What’s new in MobileFirst platform v7.1?The MobileFirst platform v7.1 can now be deployed and run on IBM Bluemix....more
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IntroductionQuestion: What makes you happy, in the current and future world? IoT, PaaS or Mobile?...more
Overview...more
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IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation (rel. 7.1 – hereafter referred to as MFPF), is now available on Bluemix. The main components of the platform – the server and the analytics can be run as containers on the IBM Bluemix Container Service. This blog discusses a step-by-step approach for building and deploying the server and analytics containers using the IBM Bluemix DevOps Services....more
I’ve blogged before about the client-side API for hybrid mobile apps built on IBM MobileFirst. One of the things I’ve discovered recently is the library of DefinitlyTyped definition files for TypeScript developers. These files provide intellisense for a huge set of various frameworks and client-side code written in TypeScript. Turns out though that you can also use them in regular old JavaScript files too. My editor of choice (Visual Studio Code) has [great support](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/languages/javascript for this. You can simply get the file, drop it into your project, and go to town....more
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This month IBM MobileFirst™ Platform Foundation released two new features in an iFix for Operational Analytics, accessibility, and application crash analytics....more
##OverviewThe purpose of this page is to describe how to run performance tests on the different features of the MFP Server. In this post, an Apache JMeter performance test is used and Java classes are compiled especially for JMeter....more
As of November 25, 2015, this blog post acknowledges that IBM is aware that Cordova announced two CVEs for vulnerabilities on the Android platform. This post will focus on CVE-2015-5257. The other CVE is still being worked on....more
Overview...more
Isn’t it frustrating that even with a big screen Android phone, you cannot read a Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) push notification send from MobileFirst server , in its entirety in the notification shade. Changing the orientation to landscape does not help as this has no effect on the notification shade in your Android phone. You quickly want to copy a coupon code or OTP (One time password) but cannot, since you do not see the complete text....more
We at IBM MobileFirst Platform team spend a lot of time creating new stuff. in our daily race to make sure we are up to speed with what our users need, it seems like a good idea to ask them directly about their use of the product. We actually didn’t come up with this approach by ourselves- this is becoming a common practice in our industry....more
I’ve always been sort of fascinated by the speed and convenience of mail delivery services in the United States. In anticipation of the rapidly-arriving Halloween holiday, I purchased a Harley Quinn costume from Amazon. In a mere two days, my costume of epic proportions was packaged, left the carrier facility, traveled several hundred miles, and delivered to my doorstep. Meanwhile, all I had to do was click a few buttons and walk to my door....more
One of the nice things about new features is that they can provide you with the solution to the one or two things that prevented something from completely meeting your needs. For example, do you remember what convinced you to purchase your new phone or car?Mobile Quality Assurance (MQA) for Bluemix updated its code to include the ability to connect with additional issue-tracking systems, as well as sentiment analysis support for India. Bug-tracking system supportMQA had issue-tracking integration with IBM Rational Team Concert for quite a while, but you had some roadblocks to overcome if you did not use Rational......more
October 8th - the IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation (aka Worklight) Xamarin SDK turned 1! Agreed – this blog post is a couple of weeks overdue :). We unveiled the component at Evolve last year and have been releasing updates to keep pace with the IBM MFP releases. Initially the updates were a bit slow to keep pace as we were getting the skids greased, but now we are at a 1st day support cycle since our 7.1 release. And we refreshed it 7 times in between as well. 9 updates in the last 12 months – not too shabby! This......more
Disclaimer: The solution discussed herein is from my own personal experience as a developer using the MobileFirst platform and do not represent IBM's view nor IBM's interest in supporting this officially....more
Greetings!...more
Alerting in MFP Analytics now allows users to set alerts around their analytics data that will notify them when a threshold has been reached. Currently, these notifications are sent through the analytics console or a configurable webhook....more
