IBM MobileFirst Platform v7.0 POT App Mgmt Lab v1.1
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This document describes a lab exercise to demonstrate application management functions in IBM MobileFirst using the MobileFirst Operations Console. The lab will: 1. Deploy an initial version of an IBMBank mobile application to a MobileFirst Server. 2. Publish an updated version of the application to fix a bug, and test the "Direct Update" feature which pushes changes to client devices. 3. Configure application status notifications via the MobileFirst Operations Console and see them displayed on an Android emulator.
IBM MobileFirst Platform v7.0 POT App Mgmt Lab v1.1
- 1. Lab Exercise Lab: MobileFirst Application Management Lab Exercise
- 2. IBM Software Page 2 MobileFirst Platform 7.0 POT – Application Management Lab Table of Contents 1.1 LAB OVERVIEW .................................................................................................................................................................................. 3 1.2 TEST APPLICATION WITH MOBILEFIRST SERVER ....................................................................................................................... 4 1.3 DEPLOY NEW VERSION OF APPLICATION TO MOBILEFIRST SERVER ....................................................................................... 9 1.4 PUSH WEB RESOURCE CHANGES TO DEVICES VIA DIRECT UPDATE .......................... ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED. 1.5 USING THE MOBILEFIRST OPERATIONS CONSOLE TO SEND APP STATUS NOTIFICATIONS ............................................... 15
- 3. IBM Software Lab 1 Page 3 1.1 Lab Overview In this module, we will explore the application management and administration functions of IBM MobileFirst via the MobileFirst Operations Console. Specifically we will deploy an initial version of the IBMBank application outside of MobileFirst Studio to a MobileFirst Server, and then publish a new version to see how MobileFirst Server can “push” new application code out to client devices directly. This feature (Direct Update) allows changes in hybrid resources to be delivered to the MobileFirst Server, and distributed directly down to client devices, without a re-install of the application from an app store. We will also exercise the MobileFirst Operations Console to send application status notifications to client devices (e.g. to communicate about outages, new versions, or other useful notifications). MobileFirst Operations Console is a component within IBM MobileFirst that allows administrators to manage applications. Administrators can use the console to see all applications that are installed and all the device platforms that are supported, to disable specific application versions on specific platforms and to force users to upgrade the application before they continue to use them. Additionally, the console can be used to send out notifications to application users, and to manage push notifications from defined event sources to applications. Administrators can also use the MobileFirst Operations Console to install and manage adapters that are used by applications. Other features provided by MobileFirst Operations Console include controlling authenticity testing for applications, and monitoring devices that have contacted the MobileFirst Server (by running the applications). IBM MobileFirst Foundation provides several means to administer and manage mobile applications: • The MobileFirst Operations Console, which has been briefly explained above • The <wladm> Ant task • The wladm command-line interface utility • The MobileFirst administration REST services In this lab, you will take the role of an administrator rolling out a new version of the IBMBank application for direct update to client devices, and sending notification messages to users of the application: − Test mobile app on Android emulator with MobileFirst app deployed to the MobileFirst Server − Publish a changed version of the application to the MobileFirst Server and see Direct Update in action pushing changes to the Android emulator − Configure status notifications via MobileFirst Operations Console and see the notifications appear on the Android emulator Let’s get started!
- 4. IBM Software Page 4 MobileFirst Platform 7.0 POT – Application Management Lab 1.2 Test application with MobileFirst Server __1. You will need to know the IP address you are on, so go to command prompt and type ipconfig. Then note down the IP address – you will need it in a couple of steps. __2. Locate the MobileFirst Platform folder on your desktop and double-click on Start MFP Server.bat and Start MockServer.bat. This will start our MFP Server as well as the Liberty Server hosting our mock REST services which provide account information in this scenario. Wait for both to start completely. __3. Open the Chrome browser and navigate to http://localhost:9080/worklightconsole and log in with admin/admin. We will now install our application on the MFP Server. __4. You may see previously deployed applications already in the console, so let’s remove these before we continue. In the console, under available runtime environments, inside IBMBank, click on Applications. Click the X to delete any preexisting IBMBank app as shown, and Confirm. __5. You will see the application has been deleted. __6. Similarly click back to Home and click on the Adapters link under the IBMBank project. Delete both adapters that may exist on this page – AccountAdapter and AccountDetailsAdapter. You will see a confirmation message when both adapters are deleted and no adapters should show in the view.
