In case you missed the announcement, MobiFlex’s ViziApps recently added an exciting new capability to its already potent arsenal: the “back” button.
“Big deal,” you may be thinking. But in truth, it is a big deal. And we’re not the only ones who think so. In fact, in his recent white paper “Integrating Native Mobile Apps and ‘Help’ with MadCap Flare“, Neil Perlin of Hyper/Word Services used ViziApps to demonstrate how native apps can connect to online help documentation.
For a little background and perspective, we’re seeing the emergence of applying native mobile capabilities to a whole range of ways that people have traditionally used computer systems. And a ubiquitous element of software products and IT solutions — whether desktop, mobile, or cloud-based — is that they all have some form of help documentation or online services to assist users. A key player in the online electronic help industry is MadCap Corporation. Neil Perlin has had 20 years experience in that industry, and he saw a need that could be met by integrating help documentation into mobile device platforms for people to conveniently use. In his white paper, he offers some examples of how that can be done, and he helps people think about ways they can apply MobiFlex’s ViziApps for this purpose within their mobile apps, in conjunction with their other software or business solutions.
So where does the ViziApps back button come into play? During app development, people often want to leverage existing desktop or online solutions to the new mobile platforms. In doing so, they have a range of existing help documentation and files that they’d like to repurpose, rather than rebuilding it from scratch. With ViziApps, they can link from their app to help documentation with a simple tap of the new back button.