QConn New York Speaking Session from API Evangelist Alex Gaber Building Cross Platform Mobile Apps : Dev Tools, MBaaS and Architecture – Alex Gaber, API Evangelist, Layer 7 When starting a new project, the early decisions on architecture and tools will determine the success of the project, from initial release through long term ease of updates and maintenance. How do we determine what tools make sense for certain projects? What architectures make the most sense for API-driven mobile apps, or apps that will need to function when the device goes offline? By exploring the emerging best practices and specific mobile use cases, it becomes easier to predict the success of a mobile app project.

1. Building Cross Platform Mobile Apps
Dev Tools, MBaaS, Architecture, APIs

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So You Want to Build a Mobile App
What Mobile Platforms to Support?
What backend services to integrate?
What login credentials are required?
How to scale this app as it grows?

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Mobile Apps in the Enterprise – The Philosophical Debate
Pros + Cons need to be
considered. Faster iteration.
More platforms. BYOD.
Hybrid Native:
HTML5 + Wrapper
Leverages Native UI Controls,
Uses a Framework and Build
Engine
Hybrid Native,
Runtime
Use only for development, not
for production.
Mobile Web
Best performance, most time to
develop and maintain.
Full Native

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Architecture of a Hybrid Native App
Mobile UI Frameworks
Native App Wrapper
MBaaS
API Integration

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Architecture of a Hybrid Native App
Native App Wrapper
MBaaS
API Integration

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Mobile UI Frameworks

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Mobile UI Frameworks – jQuery Mobile

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Mobile UI Frameworks – Bootstrap

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Mobile UI Frameworks – Sencha

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Mobile App Specific IDEs

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Architecture of a Hybrid Native App
Mobile UI Frameworks
MBaaS
API Integration

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How to go from Mobile Web to Hybrid Native?
A multiple phone web based application
framework is a software framework that
is designed to support the development
of phone applications that are written
as embedded dynamic websites and
may leverage native phone capabilities,
like geo data or contact lists.
From Wikipedia

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What Identifies a Hybrid Native App?
 Back Button
 Non-native UI Controls
 Slow Performance
 Lack of Snappiness
 Available on All Platforms

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How to go from Mobile Web to Hybrid Native?

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PhoneGap Architecture Explained

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Architecture of a Hybrid Native App
Mobile UI Frameworks
Native App Wrapper
API Integration

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Mobile Backend as a Service – What?
Feature Functionality
Identity SSO, User Mgmt, Auth at API Layer
Persistence Offline Mode, Data Syncing, Caching
Messaging Push Notifications, Email, SMS
Orchestration Server Side Code, API Integration

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Backend as a Service Ecosystem

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Mobile Backend as a Service, Which One?
Is this really just a prototyping platform?
What will my cost be at scale?
Will we be creating redundant data?
Will this startup be around in 2 years?
Do they offer SDKs for all mobile platforms?
How will it help me integrate my APIs?

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Mobile Backend as a Service, Which One?
Is this really just a prototyping platform?
What will my cost be at scale?
Will we be creating redundant data?
Will this startup be around in 2 years?
Do they offer SDKs for all mobile platforms?
How will it help me integrate my APIs?

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Architecture of a Hybrid Native App
Mobile UI Frameworks
Native App Wrapper
MBaaS

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Architecture of an API Powered Mobile App
Partner Connector
SDK
Cloud Connectors
Mobile Connectors
SOA Adapters
Application
Firewalling
Social
Connectors

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Best Practices for Integrating APIs
 Never leave the user waiting for an API
response
- Decouple API from UI
- Pre-fetch when possible
 Cache data in local storage or SQLlite
 Always test Apps in Offline Mode

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Architecting APIs for Mobile
 Utilize Gzip compression at API layer
 Implement OAuth for long-term scale and
security of user logon
 REST APIs make it easier to consume
 Versioning of APIs to prevent breaking apps
 Explore hypermedia, potentially create auto-
API learning apps as your APIs evolve

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Free API Workshop Next Week!
 Align API design with business goals
 Architect flexible and robust APIs that are developer-accessible
 Design for multiple client platforms (Web, mobile and cloud)
 Implement USE methodology, versioning, reusability and hypermedia
 Address issues around security, identity, social integration, reliability and scalability
API Strategy Workshop
Conrad Hotel NY
June 18th 8:30am – 1pm
API.co/nyc-wrk

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Question and Answer
Thank you
@intalex
alex@Layer7.com