Discontinued features and API elements

For up-to-date product documentation, see the IBM MobileFirst Foundation Developer Center.

Discontinued features and API elements

Consider carefully how removed features and API elements affect your IBM MobileFirst™ Platform Foundation environment.

Features that are discontinued in V8.0.0 and features that are not included in V8.0.0
IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation V8.0.0 is radically simplified compared to the previous version. As a result of this simplification, some features that were available in V7.1 are discontinued in V8.0.0. In most cases, an alternative way to implement the features is suggested. These features are marked discontinued. Some other features that exist in V7.1. are not in V8.0.0, but not as a consequence of the new design of V8.0.0. To distinguish these excluded features from the features that are discontinued from V8.0.0, they are marked not in V8.0.0.
Table 1. Features that are discontinued in V8.0.0 and features that are not included in V8.0.0
Feature Status and replacement path
MobileFirst Studio is replaced by MobileFirst Studio plug-in for Eclipse. Replaced by MobileFirst Studio plug-in for Eclipse empowered by standard and community-base Eclipse plug-ins.
We can develop hybrid applications directly with the Apache Cordova CLI or with a Cordova enabled IDE such as Visual Studio Code, Eclipse, IntelliJ, and others.For more information about using eclipse as a Cordova enabled IDE, see IBM MobileFirst Studio plug-in for managing Cordova projects in Eclipse. We can develop adapters with Apache Maven or a maven-enabled IDE such as Eclipse, IntelliJ, and others. For more information about developing adapters, see Adapters as Apache Maven projects. For more information about using Eclipse as a Maven enabled IDE, read the Develop Adapters in Eclipse tutorial.
Install IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation Developer Kit to test adapters and applications with MobileFirst Development Server. We can also access MobileFirst development tools and SDKs if you do not want to download them from Internet-based repositories such as NPM, Maven, Cocoapod, or NuGet. For more information about IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation Developer Kit, see The IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation Developer Kit.
Skins, Shells, the Setting page, minification, and JavaScript UI elements are discontinued for hybrid applications. Discontinued.
Hybrid applications are developed directly with the Apache Cordova. For more information about replacing skins, shells, the Setting page, and minification, see Removed components and Comparison of Cordova apps developed with V8.0.0 versus V7.1.0 and before.
For more information about replacing the JavaScript UI elements, see Discontinued JavaScript UI elements.
Sencha Touch can no longer be imported into MobileFirst projects for hybrid applications. Discontinued.
MobileFirst hybrid applications are developed directly with the Apache Cordova, and the MobileFirst features are provided as Cordova plug-ins. Refer to the Sencha Touch documentation to integrate Sencha Touch and Cordova. For more information about using IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation with Cordova, see Develop Cordova applications.
The encrypted cache is discontinued. Discontinued
To store encrypted data locally, use JSONStore. For more information about JSONStore, see JSONStore overview.
A sample that shows how to set up Touch ID support for JSONStore is not in V8.0.0. Not in V8.0.0.
Note: We can use the example that is provided in the documentation of version 7.1 and adapt it to the code of your client application. For more information about the example in version 7.1, see Set up Touch ID support for JSONStore (version 7.1).
Triggering Direct Update on demand is not in V8.0.0. The client application checks for Direct Update when it obtains the OAuth token for a session. We cannot program a client application to check for direct updates at a different point in time in V8.0.0. Not in V8.0.0.
Note: For more information about customizing Direct Update, see Customizing the Direct Update user interface and process.
Adapters with session-dependency configuration. In V7.1.0, we can configure MobileFirst Server to work in session-independent mode (default) or in session-dependent mode. Beginning with V8.0.0, session-dependent mode is no longer supported. The server is inherently independent of the HTTP session, and no related configuration is required. Discontinued.
Attribute store over IBM® WebSphere® eXtreme Scale is not supported in V8.0.0. Not in V8.0.0.
Service discovery and adapter generation for IBM® Business Process Manager (IBM BPM) process applications, Microsoft Azure Marketplace DataMarket, OData RESTful APIs, RESTful resources, Services that are exposed by an SAP Netweaver Gateway, and Web Services is not in V8.0.0. Not in V8.0.0.
The JMS JavaScript adapter is not in V8.0.0. Not in V8.0.0.
The SAP Gateway JavaScript adapter is not in V8.0.0. Not in V8.0.0.
The SAP JCo JavaScript adapter is not in V8.0.0. Not in V8.0.0.
The Cast Iron® JavaScript adapter in not in V8.0.0. Not in V8.0.0.