- 5. IBM Software Lab 1 Page 5 __7. Click back to Home. Now we will install the initial version of the IBMBank application for this lab. Under IBMBank, click on Select File. Select the IBMBankApp-all.wlapp file from C:MobileFirstLabsimportsappmgmtserverbegin on your file system. Click OK and the app will deploy onto the server. You will see a confirmation message that the app was deployed. If you see a warning that application authenticity is disabled on the app, disregard for now as it does not affect this lab.
- 6. IBM Software Page 6 MobileFirst Platform 7.0 POT – Application Management Lab __8. In the same way, from the Home screen, click Select File again and deploy both adapters from the C:MobileFirstLabsimportsappmgmtserverbegin folder. You will see two messages confirming successful deployment of the adapters. Your screen should look like the following with Applications (1) and Adapters (2): __9. We are now complete with our deployment of artifacts on the server side for this lab. You can minimize the Chrome browser for now, as we will pick it back up later. __10. Next we will make a minor change to our mobile client application so that we can test it against the deployed MobileFirst application on the server. Open MobileFirst Studio by clicking the icon on your Quick Launch bar at bottom of desktop and make sure to choose the C:MobileFirstLabsworkspacesappmgmt workspace at launch.
- 7. IBM Software Lab 1 Page 7 __11. Wait for a few moments as the Eclipse workspace builds. You will see the IBMBank application structure and code in the Project Explorer. Expand the folders from IBMBank to apps to IBMBankApp and then option-click that folder. Choose Run-As, Build Settings and Deploy Target as shown. __12. In the next dialog, you will want to enter your own IP address from step 1 above where indicated in the screenshot (your screen will differ from the screenshot). Make sure that the port stays at 9080 and the context path is /IBMBank. We are configuring this so that the mobile app will be able to reach the external MobileFirst Server rather than the MobileFirst Dev Server in Studio. Click OK.
- 8. IBM Software Page 8 MobileFirst Platform 7.0 POT – Application Management Lab __13. Next, right-click on IBMBankApp again and choose Run As – Build All Environments. Wait until the build of all artifacts is complete. You will see a message in the Console view that says: Application ‘IBMBankApp’ with all environments build finished. __14. To test the application, return to MobileFirst Studio, right click on the IBMBankIBMBankAppAndroid project, select Run As->Android Application The mobile application (APK) will be uploaded to the AVD and started. If prompted with the “Auto Monitor Logcat” pop-up, select yes and OK to continue. This will cause the logcat console to surface in the Eclipse console view as logcat messages arrive. __15. When the application launches in the Android emulator, log into the app with demo/demo as credentials. Click on Accounts and then Checking and Savings. You should see the application provide account overview and account details. This means that the mobile app in the Android emulator is successfully connecting to the MobileFirst Server. However, click on the back button until you are back at the Home screen. Click on the Markets section. Nothing happens. Oops, something has happened to break the build and we have published an app with a major missing feature – our markets page. Direct Update to the rescue! The next time our users log in, we want them to get our update immediately. In the next few steps you will see how easy it is to roll out this critical fix to an existing deployed app. Minimize the emulator for now as we will use it again later.
- 9. IBM Software Lab 1 Page 9 1.3 Deploy update to existing application on MobileFirst Server We will now explore what happens when an update is rolled out to an existing application version. You will see that hybrid applications can be directly updated to the device from the MobileFirst Server. The Direct Update Feature is useful for updating applications in between new numbered versions, for example providing critical fixes or time-urgent new functionality. __1. Open the Chrome web browser again navigating to http://localhost:9080/worklightconsole and (if not already logged-in) log into the MobileFirst Platform Operations Console. Enter admin for username and admin for password and click OK. __2. In the console that opens you will see the currently deployed IBMBank application on the server, which is at version 1.0 which we just deployed, by clicking on Applications, then IBMBankApp. We will be rolling out a direct update of this application by installing a new version 1.0 with critical fixes. In our case, we inadvertently made a breaking change that caused the Markets page to be inaccessible. We will roll out the fix to this to respond quickly to user feedback.
- 10. IBM Software Page 10 MobileFirst Platform 7.0 POT – Application Management Lab __3. Click back to Home at the top of the screen, click on Select File, and browse to the file C:/MobileFirstLabs/imports/appmgmt/server/end/IBMBankApp-all.wlapp and click Open. __4. As before, you will see messages indicating the app is uploading, then deploying into the MobileFirst Server. You will see a successfully deployed message, with a warning, which you can safely ignore.
