Difference between Netweaver Mobile 7.1 and previous versions

SAP NetWeaver Mobile is an open integration and application platform offered by SAP NetWeaver to integrate business applications on mobile devices. Netweaver Mobile gives you the option to use standard business solutions provided by SAP and customer-specific development which can be optimized for user roles and target devices. It also provides the option of runtime monitoring of synchronization activity of the mobile devices and data flow to ensure optimal performance.

The main difference between Netweaver Mobile 7.1 and its previous versions is the Data Orchestration Engine (DOE), which is the equivalent to the Middleware server in previous versions. In previous versions mobile applications are defined as MCDs (Mobile Component Descriptor) in middleware server. MCDs were built from syncbos. The DOE comprises of a Data Orchestration Engine Workbench for defining data objects and mapping the data flow and distribution between the mobile device and the back end. The DOE also contains SAP Mobile Administrator as previous versions for monitoring the data flow at runtime through system messaging. But in Netweaver Mobile 7.1 Mobile Administrator is running from the ABAP stack of DOE through Webdynpro ABAP application. In the earlier versions Mobile Administrator ran from the J2EE engine of middleware server through Webdynpro JAVA application.

Another significant difference is in the development of client applications. In previous versions client applications were developed from JSP (Java Server Pages) or AWT (Abstract Window Toolkit) using the MVC (Model View Controller) methodology in NWDS (Netweaver developer studio). This involved lot of coding as all the code was user written from scratch. In Netweaver Mobile 7.1 client applications are developed using Webdynpro JAVA in NWDS. Webdynpro Java uses SAP’s strong webdynpro frame work where almost 80% of the code is automatically generated by the Graphical Meta model toolset and only remaining is user written. This significantly improves the time required for developing client application and makes it easy. Netweaver Mobile 7.1 provides two plug-in for NWDS, so that Webdynpro JAVA application for laptops with higher foot print and Webdynpro JAVA application for PDA with much smaller foot print can be developed in NWDS.

Netweaver Mobile 7.1 provides additional security options like more roles for client authorization and logging of client-side incidents in DOE also, so that the server can keep track of all the security related activities.