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- Create a Customer Record in an MDK App
Create a Customer Record in an MDK App
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Create a Customer Record in an MDK App
You will learn
- How to create a customer record
- How to store this record locally
- How to sync local changes with backend
Prerequisites
- You have created an MDK app as described in Create Your First Mobile App with the Mobile Development Kit (MDK).
If you didn’t follow the prerequisite then you may clone an existing project from GitHub repository to start with this tutorial.

In this step, you will create the Customers_Create.page
as a Form Cell Page. This type of page allows for form input style changes. The page will provide only a subset of items available on the Customer Detail page. You will add the fields that will be editable by the end-user.
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Right-click the Pages folder | MDK: New Page | Form Cell Page | Next.
A Form Cell Page is suitable for pages that generate new objects or modify existing objects. It includes a form cell container by default. You can add form sections, multiple containers or action controls to this page. Under each container section, you can add various container items.
You can find more details about Form Cell page.
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Enter the Page Name
Customers_Create
and click Next and the Finish on the Confirmation step. -
In the Properties pane, set the Caption to Create Customer.
Now, you will add the fields (like first name, last name, phone, email address & date of birth) for creating a new customer record by the end-user.
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In the Layout Editor, expand the Control | Container Item section.
Drag and drop a Simple Property onto the Page area.
You can find more details about available controls in Form Cell page.
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Drag and drop three additional Simple Property controls onto the page so you have four total controls.
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Select the first Simple Property control and provide the below information:
Property Value Name
FCCreateFirstName
Caption
First Name
PlaceHolder
Enter Value
-
Select the second Simple Property control and provide the below information:
Property Value Name
FCCreateLastName
Caption
Last Name
PlaceHolder
Enter Value
-
Select the third Simple Property control and provide the below information:
Property Value Name
FCCreatePhone
Caption
Phone
PlaceHolder
Enter Value
-
Select the last Simple Property control and provide the below information:
Property Value Name
FCCreateEmail
Caption
Email
PlaceHolder
Enter Value
-
Drag and drop a Date Picker control onto the page area for date of birth parameter.
Provide the below information:
Property Value Name
FCCreateDOB
Caption
DOB
Now, you will add a button on the Create Customer page and set it’s onPress
to CloseModalPage_Cancel.action
.
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Drag and drop an Action Bar Item to the upper left corner of the action bar.
Action Bar Item is a button that users can use to fire actions when pressed. You can add an Action Bar Item only to the Action Bar (at the top of the page).
-
In the Properties pane, click the link icon to open the object browser for the System Item property. Double click the Cancel type and click OK.
System Item are predefined system-supplied icon or text. Overwrites Text and Icon if specified.
-
Now, you will set the
onPress
event toCloseModalPage_Cancel.action
.In Events tab, click the link icon for the
OnPress
property to open the object browser. Double click theCloseModalPage_Cancel.action
and click OK to set it as theOnPress
Action.
Now, create a navigation action that will open the Customers_Create.page
when executed.
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Right-click the Actions folder | MDK: New Action | choose MDK UI Actions in Category | click Navigation Action | Next.
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Provide the below information:
Property Value Action Name
NavToCustomers_Create
PageToOpen
Select Customers_Create.page
from the dropdownModalPage
Select true
from the dropdown -
Click Next and then Finish on the confirmation step.
You will add a button to the Customers_List.page
called Add. You will link this button to the navigation action you just created. This event will open the NavToCustomers_Create.action
when the Add button is pressed by the end-user.
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In
Customers_List.page
, drag and drop an Action Bar Item to the upper right of the action bar. -
Click the link icon to open the object browser for the
SystemItem
property. Double click the Add type and click OK. -
In the Properties pane, click the Events tab, click the link icon for the
OnPress
property to open the object browser. Double click theNavToCustomers_Create.action
action and click OK to set it as theOnPress
Action.
The next step is to store newly created record locally for an offline application or send the new record directly back to the backed for online applications. You will now create an action to map the changes received from the Customers_Create.page
to the corresponding field in the OData service. You will also show a failure message if the create action fails to save the changes.
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Right-click the Actions folder | MDK: New Action | choose MDK Message Actions in Category | click Message Action | Next.
Provide the below information:
Property Value Action Name
CreateCustomerEntityFailureMessage
Type
Select Message
from the dropdownMessage
Failed to Create Customer record
Title
Create Customer
OKCaption
OK
OnOK
--None--
CancelCaption
leave it blank OnCancel
--None--
Click Next and then Finish on the Confirmation step.
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Next, you will create the OData Create action to update entity action that will map the changes to the correct entities in the OData service and save the changes.
