Overview

SAP Mobile Documents made its first stride towards a Metro UI based Windows native app for Windows platform early this year.  New Metro UI for Desktop Client on Windows 8.1.

With 1.0 SP5 release of SAP Mobile Documents, we now have a pure Windows native app for Windows Tablets and Phone. In this blog i will introduce you to the new client.

(I have re-sized images to small thumbnails in the blog for better readability. Please click on the image to view the image in the original size)

Many of our customers are moving to Windows platform. There is big demand for an app for Windows devices (Tablets and Phones), which is similar to the  native client for SAP Mobile Documents app on Android and iOS platform.

We started with a Metro UI app which required the Desktop client to synchronize the files to local PC\tablet.

Now, we have a windows universal app for SAP Mobile Documents which can run on both Windows Tablets and Phones which has in-built sync engine also.

New Windows App hands-on

Downloading and Installing Windows App

• We can download the Windows app from Windows Store.
• For tablets, it can be downloaded from this link: SAP Mobile Documents – Windows Apps on Microsoft Store
• For phone, open Store app on your phone, search for “SAP Mobile Documents” and install the app
• Start the Windows app by clicking on the App tile

Login to the app

• In the login screen, enter SAP Mobile Documents server URL, username and password

• After successful login, we can see the list of folders and files present in the ECM repository configured at SAP Mobile Documents in “My Documents”.

Navigating folder and file hierarchy

• We can navigate in folder hierarchy by taping on a folder
• We can open a file by taping on a file and selecting a relevant viewer installed on the device
• On phone, we can switch to another repository by taping on hamburger icon on top right corner. On tablet, tap on the three dots on the right middle corner of the app.

We refer to this screen as Repository Switcher. One can switch between “My Documents”, a “Corporate Documents”, or “Shared Documents”

Offline documents

Swipe to select folder or file. In the list of available actions, choose the action “Mark for Offline” to have the documents synched to device. You can refer to these documents when you are offline.

If you Windows app is running and in focus, whenever these documents are updated on server they get updated on the device.

In the Repository Switcher view, there is dedicated section “Synched”, where all the synched documents are displayed.

Changing settings of the app

• On Phone, inside the Windows app, switch to Repository Switcher. (Tap on the hamburger icon on top right corner). Use the setting icon on top bottom corner to switch to the settings screen.
• On tablet, inside the Windows app, swipe from edge to open the settings for the app.

From the settings options, you can change account settings, enable support logs, request support etc ….

How is the new the Windows Native App different from the Metro UI app

The Windows Native App available in store is different to the metro UI app we have built previously:

• The Metro UI app required desktop client, since the desktop client will sync the files to the device and Metro UI app will only present it.

The Windows Native app is standalone and has in-build sync engine.

• The Metro UI app can only run on Windows tablets. The Windows Native app runs on both Windows tablets and phones.
• The Metro UI is not on Windows Store. The Metro UI has to be downloaded from SMP and can be installed via only side-loading.

The Windows Native app is present on Windows Store.

Please refer to this blog How to connect the SAP Mobile Documents Windows Native App to your trial by Vedika Neha Shabraya to know how you can configure your Windows Native Client with a HCP trial account.