What are Cross-platform Mobile Forms?

Cross Mobile Forms is an exclusive platform bridge developed by Compass Point to help businesses use mobile technology to operate more efficiently without having to make expensive bets on where the mobile device fashion trends will go. With CMF, the emphasis is on clean, lean, and practical instead of costly eye-candy.

A new CMF mobile business app typically begins as user interface built with web-common technologies -- technologies that are broadly supported, far quicker to develop in compared to native device tools (weeks vs. months/years), and run on all major smart devices.

It's then turned into a business app by:

1. Wrapping it in a native CMF application shell for easy access to mobile-device capabilities such as cameras, GPS, close-proximity networked sensors, PIM data, identity, etc. CMF's native application shells are lean, far simpler than alternatives like PhoneGap, and can be extended "just in time" to access new device capabilities or ported to new platforms without a lot of fuss. CMF currently provides a native shell for both Android and iOS.
2. Adding a cross-platform CMF module to enable apps to collect data even when a network signal is unreliable or not available, without custom coding.
3. Integrating it with your enterprise systems directly, brokered through middle-ware, or stepped through a quarantine. CMF apps communicate using standard web service protocols and can be integrated in a variety of ways depending on your workflow, system, and security needs. 

CMF technology can also be used to extend existing web applications by giving them access to mobile device hardware capabilities. Imagine an inventory web interface extended to scan bar codes, or a time entry form modified to capture employee clock-in and clock-out location, or a sales tool that can now capture audio notes or pictures of business cards or other information out on sales calls -- even on devices your employees are already bringing with them to work.

CMF is delivered as a combination of technology and services so you are not left on your own. From strategy to analysis, lean development to integration, Compass Point can help you fit it all together into a meaningful solution for your business.

An app example

CMF can be used to quickly build data input apps for use by employees or partners.

Imagine a time clock for offsite employees that records check in / out time and location anywhere -- out in the field or at remote offices. Or an expense form that each employee can use to enter travel expenses on the road, on their own devices, complete with images of their receipts. Or a shipment app that keeps track of retail deliveries and can scan UPC codes as they are dropped off. The possibilities are endless.

Expense Form App

Let's take a quick look at what a simple expense app could look like. For this example we'll focus on collecting expense information, with one screen to add and edit expense information and another to list expenses entered -- a basic master-detail user interface.

Our screen to capture expenses collects basic expense information like date, description, and cost.

















It also captures receipts by enabling the employee to take a picture of the receipt. For this function, a 'capture' button is programmed by making a single call to a CMF function that takes care of triggering the device camera and putting the captured image back on the screen:

Once saved, an expense is put into a list where employees can add, edit, or delete expenses:

Notice that Expense data for this example is collected on the device. Employees can 'send' it from the main screen when they're ready via web services, presumably to a workflow within their company that routes it from approval to payment.














Also, while I didn't show it running in Android here, this app works just as well on a 'pad or Android device without additional coding.

So, what did it take to put this app together in CMF?

First I added about 2 pages of HTML code using JQuery Mobile that defined both screens. I also included a CMF style to make it look ios7-ish which can be easily changed using CSS. Straightforward stuff.

I then defined the fields to save and added some code for initialization in standard Javascript, about 1 page worth in all.  In the same language used across the web by a large percentage of developers. The storage, retrieval, and sending of saved data is all handled by a CMF module, so no tiresome DB coding was necessary.


Lastly, I hosted it in CMF's ios and android shell so it can access camera capabilities on both types of devices.

A working mobile business app that uses mobile hardware features, operates when a network is unreliable, runs on both the iPhone, Android, and the major tablets. All in a couple of pages of code. Not bad!