Developing applications

The process for developing applications has steps that are common to all environments: setting up a server, creating an initial server registration and corresponding configuration files, creating a new (or opening an existing) project in your chosen IDE, and adding the necessary SDK files to your IDE project. Also, server-side adapters can be developed as needed for the application.

Each MobileFirst application consists of server-side and client-side development. Before you can initially run your client app and connect to the server resources, the client app needs to be registered to the server.

Setting up the environment

Regardless of the target device platform, all MobileFirst applications need to be set up before they can be developed.

Set up the IBM MobileFirst™ Platform Foundation Developer Kit if necessary. For more information, see The IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation Developer Kit.
Create a set of MobileFirst SDK files for adding to your application. For more information, see Acquiring the MobileFirst SDK from the MobileFirst Operations Console.
Develop your client app.
Register your app to the MobileFirst Development Server, which is installed with the IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation Developer Kit.
Add server-side resources (adapters) for your app.

Using package-management tools to add the SDK to your existing app

To develop a native iOS application, use the MobileFirst iOS SDK with CocoaPods. For more information, see Adding MobileFirst SDK to an iOS Xcode project using CocoaPods.
To develop a native Android application, use the MobileFirst Android SDK using Gradle. For more information, see Setting up Android Studio projects with Gradle.
To develop a native Windows 8 Universal application or a Windows 10 Universal Windows Platform (UWP) application, use the MobileFirst Windows Universal SDK with NuGet. For more information, see Adding the MobileFirst SDK by using NuGet.

Developing the app

MobileFirst can be developed for Apple devices using the iOS Objective-C SDK, Android-based devices using the Android Java™ SDK, web-browser devices using the web JavaScript SDK, and Windows devices using the Windows C# SDK. In addition, SDKs are provided for developing Cordova apps through a combination of a native platform SDK (iOS or Android) and JavaScript.

For native Android development, see Developing native applications in Android Studio.
For native iOS development, see Developing native applications for iOS in Xcode
For Windows development, see Developing native C# applications for Windows 10 Universal Windows Platform and Windows 8 Universal.
For web development, see Developing web applications.
For Cordova development, see Developing Cordova applications.

Using server-side resources

When the client app can connect to the server, it can use server-side resources such as adapters and security.

Adapters can be developed in Java or JavaScript. See Developing the server side of a MobileFirst application.
The app can be secured in a number of ways. See MobileFirst security framework.

Build and deployment

For more information about building and deploying applications to a test or production server, see Deploying MobileFirst applications to test and production environments.