iOS, Android, Windows and Apache Cordova Apps

Mobile applications can be grouped in two kinds:

  • Native applications developed specifically for one device platform like iOS or Android.
  • Platform independent apps which run on multiple platforms.

The type of application that suites best for any given purpose always depends on the organization and use case it is for - both have their pros and cons.

Development of native and Cordova based apps for SAP customers

Native applications have the highest usability, but only run on one type of device. Porting an iOS app to Android is a complete re-write of the client part.

Platform independent applications on the other side (typically developed with web technologies) can easily be ported, but miss a little bit the usability of their native counterparts. Thanks to the use of Apache Cordova, apps written with web technologies can leverage the full power and all native features of the underlying operating system (access to the camera, address book, barcode scanning and more).

Applications are developed with the following technologies:

  • Native iOS, Apple Watch and tvOS - programming languages are Objective C and Swift, the development environment is XCode on Mac OS X.
  • Native Android - written in Java with the Android Studio or Eclipse
  • Native Windows, Windows Phone - developed with C in Microsoft Visual Studio
  • Platform independent Cordova - developed with HTML5, JQuery, SAP UI5, JavaScript and CSS.

Both native and platform independent apps can be combined and integrated with many different technologies, platforms and systems:

  • SAP Mobile Platform with MBO's and Offline Odata
  • HANA Cloud Platform
  • SAP MobiLink and UltraLite
  • External hardware
  • and much more

Ratiopharm is using a native iPad app for SAP Travel Management