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For many business people, being reach-

able by phone — no matter when or

where — has become a basic business

necessity. Now with the emergence of

mobile devices like Pocket PCs and

BlackBerrys, it’s about more than

being able to take a call. It’s even

gone beyond having access to emails

and calendars. Full mobile enablement

means having permanent, wireless

access to business data and online

services; it’s about integrating mobile

devices into business processes. Only

when business data, functions, and

processes are available in real timethrough the browser of a mobile device

can a company achieve complete,

integrated use of mobile technology.

With SAP NetWeaver 2004, SAP

customers already have the familiar tech-

nology platform and development tools

they need to mobile-enable their existing

applications. In this article, you’ll see

how functionality within SAP NetWeaver

makes it easy to move SAP solution

interfaces to your mobile device, leading

you to results like the ones shown in

Figure 1 and Figure 2. You’ll also

walk through this highly visual and

easily repeatable development process

using the simple example of checking

a customer credit limit.1

Extend SAP Applications

to Your Handheld MobileDevice in 10 Minutes or Less

Regular Feature

MobileMatters

Karin Schattka,

SAP AG

Basic Technical Requirementsfor Mobile-Enabling YourApplications

SAP has had a mobile infrastructure

in place for several years within the

SAP NetWeaver platform.The latest

major release, SAP NetWeaver 2004,

supports Java-based, model-driven

online applications.With SAP

NetWeaver 2004 in place, including

SAP NetWeaver Application Server,

you have everything you need to develop

mobile-enabled applications and

customize their user interfaces — no

additional installations are necessary,

even on the mobile device itself.

Use a Familiar Development

Environment

To program mobile-enabled applications,

developers use the same development

environment, SAP NetWeaver Developer

1 Please note that the credit check functionality high-

lighted here is an example Web service for the purpose

of this article; the credit check Web service is not

native to an SAP system.

Figure 1 Checking a Credit Limit Using a BlackBerry Mobile Device

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This article appeared in the Jan ■ Feb ■ Mar 2006 issue of SAP Insider and appears here with

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Studio and the Web Dynpro programming

model, that they would use to develop

Web Dynpro Java applications for a

desktop browser.2

Web Dynpro comes with many

features — including user interface

libraries with standard, complex, and

graphical UI elements that promote

reusability, as well as graphical tools like

the Data Modeler, Navigation Modeler,

and View Designer — you can use to

quickly and easily establish mobile func-

tionality, or to expand the existing use of

mobile devices. When developing or

adapting mobile applications, all other

functions that provide support, such as

context mapping, data binding, or

connecting a backend using remote func-

tion calls (RFCs) or Web services, are

used in the same way you would use

them to develop desktop applications.

In other words, if you are simply

redesigning the view of an existing appli-

cation for mobile use, you would not need

to touch the underlying business data and

models that support the application, nor

would you handle the controllers.3

Modify UIs with Web Dynpro

Developers also use the familiar Web

Dynpro programming model to tailor the

application to the smaller screen of a

mobile device without necessarily having

to touch code or the applications at all.

The Web Dynpro runtime automatically

recognizes a selection of mobile and

fixed browsers or devices, including

BlackBerrys and Pocket PCs.

Specific Web Dynpro renderer classes

within the application server handle the

corresponding markup language of each

browser.These components translate the

UI elements — described in the meta-

data — and make sure that the pages

are rendered correctly in the browser:

WML (wireless markup language) for a

BlackBerry (see Figure 3), and HTML

on Pocket PCs (see Figure 4).

Creating a Custom MobileApplication: Credit LimitCheck Example

To drill down into how to extend an

existing application to the browser of

a mobile device, let’s walk through an

example. Consider a field sales rep for

a major electronics vendor on location

at a customer site, putting the finishing

touches on a purchase order for 100

televisions. So the sales rep can process

the television sale in real time and

instantly confirm the purchase with the

customer, you want to make a credit

limit check available through his wireless

handheld device.With SAP NetWeaver

2004, you can make this task a reality in

just a few simple steps.

