Skip to main content
Version: v11.6.2

Device Variables

Device Variables are specific to Mobile App projects. These are useful in performing operations specific to a Mobile Device like taking a picture and getting its path, select a contact, add events to a calendar, etc.

Services

Service specifies the target service to be used. Each service is targeted to perform a set of operations for a feature. Available services are:

  • Calendar – you can use this service to add, remove and list events in your phone calendar. The event details would include title, notes, location, start and end times.
  • Camera – you can use this to capture an image or a video
  • Contacts – you can use this variable to list the contacts on your phone. You can apply a filter on the list retrieved.
  • Datasync - you can use this service to sync data
  • Device – you can use this service to handle your mobile device features like vibrate, get connection type, model, OS, OS version etc.
  • File – you can upload files to your mobile device
  • Scan – can be used to access the barcode scanner.

Operations

Based upon the service selected various operations are available.

Calendar Service Operations

createEventdeleteEventgetEvents

Camera Service Operations

captureImagecaptureVideo

Contacts Service Operations

getContacts

Datasync Service Operations

exportDBgetOfflineChangesimportDB
PullPush
lastPullInfolastPushInfo

Device Service Operations

getAppInfogetCurrentGeoPositiongetDeviceInfo
getNetworkInfovibrate
goOnlinegoOffline

File Service Operations

uploadOpenFile

Scan Service Operations

scanBarCode

Calendar Service Operations

createEvent: Creates calendar event in device

Input Parameter (from Data Tab)DescriptionSample
Event Titlespecifies the event title‘Space Race’
Event Notesrepresents notes related to the event‘Bring Sandwiches’
Event Locationspecifies the event location‘The Moon’
Event Startspecifies the start date and time of the event2016-09-20 10:35:38 AM (select value from date time input)
Event Endspecifies the end date and time  of the event2016-09-25 08:35:38 PM (select value from date time input)

deleteEvent: Deletes the calendar event in device satisfying the provided input, any combination of the below-mentioned parameters

Filter Parameter (from Data Tab)DescriptionSample
Event Titlespecifies the event title‘Space Race’
Event Notesrepresents notes related to the event‘Bring Sandwiches’
Event Locationspecifies the event location‘The Moon’
Start Datespecifies the start date of the event2016-09-20 10:35:38 AM (select value from date time input)
End Datespecifies the end date of the event2016-09-25 08:35:38 PM (select value from date time input)

getEvents: Retrieves the calendar events in device satisfying the provided input, any combination of the below-mentioned parameters. Returns array of objects, each object containing the same fields as input parameters.

BehaviorDescriptionSample
Update data on input changeIf checked, the component will be triggered automatically on the change of input data (as mentioned in the data tab) for the variable.checked or unchecked
Request data on page loadIf checked, 'Page' variable will be triggered on page load while 'Application' variable will be triggered on application loadchecked or unchecked
Filter Parameter (from Data Tab)DescriptionSample
Event Titlespecifies the event title‘Space Race’
Event Notesrepresents notes related to the event‘Bring Sandwiches’
Event Locationspecifies the event location‘The Moon’
Start Datespecifies the start date of the event2016-09-20 10:35:38 AM (select value from date time input)
End Datespecifies the end date of the event2016-09-25 08:35:38 PM (select value from date time input)

Camera Service Operations

captureImage: Capture image from the device camera

Input Parameter (from Data Tab)DescriptionSample
Allow Editallows simple editing of image before selectiontrue (default), false
Qualityrepresents the quality of saved image, expressed as a range of 0-100, where 100 is typically full resolution with no loss of file compression. The default value is 80.80
Encoding Typeset the returned image file’s encoding.JPEG (default) or PNG
Correct OrientationRotate the image to correct for the orientation of the device during capture.true(default) or false
Target Width*width in pixels to scale image.100 (only when required to get small images)
Target Height*height in pixels to scale image.100 (only when required to get small images)
note

To get smaller images, you can return a resized image by passing both targetHeight and targetWidth values. If these values are not set, it returns the original image captured by the camera.

captureVideo: to capture video using the device camera

Contacts Service Operations

getContacts: Retrieves the device contacts list

Input Parameter (from Data Tab)Description
FilterThis string field can be used as a search filter when querying the contacts database. If provided, a case-insensitive, partial value match is applied to each field specified in the contactsFields parameter. If there is a match for any of specified fields, the contact is returned.
Behavior:Description
Update data on input changeIf checked, the component will be triggered automatically on the change of input data (as mentioned in the data tab) for the variable.
Request data on page loadIf checked, 'Page' variable will be triggered on page load while 'Application' variable will be triggered on application load.

Output: Returns array of objects, each object containing phoneNumber and displayName fields. Example: Sample Input: “Bob” (contact name) Result: Retrieves all the contacts containing string “Bob”

DataSync Service Operations

exportDB: Offline database is saved as zip in ‘Downloads’ folder in Android. In IOS, zip is stored in ‘Documents’ folder so that one can export from iPhone via iTunes. For the file to be visible in iTunes, File sharing needs to be enabled for the app in iOS preferences.

BehaviorDescription
Spinner ContextWhen the pull process is happening, a spinner will be shown in the container that is selected. By default, no context is selected and the spinner will not be shown
OutputDescription
pathLocation of file

getOfflineChanges: Retrieves the changes made when offline

OutputDescription
totalnumber of changes while offline
pendingToSyncchanges pending sync
failedToSyncchanges for which sync failed

importDB: Upon invocation, a file browser opens up to choose the zip file to import.

