Mobile Workflow or Mobile container has always been a important technology element in Sybase Unwired Platform. It enables developers to use HTML5 and Jquery to build applications which can be deployed across different mobile devices. Here is an example of how to build a simple mobile workflow application by Sybase Unwired Platform.

I assume that you have already installed Sybase Unwired Platform Runtime Server 2.1 and Mobile SDK 2.1. At the time of writing this article, SUP2.1 ESD#1 has just released. However we still use version 2.1 as it should be more stable at this moment.

1. We start by building a new sybase mobile application named Customer101

2. First Step, we need to build a Mobile Business Object(MBO) from a database table. This is a simple business object which maps attributes upon the customer table in sampledb which is shipped and installed with SUP. Drag the customer table into the mobile application diagram. Uncheck the operations in the popup window.

3. Deploy the MBO into the SUP Server. As we will test the built application on iOS simulator, we choose Message-based Replication type.

4. Create a Mobile Forms named Customer_List. The generated xbw file is located in the major location we design and build our application UI and flows. We check the "Can be start from the client" option.

5. Drag the Customer MBO we create in previous steps from the Workspace Navigator into the Forms Editor, it will automatically generate two screens for you, one is customer and the other is the customerdetails. Screen flow has already been created between these two screens.

6. Create a MenuItem named Open, set the type as "online request", object query as "findall" and success screen as "customer".

7. Generate mobile workflow package, use the default settings and assign workflow to users we registered in Sybase Control Center. This concludes the whole process of development.

8. Take a test in the iOS simulator. And you will get a "beautiful" customer list when you click "open" in the start screen.

In next part, we will try to customize the application and see how we can make it more like a productive mobile application.