1C confidently enters the mobile development market
Immediately I warn you that this post is not a joke! I perfectly understand that half of the audience of Habr firmly believe that 1C company develops only accounting software. And the second half knows this company exclusively as a distributor and localizer of computer games. I do not have the education of a marketer, and I also do not work for the aforementioned company, who are taught “to answer the questions correctly,” and therefore I don’t even hope to break through all the stereotypes with one post. I just want to share my view on one of the activities of 1C, with which I have been working closely for almost 11 years. And draw your own conclusions.
About 11 years ago, I worked in a Kiev trading company. [If someone does not remember, then it was the time of pagers and black and white phones with cool 8-tone polyphony]. Our director somewhere in the Crimea saw the local sales agents know-how in the form of a PDA for receiving applications. At that time, our sales representatives, as well as all, ran with papers, with which they returned to the office at the end of the day, filled orders with our operators to “1C 7.7 Trading and Warehouse” at 1:00 AM, then the data went dial-up to the warehouse where the storekeepers had to have time to take everything away and load on the cars that were leaving at 6 am. The opportunity to save time (as well as the salary of unnecessary operators) so inspired the boss that he bought several psions (if I am not mistaken, it was Workabout MX ). Even without taking into account our status as pioneers, the very possibility of uploading data to 1C documents in a minute without user input errors, but being at the client’s office to say that “there is so much of this product” and “it costs so much” and not call the office - it was all cool.
')
Technically, the magic looked like this. Included with the PDA were the drivers and several programs for integration with business software. We chose the easiest option - sharing via text files. The sales agent came up with his PDA, we connected it through a string to the server, merged orders, started processing into 1C for loading them into the database and for unloading fresh warehouse balances and prices, downloading updated data to the PDA and sending the happy agent home.
Over time, mobile communications became cheaper and PDAs with GSM modules appeared (and conventional cell phones began to drastically increase), which in turn brought the ability to see customer accounts and warehouse balances online, and issued applications were immediately printed in the office and surrendered to the selection storekeepers.
Even the most thoughtful developers of mobile solutions began to wake up and offer their products for PalmOS, Windows CE, ..., Android and iOs from the prospect of the emerging market in their eyes. During my career I was “lucky” to get acquainted with 7 products released for the Ukrainian market. I will summarize my experience as "confusion and vacillation." One required for sharing network orbs (slightly more advanced files were uploaded to FTP), others needed direct access to their TCP exchange server, and still others worked exclusively through MsSQL (trading software was required to work directly with the database tables). Most of the products (and maybe all?) Were clearly written inside a company, and then offered to everyone willing to pay. As a result, we often had to deal with completely logical constraints on data volumes and with reduced object code fields (less than the standard code fields in typical 1C solutions, despite their leadership in the trade automation market, which had to add new details or registers information). Everything became even sadder when, in addition to the inheritance of the old park of the CCP, new [cheaper] ones were bought, attempts were made to make their own mobile applications to take into account some specifics, and then they bought all this popular booth from Agent + ...
In the meantime, in Moscow, on Seleznevskaya Street, everyone noticed, recorded, analyzed ... And since in 1C people are far from fools, the promise of entering the mobile market was rightly appreciated from the very beginning. Customers also expressed a desire to pay for a mobile solution from a favorite vender, which would be sprayed on several suppliers. The leadership was ready to open a new front. It was only necessary to determine the correct strategy.
In 2006, there was news that the company "1C" together with the "DISCO" release a solution for mobile devices - "1C: Enterprise 8. Expansion for handheld computers . " This solution was positioned as a “continuation” of 1C base on a mobile device - i.e. the developer could not surrender to the fantasy, but had to act in the Procrustean framework of the configuration for which the development was intended as part of this extension. No new facilities! Only the development of external form input, the processing of user actions and data change triggers are allowed. But there is no need to hire third-party developers - the delivery includes a configurator familiar to 1C-specialists and programming in the same bilingual built-in programming language.