BehaviorDescription
Spinner ContextWhen the pull process is happening, a spinner will be shown in the container that is selected. By default, no context is selected and the spinner will not be shown

Pull: Pull changes from the server to the device

BehaviorDescription
Clear offline data before pullIf checked, then the whole offline data (other than BUNDLED data) will be deleted before the pull. The default is true (checked).
Show ProgressWhen the pull process is happening, a progress bar will be shown. By default, the progress bar will not be shown.
OutputDescription
totalTaskCountnumber of entities data to pull
completedTaskCountthe number of entities data has been pulled so far.
inProgresstrue when data pull process is going on, otherwise false

Push: Push changes to the server from the device

BehaviorDescription
Show ProgressWhen the pull process is happening, a progress bar will be shown. By default, the progress bar will not be shown.
OutputDescription
successfulTaskCountNumber of tasks/changes that were successfully pushed to the server.
failedTaskCount Number of changes that failed.
completedTaskCountNumber of completed tasks (both successful and failed).
totalTaskCountThe total number of local changes that need to be pushed to the server.
inProgress true only when data push process is going on, otherwise false.

lastPullInfo: to get the last pull details

BehaviorDescription
Spinner ContextWhen the pull process is happening, a spinner will be shown in the container that is selected. By default, no context is selected and spinner will not be shown
OutputDescription
entitieslist of entity names and number of records pulled per entity
databaseslist of database names, list of entities within the database, and the number of records pulled per database.
totalPulledRecordCountThe total number of records in the last pull.
startTimeStart time of pull operation.
endTimeEnd time of pull operation.

lastPushInfo: to get the last push details

BehaviorDescription
Show ProgressWhen the pull process is happening, a progress bar will be shown. By default, progress bar will not be shown.
OutputDescription
successfulTaskCountNumber of successful tasks (changes synced to server)
failedTaskCountNumber of failed tasks
completedTaskCountNumber of completed tasks includes tasks which were successful and failed.
totalTaskCountNumber of total tasks includes tasks completed and pending
startTimeStart time of push operation.
endTimeEnd time of push operation.

Device Service Operations

getAppInfo: Returns the version number of the app

getCurrentGeoPosition: Returns the current location of the app

Input Parameter (from Data Tab)DescriptionSample
Enable High Accuracyprovides a hint that the application needs the best possible results. By default, the device attempts to retrieve a ‘Position’ using network-based methods. Setting this property to true tells the framework to use more accurate methods, such as satellite positioning.true (default), false
Maximum Agespecifies to accept a cached position whose age is no greater than the specified time in milliseconds.any number, the default is 3
Timeoutrepresents the maximum length of time (milliseconds) that is allowed to pass from the call to navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition until the corresponding geolocationSuccess callback executes. If geolocationSuccess callback is not invoked within this time, geolocationError callback passes a PositionError.TIMEOUT error code.any number, the default is 5

getDeviceInfo: Returns the followingdevice information

OutputDescription
deviceModelname of the device’s model or product. The value is set by the device manufacturer and may be different across versions of the same product.
OSthe device’s operating system name.
OSversionthe operation system version.
deviceUUIDthe device’s Universally Unique Identifier (UUID)

getNetworkInfo: Provides information whether device has internet connection

OutputDescription
connectionTypedetermines the device’s connection type, eg: WIFI, ethernet
isOfflinechecks if phone network is offline
isOnlinechecks if phone network  is online
isConnectingchecks if the app is trying to connect to backend service
isNetworkAvailablechecks if network connection is available

vibrate: Vibrates the device programmatically

Input (from data tab)Description
Vibration Timeseconds to vibrate the device. Default value is 2.

goOffline: Used to turn the mobile app to offline mode by blocking all network calls.

goOnline: Used to turn the mobile app to online mode by blocking trying to connect to the backend server.

File Service Operations

OpenFile: Opens files like pdf, document, excel and powerpoint. Note: A file can be opened if corresponding application is available on the mobile device. For example, a pdf file requires acrobat reader or another file that can open the pdf. When a remote file has to be opened for the first time, the file is downloaded. On subsequent calls to open the same file, the earlier downloaded file is just opened.

Input Parameter (from Data Tab)DescriptionSample
FileTypeA string value that denotes the type of file to open.The default value is pdf. Values can be pdf, doc, xls, ppt.
FilePathA string value that denotes the URL of the file.http://www.pdf995.com/samples/pdf.pdf)

upload: Retrieves the device contacts list

Input Parameter (from Data Tab)Description
localFilespecifies the file path on the device. remoteFolder represents the folder path on the server to save the uploaded image. If empty, then images gets saved to /wavemaker/appdata//uploads

Scan Service Operations

scanBarCode: to access the barcode scanner.

Events

  1. On Error: The event is fired on the error of the device variable.
  2. On Success: The event is fired on the success of the device variable.
  3. On Before: This event is fired before starting the pull/push for the dataSync variable.
  4. On Progress: This event is fired during the pull/push for the dataSync variable.

Methods

invoke(options)

This method invokes the device variable

Parameters:

- **options**(object)
- success (callback)
- error (callback)

Return Value: None

Example:

// Example 1: Notify with default set properties
Page.Variables.myDeviceVariable.invoke();

// Example 2: Notify with callback handlers
Page.Variables.myDeviceVariable.invoke(
{},
Function () {
console.log('success');
}, function () {
console.log('error')
});