Cordova end-to-end demonstration

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Overview

The purpose of this demonstration is to experience an end-to-end flow:

  1. A sample application that is pre-bundled with the MobileFirst client SDK is registered and downloaded from the MobileFirst Operations Console.
  2. A new or provided adapter is deployed to the MobileFirst Operations Console.
  3. The application logic is changed to make a resource request.

End result:

  • Successfully pinging the MobileFirst Server.
  • Successfully retrieving data using an adapter.

Prerequisites:

  • Xcode for iOS, Android Studio for Android or Visual Studio 2013/2015 for Windows 8.1 Universal / Windows 10 UWP
  • Cordova CLI 6.x.
  • Optional. MobileFirst CLI (download)
  • Optional. Stand-alone MobileFirst Server (download)

1. Starting the MobileFirst Server

Make sure you have created a Mobile Foundation instance, or
If using the MobileFirst Developer Kit, navigate to the server’s folder and run the command: ./run.sh in Mac and Linux or run.cmd in Windows.

2. Creating and registering an application

In a browser window, open the MobileFirst Operations Console by loading the URL: http://your-server-host:server-port/mfpconsole. If running locally, use: http://localhost:9080/mfpconsole. The username/password are admin/admin.

  1. Click the New button next to Applications
    • Select a platform: Android, iOS, Windows
    • Enter com.ibm.mfpstartercordova as the application identifier
    • Enter 1.0.0 as the version
    • Click on Register application

    Register an application

  2. Click on the Get Starter Code tile and select to download the Cordova sample application.

    Download sample application

3. Editing application logic

  1. Open the Cordova project in your code editor of choice.

  2. Select the www/js/index.js file and paste the following code snippet, replacing the existing WLAuthorizationManager.obtainAccessToken() function:

WLAuthorizationManager.obtainAccessToken()
    .then(
        function(accessToken) {
            titleText.innerHTML = "Yay!";
            statusText.innerHTML = "Connected to MobileFirst Server";

            var resourceRequest = new WLResourceRequest(
                "/adapters/javaAdapter/resource/greet/",
                WLResourceRequest.GET
            );

            resourceRequest.setQueryParameter("name", "world");
            resourceRequest.send().then(
                function(response) {
                    // Will display "Hello world" in an alert dialog.
                    alert("Success: " + response.responseText);
                },
                function(response) {
                    alert("Failure: " + JSON.stringify(response));
                }
            );
        },

        function(error) {
            titleText.innerHTML = "Bummer...";
            statusText.innerHTML = "Failed to connect to MobileFirst Server";
        }
    );

4. Deploy an adapter

Download this prepared .adapter artifact and deploy it from the MobileFirst Operations Console using the Actions → Deploy adapter action.

Alternatively, click the New button next to Adapters.

  1. Select the Actions → Download sample option. Download the “Hello World” Java adapter sample.

    If Maven and MobileFirst CLI are not installed, follow the on-screen Set up your development environment instructions.

  2. From a Command-line window, navigate to the adapter’s Maven project root folder and run the command:

     mfpdev adapter build
    
  3. When the build finishes, deploy it from the MobileFirst Operations Console using the Actions → Deploy adapter action. The adapter can be found in the [adapter]/target folder.

    Deploy an adapter

sample application

5. Testing the application

  1. From a Command-line window, navigate to the Cordova project’s root folder.
  2. Run the command: cordova platform add ios|android|windows to add a platform.
  3. In the Cordova project, select the config.xml file and edit the <mfp:server ... url=" "/> value with the protocol, host and port properties with the correct values for your MobileFirst Server.
    • If using a local MobileFirst Server, the values are typically http, localhost and 9080.
    • If using a remote MobileFirst Server (on IBM Cloud), the values are typically https, your-server-address and 443.
    • If using a Kubernetes cluster on IBM Cloud Private and if the deployment is of type NodePort, the value of the port would typically be the NodePort exposed by the service in Kubernetes cluster.

    Alternatively, if you have installed the MobileFirst CLI, then navigate to the project root folder and run the command mfpdev app register. If a remote MobileFirst Server is used, run the command mfpdev server add to add the server, followed by for example: mfpdev app register myIBMCloudServer.

If a device is connected, the application will be installed and launched in the device,
Otherwise the Simulator or Emulator will be used.


Results

  • Clicking the Ping MobileFirst Server button will display Connected to MobileFirst Server.
  • If the application was able to connect to the MobileFirst Server, a resource request call using the deployed Java adapter will take place.

The adapter response is then displayed in an alert.

Next steps

Learn more on using adapters in applications, and how to integrate additional services such as Push Notifications, using the MobileFirst security framework and more:

Inclusive terminology note: The Mobile First Platform team is making changes to support the IBM® initiative to replace racially biased and other discriminatory language in our code and content with more inclusive language. While IBM values the use of inclusive language, terms that are outside of IBM's direct influence are sometimes required for the sake of maintaining user understanding. As other industry leaders join IBM in embracing the use of inclusive language, IBM will continue to update the documentation to reflect those changes.
Last modified on May 17, 2019