The OData and Microsoft Azure OData JavaScript adapters are not in V8.0.0. Not in V8.0.0.
Push notification support for USSD is not supported in V8.0.0. Discontinued
JMS-based push notification is not supported in V8.0.0. Discontinued
Event-based push notifications is not supported in V8.0.0. Discontinued. Use the push notification service. For more information on migrating to push notification service, see topic Migrating to push notifications from event source-based notifications.
Security: User-certificate authentication. V8.0.0 does not include any predefined security check to authenticate users with X.509 client-side certificates. Not in V8.0.0.
Security: Simple data sharing. The WLSimpleDataSharing API is not included in V8.0.0. Therefore, using simple data sharing to configure device single sign-on with a reverse proxy (for example to exchange LTPA tokens between applications) is also not supported in V8.0.0. Not in V8.0.0.
Security: Integration with IBM Trusteer®. V8.0.0 does not include any predefined security check or challenge to test IBM Trusteer risk factors. Not in V8.0.0.
Use IBM Trusteer Mobile SDK.
Security: Device provisioning and device auto-provisioning. Discontinued.
Note: Device provisioning is handled in the normal authorization flow. Device data is automatically collected during the registration process of the security flow. For more information about the security flow, see End-to-end authorization flow
Security: Configuration file for obfuscating Android code with ProGuard. V8.0.0 does not include the predefined proguard-project.txt configuration file for Android ProGuard obfuscation with a MobileFirst Android application. Not in V8.0.0.
Security: Adapter based authentication is replaced. Authentication uses the OAuth protocol and is implemented with security checks. Replaced by a security check based implementation.
Note: For an introduction to the authentication and security in V8.0.0, see Authorization Concepts.
Security: LDAP login. V8.0.0 does not include any predefined security check to authenticate users with an LDAP server.
Instead, for WebSphere Application Server or WebSphere Application Server Liberty use the application server or a gateway to map an Identity Provider such as LDAP to LTPA, and generate an OAuth token for the user by using an LTPA security check.
Not in V8.0.0. Replaced by an LTPA security check for WebSphere Application Server or WebSphere Application Server Liberty.
Note: For an example of security-check that uses LDAP and LTPA with MobileFirst Server running on WebSphere Application Server or WebSphere Application Server Liberty, read the Work with LDAP and LTPA in IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation 8.0 blog.
Note: For more information about the predefined LTPA security check, see LTPA-based single sign-on (SSO) security check.
Authentication configuration of the HTTP adapter. The predefined HTTP adapter does not support the connection as a user to a remote server.
Note: For more information about the HTTP adapter configuration, see HTTP adapter connectionPolicy element.
Not in V8.0.0.
Edit the source code of the HTTP adapter and add the authentication code. Use MFP.Server.invokeHttp to add identification tokens to the HTTP request's header.
Security Analytics, the ability to monitor MobileFirst security framework's events with MobileFirst Analytics Console is not in V8.0.0. Not in V8.0.0.
The event source-based model for push notifications is discontinued and replaced by the tag-based push service model. Discontinued and replaced by the tag-based push service model.
For more information about migrating event source-based notifications to the push service model, see Migrating to push notifications from event source-based notifications.
Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) support is not in V8.0.0. Not in V8.0.0.
Cloudant® used as a database for MobileFirst Server in not supported in V8.0.0. Not in V8.0.0.
Geolocation: The geolocation support is discontinued in IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation V8.0.0. The REST API for beacons and for mediators is discontinued. The client-side and server-side API WL.Geo and WL.Device are discontinued. Discontinued.
Use the native device API or third-party Cordova plug-ins for geolocation.
The MobileFirst Data Proxy feature is discontinued. The Cloudant IMFData and CloudantToolkit APIs are also discontinued. Discontinued.
For more information about replacing the IMFData and CloudantToolkit APIs in your apps, see Migrating apps storing mobile data in Cloudant with IMFData or Cloudant SDK.
The IBM Tealeaf® SDK is no longer bundled with IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation. Discontinued.
Use IBM Tealeaf SDK. For more information, see Tealeaf installation and implementation in an Android application and Tealeaf iOS Logging Framework Installation and Implementation in the IBM Tealeaf Customer Experience documentation.
IBM MobileFirst Platform Test Workbench is not bundled with IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation Discontinued.
BlackBerry, Adobe AIR, Windows Silverlight are not supported by IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation V8.0.0. No SDK is provided for these platforms. Discontinued.

