This article will provide an introduction to Mobile Entrée which is the first ever SharePoint mobile application framework. As we all know, SharePoint is quickly becoming the backbone to the Microsoft Enterprise. This single collaboration utility has grown to become a $1 billion-a-year product for Microsoft. Thousands of companies are earning millions of dollars developing custom software solutions for their customers that integrate within the SharePoint architecture.
There is, however, no standard method of extending those applications to mobile devices. Currently, solutions for mobile range from the very limited out-of-the box SharePoint mobile views, to client applications that limit users to a certain device platform, and in most cases, vertical functionality.
The dichotomy of mobile devices in the marketplace present great challenges that developers have to overcome when architecting applications to be delivered to a mobile workforce. Mobile Entrée was developed to remove this burden and allow the solution developer to focus on the needs of the customer.
Mobile Entree provides a development framework that empowers developers with a two-pronged approach to mobile development; Isolate and Target.
By isolating key functionality and only sending it out to those that need it, the solution developer can provide the best possible user experience. Mobile devices present a unique challenge of limited screen real estate that further compounds the difficult task of providing meaningful data and applications to the mobile workforce.
From a developer’s perspective, Mobile Entrée provides rapid development of traditionally exhaustive coding time to mobile enable corporate resources. Utilizing Mobile Entree a solution developer can deliver:
- Mobile applications that are developed as SharePoint Features in any .NET programming language.
- Mobile applications that will run across major Smartphone browsers (iPhone, Windows Mobile, Blackberry).
- No requirement to create any CSS or HTML, yet the framework is flexible enough to allow the solution developer to do so if the application demands it.
Mobile Entrée is:
- Installed as a SharePoint solution and scalable across a farm.
- A mobile application framework allowing the development of mobile-enabled SharePoint features.
- Access to SharePoint Lists, Document Libraries and Search, out of the box.
- The future of SharePoint Mobile Applications.
Commercial release will be available in June 2009. Download the pre-release today at Mobile Entrée.