PocketBrowser 3.x Migration Guide

Enterprise Browser 3.6

Overview

Enterprise Browser supports PocketBrowser 3.x applications, which in many cases will run in EB with just a few small changes. This guide explains the changes that will always be required for migration to EB, and a few that might be.

Config.xml

The single change that is always necessary when migrating to Enterprise Browser from any other platform is to specify the StartPage of the app in the Enterprise Browser Config.xml file. It's also sometimes necessary to replicate or adjust other relevant settings from old config file to the new, and to copy page files and/or relevant JavaScript API files.

Location of the Enterprise Browser Config.xml file:

  • Android devices: /sdcard/Android/data/com.zebra.mdna.enterprisebrowser/
  • Windows devices: \Program Files\EnterpriseBrowser\Config\

See the Enterprise Browser Config.xml Reference for more information about settings, parameters and other requirements.

Display Rendering

If migrating from a Windows device to one running Android, adjustments to some display settings will likely be necessary since the two platforms use different webkits. Other considerations might include display of the soft input panel and its position on the screen. Some of the relevant parameters are listed below; all should be checked.

If switching from CE to WM or vice-versa, rendering may differ due to variations in webkits and browser controls across those platforms. Some of the parameters below also are relevant here, and should be checked.

Render-related settings:

NEW FOR CHECKING

Installation

To install Enterprise Browser please take a look at the installation section. If deploying to a Windows CE device, a persistent installation for Webkit should be selected so that Enterprise Browser persists over a cold boot.

Note: Do not forget to cold boot the device to complete the installation.

Configuration Settings

The Config.xml file needs to be updated:

  1. Set the StartPage.

    
<Configuration>
    <Applications>
        <Application>
            <General>
                <Name value="Menu"/>
                <StartPage value="file://%INSTALLDIR%/menu.html" name="Menu"/>
            </General>

  2. Switch backwards compatibility on. The regular expressions engine can be activated from within the configuration file by setting the value of UseRegularExpressions to 1.

    
<Configuration>
    <Applications>
        <Application>
            <General>
                <Name value="Menu"/>
                <StartPage value="file://%INSTALLDIR%/menu.html" name="Menu"/>
                <UseRegularExpressions value='1'/>
            </General>

  3. Verify that Webkit is the rendering engine to use.

    
<Configuration>
    <Engine>
        <EngineInUse value='Webkit'/>

  4. Move any offline files to the device.

If you have any BadLink pages or offline resources (on the device), copy them over now.

Note: The file systems of some operating systems are case-sensitive. For cross-platform compatibility, letter case for URL, file and path references in the Config.xml file should be identical to those of the sources.

Usage Notes

  • Generic methods RasConnect & RasDisconnect are not supported.
  • NOSIP not supported. The NOSIP control was a solution for placing a text box onto the page that did not trigger the Soft Input Panel. This predates the APIs that now allow us to hide the SIP or place it off screen. There is no support for NOSIP on Enterprise Browser. To disable the SIP, see the disabling the SIP section in the SIP API reference.
  • FitToScreenEnabled not supported. This is a function for Windows Mobile only.

Windows Mobile/CE using IE

When using IE as the rendering engine only PocketBrowser API's and funtioanlity will be available. API's listed in this help document will not be supported. You may wish to choose to use this option if you are not looking to take advantage of Webkit abilities and/or other functionality that Enterprise Browser provides. This may be an only option for very low memory/CPU devices.

Installation

To install Enterprise Browser please take a look at the installation section. If deploying to a Windows CE device, a persistent installation for IE should be selected so that Enterprise Browser persists over a cold boot.

Note: Do not forget to cold boot the device to complete the installation.

Configuration Settings

The Config.xml file needs to be updated:

  1. Set the StartPage.

    
<Configuration>
    <Applications>
        <Application>
            <General>
                <Name value="Menu"/>
                <StartPage value="file://%INSTALLDIR%/menu.html" name="Menu"/>
            </General>

  2. Switch backwards compatibility on.The regular expressions engine can be activated from within the configuration file by setting the value of UseRegularExpressions to 1.

    
<Configuration>
    <Applications>
        <Application>
            <General>
                <Name value="Menu"/>
                <StartPage value="file://%INSTALLDIR%/menu.html" name="Menu"/>
                <UseRegularExpressions value='1'/>
            </General>

  3. Verify that Webkit is the rendering engine to use.

    
<Configuration>
    <Engine>
        <EngineInUse value='IE'/>

  4. Move any offline files to the device.

If you have any BadLink pages or offline resources (on the device), copy them over now.

Usage Notes

  • Generic methods RasConnect & RasDisconnect are not supported.
  • PageZoom is not supported on IE. This web view supports text zoom only.
  • Javascript events onkeydown, onkeypress, onkeyup are not supported in Windows mobile devices running Internet explorer. Use EnterpriseBrowser Keycapture APIs instead to capture the hardware keypresses.

Scrollbars/Fingerscrolling

In order to support backwards compatibility, PocketBrowser was forced to use PIE (IE4) for WM6.5 devices even though IE6 was available. This was because developers at the time were reliant on the scrollbars, which Microsoft dropped in IE6 on Windows Mobile. As a result of that decision, PIE is still used on WM today, rather than IE6. IE6 on CE supports scrollbars and is more capable web view.The Scroll options have changed in the configuration file to accommodate more options since CE7 has introduced Finger Scrolling.

Android

Since you have chosen Android to run a PocketBrowser v2 application, you should expect some major differences with regard to rendering. The rendering that is used on Android is the stock Webview that comes with the Android SDK.

Installation

To install Enterprise Browser please take a look at the installation section.

Configuration Settings

The Config.xml file needs to be updated:

  1. Set the StartPage.

    
<Configuration>
    <Applications>
        <Application>
            <General>
                <Name value="Menu"/>
                <StartPage value="file://%INSTALLDIR%/menu.html" name="Menu"/>
            </General>

  2. Switch backwards compatibility on.The regular expressions engine can be activated from within the configuration file by setting the value of UseRegularExpressions to 1.

    
<Configuration>
    <Applications>
        <Application>
            <General>
                <Name value="Menu"/>
                <StartPage value="file://%INSTALLDIR%/menu.html" name="Menu"/>
                <UseRegularExpressions value='1'/>
            </General>

  3. Move any offline files to the device.

If you have any BadLink pages or offline resources (on the device), copy them over now.

  1. Copy the elements.js file that comes with the installation to the location of your HTML pages and reference it appropriately in your application

    
<html>
    <head>
        <script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="/js/elements.js"></script>
        <!-- assumes I have copied the elements.js file to my web server's JS folder -->

Usage Notes

  • Generic methods RasConnect & RasDisconnect are not supported.
  • NOSIP not supported. The NOSIP control was a solution for placing a text box onto the page that did not trigger the Soft Input Panel. This predates the APIs that now allow us to hide the SIP or place it off screen. There is no support for NOSIP on Enterprise Browser. To disable the SIP, see the disabling the SIP section in the SIP API reference.
  • FitToScreenEnabled not supported. This is a function for Windows Mobile only.
  • EMML profiles do not work.
  • Check the device for hardware compatibility, especially the barcode scanning options.

API specific notes

This section provides remarks on peculiarities or dependencies concerning specific APIs and their compatibility with PB3.

DeviceApplication API

  • Windows CE - The TextSize feature in the DeviceApplication API from PB3 will not function properly unless you also enable text selection using the TextSelectionEnabled setting in Config.xml.

Related Guides: