Earlier this year, we talked about JDEs’ decision to pull the plug on mobile apps. In that blog, we talked about some of the low-code/no-code options available for building your own JDE web and mobile apps. Visual Builder Cloud Service (VCBS) is an obvious choice as a fully Oracle-based product and our favorite for robust enterprise-grade apps. We choose Ephlux’s Swift platform when we want a simple plug-and-play way to do data entry from a mobile app. So far, it’s been the easiest lowest cost solution to get up and running.
About Swift for JD Edwards
This mobile app generator allows business analysts to create highly functional and user-friendly iOS, Android and scanner applications. Swift uses both React Native based container and progressive web apps (PWA) (the most recommended framework for device agnostic future apps). Business Analysts can create tightly integrated mobile and web applications without needing to know how to code. The Swift apps are automatically integrated into JD Edwards using AIS and the Orchestrator.
You can learn more about Ephlux and Swift here.
How We Are Using Swift to Accelerate Mobilization for JD Edwards Users
Swift provides an out-of-the-box mobile front end for all orchestrations. We use this tool to dynamically build form-based lightweight mobile apps very quickly. It allows us to integrate with any JDE application by discovering and dynamically building forms for any orchestration.
Three Simple Steps
- We build the orchestration we want first in order to create the business process.
- Swift dynamically connects to read all the inputs/outputs.
- We perform simple customization like adding logos and updating field names as well as moving components around to create a nice user interface. You can also add custom controls like barcode scanners and
As always, the Orchestrator is doing the heavy lifting, so the app itself is really just giving you an easy way to interact with it. Popular use cases include sales order entry or inventory transfer that need to be done in the field or on the floor instead of at a computer terminal.
Making Your JDE Mobile Apps Device Agnostic (By Making Them Web Apps)
Swift works by building progressive web apps (PWAs). These show up on a mobile device just like a native mobile app, but they are really a web application like what you would access from a browser. From a user perspective, you can’t tell because all of the browser interface controls (scroll bars, address bar, etc.) are removed.
You simply access the app by scanning a QR code and it pops up automatically on your device. When you click it, you go to a login screen to enter your JDE username and password. After that, you arrive at a form that is a mobile representation of the orchestration.
With this approach, you can build the app once and it works everywhere, regardless of whether you are on an iOS or Android, your scanner devices from Zebra and Honeywell, or your computer. There are no device-specific hardware restrictions and you can build additional functionality that’s not available on the device. It has the added advantage of coming prebuilt with orchestration integrations.
We’ve Added Swift to Our Orchestrator Training
In our experience, Ephlux’s web/mobile functionality works at the click of a button right out of the box and building an app takes less than 10 minutes. That makes it ideal to teach about in our training classes.
We love encouraging citizen developers to play with new tools and discover what they can build. So, in addition to the 3 month free ADEX (formerly JDExcelerator) license, our trainees also get a free 3 month subscription to Swift.
Click here to learn more about ACBM's approach to custom mobile application development.
Do you have mobile apps to build? We’re here to help. Contact us today to explore your use cases.