I’ll say right away that I didn’t work with this program, and of all my friends, only one felt this “miracle” alive. I don’t know how in the whole world, but in Ukraine this decision didn’t take off. The restriction on metadata objects is easily circumvented by creating an auxiliary directory / register in the main 1C for storing arbitrary information, and then a technical matter. The problem was more banal - money. From a company that, thanks to a mobile solution, wants to save money , it was necessary to buy not the cheapest PDAs that can run Windows Mobile; then you need to buy an expensive license for each piece of hardware for Windows Mobile itself; continue to buy the delivery of an extension for handheld computers in order to prepare a mobile program; and, finally, for a snack, you still need to additionally buy a license for the right to launch a mobile program for each PDA.
In the meantime, look around - now the dominance of cheap Korean and Chinese technology on Android, for which Google rolled out a free ADT development environment, in which primitive GUI applications cannot learn to create only very lazy [among IT professionals]. The manual runs exclusively with status iPhones and spits on a Windows-style antediluvian stylus-sharpened interface. Let the representatives of Microsoft not throw stones at me, but in my humble opinion, now the Windows-devices are available only to those unfortunates, where those responsible for the purchases receive fatty kickbacks and sneeze on the profitability of their native companies. Against the background of these factors, 1C plucked up courage and looked the truth in the eyes - their program, to put it mildly, is not in demand. And on October 16, 2013, a letter No. 17336 was published on the website, in which it was notified that there were no development plans and that support for this product would soon cease.
On May 29, 2013, 1C announced the release of a new version of its flagship product - 1C Enterprise 8.3 . Within the framework of this platform, many developers' wishes were implemented (such as the ability to work in the cloud, the native client for Linux without any Wine, etc.), but in this article we are interested in including tools for developing mobile applications in the platform.
Thus, there is no longer any need to purchase separate software - everything already goes in the box. Even the base 1C is no longer needed - you can develop any arbitrary solutions for any of the most specific business problems (and not only). The developers declare the ease of development and subsequent assembly for Android and iOs. I personally have not yet found the time to become familiar with the new product, since I have enough of my Eclipse projects that are exchanged with 1C databases via SOAP services. But, if someone starts a project from scratch on smartphones and tablets, then I advise you to take a closer look. In the end, it is not only a database with a beautiful user GUI, but also access to the camera and geo-location data.
The free mobile development toolkit is not the only “bug fix” done by 1C. In the above-mentioned extension for PDA, Wender left the development to the customers, thereby forcing them to spend money on the salaries of specialists after the money was paid for the program. Nowadays, management has obliged the development team of standard solutions to independently develop and maintain up to date mobile solutions for typical configurations. Probably you paid attention to the screenshot at the beginning of the article - it was a standard application line with Google Play. Exactly the same set is on iTunes . I'm not talking about a bunch of programs, which over the last year “on the knee” were written by everyone.
One more thing I want to pay attention to in support of my postulate about serious intentions of 1C is the intensive training of new mobile developers. Now no drift or amateur! In the summer of 2013, materials for new courses were run-in at Moscow training centers and starting from September 23, 2013, everyone can learn 1C mobile programming as part of the general course “Basics of working in a managed application. New job opportunities in 1C: Enterprise 8.3 " , and since October 28, 2013, on a more specialized one -" Mobile applications in the 1C: Enterprise 8 system ". For those who value their time or simply do not have the opportunity to attend lectures during their working hours, 1C-Publishing has just recently published the book “Mobile 1C! An example of the rapid development of a mobile application on the 1C: Enterprise 8.3 platform, which can be read online free of charge if you have a valid ITS-Prof subscription, or download it for 100 rubles with the addition of a training and mobile platform.
I hope that my post was interesting to you. Once again I want to note that I am not an employee of 1C, I do not represent their official position and do not write this article on their order. I see my goal in opening my eyes to theemergence of a new serious player in the mobile development market. Game developers can sleep peacefully [for now], but according to a relatively recent article in open systems for December 2013, 80% of mobile developers are involved in corporate mobile development. So someone will have to move ...
