Cloud Connected Mobile

Zend Studio's Cloud Connected Mobile (CCM) tool enables you to develop, test, and publish mobile native applications using the Cloud platform.

CCM allows you to:

Create, manage and publish PHP RESTful Web services to the Cloud - Based on Zend Framework 2 and Zend GatewayA light-weight PHP framework, based on Zend Framework 2, that helps developers to create and manage RESTful APIs..
Create a Mobile Web user interface using HTML5 and JavaScript, and bind mobile Web UI widgets with RESTful services.
Generate native projects for iOS, Android, Windows Phone.
Test your native application on an emulator or a device.

Note:

CCM projects can be deployed on the Zend Developer Cloud, remote Zend Servers and locally.

A newly created CCM project creates two associated projects in your workspace - a mobile project that defines the client-side aspect of the new application (e.g., user interface), and a server project that defines the server-side aspect (e.g., deployment, storage, etc.). The new projects do not have any outstanding interdependencies, and can be considered as separate entries. So, for example, it is possible to use different server side projects for a single mobile project without any additional configuration.

Server Project

The server-side project includes the Zend Gateway, a RESTful Web Services gateway. The Gateway is a lightweight PHP framework, based on Zend Framework 2, that facilitates the creation and management of RESTful APIs.

The Gateway can be easily configured to specify how HTTP requests are to be handled by the mobile application (routing, authentication, validation, filtering, etc.) by configuring the Zend Gateway configuration file ('gateway.xml'). This configuration file can be opened by a graphical editor that allows easy configuration of the application's server route by simply dragging and dropping elements. For more information on working with this file, see Configuring the Zend Gateway.

The project also contains: The public directory ('htaccess' and 'index.php' public files), service directory (PHP classes), deployment files, and the PHP Include Path (Zend Framework 2 and Zend Gateway libraries).

Mobile Project

The client-side project contains the Web mobile application, and includes the PhoneGap mobile application framework, a framework for developing multi-platform mobile applications based on HTML5 and Javascript.

This framework includes the 'config.xml' file, which is not part of the mobile application, and contains the settings for creating native applications: General information, list of PhoneGap APIs to be inserted in the application (e.g., Camera), author details and a selection of available native applications (iOS, Android, Windows Mobile).

The mobile project also contains the 'index.html' file (by default, the main entry point for your application), jQuery mobile library, PhoneGap Cordova library (native API), jQuery library, and the 'debugdata.json' file (defines what data is returned for a particular native API call).

The mobile project also includes Codiqa's mobile GUI design framework, which is automatically displayed after project creation. This framework allows you to quickly desgin your application's user interface by dragging and dropping elements onto a device emulator. For more information on working with this editor, see Using the Mobile GUI Editor.

At any stage of the development process, your project can be launched from within Zend Studio using a Web Mobile Emulator. The emulator enables you to have a glimpse of how your Web mobile application will look like in its finite form. For information on testing mobile applications, see Testing a New Cloud Connected Mobile Project.

Native Applications

CCM allows you to create native applications for Android, iOS and Windows Phone platforms. The native applications are cloned from the CCM mobile project and are synchronized, meaning changes made to the mobile project are projected to the native application project. For more information, see Creating Native Applications.

Note:

Synchronization between projects is one-way. Changes made to your native application are not projected to your Web mobile application.

Native applications can also be tested using an emulator or a simulator. For more information, see Running Native Applications.