SAP Mobile Apps development Tools and PWA – An Overview

Hello All,

Introduction:

While developing mobile apps for various clients, I have come across multiple SAP Mobile tools and approaches available by SAP .

At times, it becomes very difficult to effectively propose the accurate product/tool based on the requirement.

In context to that, this blog provides a brief overview of the various SAP mobile products and progressive web apps with their features and flexibility.

Mobile development KIT:

Sometimes, cross-platform app development often results in a UX, that might not be intuitive/fascinating and TCO of maintaining different native apps is too high.

Mobile development kit enables developers and technical business users to build native mobile applications in a highly productive environment. The tool provides a cross platform native experience so users build the app once and deploy to iOS and Android devices.

The MDK client needs to be downloaded from client store.

Features:

The MDK can be used to develop hybrid apps.

Using SCP SDK for iOS/Android .native UX can also be built.

The MDK provides a low code development approach

The MDK applications support offline access, push notifications etc.

Applications developed using MDK has an improved lifecycle and extension support.

SAP Mobile cards:

SAP Mobile cards provide a cross platform, micro app solution to publish data into a consumer grade “wallet” or “passbook” like app. At times when the use case is small, TCO of mobile development could be high. In such cases SAP Mobile cards plays a vital role in providing an alternate option to mobilize the business process.

Features:

The SAP Mobile cards application provide offline access and auto update.

They also support Push notifications.

These applications/cards also support native features like Spotlight search, imessage, Geofence etc.

Native Apps development

Developing application OS/platform specific, gives the flexibility of designing a custom UX and leveraging latest technologies.

Features:

These apps provide rich set of frameworks and external libraries.

They have access to OS/platform/device specific features.

They provide full and direct access to device hardware.

These apps provide easier integration of third party libraries.

SAP FIORI Client

SAP Fiori Client is a native mobile application runtime container for SAP Fiori apps.

Types of SAP fiori Client:

• Standard Fiori Client App: The standard Fiori client application can be directly downloaded from App/Play stores
• Custom Fiori Client(build locally with SDK): A custom Fiori client App, can be built using SAP Mobile platform SDK for iOS/Android.

The custom fiori client can leverage the native capabilities of the device as well.

• Custom SAP Fiori Clients (built with the cloud build service): Here developers can modify the build options of a custom SAP Fiori Client, and rebuild it using the cloud build service. The app is essentially the same as you would download from the commercial app stores, but it’s pre-configured with your branding, pre-populated with the correct connectivity information, and signed so it’s ready to install on your mobile device.

Progressive Web Apps

Definition: Progressive Web Apps (PWA) are built and enhanced with modern APIs to deliver native-like capabilities, reliability, and installability while reaching anyone, anywhere, on any device with a single codebase.

Features:

Progressive web applications starts fast.

They work in all browsers and responsive as well.

They can provide a custom offline page

It is installable as well like native/hybrid apps.

Conclusion:

As of today’s date, SAP has provided multiple tooling options to mobilize enterprise grade business applications. Based on requirements and feasibility, one has to wisely select the appropriate tools to develop mobile applications.

Best Regards,

Sushant