Discontinued API elements in V8.0.0

For more information about discontinued client-side API, see Client API changes in V8.0.0.
For more information about discontinued server-side API, see Server-side API changes in V8.0.0.

Features discontinued in V7.1.0

No features were removed in V7.1.0.

Features discontinued in V7.0.0

Table 2. Features discontinued in V7.0.0
Feature
The JAR files and JavaScript libraries that enable SSO between IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation and other external services are removed. Use the MobileFirst OAuth-based security model instead.
For more information about the OAuth-based security model, see Overview of the MobileFirst security framework.
The "shake to refresh" feature is removed in IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation V7.0.0.

Features discontinued in V6.3.0

Table 3. Features discontinued in V6.3.0
Feature
The IBM Worklight® Application Framework (beta) set of tools is removed in IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation V6.3.0.

Parent topic: Release notes


Feature	Status and replacement path
MobileFirst Studio is replaced by MobileFirst Studio plug-in for Eclipse.	Replaced by MobileFirst Studio plug-in for Eclipse empowered by standard and community-base Eclipse plug-ins. We can develop hybrid applications directly with the Apache Cordova CLI or with a Cordova enabled IDE such as Visual Studio Code, Eclipse, IntelliJ, and others.For more information about using eclipse as a Cordova enabled IDE, see IBM MobileFirst Studio plug-in for managing Cordova projects in Eclipse. We can develop adapters with Apache Maven or a maven-enabled IDE such as Eclipse, IntelliJ, and others. For more information about developing adapters, see Adapters as Apache Maven projects. For more information about using Eclipse as a Maven enabled IDE, read the Develop Adapters in Eclipse tutorial. Install IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation Developer Kit to test adapters and applications with MobileFirst Development Server. We can also access MobileFirst development tools and SDKs if you do not want to download them from Internet-based repositories such as NPM, Maven, Cocoapod, or NuGet. For more information about IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation Developer Kit, see The IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation Developer Kit.
Skins, Shells, the Setting page, minification, and JavaScript UI elements are discontinued for hybrid applications.	Discontinued. Hybrid applications are developed directly with the Apache Cordova. For more information about replacing skins, shells, the Setting page, and minification, see Removed components and Comparison of Cordova apps developed with V8.0.0 versus V7.1.0 and before. For more information about replacing the JavaScript UI elements, see Discontinued JavaScript UI elements.
Sencha Touch can no longer be imported into MobileFirst projects for hybrid applications.	Discontinued. MobileFirst hybrid applications are developed directly with the Apache Cordova, and the MobileFirst features are provided as Cordova plug-ins. Refer to the Sencha Touch documentation to integrate Sencha Touch and Cordova. For more information about using IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation with Cordova, see Develop Cordova applications.
The encrypted cache is discontinued.	Discontinued To store encrypted data locally, use JSONStore. For more information about JSONStore, see JSONStore overview.
A sample that shows how to set up Touch ID support for JSONStore is not in V8.0.0.	Not in V8.0.0. Note: We can use the example that is provided in the documentation of version 7.1 and adapt it to the code of your client application. For more information about the example in version 7.1, see Set up Touch ID support for JSONStore (version 7.1).
Triggering Direct Update on demand is not in V8.0.0. The client application checks for Direct Update when it obtains the OAuth token for a session. We cannot program a client application to check for direct updates at a different point in time in V8.0.0.	Not in V8.0.0. Note: For more information about customizing Direct Update, see Customizing the Direct Update user interface and process.
Adapters with session-dependency configuration. In V7.1.0, we can configure MobileFirst Server to work in session-independent mode (default) or in session-dependent mode. Beginning with V8.0.0, session-dependent mode is no longer supported. The server is inherently independent of the HTTP session, and no related configuration is required.	Discontinued.
Attribute store over IBM® WebSphere® eXtreme Scale is not supported in V8.0.0.	Not in V8.0.0.
Service discovery and adapter generation for IBM® Business Process Manager (IBM BPM) process applications, Microsoft Azure Marketplace DataMarket, OData RESTful APIs, RESTful resources, Services that are exposed by an SAP Netweaver Gateway, and Web Services is not in V8.0.0.	Not in V8.0.0.
The JMS JavaScript adapter is not in V8.0.0.	Not in V8.0.0.
The SAP Gateway JavaScript adapter is not in V8.0.0.	Not in V8.0.0.
The SAP JCo JavaScript adapter is not in V8.0.0.	Not in V8.0.0.
The Cast Iron® JavaScript adapter in not in V8.0.0.	Not in V8.0.0.
