Mobile Client Application Generation 

Purpose

This process describes the steps involved in generating a mobile client application that has been modified during design time. The user of the Mobile Application Studio (MAS) must perform this process to obtain runtime files for the modified application.

The application must be generated every time it is modified to obtain the latest runtime files. The changes made to the application are sent to all mobile clients in the form of these runtime files. The changes are then visible in the application, which is updated on the mobile clients.

Prerequisites

You have ensured that the tpsfiles folder in the MASinstallation path contains the latest .bdoc files (BDoc metadata). This is done by synchronizing BDocs on Mobile Development Workstation with the BDoc Repository. For more information, see Synchronizing BDoc Changes.

Process Flow

       1.      The MAS user specifies settings that are required for generation. These settings are specific to each part of the application such as the user interface, business logic or messages. For more information, see Specifying Common Generation Settings.

       2.      The MAS user performs the necessary generation activity depending on the number of objects modified. For more information, see Generation.

System creates or updates runtime files for the objects that have been generated. The incremental generation function reuses valid runtime objects for those development objects, which are generated already and not modified after generation.

       3.      The MAS user builds a solution to obtain the necessary DLL files that need to be deployed along with the other runtime files on the mobile clients. For more information, see Generation.

Result

The necessary runtime files that are created or updated for the generated objects are available in subfolders. These subfolders are defined and created by the system in the target folder specified in the generation settings. The runtime files specific to various parts of the mobile client application are listed in the table below.

Part of the application	Subfolder	Runtime files	Description
User interface	<Runtime File Name> This is the main folder under the target folder.	UIFConfig.uifcfg and UIFPreconfig.uifcfg	Configuration files that contain information required by frameworks to load the application at runtime.
	Bin	<Runtime File Name>.DLL	Binary file that contains the logic defined through code for user interface.
	Layout	Language files, bitmaps, image files, standard and modeled custom resource files	Contains layout information of all user interface objects.
	Prj	< Runtime File Name >.vbproj file
	Repos	DAT files	Contains metadata of user interface objects.
	src	VB files	One VB file is generated for each user interface object. Each VB file contains source code that defines the behavior of the object.
Business logic (Stored in the path, <target folder>\<Runtime File Name>\BOL\Apps\sfabol)	ars	ArsRep.DAT	Contains metadata of business objects, business queries and combo engines along with the corresponding BDoc metadata.
		ArsRepEx_XX.DAT files	Contains help strings of business objects and business object properties. Here XX refers to short text of the language selected for business logic.
	vba	VB files, SFABOL.VBPROJ and SFABOL.DLL files	Contains source code related to business logic defined through business object methods, business rules and so on. The <Industry Template> folder is created under the vba subfolder, if you choose an industry template in generation settings. The <Industry Template> folder contains source code that is configured to the specific industry template.
		BLLFW.CONFIG file	Contains option required for configuring mobile client applications.
Messages (Stored in the path, <target folder>\<Runtime File Name>\BOL\Apps)	MsgInfo	MsgInfo_XX.DAT files	Contains the messages in a specific language. Here XX refers to short text of the language selected for messages.

The Technical Administrator creates a client upgrade by grouping these runtime files and sends the upgrade to all mobile clients using the Mobile Upgrade Console.