Altova (http://www.altova.com) has launched MobileTogether 3.2, an update of its cross-platform mobile development framework. This release introduces over 18 t new features for building data-centric mobile apps.
Features include support for NFC (near field communication), the ability to access mobile device contacts, text-to-speech functionality, numerous enhancements for table and chart creation, and much more. According to Alexander Falk, CEO and president of Altova, are are some highlights:
° NFC is a set of communication protocols that allow two devices to exchange messages when within a few centimeters of proximity. Android Push is now also supported. MobileTogether now supports pushing and receiving NFC messages including text, URI, MIME media, application records, and more.
° Access mobile device contacts: Apps built in MobileTogether can now access information from the user’s contacts stored on the device, which is useful, for example, when a user wants to send something via email or SMS, or place a call from within the app.
° Text-to-Speech: This new action makes it easy to add text-to-speech functionality to your apps so that the built-in speech synthesizer in the device will read text aloud to the user. This is perfect for use-cases where the user may need to use the app without looking at the screen, such as hands-free situations.
° Dynamic table growth (left to right) – In addition to dynamic rows, tables can now also have dynamic columns, meaning that columns can be added on the right-hand side of the table as needed to grow the table based on the number of instances an element occurs. The ability to dynamically grow a table from left to right, top to bottom, or both, makes it possible to define tables for virtually any scenario.
° On-demand loading of tables is a performance-optimizing features for apps that include large scrollable tables. The app developer can now specify the number of table rows that can be loaded at a time. This is seamless to the end user but allows tables to load in a fraction of the time.