PS And I also want to note that I am a techie, not a philologist. I have my own specific vision of grammar and punctuation. But, if I destroy someone's ideal picture of the world, then I ask to write in a personal and we will do perfectionism together.
Prerequisites.
About 11 years ago, I worked in a Kiev trading company. [If someone does not remember, then it was the time of pagers and black and white phones with cool 8-tone polyphony]. Our director somewhere in the Crimea saw the local sales agents know-how in the form of a PDA for receiving applications. At that time, our sales representatives, as well as all, ran with papers, with which they returned to the office at the end of the day, filled orders with our operators to “1C 7.7 Trading and Warehouse” at 1:00 AM, then the data went dial-up to the warehouse where the storekeepers had to have time to take everything away and load on the cars that were leaving at 6 am. The opportunity to save time (as well as the salary of unnecessary operators) so inspired the boss that he bought several psions (if I am not mistaken, it was Workabout MX ). Even without taking into account our status as pioneers, the very possibility of uploading data to 1C documents in a minute without user input errors, but being at the client’s office to say that “there is so much of this product” and “it costs so much” and not call the office - it was all cool.
')
Technically, the magic looked like this. Included with the PDA were the drivers and several programs for integration with business software. We chose the easiest option - sharing via text files. The sales agent came up with his PDA, we connected it through a string to the server, merged orders, started processing into 1C for loading them into the database and for unloading fresh warehouse balances and prices, downloading updated data to the PDA and sending the happy agent home.
Over time, mobile communications became cheaper and PDAs with GSM modules appeared (and conventional cell phones began to drastically increase), which in turn brought the ability to see customer accounts and warehouse balances online, and issued applications were immediately printed in the office and surrendered to the selection storekeepers.
Even the most thoughtful developers of mobile solutions began to wake up and offer their products for PalmOS, Windows CE, ..., Android and iOs from the prospect of the emerging market in their eyes. During my career I was “lucky” to get acquainted with 7 products released for the Ukrainian market. I will summarize my experience as "confusion and vacillation." One required for sharing network orbs (slightly more advanced files were uploaded to FTP), others needed direct access to their TCP exchange server, and still others worked exclusively through MsSQL (trading software was required to work directly with the database tables). Most of the products (and maybe all?) Were clearly written inside a company, and then offered to everyone willing to pay. As a result, we often had to deal with completely logical constraints on data volumes and with reduced object code fields (less than the standard code fields in typical 1C solutions, despite their leadership in the trade automation market, which had to add new details or registers information). Everything became even sadder when, in addition to the inheritance of the old park of the CCP, new [cheaper] ones were bought, attempts were made to make their own mobile applications to take into account some specifics, and then they bought all this popular booth from Agent + ...
In the meantime, in Moscow, on Seleznevskaya Street, everyone noticed, recorded, analyzed ... And since in 1C people are far from fools, the promise of entering the mobile market was rightly appreciated from the very beginning. Customers also expressed a desire to pay for a mobile solution from a favorite vender, which would be sprayed on several suppliers. The leadership was ready to open a new front. It was only necessary to determine the correct strategy.
First pancake
In 2006, there was news that the company "1C" together with the "DISCO" release a solution for mobile devices - "1C: Enterprise 8. Expansion for handheld computers . " This solution was positioned as a “continuation” of 1C base on a mobile device - i.e. the developer could not surrender to the fantasy, but had to act in the Procrustean framework of the configuration for which the development was intended as part of this extension. No new facilities! Only the development of external form input, the processing of user actions and data change triggers are allowed. But there is no need to hire third-party developers - the delivery includes a configurator familiar to 1C-specialists and programming in the same bilingual built-in programming language.
