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 would have to echo just about everyone else's comments here: Keep your requirements as simple and finite as possible, and manage what devices and (more importantly) platforms you are going to support as much as possible (ideally just one.) 

I had a quick conversation with Trent regarding what it would take to leverage StrataFrame on those mobile platforms, and the short of it is that providing a mobile platform solution isn't something that is on the drawing board right now. You may be able to refer to and (to some degree) port very specific pieces of the SF source over to the compact framework without too much massaging or re-working, so if you are looking for a leg-up on some specific core aspects of your mobile app that may be an option. If you are looking for full BO, data layer, etc support just like you have in winforms, however, then I'm afraid you aren't going to find what you are looking for there.

For what it's worth, we used to develop and support a full-featured app on PocketPCs. By the end of the development cycle, we were able to almost completely mirror our charting and perscription writing components, albeit in a dumbed down version. You can do some impressive things on those platforms if you are dedicated to them, it just takes about 4 times as long to develop and maintain .

Hi guys,



Thanks to all for responding, much appreciated.



I am looking at Symbol devices. The plan is to do some ASP.Net application, but don't know yet how to handle the capture of the signature or if that can be done from a web application, otherwise I would have to look at the specific device SDK to try to create a simple app to read the database via WIFI.



I will post more info once I get into the device specs and prices.

Edhy Rijo

You can try the ASP.NET way, but there are complications there that I believe are unnecessary. There is enough power in the CE .NET components to provide all of the data manipulation that you will need on the Symbol device. I'd highly suggest you spend your time in the ADO.NET code to do the mobile apps data work. I never needed any special device SDK in order to make the little app to work. For the scanning capability I leaned on DataWedge to initialize the laser for me when the device was booted. That way I do not have to integrate any kind of SDK to manage the scanning functions. Ya...I was a little lazy, but it sure took out a ton of complications.



Bill

Hi Bill,



Thanks for the suggestion, I will look at the CE to see some sample code. all the Symbol/Motorola devices I see in the web support MS Windows Mobile 6.1 which I believe should be the OS I need to use CE, right?



What device model did you use?

Edhy Rijo

The model that we have is the MC9090. Our devices are definitely running Windows CE rather than Windows Mobile. I doubt there is a significant enough difference between the two development environments to discourage you from one or the other. Have fun!

Thanks Bill!

Edhy Rijo