Mobile Application
Architecture Initiative
Steve Wheat
Chief IT Architect
Agenda
• Goals of the Mobile Application Architecture
Initiative
• Method of Achieving the Goals of the
Initiative
• Progress and Overview of Current
Recommendations
• This presentation and links to everything
referenced here are available at
http://arch.it.emory.edu
Goals
• Design and develop a number of mobile applications
• Write a mobile application reference guide similar in scope
and detail to guides prepared for EAI/SOA and web
application frameworks
• Review, expand and amend the reference guide with review
and input from units that develop, support, and implement
mobile applications
• Implement the recommendations of the reference guide in
the architecture review checklists and technical design review
processes as appropriate
Mobile Applications
• Over the past two years we have designed, developed, and/or
deployed and integrated the following mobile applications:
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•
•
•
•
•
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BioCatalogue Mobile
EdUnify Mobile
Emory Mobile
PKU Mobile*
WebEase Mobile
Mass Transfusion Protocol (MTP) Mobile*
WebEase Mobile for Kids*
* Design stage only, no funding yet for implementation and deployment
Mobile Application
Reference Guide
• Like the EAI/SOA and web application reference guides it
provides both a high-level overview and low-level detail
(microarchitectures) for developing mobile applications
• Serves as both an instructional guide and architecture
compliance reference
• Implemented as a wiki so everyone who uses it may
comment, propose and collaborate on new sections
• Intended to facilitate communication in detail. The
engineering of modern software requires written
documentation and schematics to facilitate intelligent
discussion
Review, Expand, Amend…
• The outline of these guides follow high-level scenarios of the types of
projects we undertake. For example:
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–
–
–
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Build a mobile application
Engage consultants to build a mobile application
Implement/customize a vended mobile application
Store and manage data collected by existing mobile applications
Expose Emory data to existing mobile applications
• We’ll address most of these major scenarios, but there may be others
identified in the review
• The low-level details require extensive review of the goals of each
microarchitecture and code samples from reference implementations
and actual projects
Implement Recommended
Architecture
• Train technical leads and reviewers in the details of the
architecture described in the reference guide. Most should
already be well acquainted with the approach from reading,
commenting, and proposing new sections to the guide on the
wiki
• Add clear guidelines to implement these architectures to the
technical design, architecture, and security review templates
as appropriate
Mobile App Architecture Overview
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Progress and Recommendations
to Date (1)
• Mobile application architecture relies heavily on the existing
EAI/SOA and web application architectures
• Mobile applications must access application logic and data
through a service layer, which also implements additional
security---SOA is no longer optional
• OIT’s Google Web Toolkit web application frameworks allow
us to provide alternative views for mobile devices within the
same framework we use to create desktop web views.
Because almost all mobile applications have a need for
desktop interfaces, developing mobile web apps using this
common framework should be our default approach
Progress and Recommendations
to Date (2)
• There are use cases that trigger the need for native iOS and
Android mobile applications that are not readily
accommodated with mobile web applications. These include
the need for:
– Continuous background processing or collection of data (i.e.
connecting seizure motion data from an accelerometer)
– significant amounts of frequent or rapid data entry (i.e. entering
detailed diet information throughout each day)
– Unreliable or intermittent network connectivity (i.e. running a
diagnostic algorithm in the ER at Grady)
Progress and Recommendations
to Date (3)
• Native iOS and Android applications bring with them the need
for additional microarchitectures and security considerations,
especially for applications subject to HIPAA compliance
policies. These architectures include the need for:
– Message object API to represent application data and logic for iOS and Android
– Web service client generator for iOS and Android to generate web service clients for each web
service with which applications must interact and to implement access of server side
resources in a consistent and uniform manner
– Client authentication mechanism to authenticate the distributed client application
– Client authentication mechanism to authenticate the device deployment of the client
application
– User authentication mechanism to authenticate the user of the client
– Data encryption for persistent data stored on the mobile device
– Distribution mechanism for internal mobile applications (apps that are not distributed through
publicly accessible app stores)
Progress and Recommendations
to Date (4)
• In each of these areas we’ve implemented or are working on
the following:
– Objective C Message Object API generator comparable to MOA gen in Java
– Web service client generator for Objective C similar to Apache Axis wsdl2java
for Java
– Client certificate authentication for all mobile applications we distribute
– Replacing the distribution certificate with a deployment certificate upon first
use (this and the preceding item require certificate generation and
management ESB/web services)
– User authentication ESB/web service
– Data encryption framework for application data on the mobile device
(requires key management ESB/web services)
– Over the air internal mobile application distribution available at
https://dev.app.emory.edu/mobile/[application_name]
Status and Documentation
• All of these findings and recommendations are
appearing in one of two wiki spaces:
– Google Web Toolkit Reference Guide
– Mobile Application Architecture Reference Guide
• GWT Guide is already complete and vetted with more
details being added for mobile web app interfaces
• Mobile App Reference Guide will be ready for in depth
discussion and review by Summer 2013 after the
release of a couple more mobile apps
The End
Questions?