Overview of IBM Worklight

 

• Worklight Studio. A plug-in that is added to the Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE). It provides a development framework for Worklight applications. 
• Worklight server. An application that runs on an application server. It gives way in to deployed Worklight applications.
• Worklight console. An application that is distributed with Worklight server. It is used to manage deployed Worklight applications.
• Device run time. A collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) that are used to develop hybrid Worklight applications. 
• Application Centre: A private app store where developers can upload applications and users can upload feedback on the application.

IBM Worklight is a platform for the development of mobile applications. It is a element of the Mobile-first family of products. Worklight consists of five parts:

How to make a mobile application with IBM Worklight Studio and deploy it to a test or production environment. The components of the Worklight platform are illustrated in Figure.

Worklight builds applications on a common environment, which means that when you analysis an application on, for example, an iPhone and a BlackBerry, by default they automatically have the same appearance. You can alter this default as much as you want because Worklight provides environments for each device operating system that it supports. Worklight server can alert the user to the accessibility of a new version of an application, and it can even block an application so that it cannot be used until the new version is installed.

Business value Worklight supports the development of web applications (HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript), native applications (written in the native programming language of the device), and hybrid applications (a mix of web and native). Runtime capabilities include encryption of local data, offline authentication, device-type detection, and integration with frameworks, such as Dojo mobile, Sencha Touch, and JQuery.

Worklight Studio provides a single environment for the development, testing, and deployment of an application. It has its own integrated server, a console view that provides a mobile browser simulator, and, if the Android Software Development Kit (SDK) is installed, an Android Emulator, which can give a more defined indication of the depiction of the Android environment.

Worklight can integrate with iOS by exporting the environment to Xcode. This exported environment runs only on an Apple computer.

From the developer’s point of view, there is no need to install extra software, or to package code to send outside of the environment for testing. From the governance point of view, Worklight can manage application ease of understanding and updates, security, and authentication. Worklight provides analytics for smart application usage opening of events, and can integrate with other analytics tools, such as Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT), and IBM Tea-leaf.

Developers can be provided with a predefined shell component that includes web coding, such as company headers and logo, or contact information, and native coding and security. 

This shell ensures identical development across teams:

Headers always have the same appearance, security always is implemented in the same way, and so on.