You can find more details about Create Entity Action.
Right-click the Actions folder | MDK: New Action | choose MDK Data Actions in Category | click OData Action | Next.
Provide the below information:
Property Value Action Name
Customers_CreateEntity
Type
Select CreateEntity
from the dropdownService
Select Sample.service
from the dropdownEntitySet
Select Customers
from the dropdownClick Next.
In Property and Create Links step, uncheck City.
Since in
Customer_Create.page
, you defined five properties (First Name, Last Name, Phone, Email & date of birth) to be added, now in this step, you will bind them to respective UI Controls.Check the
DateOfBirth
property and click the link icon to open the object browser.Change the drop down in the object browser to
Controls & ClientData
, click the Current Page radio button.In the search box start typing the control name
FCCreateDOB
. The list will filter down to show the matching values. Double click the Value (Value) entry under theFCCreateDOB
field and click OK to set binding.Repeat the above step for remaining properties:
EmailAddress
,FirstName
,LastName
andPhoneNumber
.Click Next and Finish on the confirmation screen. The action editor will open with the
Customers_CreateEntity.action
loaded. -
Next, define Success and Failure actions for
Customers_CreateEntity.action
.In the action editor for the new action, expand the Common Action Properties and provide the below information:
Property Value Success Action
Click the link icon and bind it to CloseModalPage_Complete.action
Failure Action
Click the link icon and bind it to CreateCustomerEntityFailureMessage.action
When
Customers_CreateEntity.action
gets executed successfully thenCloseModalPage_Complete.action
will be triggered or ifCustomers_CreateEntity.action
fails thenCreateCustomerEntityFailureMessage.action
will be triggered. -
Next, you will set the
OnPress
event of the Save button.Now, that the Create action is created, you will need to call the Create action when the end-user presses the Save button. You will add a Save button on the
Customers_Create.page
and link it to theCustomers_CreateEntity.action
.In
Customers_Create.page
, drag and drop an Action Bar Item to the upper right corner of the action bar.Click the link icon to open the object browser for the System Item property.
Double click the Save type and click OK.
In the Events tab, click the link icon for the
OnPress
property to open the object browser, bind it toCustomers_CreateEntity.action
.
Deploy the updated application to your MDK client.
-
Right-click
Application.app
and select MDK: Deploy. -
Select deploy target as Mobile Services.
You should see Deploy succeeded message.
Make sure you are choosing the right device platform tab above.
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Re-launch the app on your device, you may asked to authenticate with passcode or Biometric authentication. You will see a Confirmation pop-up, tap OK.
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Tap CUSTOMER LIST, click + icon to create a new record.
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Enter the values, and tap save icon.
Local record gets created accordingly.
Since this is an Offline application, new entry is added to the request queue of the local store which needs to be sent or uploaded to the backend explicitly.
MDK base template has added a Sync button on main page of the app to upload local changes from device to the backend and to download the latest changes from backend to the device. Actions | Service |
UploadOffline.action
&DownloadOffline.action
. -
On Main page, tap SYNC, a successful message will be shown.
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Re-launch the app on your device, you may asked to authenticate with passcode or Biometric authentication. You will see a Confirmation pop-up, tap OK.
-
Tap Customer List, click + icon to create a new record.
-
Enter the values, and tap Save.
Local record gets created accordingly.
Since this is an Offline application, new entry is added to the request queue of the local store which needs to be sent or uploaded to the backend explicitly.
MDK base template has added a Sync button on main page of the app to upload local changes from device to the backend and to download the latest changes from backend to the device. Actions | Service |
UploadOffline.action
&DownloadOffline.action
. -
On
Main
page, tap Sync, a successful message will be shown. As Sync is pressed,UploadOffline.action
gets triggered to upload local changes from device to the backend and on success of this call,DownloadOffline.action
is being called.
You can cross verify if a record has been updated in the backend.
Backend URL can be found in Mobile Services Cockpit.
Mobile Applications | Native/Hybrid | click the MDK App com.sap.mdk.demo | Mobile Connectivity | click Launch in Browser icon
![]()
It will open the URL in a new tab, remove
?auth=uaa
and add/Customers
at the end of the URL.

Congratulations, you have successfully created a Customer Record and you are now all set to Delete a Customer Record in an MDK App.
Next Steps
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Step 1: Create new page for new customer record
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Step 2: Add cancel button on create customer page
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Step 3: Create navigation action
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Step 4: Add create button to customer list page
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Step 5: Store the created data locally
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Step 6: Deploy and activate the application
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Step 7: Test the application
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