BCD Int'l., Inc., has announced the release of WebSmart Mobile, which will make it faster and easier for RPG and other programmers to develop new mobile web apps. WebSmart Mobile is included in WebSmart ILE and PHP so you can develop IBM i-centric or open-source, multi-platform PHP mobile web apps.

WebSmart Mobile offers templates that jumpstart mobile web app development and other productivity features to develop any type of mobile web app. These features include: templates with a modern mobile look and feel, point-and-click snippets to add new UI elements, support for all mobile platforms and the flexibility to add functionality like geolocation and offline support.

The number of active mobile phones will reach 7.3 billion by 2014, which is more mobile phones than there are people on the planet right now. According to Eric Figura, BCD's Director of Marketing and Sales, "Mobile devices are playing a greater role in our business lives, which creates an opportunity for IBM i shops to improve business processes and remain competitive. We have customers who use WebSmart ILE and PHP to build mobile web apps such as B2B order entry, mobile-optimized shopping carts and web apps with offline support. WebSmart Mobile provides an easier way for programmers to develop these strategic mobile applications."

Intelligent jQuery-Based Templates

WebSmart Mobile's templates generate the UI (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) and server-side (RPG or PHP) code so you start with a fully-functioning mobile web app that accesses DB2 data.

All WebSmart Mobile templates:

• Include touch gestures for easier clicking and scrolling.
• Automatically resize elements when you access web apps from different sized screens or rotate your device.
• Use AJAX and JSON for faster performance, which is critical because mobile devices may not always have access to a high-speed Internet connection.

The templates use jQuery Mobile, an HTML5-based user interface framework that is built on the popular jQuery and jQuery UI libraries. jQuery Mobile provides a modern mobile look and feel that you can easily theme to match your organization's look.

The templates create stateless applications, which is the standard way to develop web apps. They behave the way browsers expect web apps to behave, with standard back and refresh navigation functionality and pages that can be bookmarked.

Point-and-Click Code Snippets

The WebSmart IDE includes point-and-click snippets so you can quickly insert new mobile UI widgets, such as sliders, toggle switches and radio buttons.

You can also speed up data entry by using the HTML5 snippet to insert mobile-optimized input fields such as email address, telephone number or URL that automatically bring up the correct keyboards, and date or color inputs that bring up datepickers or color palettes.

Compatible with All Mobile Platforms

Applications developed with WebSmart Mobile are easy to deploy and access because they are web apps. Users can access them from browsers on all popular mobile platforms (iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows). There is no need to learn additional languages like Objective C and Java, write multiple versions of applications for different platforms, or deploy from app stores.

Full Flexibility from the WebSmart IDE

It's possible to add more advanced functionality, such as geolocation, signature capture and offline functionality, by editing the code in the WebSmart IDE. Because WebSmart Mobile is included in WebSmart, you can customize your applications and take advantage of the productivity features in the WebSmart IDE, including syntax checking, a debugger, code prompting and a wizard to call back-end RPG programs.

WebSmart gives you unlimited flexibility on the types of web apps you can create and the web technologies you want to use, making it an ideal strategic tool. Because you have access to all the code in the WebSmart IDE and the templates create code using standard web development architecture, you are not limited in what you can do, unlike more restrictive and proprietary UI approaches. With WebSmart you can leverage the tremendous volume of free online web development resources and also easily incorporate emerging web technologies.

BCD is a Quadrant Software company and one of the most successful software organizations in the IBM i marketplace. The companies have a combined 60 years in the IBM i marketplace and have successfully helped thousands of organizations worldwide modernize. Together, Quadrant and BCD help customers maximize their investment in IBM i with their industry leading web development, mobilization, spool file beautification and document distribution tools. Their customers and partners around the world are leaders in key markets such as finance, manufacturing, transportation, retail and healthcare.
Quadrant and BCD are part of the Quadrant group of companies that also includes Netlert, which develops an Avaya call center performance analysis solution, and SoftBase, which provides application testing and tuning solutions for IBM's DB2 database utilizing the OS/390 and z/OS operating systems.
For more information, please visit http://www.bcdsoftware.com and http://www.quadrantsoftware.com.