Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Adobe LC ES2 (LCES2 Mobile Development) Using Flex and LCES2 PM Some Details for Developers


I know it’s been a while since I had updated my Blog, but here’s something that would be of interest for most of us developers who are associated with Flex and LCES.
I know most of us after the release of LC ES2 had worked on almost all the components including some custom Component Development and its further usage across the SOA Levels. But most of us although have been excited with the Mobile Platform (LC ES2) but haven’t been either able to use it or develop any Apps associated with that.  Also, Flex 4.1 SDK can be used with Adobe Flash Builder “Burrito” along with the Android SDK 2.3 to create your Custom Application. You can use Flex Hero with 4.5 to accomplish this. Offcourse there is lot of Development and efforts required along with Research to achieve this capabilities but the end result is sweet. Below is some part of the research that I had done to accomplish a development task. Hope it helps to all those who initiate development in this field.
With the easy-to-use LiveCycle Mobile ES2 interface, you can approve and process tasks in Minutes. And with a few simple clicks, enterprises can enable their Adobe LiveCycle Process Management installation to send tasks to both desktops and the LiveCycle Mobile ES2 application, not only to the browser-based Mobile application.
       Workflow tasks no longer get lost in email (or on desks) causing approval delays.
       Dedicated “inbox” lists all tasks directly assigned and delegated by others.
       100% signal, no noise—allows you to include only the items you must take action on.
       LiveCycle Mobile ES2 is multiscreen, with real-time synchronized desktop and mobile access.
       Tasks are summarized and detail can be locally viewed in PDF.
       User can take immediate action and not wait to be in the office or have access to a laptop.
       All approvals are audited for compliance.
       LiveCycle Mobile ES2 is ideal for invoices, contracts, requisitions, bills, loans, work orders, and
·         Anything requiring one or more approvals.

System requirements
For task approval and
Data capture capabilities
• Iphones OS 3.1
• Android 2.0
• Blackberry OS 5.0†
• Windows Mobile OS v6.1†
* Important: Adobe® LiveCycle® Mobile ES2 requires the Installation, use, and proper configuration of Adobe LiveCycle ES2 software (specifically Adobe LiveCycle Process Management ES2) for task approvals and data capture on enterprise-class server software and hardware. The mobile client will not work without a concurrent LiveCycle ES implementation.

Using LiveCycle Mobile ES2 for data capture
Users who need to capture data on the go can open forms and easily enter data from a mobile device. LiveCycle Mobile ES2 streamlines operations and processes—to quickly analyze, capture, or manage data. Data captured in the field can often be more accurate, reducing the need to rekey information, and providing a complete real-time picture of the situation or transaction as it happens for greater accuracy.
• Capture data in real time to shorten process and wait times, rather than waiting to get back to the office.
• Capture data in person for more accurate representation and to avoid rekeying errors.
• Route information on site to back-end systems to kick off a business process in the field.
• LiveCycle Mobile ES2 is ideal for internal time off forms, expense forms, requisition forms and work order forms. It is also useful for officers filing claims or loan applications in the field.
• For select devices, the native camera and voice recognition capabilities of the device can be used to attach pictures to forms or search for forms.
• For sales and service personnel, spend more time interacting with customers and less time on administrative duties and paperwork.


If you have a LC Process Management ES2, Content Services running (with the desired Business Logic) for your business implementation, then you can have the mobile apps ready for you to use, in order to approve tasks on the go with the LC workspace Mobile.
For Process Management you can use your iphones, Blackberry or Windows Mobile devices to approve tasks. The apps are available on the App Stores (Apple AppStore, Blackberry App World and Windows Live Market).
For Content Services only an iphones app is available on the Apple AppStore that will allow you to view the content on the go.
After the release of LC ES 2.5, the Mobile applications for Android, Blackberry and iphones are capable of rendering forms.  I think most of you already might be knowing this but, it would be good to explain the thing here, that in order to develop a “form” that will work on the mobile devices, you need to use LC guide Builder, which is a component of the LC Workbench development environment. This has a key support for the Mobile screens because the best thing is that the guides have the property to be rendered appropriately in accordance with your screen size. The XFA/PDF forms is a feature that although requires further analysis since, the adobe reader on Android can be an issue for get it properly supported.  I think down the line there would be iPad specific Version of the LC Mobile that would be coming up soon.


* Important: Adobe® LiveCycle® Mobile ES2 requires the Installation, use, and proper configuration of Adobe LiveCycle ES2 software (specifically Adobe LiveCycle Process Management ES2) for task approvals and data capture on enterprise-class server software and hardware. The mobile client will not work without a concurrent LiveCycle ES implementation.

(Bibliography – Adobe Mobile Solution Guide for LCES)