1. Use Drag-and-Drop Web Dynpro

Tools to Create Two New Views

Since the layout of the credit limit checkapplication for a desktop browser is bigger

than the screen of the sales rep’s mobile

handheld device, you need to create two

new “views” — MobileRequest and

 MobileResponse — to make the opera-

tion of the application more convenient

on the smaller machine.4 Thanks to the

Figure 2 Booking Travel Arrangements Using a Windows Mobile Device

2 For information on Web Dynpro,visit the SAP

Developer Network (SDN) at www.sdn.sap.com

and navigate to the Web Dynpro section within the

Web Application Server developer area.

3 If, however, you were to build a new mobile application

from scratch, you would need to create all areas —

model, view,and controller.

4 For a more detailed look at how to create these two

new views, download the Flash tutorial “How to Create

a Mobile Web Dynpro Application with Web Dynpro”

available at www.service.sap.com/mobileui  Media

Library

Literature&

Brochures.

Figure 3 Order Acknowledgement

on a BlackBerry UI

Figure 4 Order Acknowledgement

on a Pocket PC UI

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underlying model-view-controller archi-

tecture,5 all other existing elements can be

reused , including the connection between

the credit limit Web service and the

storage element of the controller, as well

as all methods.

In addition, during design time, theviews need to be connected with the

existing controller using a data link, and

the context elements, which are connected

with a quick drag and drop, are distrib-

uted between the views (see Figure 5).

You can find Request elements, including

customer number and credit segment,

in the MobileRequest view, and

Response elements — such as credit

limit, currency, and expiration date —

in the MobileResponse view. Now the

automatic data stream is assured; during

runtime of this mobile application, your

sales rep can get the results of his credit

check on site at the customer location

in real time.

2. Adjust and Customize the UI

You can make adjustments to the UI

elements with the help of Web Dynpro’s

UI element libraries, which you can

move — via drag and drop — to a specificplace within the View Editor.You can

then adapt the individual properties to

the UI of your sales rep’s mobile device.

Creating views using templates is

even easier. Many wizards and templates

are available in Web Dynpro for this

purpose, including ones for tables, forms,

and buttons.The templates also contain

queries for event-handling properties.

Methods, for example, can be connected

to UI elements with a simple mouse click.

Conclusion

Whenever employees are not at their

desks but still require access to business

applications or data, mobile online

applications can uphold the pace of

business. SAP NetWeaver 2004 provides

you with the ideal development and

runtime platform for mobile applications.

With SAP NetWeaver, you can use

the familiar and highly visual SAP

NetWeaver Developer Studio and Web

Dynpro programming model to reuse and

extend existing desktop browser applica-

tions for mobile use. A few drags and

drops enable your end users to check

customer credit limits — or use any

other enterprise application — wheneverthey want, no matter where they are, and

through a user interface that’s tailored

to their mobile device.

For more information on mobile-

enabling your existing applications, visit

www.service.sap.com/mobileui .

Karin Schattka is product manager for Java-

based user interfaces and mobile technologies

at SAP. She has over 11 years of experience

in the IT industry and has worked as a devel-

oper and a consultant on various customer

projects. As a product manager, she develops

solutions for a range of devices and plat-

forms. In recent years these solutions have

been based on Java technologies, such as

J2ME and J2EE. Karin has spoken at impor-

tant technical conferences, such as JavaOne

and JAX, and also writes articles for journals

and other technical publications.

5 For more on model-view-controller architecture,see

“Your ‘Easy Way In’ to Web Dynpro Development:

New Design-Time Tools Now Available with SAP Web

Application Server 6.30” by Karl Kessler in the April-

June 2003 issue of SAP Insider (www.SAPinsider.com).

Figure 5 Creating New Views with the Web Dynpro Data Modeler Tool