Installed with the SAP® Mobile Platform SDK there is the AgentryClientFramework.zip archive. This archive includes the OpenUI API components to allow development of custom controls for the Agentry Client. The API is provided for Android, iOS, and Windows client devices. Using this API developers can create customer controls using the native language of the target device client and to display those controls within the detail screens of the mobile application.
The API allows for any field edit type of detail screen fields to be overridden with a custom control. When implemented, the custom control is then displayed in place of the detail screen field. Communication between the control and the Agentry Client is supported, with information about changes to the underlying field, data capture in the custom control, and other similar interactions supported.
In order to make use of the OpenUI, the ZIP archive installed by the SAP Mobile Platform SDK includes Agentry Client resources which can be built with the customer control code to generate a new Agentry Client executable containing the custom control or controls. This executable is then deployed to the client devices in lieu of the standard Agentry Client provided by SAP.
In order to work with the OpenUI API it is necessary to have installed and configured, separate from the items provided in the SAP Mobile Platform SDK, the proper development tools relative the client platform or platforms for which you wish to develop custom controls or make branding changes. Details on these tools are provided in each of the installation sections relative to the OpenUI API for each platform.
It is also necessary, as a developer, to have the skill set to develop in these native languages. Information provided here assumes the developer is experienced in developing in the language (Objective C, Java, Visual Basic, C#, etc.) corresponding to the client device type for which the controls are being created.
In previous releases of the Agentry Mobile Platform (6.0 and prior) as well as the Agentry archetype in SAP Mobile Platform 2.3, the option to create custom controls was supported with the ActiveX API provided as a part of the Agentry Client SDK. This API is still available within the SAP Mobile SDK and is provided for backwards compatibility of existing implementations. Applications making use of the ActiveX API can be migrated to SAP Mobile Platform 3.0 without modification to the ActiveX custom controls.
Going forward, there will be no further functional advancement of the ActiveX API. It is highly recommended that all new implementations in which custom controls are to be added make use of the OpenUI API. First, ActiveX is only available for custom control development on Windows desktop and Windows mobile client devices. The OpenUI API includes support for Windows, iOS, and Android devices. Second, later versions of Windows Mobile do not provide support for ActiveX in the same manner and the ActiveX API provided for Agentry applications are somewhat more challenging to work with.