- 11. IBM Software Lab 1 Page 11 __5. Click on Applications, then IBMBankApp, and now you will see that the app has a new build date and time, along with showing your previous build time. Now the server has the updated resources it will be able to provide a “Direct Update” to the app on the device. We will proceed to test this again using our Android emulator and see Direct Update in action. 1.4 Test updated application on Android emulator __1. You should have the Android emulator from the previous lab already running. We need to ensure that we start a new session of the app in order to show the Direct Update feature, by re- starting the IBMBankApp. On the Android emulator’s home screen, find the Settings icon on the screen, then Apps. Click IBMBankApp on the list to open the app’s setting, and then click “Force stop” button. Click “OK” to confirm the force stop.
- 12. IBM Software Page 12 MobileFirst Platform 7.0 POT – Application Management Lab
- 13. IBM Software Lab 1 Page 13 __2. Now click the Home button in the Android emulator to return to the home screen, click the Apps icon, and re-launch the app by clicking the IBMBankApp app icon. __3. On the login page, log into the app with demo/demo. This action will initiate a connection to the MobileFirst Server, and once the user is authenticated, the server will check for new web resources for Direct Update. If new resources are available, there a notification dialog box will display on the app. Click the Update button to update the app and you will see the update download onto the device.
- 14. IBM Software Page 14 MobileFirst Platform 7.0 POT – Application Management Lab __4. As mentioned, Direct Update will be checked on the MobileFirst Server when the client app makes a connection to the server (e.g. by adapter procedure invocation, explicit connect API call, etc. in the JavaScript code, depending on the application). In addition, the default setting is for direct update to only be checked once-per-session (which was why we restarted the app above, to ensure that Direct Update will be displayed). However, developers have the flexibility to override this default behavior by using the MobileFirst API.
- 15. IBM Software Lab 1 Page 15 __5. Once the Direct Update has completed, the app will automatically restart. Login to the app again, and navigate to the Markets page. You will see this page is now live and shows our simulated markets page functionality. __6. Click on the back button on the Markets page to return to Home page, and minimize the Android emulator. 1.5 Using the MobileFirst Operations Console to send app status notifications __1. Maximize the Chrome browser, which should still be open to the MobileFirst Operations Console and the Catalog tab should be visible showing IBMBankApp. __2. Notice that each device app has a version (1.0) and a status (Active). We are going to send a maintenance notification for the Android version of the application. Click the dropdown next to Application Access and notice the choices of “Active, Notifying” and “Access Disabled”. The “Access Disabled” choice is used when all access to an application by any device of that type should be disabled. We will select “Active, Notifying” so we can send an informational notification. Click on “Active, Notifying” from the dropdown.
- 16. IBM Software Page 16 MobileFirst Platform 7.0 POT – Application Management Lab __3. You will find that a window appears where you can enter the notification text. Enter a notification of your choice, such as “New version 2.0 coming January 26th with enhanced funds planning!”. Click “Save”. __4. You will see a message at the top of the console like the following:
- 17. IBM Software Lab 1 Page 17 __5. Minimize Chrome and maximize the Android emulator. Force stop the IBMBank application as before and relaunch it. Once logged in again, you will see a Service Notification displaying the message that you have just entered via the Operations Console. Similar to Direct Update, any notification messages entered via the MobileFirst Operations Console will be delivered to the corresponding app when the app makes a connection to the MobileFirst Server (e.g. by adapter procedure invocation, explicit connect API call, etc). __6. Click Close to dismiss the message. You have now seen how the MobileFirst Operations Console can be used to notify application users of important announcements such as updates or service notifications. __7. Let’s exercise one more function in the Operations Console. Click the dropdown which says Active, Notifying that we set in step 3 above for the Android 1.0 version, and choose Access Disabled. Enter some text in the notification giving a reason for disabling access to that version, such as “Must upgrade to supported version (1.5)”. You could also provide the URL for this application version in the next box but we will skip for now. Click Save. You will see a message at the top of the screen indicating the version 1.0 in Android is disabled.
- 18. IBM Software Page 18 MobileFirst Platform 7.0 POT – Application Management Lab __8. As before, force stop the application in the Android emulator and relaunch. This time as soon as the application is launched you will see the following message: This feature can be very useful if a problem has been found in a particular application version or if you need to require users to upgrade their version. Congratulations! You have completed the Application Management lab!