All,

Newbie question about designing dashboards in our 8.0.1.0 environment.

Is it possible to code dashboards so that they re-size to fit mobile devices (iPad, Android & iOS phones, etc) as well as desktops and laptops in this version?

Or do we need to upgrade to the latest 8.1.0.5 to have the "responsive design" features to do this?

Also, for clarity, we have not purchased the "mobile" add-on.


Thanks in advance.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: <Emily McAllister>,

If you haven't already started, I'd go with the latest. I believe Responsive Portal Containers were a new feature of 8.1xx

BE aware that responsive portals are heavy, in particular for mobile devices. In particular iPad/iPhones

"Heavy" meaning they require a large amount of server-side resources? Or they tend to load slowly on the mobile devices?

They tend to load up the mobile device.

Also depends on your design and the size of your portal (number of tabs and iframes)

We have seen Safari on iPads crash due to memory usage. The OS will clear memory to save the device, including the apps like safari.

quote:

Originally posted by bldkfs98:
All,

Newbie question about designing dashboards in our 8.0.1.0 environment.

Is it possible to code dashboards so that they re-size to fit mobile devices (iPad, Android & iOS phones, etc) as well as desktops and laptops in this version?

Or do we need to upgrade to the latest 8.1.0.5 to have the "responsive design" features to do this?

Also, for clarity, we have not purchased the "mobile" add-on.


Thanks in advance.

In WebFOCUS 8.1.0.5, there are two checkboxes when first creating an HTML page: One that indicates it will be used with mobile devices, and another that says charts should be resized automatically. This sets up the responsive design ability.

I must admit that I will probably need to take a class to understand how this works in WebFOCUS. I know how to create responsive design pages from scratch without using WebFOCUS. In fact, I just completed one today. But I'm finding it tricky to create one using App Studio. In addition to the checkboxes mentioned above, you need to take the components that will need to change size and position and change the "Autosize options" for each one from "Keep size and position" to "Accept any changes". This will make the page "fluid" so it can fit properly on mobile devices.

But exactly how to make the page display the way I want it to for different sized mobile devices in portrait or landscape mode is a mystery to me (e.g., having panels with charts in them go across the mobile device in landscape mode, but stacked vertically in portrait mode). Without using WebFOCUS, I would use CSS media queries to accomplish this. I probably still can, as App Studio allows you to create custom CSS code, but I don't know for sure.

Anyway, I found that I was able to take my responsive design/mobile page that I created from scratch and plug it into a WebFOCUS BI Portal. It works, but I had to select the "fluid layout" option in the portal page first.

For testing your mobile device with WebFOCUS, I recommend downloading and using a Chrome browser add-on that simulates what your HTML page looks like on various mobile devices:

Mobile Browser Emulator for Chrome

(For some reason, when WebFOCUS launches the Chrome browser after I sign in and open my responsive design page, the mobile design add-on is not present. I get around this by opening a second Chrome browser from my Windows taskbar, then copying and pasting the link in the first Chrome browser to the second one.)

I hope this helps anyone else who is looking for information about mobile devices and WebFOCUS.

I struggled to get the HTML Composer to work with mobile/responsive behavior. I ended up acquiring IBI's responsive templates CM package and that gave me a better idea of how the tool works with responsive settings and components/elements. I highly suggest getting a copy for your sites!