The SAP® Mobile Platform REST Services API enables
standard HTTP client applications running in any platform to access SAP Mobile Platform REST services.
SAP Mobile Server provides REST services so that
applications can be built as any standard HTTP application to leverage SAP Mobile Server for security and push features among
others.
The client application should first register an application connection
with device information, such as device type, push information and password capability
and so on. After registering, the application can retrieve and update the application
connection settings through REST API. You can enable or disable the push notification
only after registering.
Note: The application connection can be deleted
through REST API, when it is not in use. In this case, the data stored by
application in the custom string of the application connection properties will be
lost.
The application can download resources (such as meta-data files,
multimedia files, and so on.) through resource bundles service, in order to initialize
client application.
Then, the application can access OData compatible data sources through
the proxy service, and receive native push notifications triggered by the gateway if
push properties are configured and enabled. If supported, the application can also
upload the business transactions for tracing using BTX service. See Uploading Business Transactions for Tracing for more information on how to upload business
transaction for tracing.
This development approach supports:
- Registration (creating an application connection)
- Authentication
- Native push notification
- Configuration
You build your client applications using third party
developer tools, and without using any SAP Mobile SDK or
native client libraries. SAP Mobile Platform provides
management and monitoring of the applications, and support for native push notification
such as Apple Push Notification Service (APNS), BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) push,
or Google Cloud Messaging (GCM).
Note: BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) push is not
supported.
Optionally, you may use certain SAP Mobile Platform native client libraries to enable complex
application capabilities, such as OData parsing and building, caching, or data vault
management. For more information, see Developer Guide: OData SDK. You may also use third-party JavaScript framework and helper
libraries.
REST SDK Library
(Applicable to iOS and Android platforms) The REST SDK libraries
enable consumption of SAP Mobile Platform REST services with
pure HTTPS connectivity. The REST SDK provides simplified APIs for registration,
exchange settings between client and server, and end-to-end tracing. The SDK also
supports native push notifications.
REST SDK components are implemented as static runtime libraries, and
each component can be used independently.
The REST SDK supports the following functionalities:
- Client connection initialization
- User on-boarding or registration
- Anonymous onboarding
- Application
connection setting exchange
- Customization resource bundle
- Security configurations - Basic authentication, SSO certificate
authentication, anonymous access, network edge (Siteminder authentication -
always asynchronous), non-network edge, single SSL, and mutual SSL
authentication
- End-to-end tracing
- Native notification support
- (Cloud version) CAPTCHA support for both synchronous and asynchronous
requests. However, SAP recommends that, in a production scenario, you use
asynchronous CAPTCHA requests during on-boarding.
- Non-network edge authentication support.
- In network edge (Siteminder) scenario, you must configure a relay server. User
needs to get authenticated against the server and then against the backend.
Note: For more information on each functionality, see Developer Guide: OData SDK and
SAP Control Center
for SAP Mobile Platform.