Have you experienced the "add dynamic content Errors" in MFP Windows Universal apps?...more
My brother and I never got along when we were kids. I suppose that happens with most siblings. I would want to watch a movie, while he preferred to read comic books. We quite simply didn’t mesh that well together.Similarly, IBM Mobile Quality Assurance (MQA) and Apache Cordova are great products by themselves, but they could never interact with each other. Until now. In this tutorial, I will show you just how easy it is to make them work together (much easier than for a parent of siblings)....more
Do you need to capture raw debug logs from devices in production from the field? Do you want to capture analytics events from applications deployed in production?...more
Exploring and Coding are part of every developer's life. While exploring you may come across many technologies, tools, libraries etc. Each technology has its own recommended IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for developing applications. Like...more
Since you've read the MobileFirst Analytics - Planning for Production blog post, you're ready to get some practice setting up a cluster....more
As of October 6, 2015, this blog post acknowledges that IBM is aware of the recent vulnerability in the Apache Cordova Android File-Transfer Plugin and has responded accordingly....more
When IBM Bluemix started, the opportunity for mobile developers was an obvious one. It takes only a quick look at your phone to see that almost every app uses a core set of capabilities - Authentication, Push Notifications, Data and Analytics. Consider how many apps there are, and that they are all using this functionality. Should every developer be standing up a server and rewriting this rudimentary software? No, they should be using a service or services. Heck, they probably shouldn’t be writing any server side code at all, right? So true to lean, we stood up a set of......more
Greetings!We just published new hybrid hands-on lab series for MobileFirst Platform 7.1...more
Have you tried deploying the MobileFirst Platform to IBM Containers before? If yes, you would have used a bunch of command-line shell scripts which needs a list of prerequisites to set up the environment, refer the article - Run IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation on IBM Containers....more
MobileFirst Analytics – Pre-productionPart of the value of MobileFirst Platform (MFP) Foundation is the out-of-the-box, simple, integrated analytics reporting and console you deploy so you can see a near live view of your infrastructure performance, client logs, and many other events and statistics.This article does not intend to give you the talking points or espouse the benefits of analytics. I hope the value of analytics and in-production client log collection is well understood! The goal here is to give you the proper knowledge to confidently go into production with a robust, ready, and scalable analytics cluster capable of handling the......more
As you may know, the IBM Mobile Quality Assurance (MQA) team recently released the latest MQA SDKs. If you have not yet used the old or the new version, try MQA on Bluemix.The native iOS and Android SDKs remained much the same. However, the JavaScript hybrid SDK for IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation saw some major changes, and a new Apache Cordova hybrid SDK was born! For all of you eager developers wanting to learn the latest and greatest changes to this family, continue reading.Apache Cordova SDKYou can use the new Apache Cordova SDK to instrument MQA to work with pure......more
Before getting started, I would like to give the credit to my teammate Jeff Tennenbaum, who figured out how to get this working.When building hybrid mobile applications using MobileFirst Platform (MFP), part of the process is to choose a JavaScript framework to speed up the development of mobile applications (e.g., Ionic, jQuery Mobile, Dojo, etc.). In this blog, we will use Ionic for our hybrid application. One of the common things developers do is to add their custom styles. The recommended way of working with custom styles in Ionic is by using Sass, a powerful CSS language extension.Before being able......more
Our mobile backend applications are compatible with iOS 9. We tested our samples after upgrading them to the iOS 9 SDK, and they worked with Bluemix without any further updates.The following boilerplates and services support iOS 9: MobileFirst Services Starter boilerplate Push for iOS 8 (Push Notifications) service Advanced Mobile Access (Mobile Client Access) service Cloudant mobile extensions</ul>The following boilerplates and services have toleration support for iOS 9: Mobile Cloud boilerplate Push service Mobile Application Security service Mobile Data serviceFor more information about what’s new in iOS 9, check out the iOS 9 release notes.Although your app will work with......more
