by Zan Kavtaskin
28. January 2011 09:54
At the time of writing this article (2011) mobile devices (i.e. mobile phones, tablets) are running on very compact operating systems. They follow very similar approach to standard computer operating systems i.e. Windows, Linux, Macs, however their functionality has been cut massively in order to save virtual memory, solid state memory and processing power. These devices depend on clever approach to software engineering to ensure that programs execute really quickly, with smallest amount of power/memory usage.
Mobile Application Programming Interface inherits same definition as an API, albeit there are some constraints that separate it from a typical API.
MAPI currently simply adds constraints to a typical API and they are:
- To invoke MAPI via GET commands in the URL (not SOAP or any other heavy pattern)
- When MAPI is invoked MAPI must return only used data, don’t return information to the mobile device that’s not required for UI or processing, it is a waste
- To use POST to push a binary object, or really long amount of text (bad practice as it costs mobile device user a cellular charge [unless on WIFI] and battery life)
- When using POST to ensure that information is not bigger then few KB’s
This is just a beginning for term MAPI, I am sure as this term gets picked up by wider mobile device community lots more constraints will be added.