a vulnerability is found in one of the versions of your app and you want to prevent this app from accessing the server or using server resources. Default Behavior Custom Implementation Android iOS Final Thoughts...more

IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation 7.0 introduced a new concept of Java Adapters. Java Adapters are implemented according to JAX-RS specification and allow a wide array of possibilities that were not available before in JavaScript adapters....more

IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation 7.0 introduced a new concept of Java Adapters. Java Adapters are implemented according to JAX-RS specification and allow a wide array of possibilities that were not available before in JavaScript adapters....more

Contributed by : Srihari Kulkarni and Vivin Krishnan...more

Available today to download is IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation v7.0.Get the Developer EditionFor a full list of changes, visit the Release Notes section in the IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation user documentation.New in v7.0:Includes an iOS and Android SDK for use with a single-node Cloudant database for on-premise use. This new feature makes it easier for you to build mobile apps that continue working when offline. To scale larger when on-premise, additional database nodes are available, at an additional charge, with secure integration between new and existing back- end services.Enhances access to backend services by extending the identification of tampered or......more

Starting MobileFirst Platform v7.0, you can use Android ProGuard to obfuscate Android code and block reverse engineering attempts of the application.The Android ProGuard tool can be used to obfuscate, shrink, and optimize application code.ProGuard renames classes, fields, and methods with semantically obscure names, as well as removes unused code.The embedded video below demonstrates how to create a hybrid and native MobileFirst Android application with ProGuard obfuscation enabled.Main topics:...more

HTTP adapters are a great way to connect your application to a backend system. You can set the hostname and port in the XML file and get started quickly.However sometimes, your hostname is not "set in stone". Maybe you work with a staging server and a production server, maybe you have a list of alternate servers, or maybe your customers can choose the source from a list?...more

The below is related only to MobileFirst Platform 6.3 and below.In iOS, the application resolution is defined by the launch image provided in the application resources.MobileFirst Studio creates a default launch image when creating a hybrid application with an iOS environment but it lacks support for iPhone 6/6 Plus resolution. Starting MFP v7.0, support is provided built-in....more

We released a new version of the Xamarin component that now supports IBM MobileFirst Foundation v 6.3.0.The Xamarin store now supports multiple version of a component. You can download the component version that is appropriate version for the MobileFirst server you are using. With this version you will notice the component version numbering has changed. The component version will be in synch with the IBM MF server version its compatible with.Go ahead and build some apps! Let us know your thoughts in the comments below....more

Apple opened the doors to iOS 8.2 to everyone along with the much anticipated Apple Watch companion SDK.This is another milestone iOS release and things look good for IBM Mobile First Platform customers and developers.The latest available version of IBM MobileFirst Platform, v6.3, plays well with iOS 8.2, as well as with the beta releases of iOS 8.3Major features such as server connectivity and adapter invocation/chaining, authentication, notifications, Cordova plug-ins, native pages, JSONStore, App management functionality, common UI controls, native elements in hybrid pages, Analytics and logging all work great.Advanced device security features like App Authenticity and Device Provisioning are......more

IntroductionThis document describes, at a high level, the security model for the IBM MobileFirst Platform for iOS (beta). It covers the IBM Cloud-based platform whose primary documentation is available here:...more

Contributed by: Rahul RaghuvanshiBlackBerry released WebWorks SDK 2.0 beta in Q1 2014 for the BlackBerry 10.x OS. We had previoulsy published manual procedures for supporting an IBM MobileFirst hybrid applicaton with Webworks 2.0.We have now released built-in support in IBM MobileFirst Studio for generating new projects with WebWorks SDK 2.2! Based on the SDK version the WEBWORKS_HOME environment variable is pointing to, MobileFirst Studio will generate a project structure in the required structure (for WebWorks 1.x or 2.x). This support is available in the latest iFixes of:IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation 6.2.0IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation 6.3.0 and future releases.Please let us......more

OverviewCurrently, JSONStore does not have a dedicated feature to join collection like most relational databases. However, you can utilize shared indexes using additional search fields to relate different collections. In this blog, I will demonstrate how this is done and at the end of the blog I will attach an app that you can use to help you. In addition, I would recommend using the latest publicly available version of MobileFirst Platform but this may apply to older versions as well....more

A detailed walk thru of developing a Android and iOS Xamarin.forms app for IBM MobileFirst ...more

OverviewMobileFirst Platform Foundation Server allows to protect adapter procedures via several types of authentication, using security tests, realms and login modules.The MobileFirst client-side SDK helps you handle challenges sent by the server when trying to access a protected resource....more