Mobile enterprise application platform

A Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP) is a type of Mobile Application Development Platform (MADP) that includes a suite of products, frameworks, services, and toolkits to assist in the development of mobile applications. MEAP platforms enable organisations or businesses to develop, test, and deploy applications through the use of standardization and protocols.

An organisation may either build its own Integrated Development Environment (IDE), a software engineering toolkit that offers such features, or it may purchase or fork a MEAP/MADPs from a third party. MEAP/MADP ideally includes tools for testing, debugging, and maintaining existing applications, as well as API calls for back-end databases and "middleware" for linting, parsing, and compiling.

The term's origin is attributed to a Gartner Magic Quadrant report in 2008 and was formerly referred to as the "multichannel access gateway market."

Purpose and function of MEAPs

MEAPs address the difficulties of developing mobile software by managing the diversity of devices, networks, and user groups at the time of deployment and throughout the mobile computing technology life cycle. Unlike standalone apps, MEAP apps provide a comprehensive, long-term approach to both developers and end-users.

Cross-platform utilities are a significant factor behind using MEAPs. Companies can use a MEAP to develop a mobile application, deploy it to various mobile devices with different operating systems, and maintain it through continuous testing. Examples include smartphones running Android or iOS, tablets, notebooks, and some modified handheld game consoles. MEAPs ideally allow for cross-platform services simultaneously without changing the underlying machine or business logic. The target audience of these platforms is companies wishing to rapidly develop multiple applications on an infrastructure. This infrastructure can be available on-premises (offline), in the cloud (online) or a mixture of the two.

Mobile platforms provide templates for development through the use of high-level languages to accelerate development and maintenance cycles.

Rule of Three

Gartner observed that companies consider the MEAP approach when they need to:

1. Support three or more mobile applications
2. Support three or more mobile operating systems (OS)
3. Integrate with at least three back-end data sources

Gartner advocated using a common mobility platform in this situation.

Components and features of MEAPs

Structure

A cloud-infrastructure MEAP is generally composed of two parts: a mobile middleware server, and a mobile client application. A middleware server handles all system integration, security, communications, scalability, cross-platform support, and more. No data is stored in the middleware server—it manages data from the back-end system to the mobile device and back.

Mobile client applications are software that connect to platform or middleware servers and drive both the user interface and the back-end logic on a device. Such applications are able to transfer across mobile operating systems, as a tool upon which to launch applications. Mobile apps are typically deployed as "thick" applications or as "native apps" that are installed on the device. They may also be rendered as a "thin" application using browser technologies such as HTML5. The choice between these approaches depends on the complexity, device support, requirements for user experience, and the need for app availability in the absence of network coverage.

Features and capabilities

• MEAPs can support more than one type of mobile device and operating system without having to maintain separate sets of code.
• MEAP typically contains a mobile middleware server where integration connectivity, security, and app management are supported.
• Most MEAPs use techniques that do not require writing code to extend them. This includes an industrial-standard integrated development environment, such as Eclipse.
• Some tools have a hybrid mode, which uses JavaScript-based UI design SDK such as Dojo Toolkit, YUI Library, jQuery Mobile, or Sencha Touch, along with a new JavaScript-based device featuring APIs encapsulation (Geo Loc, Connective, AccMeter, Camera, G sensor, Events, File system, etc.) that are plugged into an IDE as well, such as Apache Cordova (formerly PhoneGap) or Appcelerator. That means a custom application can use most of the mobile device features without any 4GL coding or native coding, making it developable and deployable anywhere
• MEAPs evolve the principle of defining the mobile business support: "mobile workflow" and embedded functionalities by moving beyond 4GL tools towards using the graphical environment and dedicated script language.
• MEAPs integrate with multiple server data sources to leverage SOA services from backend systems.
• They leverage development skills and tools one already knows and expertise one already has. More details are in the mobile application development section.
• Centrally manage mobile applications. The management of the actual devices is more tailored for the "B2E scenario" and is typically done with mobile device management (MDM); some of them also enable a device's features by integrating with MDM.
• Enhance existing business platforms by making them accessible to users anywhere, at any time.
• MEAPs can be run in the cloud.
• MEAPs provide low-code/no-code tools for app development.
• MEAPs offer remote device management and offline capabilities.
• While powerful, MEAPs may have vendor lock-in and customization limitations.

See also

• Cross-platform software
• Field service management
• Mobile development framework
• Application server
• Low-code development platforms
• Mobile application development
• Multi-channel app development