topic Re: Windows 8 mobile app? in Alfresco Archive

Windows 8 mobile app?

ahmedsyscs — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 13:29:55 GMT

My apologies in advance if this has been asked before - and I did spend a considerable amount of time searching… but is there any Windows 8 native application for accessing Alfresco? Similar to the Android and iPad applications?If there isn't a custom app, are there any recommended CMIS native apps

Re: Windows 8 mobile app?

mrogers — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 14:14:36 GMT

What do you want this app to do?

There's less need for a native app on windows since you can access alfresco through the windows file explorer. Having said that there are a bunch of native apps including plug ins for Outlook that look quite nice.

Re: Windows 8 mobile app?

mikeh — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 18:54:54 GMT

I'm assuming you mean Windows RT when you ask for Windows 8 Mobile? There's no native app I know of, mainly due to the lack of a CMIS client for Windows Mobile. We have recently spoken to a partner about this area and we estimated the CMIS API would be somewhere around 3 months to develop - then additional time to implement Alfresco REST APIs and finally anywhere from 3-6 months for the app itself depending on the complexity. Obviously this time can be reduced somewhat by using more than one developer.

From Alfresco's point of view, we still haven't seen any significant enterprise demand for Windows Mobile. Certainly not enough to justify a developer-year of implementation.

Your best starting point would be to engage the Apache Chemistry group and try to develop a CMIS client. Everything else can then build off that.

Re: Windows 8 mobile app?

ahmedsyscs — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 09:10:47 GMT

Thank you for your feedback.

In my original question, I simply stated that the app should do more or less what the other apps do on the iPad and on Android devices. That is all I am asking.

That being said, I believe using Alfresco through a Windows file explorer will miss out on features that are present in the iPad/Android apps: tasks and comments on documents.

The Windows file explorer is good for uploading and downloading files. But collaboration is more than that, as the Share interface demonstrates (comments, tasks, blogs, wikis, etc.).

Yes, it is possible to use Alfresco via the Web interface on a Windows tablet, but it doesn't have the "mobile look and feel."

Thanks again.

Re: Windows 8 mobile app?

ahmedsyscs — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 09:15:31 GMT

Actually, I should have made it clear what my client is looking for, and my apologies for that. They are running Windows 8, and have deployed that on tablet devices. Not Windows RT.

My company is a partner as well, and I completely appreciate your point about the lack of incentive for investing in a mobile client for an OS that is still have trouble finding adoption in large enterprises. But we are seeing that uptick here, and in particular we have one large client (12000 employees) who are indeed rolling out Windows 8 for the enterprise.

Thanks for your feedback too.