I have the need to add some features of one of my SF application into a mobile device and been able to do the following:

1.- Connect wireless to the database (WiFi, WAN, Local wireless, etc.) and do some stuff (Don't know if I could use SF for this or would I need to go plain .Net)

2.- Capture customer signature electronically. I have not done this, but I guess would be a matter of access the signature hardware on the device via some library and save the signature image in a Blob field or something like that, again, would I be able to use use SF for this?



I have not started to search for Mobile Devices yet, so I would like to know if anybody here have done something like that and what kind of Mobile Device have you used?



The SF application handles an appliances repair shop, and the idea is to provide the technicians with the Mobile Device where they can see their routes and job specification, enter any new information about parts used at the customer and capture the customer's signature electronically in the Mobile Device. All communications with the database will be done online and live, I don't want to go with local data at the mobile device, probably I would need to build an ASP.Net application for the mobile device instead of using any custom library for the device.



I appreciate any comment, suggestions, experiences, etc. that anybody can provide here.



Thanks!

Edhy Rijo

I came to the same conclusion as Bill. We have an application that run on mobile devices and sync inventory as it is pulled off the shelves in an inventory management system. It is vanilla .NET

If you have a Symbol (now Motorola) device you will be using their SDK. The Compact Framework is limited in what it can do and it a subset of the same version of the .NET framework, as such I try to do as little as possible actually on the devices, also since memory will be limited it is another reason to use vanilla CF, do as little as ppssible and get the heck out

Yoru biggest choice might be platform, CE versus Windows Mobile, versus embedded. We used CE because it was more "powerful" but it has since fallen out of favor a bit with WM taking frontstage. Targeting different platforms can require code changes.

Hopefully you have the ability to provide the devices or dictate which are used.

Keith Chisarik

It appears that MonoTouch (beta?) is limited to iApple devices only. I'll keep this in mind once we start using the iPads at the loading docks.



We have four Symbol devices in two different plants that do exactly what Keith mentioned: "do as little as possible and get the heck out". These devices do things like inventory control, quality checks, picking ticket fulfillment, material label printing, packing list processing, etc. The interface is boring, but pragmatic.



The differences between WM, PPC and CE (and others...sigh) will demand slightly different code bases. Definitely keep that in mind as you consider implementation and device selection.