Dynamics™ Mobile 2008 - PRE-RELEASE of Framework Components

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Microsoft Dynamics™ Mobile 2008 - PRE-RELEASE of Framework Components
This is a pre-release of the Framework Components of the Microsoft Dynamics Mobile Development Tools 2008. The product has limited usage, please read the End User License Agreement carefully.

Mobile Development Tools - Framework Components is set of tools and components for developing and implementing mobile business applications for Windows Mobile 5.0 and Windows Mobile 6.0 devices that connect to business solutions, such as Microsoft Dynamics™ AX and Microsoft Dynamics™ NAV. The two main components are:

· A Software Development Kit (SDK) that is an add-in to Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and allows programmers to create scalable mobile applications using C# and XML.

· A run-time infrastructure so mobile devices can connect to and exchange data with the business solution using any of several network types, such as WiFi or GPRS. The architecture builds on.NET Framework 2.0 and Microsoft SQL Server technologies.

This release contains several minor enhancements and also an improvement of the credential management providing a configuration mechanism to associate credentials with multiple endpoints.

Please refer to the Release notes included in the zip file for furher information.

http://www.mibuso.com/dlinfo.asp?FileID=927

Discuss this download here.

Peter_List

Why are you so hung up on the version of the .NET Compact Framework and the database? I would much rather hear your comments about the functionality of the framework.

I'm confident that MS will upgrade the framework in the following versions.

I have been teaching the Microsoft Dynamics Mobile framework to Dynamics partners for the last 8 months and I'm more than happy to answer any questions you or others have about the framework.

If you want to develop a mobile application that can communicate with any of the Dynamics backends, you should seriously consider this framework.

trader1

Hello Peter,
I was wondering if there is provision in the toolkit for Dynamics CRM customizations. Since CRM customization is handled primarily through the metadata, how does the toolkit handle custom entities/attributes?
Cheers,
jl

Peter_List

At the moment the Microsoft Dynamics Mobile 2008 framework is only shipped with integration to AX and NAV. But you are free to write your own "connector" to other backends.

If you want a mobile application for Dynamics CRM, you should look into Dynamics CRM Mobile (another product).

By the way, the new version is now officially released and can be downloaded from partnersource.

ajhvdb

Haven't looked at it yet but is there sample code available for both sides?

Peter_List

Yes. There is a .NET sample application that allows you to create customers in the backend. And all the C/AL code in the backend is, of course, also available.

If you're looking for a complete demo setup that can be used for customer presentations, a Virtual PC containing all the necessary components will be available on partnersource soon.

Peter_List

I don't agree with you.

I have been developing mobile applications for many years and this framework solves many of the issues that you previously had to code yourself. In my experience, you can start solving the customer's business problem right away, without having to write a lot of other code to glue it together. This, combined with the fact that the framework encourages reuse of components, means that you can create a customized mobile application for your customer in a very short time.

You say that the framework is complicated. I can still remember the first time I started working with the framework and I have to admit that there are a lot of new things to learn. Taken one bit at a time, none of them are complex, but the amount of new topics to learn is what brings the complexity.

I know that many of you are extremely busy and probably don't have the time to really dig into this framework. So if any of you are interested in a 1 hour tour of the framework, please feel free to contact me and I'll setup an online presentation in the near future.

Peter_List

It's true - only QVGA devices are supported at the moment.
You can probably also find other things the framework can't do (in this version), but what any serious mobile developer should consider is, where will this framework be in 1-2 years.

It basically comes down to this:
Do you want to base your mobile application on something Microsoft made and supports, or do you want to base it on your own / 3. party framework.

Some will prefer the second option, I prefer the first.