Friday, November 28, 2008

introducing MIEx

it's been more than 2years of laying low. today, i'll just post here what i should have had shared before while MI2.5 is still the current release. i'm not sure if this tool could still be used with the current MI version as i haven't got myself updated on this field anymore. anyway, considering that a few might still be working on with the 2.5 version and if you're one of them, this tool might help you a bit...

what's MIEx?
MIEx stands for SAP MI client executor extension for Internet Explorer. i created this tool primarily to work on IE6. but since IE7 is now the primary version, i'm not sure if this tool will work on this version. (i'm still using IE6 though...)

what it does?
as the name implies, it is just an MI client executor. it provides the access to these actions by extending IE menu toolbar with 4 buttons - Start MI, Stop MI, Restart MI and MI Home buttons.
MI2.5 client comes with an exe file called MobileEngine.exe. This program runs in a separate process and provides the UI (popup menu) for starting and shutting down of MI client. behind the scene, it only just create a new java.exe process for running the MI client and shut it down when requested by the user thru the popup menu. under the installation directory of MI client, you will also find startup.bat as well as the corresponding shutdown script. if you want to save the memory consumed by this mobilengine.exe program, you just have to make use of the batch scripts for starting up and shutting down of the MI java client. well, it will be a bit troublesome locating the installation dir and invoking the scripts from there. so this is where MIEx will serve its purpose. all you need to do is open the IE and start MI process from there...

here's the link to a captured video of MIEx: MIEx in action

how to install:
i have created a simple installer script. this script will create the necessary batch files for you and you will be asked for the location of your MI client installation directory. it will also copy the necessary icons and create the files required. you can download the MIEx installer here: MIEx.zip

update 11/29:
i made the article public on my googlepages. please refer to the following page for details on this tool as well if you are interested of knowing how this tool works.

Introducing SAP MIEx

if you have any comments, requests or suggestions, don't hesitate to drop a line.