I’ll say right away that I didn’t work with this program, and of all my friends, only one felt this “miracle” alive. I don’t know how in the whole world, but in Ukraine this decision didn’t take off. The restriction on metadata objects is easily circumvented by creating an auxiliary directory / register in the main 1C for storing arbitrary information, and then a technical matter. The problem was more banal - money. From a company that, thanks to a mobile solution, wants to save money , it was necessary to buy not the cheapest PDAs that can run Windows Mobile; then you need to buy an expensive license for each piece of hardware for Windows Mobile itself; continue to buy the delivery of an extension for handheld computers in order to prepare a mobile program; and, finally, for a snack, you still need to additionally buy a license for the right to launch a mobile program for each PDA.
In the meantime, look around - now the dominance of cheap Korean and Chinese technology on Android, for which Google rolled out a free ADT development environment, in which primitive GUI applications cannot learn to create only very lazy [among IT professionals]. The manual runs exclusively with status iPhones and spits on a Windows-style antediluvian stylus-sharpened interface. Let the representatives of Microsoft not throw stones at me, but in my humble opinion, now the Windows-devices are available only to those unfortunates, where those responsible for the purchases receive fatty kickbacks and sneeze on the profitability of their native companies. Against the background of these factors, 1C plucked up courage and looked the truth in the eyes - their program, to put it mildly, is not in demand. And on October 16, 2013, a letter No. 17336 was published on the website, in which it was notified that there were no development plans and that support for this product would soon cease.
Second wind
On May 29, 2013, 1C announced the release of a new version of its flagship product - 1C Enterprise 8.3 . Within the framework of this platform, many developers' wishes were implemented (such as the ability to work in the cloud, the native client for Linux without any Wine, etc.), but in this article we are interested in including tools for developing mobile applications in the platform.
Thus, there is no longer any need to purchase separate software - everything already goes in the box. Even the base 1C is no longer needed - you can develop any arbitrary solutions for any of the most specific business problems (and not only). The developers declare the ease of development and subsequent assembly for Android and iOs. I personally have not yet found the time to become familiar with the new product, since I have enough of my Eclipse projects that are exchanged with 1C databases via SOAP services. But, if someone starts a project from scratch on smartphones and tablets, then I advise you to take a closer look. In the end, it is not only a database with a beautiful user GUI, but also access to the camera and geo-location data.
The free mobile development toolkit is not the only “bug fix” done by 1C. In the above-mentioned extension for PDA, Wender left the development to the customers, thereby forcing them to spend money on the salaries of specialists after the money was paid for the program. Nowadays, management has obliged the development team of standard solutions to independently develop and maintain up to date mobile solutions for typical configurations. Probably you paid attention to the screenshot at the beginning of the article - it was a standard application line with Google Play. Exactly the same set is on iTunes . I'm not talking about a bunch of programs, which over the last year “on the knee” were written by everyone.
One more thing I want to pay attention to in support of my postulate about serious intentions of 1C is the intensive training of new mobile developers. Now no drift or amateur! In the summer of 2013, materials for new courses were run-in at Moscow training centers and starting from September 23, 2013, everyone can learn 1C mobile programming as part of the general course “Basics of working in a managed application. New job opportunities in 1C: Enterprise 8.3 " , and since October 28, 2013, on a more specialized one -" Mobile applications in the 1C: Enterprise 8 system ". For those who value their time or simply do not have the opportunity to attend lectures during their working hours, 1C-Publishing has just recently published the book “Mobile 1C! An example of the rapid development of a mobile application on the 1C: Enterprise 8.3 platform, which can be read online free of charge if you have a valid ITS-Prof subscription, or download it for 100 rubles with the addition of a training and mobile platform.
Conclusion
I hope that my post was interesting to you. Once again I want to note that I am not an employee of 1C, I do not represent their official position and do not write this article on their order. I see my goal in opening my eyes to the
PS And I also want to note that I am a techie, not a philologist. I have my own specific vision of grammar and punctuation. But, if I destroy someone's ideal picture of the world, then I ask to write in a personal and we will do perfectionism together.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/212799/
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