What's new in MDK 2.5?

MDK 2.5 is based on MDK 2.1 4^th and revised edition and adds new information on all features that are new in MI 2.5. Furthermore, being fully integrated into SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio, MDK changed its looks and shipment. Minor features where added on the tools-side.

Below you find a complete list of changes:

New features in MDK 2.5

SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio Integration

MDK is completely integrated into SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio and all its contents are only available as part of SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio. This has the following implications:

MDK development and documentation plug-ins are built into one plug-in that is shipped together with NW IDE. No separate installation of the plug-in is necessary any more. Updates of MDK are shipped as IDE updates.
The MDK documentation moved the Help system of NW IDE. It is no longer available as independent web application that can be installed on SAP J2EE Engine, Tomcat, Eclipse or MI Client.

New plug-in features include the following:

The button for starting MDK documentation from within Eclipse was removed, as the MDK documentation is now integrated into the Help System of the Developer Studio.
The MDK Project Properties tab has been replaced by a new button. More info here.
MDK has its own perspective iand a node MI Application in the run/debug configuration that you find under Run > Run. Before, MI configurations were grouped under Java application. In the MI perspective allow you to have only MI projects visible on the workbench.

New MDK documentation topics

The new MI 2.5 features that are relevant to developers (see below) have been described in individual chapters. Some topics (esp. in Smart Sync) have not yet been covered in full depth and the next edition of MDK will look into them in more detail. In the meantime, please consult the Javadoc for more information.

MDK examples now all use the new Logging API. To ensure that getApplicationName(), MCD name and archive name are always identical, the constant MI_APPLICATION_NAME is defined in the Constants interface of the examples and evaluated by the Export functionality of the plug-in.

MDK includes new AWT examples.

New Features in MI 2.5

The release notes at help.sap.com -> NetWeaver -> MI 2.5 contain the high-level view on new features in MI 2.5. In the below table, we want to concentrate on those features that are relevant to developers, leaving aside new administrative functions like CCMS integration, central tracing, central configuration information etc.

API enhancements

Feature name	Description	Affected packages or classes
User localization	The new user localization allows application developers to display persistently stored data and time in form of local data and time. Change display formats depending on nationality of client user in multi-national oper-tions End-users choose their language during login. They can also specifiy time zone and country in their private MI settings.	com.sap.ip.me.api.conf.Localization com.sap.ip.me.api.services.DateConverter
Application Deployment	As part of MI's initiative to support native drivers, the deployment was extended in such a way that driver add-on packages can execute driver-specific installation routines during deployment and can adjust the class path to their needs. Application developers should not use this feature.	com.sap.ip.me.api.deploy
Logging	MI featues a new logging concept and has extended the original tracing concept considerably. Click here to read more.	com.sap.ip.me.api.logging
JSP	Some new convenience methods added in AbstractMEHttpServlet (getMIHome, encodeForHTML). New class ParameterConverter	com.sap.ip.me.api.runtime.jsp
User-specific data filtering service	MI Client tightly integrates into NetWeaver's authorization concept by allowing applications to declare which authorizations they want to check on the client replicating the corresponding authorization information to the MI client during sync offering applications a special API for checking authorizations of a given user Click here to read more.	com.sap.ip.me.api.security com.sap.ip.me.api.user
Configuration	Some configuration keys have been added to the PropertyKeys interface. The Configuration class now gives you the possibility to find all keys with a common prefix (e.g. your application's name)	com.sap.ip.me.api.conf
Sync password <> Logon password	To enhance client-side security and avoid storing of WebAS passwords on the mobile device itself, logon password and synchronization password have been decoupled.	com.sap.ip.me.api.sync com.sap.ip.me.api.user
AWT changes	Applications can do post-initialization (set focus, change window name) steps via the InitInterface. The FrameworkInterface has been enhanced by the possibility to create new dialog boxes.	com.sap.ip.me.api.runtime.awt

Software Logistics - Mobile Component Descriptor

The Mobile Component Descriptor (MCD; former name: Mobile Solution Descriptor) is now properly integrated into SAP transport landscape: via its own editor (transaction MI_MCD on the WebAS), it can be created, changed, transported and deleted. The MCD is a normal repository object that is created by the developer at the beginning of the project and reaches the customer via the normal transport mechanism. The MCD explicitely declares all properties and dependencies of the mobile component; the Web Console should only be used to upload an application archive (.war or .jar) and hence tie it to an MCD. The properties and dependencies will be used during deployment to ensure that all dependent components are automatically deployed together with a given component.

Smart Sync Enhancements

A couple of new things happened in the Smart Sync arena for application developers. For changes about individual transactions, visit SAP Help Portal > NetWeaver > MI. The next MDK edition will cover all client-side topics with individual chapters.

The SyncBO Builder changed drastically, most visibly its mapping screen.
BAPI Wrappers can now easily be generated through the new BAPI Wrapper Wizard that can be started from within SyncBO Builder.
The Profile Dialog screens have changed drastically as well.
Recursive modeling is now possible, that means that if SyncBO A references SyncBO B, then SyncBO B may still itself reference SyncBO A without running into endless loops.
Mass data replication has been enabled - in the past, memory could run out if too much data was replicated during Timed-2-way replication or download of Download SyncBOs. The next edition of MDK will describe this feature in more detail.
New data types for Smart Sync are now available on the MI client - see Javadoc for details.
Several Smart Sync applications can run in parallel on the same device - in ME 2.1 this was not possible.
New query options (including relations) have been added.

Terminology

With the integration into NetWeaver, the former product SAP Mobile Engine has been rebranded to SAP Mobile Infrastructure.