At the Beginning of 2020, IBM Released the much awaited Maximo Anywhere 7.6.4. It was one of the most awaited version as it removed the dependencies of Maximo anywhere on MobileFirst server. After a year of it's release , I finally got a chance to work on upgrade of Maximo Anywhere 7631 to Maximo Anywhere 764. Here in this article I will discuss my observation, understanding and view points of this renewed Anywhere solution from IBM.
Please note, with this article I am only sharing my views about Maximo Anywhere 7.6.4 and your experience with it could be different.
Installation: I upgraded Maximo Anywhere 7631 to 764. Maximo Anywhere components were installed on Macbook(v BigSur) and Maximo was maintained in a Linux server.
IBM upgrade Documentations has very clear explanation of the upgrade steps and I didn't face much of an issue. Here below are the steps followed:
- Install and upgrade Maximo components. It was a smooth process where I didn't face much of an issue as my client's environment is free from any java customisation. So, upgrades are as simple as upgrading an OOB environment. The only thing that changed was to run includeanywheremodule.cmd or includeanywheremodule.sh from the <install_home>/maximo/deployment directory. Reference Document for this : https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/3225345
- Install Maximo Anywhere components on Macbook. Installation manager does not support Macbook BigSur thus I had to install Installation manager and Maximo Anywhere components using the Silent mode(Click here for Silent mode installation documentation.).
- Merge the the Client Specific customisation with Anywhere 764 code.
- Build and deploy the new apps. This version builds and deploys the apps directly into Maximo. Maximo Anywhere builds an app.zip file and deploys it into Maximo and the same is downloaded into the device when App connects to Maximo. Maximo's Anywhere Administration> APPNAME > Deployment Tab displays the deployment date. Successful deployment can be verified in the deployment tab. You can also manually deploy the zip files using the deployment tab.
What changed in the installation process?
There is an added/optional step to install the Maximo Anywhere App container( just a naming convention and has no relation to containerisation). This extra step is required only if you have to build Native Android and iOS apps. Scenarios where you might need to do build Native apps:
- Change app logos
- Use chrome debug tools to debug the apps
- Push Notification
- Add new custom or LAFIX related cordova plugins
- Your organisation is using MDM to distribute the apps
- Your organisation does not want users to see the Connect page. This is something new in this version where if enabled users can see which environment they are connecting the app. This page appears only once after installation. If you want to change the url then you need to reinstall the app.
I faced a number of issues while building native iOS app , out of which a lot was due to provisioning profile issues. Also, IBM's native app build had a couple of bugs. I resolved one of the bugs and the other was resolved by the IBM dev Team. Following tech notes were created for those issue:
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6339723
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6447772
Changes for Maximo Anywhere Developers:
- Customisation and Configuration: No Changes in the Anywhere Customisation and configuration. Previous experience and knowledge of Maximo Anywhere Configuration and Customisation still hold true.
- Mobile First Server and Studio: The biggest change is that there is no Mobilefirst studio anymore therefore unit testing is a bit tricky. I use Android virtual devices to build and test the changes.
- App Distribution : App distribution was handled by Application Center in Maximo Anywhere 7.6.3.1. We used Google Firebase Console to distribute apps to QA and other team members for Maximo Anywhere 7.6.4. Google's Firebase's app distribution is free(Firebase Documentation) .
Overall view points:
- Most important change is the compute footprint is lesser as there is no Mobilefirst server. Theoretically ( yet to go live), the same configurations of Maximo JVM should be able to handle the load of Maximo Anywhere users. Clients can save the amount resources spent on provisioning and maintaining Mobilefirst servers.
- Apps have better performance.
- Building App zip is very fast. It is taking less than 30 seconds to build the app zip files and deploys into Maximo.
- Maximo App Container build process too does not take more than 1.5 minutes.
- Developer needs higher configuration devices to run a vm or local maximo installation and android virtual devices.
- Developers need to learn bit more about debugging from Chrome debug tools, ADB, Android Virtual Devices and Xcode ,if required.
- App Functionalities is not changed at all.