The recent announce of the much anticipated iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus and iPad Pro as well as iOS 9.0 release has caused quite a bit of activity in the mobile ecosystem. Consumers are quick to adopt the newest devices and operating system, and the expectation is that their existing apps continue to work seamlessly after the upgrade. This means organizations delivering mobile apps for iOS must move quickly to test, build, and deliver their apps for the new platform and devices. Considering the heightened expectations and tight timeline, this can be a daunting task for organizations. That said, organizations......more
Working with hybrid mobile apps and MobileFirst 7.0 was a bit complex as the process was somewhat removed from what Cordova developers were used to. The good news is that MobileFirst 7.1 makes it dramatically easier to integrate hybrid mobile apps. As a hybrid mobile developer myself, this was music to my ears....more
IBM recently announced the acquisition of StrongLoop, creators of the LoopBack enterprise Node.js framework and active contributors to the Node.js community....more
There are cases where security guidelines / restrictions in the datacenter mandate that servers inside the datacenter cannot open outbound connections to the internet. The MobileFirst server needs to open outbound connections to the platform specific cloud push notification services like Apple Push Notification service (APNS), Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) or the Windows Notification service (WNS). In such cases, communicating via a proxy is a preferred option. A Proxy can be configured to contact the Push mediators and send out notifications, masking MFPF server identity....more
Note: Apps that are built with IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation v6.0 to v7.1 are supported on iOS 9 GM Seed build. </p>...more
Note: Starting IBM MobileFirst Foundation 8.0 Bitcode is now supported....more
App Transport Security is one of the new features enforced by Apple to improve secure communications between App and Web Services. This feature is available from iOS 9 or later. This post talks about how to enable transport security on IBM MobileFirst Platform Servers.App Transport Security, in simple words, mandates the application to communicate with a web service over TLS version 1.2 protocol and use connection ciphers that provide forward secrecy. This means the developer has to ensure that the web service to which his application is communicating is deployed on a web server that supports TLS version 1.2 and......more
February 08, 2016
IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation on IBM Containers – development, production workloads
What’s new in MobileFirst platform v7.1?The MobileFirst platform v7.1 can now be deployed and run on IBM Bluemix.
February 05, 2016
February 03, 2016
An IoT Cloud, Bluemix and MobileFirst Sample - What makes you happy?
IntroductionQuestion: What makes you happy, in the current and future world? IoT, PaaS or Mobile?
January 20, 2016
January 20, 2016
Continuous Delivery with IBM Bluemix DevOps Services
IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation (rel. 7.1 – hereafter referred to as MFPF), is now available on Bluemix. The main components...
January 19, 2016
DefinitelyTyped project for IBM MobileFirst and Hybrid Mobile Apps
I’ve blogged before about the client-side API for hybrid mobile apps built on IBM MobileFirst. One of the things I’ve...
January 13, 2016
December 31, 2015
Foundation 7.1 Accessibility and Application Crash Analytics Support is now available
This month IBM MobileFirst™ Platform Foundation released two new features in an iFix for Operational Analytics, accessibility, and application crash...
December 20, 2015
MobileFirst Platform Foundation 7.1 Performance Testing for Session Independent Mode (OAuth model)
##OverviewThe purpose of this page is to describe how to run performance tests on the different features of the MFP...
December 11, 2015
CVE-2015-5257/CVE-2015-8320: Weak Randomization of BridgeSecret for Apache Cordova Android
As of November 25, 2015, this blog post acknowledges that IBM is aware that Cordova announced two CVEs for vulnerabilities...
November 24, 2015
Multi-line GCM notification in Android
Isn’t it frustrating that even with a big screen Android phone, you cannot read a Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) push...
November 17, 2015
Please take part in our Mobile Developers' Survey
We at IBM MobileFirst Platform team spend a lot of time creating new stuff. in our daily race to make...
November 06, 2015
Mobile Quality Assurance delivers export feedback
I’ve always been sort of fascinated by the speed and convenience of mail delivery services in the United States. In...
October 26, 2015
IBM Mobile Quality Assurance adds bug-tracking integration and sentiment analysis results for India
One of the nice things about new features is that they can provide you with the solution to the one...
October 25, 2015
Xamarin SDK for MobileFirst Foundation is 1 year old!
October 8th - the IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation (aka Worklight) Xamarin SDK turned 1! Agreed – this blog post is...
October 25, 2015
Running ibm-mobilefirst-starter container locally
Disclaimer: The solution discussed herein is from my own personal experience as a developer using the MobileFirst platform and do...
October 19, 2015
Using MFP Adapters as an endpoint for Analytics Alerts webhooks
Alerting in MFP Analytics now allows users to set alerts around their analytics data that will notify them when a...
October 13, 2015
JS errors in MFP Windows Universal apps when using AngularJS
Have you experienced the "add dynamic content Errors" in MFP Windows Universal apps?
October 13, 2015
My brother and I never got along when we were kids. I suppose that happens with most siblings. I would...
October 13, 2015
Best Practice - Capturing Client Logs and Analytics
Do you need to capture raw debug logs from devices in production from the field? Do you want to capture...
October 13, 2015
Enhance MobileFirst Cordova app using Visual Studio 2015
Exploring and Coding are part of every developer's life. While exploring you may come across many technologies, tools, libraries etc....
October 10, 2015
MobileFirst Analytics - Quick & Dirty Clusters
Since you've read the MobileFirst Analytics - Planning for Production blog post, you're ready to get some practice setting up...
October 08, 2015
CVE-2015-5204 HTTP header injection vulnerability in Apache Cordova Android File-Transfer Plugin
As of October 6, 2015, this blog post acknowledges that IBM is aware of the recent vulnerability in the Apache...
October 05, 2015
MobileFirst Services on Bluemix now support Android and Open Source SDKs
When IBM Bluemix started, the opportunity for mobile developers was an obvious one. It takes only a quick look at...
October 05, 2015
New lab series for MFP 7.1 has been released!
Greetings!We just published new hybrid hands-on lab series for MobileFirst Platform 7.1
October 02, 2015
Have you tried deploying the MobileFirst Platform to IBM Containers before? If yes, you would have used a bunch of...
October 01, 2015
MobileFirst Analytics - Planning for Production
MobileFirst Analytics – Pre-productionPart of the value of MobileFirst Platform (MFP) Foundation is the out-of-the-box, simple, integrated analytics reporting and...
September 25, 2015
Updated features and a new addition to Mobile Quality Assurance
As you may know, the IBM Mobile Quality Assurance (MQA) team recently released the latest MQA SDKs. If you have...
September 18, 2015
How to Customize Ionic Styles in MobileFirst Platform/Ionic Hybrid Application
Before getting started, I would like to give the credit to my teammate Jeff Tennenbaum, who figured out how to...
September 16, 2015
Connect your iOS 9 app to Bluemix today
Our mobile backend applications are compatible with iOS 9. We tested our samples after upgrading them to the iOS 9...
September 16, 2015
IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation is ready for iOS 9. Are you?
The recent announce of the much anticipated iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus and iPad Pro as well as iOS 9.0...
September 15, 2015
Hybrid Mobile Development and MobileFirst 7.1 - Increasing the Awesome
Working with hybrid mobile apps and MobileFirst 7.0 was a bit complex as the process was somewhat removed from what...
September 10, 2015
Getting Started With IBM MobileFirst and Node.js APIs built with LoopBack
IBM recently announced the acquisition of StrongLoop, creators of the LoopBack enterprise Node.js framework and active contributors to the Node.js community.
September 10, 2015
Configure Push notifications proxy for MobileFirst Server
There are cases where security guidelines / restrictions in the datacenter mandate that servers inside the datacenter cannot open outbound...
September 09, 2015
IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation support for iOS 9
Note: Apps that are built with IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation v6.0 to v7.1 are supported on iOS 9 GM Seed...
September 09, 2015
Note: Starting IBM MobileFirst Foundation 8.0 Bitcode is now supported.
September 07, 2015
How to enable App Transport Security for iOS 9 in IBM MobileFirst Platform Server
App Transport Security is one of the new features enforced by Apple to improve secure communications between App and Web...