Compare Cordova apps developed with IBM MobileFirst™ Platform Foundation V8.0.0 and Cordova and hybrid apps developed with IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation V7.1.
| Feature | Cordova app with IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation V8.0.0 | Cordova app with IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation V7.1 | MobileFirst hybrid app with IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation V7.1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| IDE Eclipse Studio | |||
| Eclipse plug-in and integration | Yes. For more information, see IBM MobileFirst Studio plug-in for managing Cordova projects in Eclipse. | Unsupported | Yes (Proprietary) |
| Application Components | Yes (Cordova) Note: Create your own Cordova plug-ins to manage
application components in your organization. For more information,
see Apache Cordova Plugin Development Guide.
|
Yes (Cordova) Note: Create your own Cordova plug-ins to manage
application components in your organization. For more information,
see Apache Cordova Plugin Development Guide.
|
Yes (Proprietary) |
| Project Templates | Yes (Cordova) Note:
Use the Apache Cordova cordova create --template command. |
Yes (Cordova) Note:
Use mfp cordova create --template or the Apache Cordova command cordova create --copy-from |
Yes (Proprietary) |
| Dojo and jQuery IDE instrumentation | Yes Note: Dojo and jQuery Mobile are JavaScript frameworks that you can use
in Cordova apps. For more information, see Dojo
Documentation and jQuery
Mobile documentation.
|
Yes Note: Dojo and jQuery Mobile are JavaScript frameworks that you can use
in Cordova apps. For more information, see Dojo
Documentation and jQuery
Mobile documentation.
|
Yes |
| Mobile UI Patterns | Unsupported | Unsupported | Deprecated |
| Application sub types | |||
| Shell Component | Unsupported Note: If the previous Hybrid app used shells and
inner applications, it is recommended to adopt Cordova design patterns
and implement the shell components as Cordova plug-ins, that can be
shared across applications.
|
Unsupported | Yes |
| Inner Hybrid Application | Unsupported Note: If the previous Hybrid app used shells and
inner applications, it is recommended to adopt Cordova design patterns
and implement the shell components as Cordova plug-ins, that can be
shared across applications.
|
Unsupported | Yes |
| Application Features | |||
| Mobile OS | iOS 8 or higher, Android 4.1 or higher, Windows Phone 8.1, Windows Phone 10. For more information, see System requirements. | iOS 7 or higher, Android 4 or higher. For more information, see IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation V7.1 system requirements. | iOS, Android, and Windows Phone 8 |
| Web applications | Yes, as a JavaScript application developed without Apache Cordova. For more information, see Developing web applications. | Unsupported | Yes, as a desktopbrowser or mobilewebapp environment. |
| Direct Update | Yes. For more information, see Updating Cordova client apps directly. | Yes | Yes |
| MobileFirst Security Framework | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Application Authenticity | Yes. For more information, see Enabling the application-authenticity security check. | Yes | Yes |
| Certificate pinning | Yes. For more information, see Certificate pinning. | No | Yes |
| JSONStore | Yes. Use the cordova-plugin-mfp-jsonstore plug-in. | Yes | Yes |
| FIPS 140-2 | Yes. Use the cordova-plugin-mfp-fips plug-in. Restriction: FIPS is supported for Android and iOS. FIPS is
not supported for Windows.
For more information, see Enabling FIPS 140-2.
|
No | Yes |
| Encryption of web resources that are associated with the application within the application binary file. | Yes. For more information, see Encrypting the web resources of your Cordova packages. | No | Yes |
| Verification of the integrity of web resources by using a checksum each time the app starts running. | Yes. For more information, see Enabling the web resources checksum feature. | Unsupported | Yes |
| Specification of the app's target category (B2E or B2C) for addressable device license tracking. | Yes. For more information, see Setting the application license information. | No | Yes |
| Simple data sharing | No | Yes | Yes |
| Single sign-on | Yes Note: Device single sign-on (SSO) is now supported by way
of the new predefined enableSSO security-check
application-descriptor configuration property. For more information,
see Configuring device single sign-on (SSO).
|
Yes | Yes |
| MobileFirst application skins | No Note: To detect and handle different device screen sizes,
use standard web development practices such as responsive web design.
|
No Note: To detect and handle different device screen sizes,
use standard web development practices such as responsive web design.
|
Yes |
| Environment optimizations | Yes (Cordova). Use the merges directory to define web resources specific to a platform. For more information, see Using merges to Customize Each Platform in the Apache Cordova documentation. | Yes (Cordova). Use the merges directory to define web resources specific to a platform. For more information, see Using merges to Customize Each Platform in the Apache Cordova documentation. | Yes (Proprietary) |
| Push Notifications | Yes. Use the cordova-plugin-mfp-push plug-in. Restriction: You can map predefined MobileFirst security checks
only to the push.mobileclient scope. Custom security
checks are not supported because JavaScript challenge
handlers are not called.
|
Yes Note: For Android, you must add the cordova-plugin-mfp-push plug
in. You don't need this plug in for iOS because the push client-side
support for iOS is included in the core mfp plugin.
|
Yes |
| Cordova plug-ins management | Yes | Yes | No |
| Mobile Browser Simulator | Yes Restriction: Not all MobileFirst JavaScript APIs are supported by the simulator
but you can test calls to adapters with WLResourceRequest.
For more information, see Previewing Cordova web resources
with the Mobile Browser Simulator .
|
Yes | Yes |
| Cordova platform management | Yes (Cordova) | Yes (Cordova) | Yes (Proprietary) |
| MESSAGES (i18n) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Token licensing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Application optimizations | |||
| Minification | Yes (Cordova) Note: Use common open source tools. For more information,
see Minification.
|
Yes (Cordova) Note: Use common open source tools.
|
Yes (Proprietary) |
| Concatenation of JS and CSS | Yes (Cordova) Note: Use common open source tools.
|
Yes (Cordova) Note: Use common open source tools.
|
Yes (Proprietary) |
| Obfuscation | Yes (Cordova) Note: Use common open source tools.
|
Yes (Cordova) Note: Use common open source tools.
|
Yes (Proprietary) |
| Android Pro Guard | Yes Note: IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation V8.0.0 does
not include the predefined proguard-project.txt configuration
file for Android ProGuard obfuscation with a MobileFirst Android
application.
|
Yes Note: See Android documentation to enable Pro Guard.
|
Yes |