The OData and Microsoft Azure OData JavaScript adapters are not in V8.0.0.	Not in V8.0.0.
Push notification support for USSD is not supported in V8.0.0.	Discontinued
JMS-based push notification is not supported in V8.0.0.	Discontinued
Event-based push notifications is not supported in V8.0.0.	Discontinued. Use the push notification service. For more information on migrating to push notification service, see topic Migrating to push notifications from event source-based notifications.
Security: User-certificate authentication. V8.0.0 does not include any predefined security check to authenticate users with X.509 client-side certificates.	Not in V8.0.0.
Security: Simple data sharing. The WLSimpleDataSharing API is not included in V8.0.0. Therefore, using simple data sharing to configure device single sign-on with a reverse proxy (for example to exchange LTPA tokens between applications) is also not supported in V8.0.0.	Not in V8.0.0.
Security: Integration with IBM Trusteer®. V8.0.0 does not include any predefined security check or challenge to test IBM Trusteer risk factors.	Not in V8.0.0. Use IBM Trusteer Mobile SDK.
Security: Device provisioning and device auto-provisioning.	Discontinued. Note: Device provisioning is handled in the normal authorization flow. Device data is automatically collected during the registration process of the security flow. For more information about the security flow, see End-to-end authorization flow
Security: Configuration file for obfuscating Android code with ProGuard. V8.0.0 does not include the predefined proguard-project.txt configuration file for Android ProGuard obfuscation with a MobileFirst Android application.	Not in V8.0.0.
Security: Adapter based authentication is replaced. Authentication uses the OAuth protocol and is implemented with security checks.	Replaced by a security check based implementation. Note: For an introduction to the authentication and security in V8.0.0, see Authorization Concepts.
Security: LDAP login. V8.0.0 does not include any predefined security check to authenticate users with an LDAP server. Instead, for WebSphere Application Server or WebSphere Application Server Liberty use the application server or a gateway to map an Identity Provider such as LDAP to LTPA, and generate an OAuth token for the user by using an LTPA security check.	Not in V8.0.0. Replaced by an LTPA security check for WebSphere Application Server or WebSphere Application Server Liberty. Note: For an example of security-check that uses LDAP and LTPA with MobileFirst Server running on WebSphere Application Server or WebSphere Application Server Liberty, read the Work with LDAP and LTPA in IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation 8.0 blog. Note: For more information about the predefined LTPA security check, see LTPA-based single sign-on (SSO) security check.
Authentication configuration of the HTTP adapter. The predefined HTTP adapter does not support the connection as a user to a remote server. Note: For more information about the HTTP adapter configuration, see HTTP adapter connectionPolicy element.	Not in V8.0.0. Edit the source code of the HTTP adapter and add the authentication code. Use MFP.Server.invokeHttp to add identification tokens to the HTTP request's header.
Security Analytics, the ability to monitor MobileFirst security framework's events with MobileFirst Analytics Console is not in V8.0.0.	Not in V8.0.0.
The event source-based model for push notifications is discontinued and replaced by the tag-based push service model.	Discontinued and replaced by the tag-based push service model. For more information about migrating event source-based notifications to the push service model, see Migrating to push notifications from event source-based notifications.
Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) support is not in V8.0.0.	Not in V8.0.0.
Cloudant® used as a database for MobileFirst Server in not supported in V8.0.0.	Not in V8.0.0.
Geolocation: The geolocation support is discontinued in IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation V8.0.0. The REST API for beacons and for mediators is discontinued. The client-side and server-side API WL.Geo and WL.Device are discontinued.	Discontinued. Use the native device API or third-party Cordova plug-ins for geolocation.
The MobileFirst Data Proxy feature is discontinued. The Cloudant IMFData and CloudantToolkit APIs are also discontinued.	Discontinued. For more information about replacing the IMFData and CloudantToolkit APIs in your apps, see Migrating apps storing mobile data in Cloudant with IMFData or Cloudant SDK.
The IBM Tealeaf® SDK is no longer bundled with IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation.	Discontinued. Use IBM Tealeaf SDK. For more information, see Tealeaf installation and implementation in an Android application and Tealeaf iOS Logging Framework Installation and Implementation in the IBM Tealeaf Customer Experience documentation.
IBM MobileFirst Platform Test Workbench is not bundled with IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation	Discontinued.
BlackBerry, Adobe AIR, Windows Silverlight are not supported by IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation V8.0.0. No SDK is provided for these platforms.	Discontinued.