MobileFrame Blog » Development Environment

Announcing Release of MobileFrame version 4.7

Glenn Wickman — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 18:00:56 +0000

MobileFrame proudly announces version 4.7 of our enterprise mobility platform. With this version, we have added a series of useful new features including:

Database Setup Wizard. This wizard helps users quickly and easily create a new MobileFrame database and set it up for use. It will work with any/all databases supported by MobileFrame including SQL, Oracle and DB2 databases.
Task Version History. When you save a task (a mobile application), an automatic backup of that version will be generated and stored in the database. You can review all versions of your tasks, rollback to a particular version, or export different versions of your task.
Project Publisher. With the new Project Publisher, Administrators can “publish” (export) entire Projects including mobile applications, enterprise data (static and dynamic), mobile workers, etc. This allows Administrators to move projects across servers from development to production and/or create complete backups of their projects.
Desktop Administrator Preferences. Customize the level of access granted to each Business Administrator in the MobileFrame system. With this feature, System Administrators have finely-tuned control over which features each Business Admin can access, from creating tasks to monitoring mobile workers to full administrative privileges.
Restart the MobileFrame Client. In addition to the full suite of Mobile Device Management features previously offered via our Remote Manager tool, Administrators now have the ability to remotely restart the MobileFrame Client on a mobile device – unloading MobileFrame from memory and re-starting just where a mobile worker left off. With this feature, Administrators have an even greater level of control over devices in the field.
Enhanced Step Editor. Administrators can now build applications directly from the Screen Designer – truly drag and drop mobile application development. In addition, users can now add or edit steps from within workflow functions using step drop downs or insert step features – greatly simplifying and error-proofing the organic development process generally used by novice users.
Advanced Photograph Functionality. Our new Change Photo function adds the ability to resize a photograph to specified dimensions and/or add captions to photographs.

MobileFrame’s Product Suites enable businesses to rapidly deploy a variety of mobile applications with a low total cost of ownership and a high return on investment. As always, our patented Smart Architecture™ provides a user friendly point and click desktop that enables novice computer users to easily create, deploy and manage sophisticated mobile applications without the need for costly and time-consuming custom coding typically required in mobile application development.

“MobileFrame’s software continues to surpass all competitive offerings in the market place,” said Lonny Oswalt, MobileFrame’s CEO and President. “There is simply no competitive technology that facilitates 100% Code Free Computing. This release continues to keep MobileFrame at the forefront of enterprise mobility, providing customers the most flexible and comprehensive mobility system in the market.”

For more information, or to obtain a copy of MobileFrame version 4.7, contact your MobileFrame Sales Rep or sales@mobileframe.com.

Mobile Work Order / Dispatch System – Created in 1.5 hours by Me!

Nick Hession — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:55:45 +0000

Here’s round 2 on creating a mobile application and this time instead of a real time meal order taking application, I’ve created a simple Work Order System that includes a Dispatch app and a handheld app. They were both built using MobileFrame and completed in under 2 hours.

Here are the 2 Parts:

Desktop based Work Order Dispatch Application
- Easily Enter
  - Customer Name
  - Address, City, State, Zip
  - Problem Description
  - Quoted Price
  - Technician Dispatched
  - Customer Number
- Instantly dispatch the Work Order to the mobile worker you specified
- Notify the mobile worker with an instant message that they have a new work order

Windows Mobile 6.1 Based Work Order Application
- Receives the dispatched work order
- Allows the Mobile Worker to Select the Job
- Automatically notifies the Dispatcher that the Job has been Accepted via Instant Messenger
- Provides the Mobile Worker the ability to Invoice the customer for parts used on the job (Including the ability to barcode scan the part)
- Enter resolution
- Take Photo of the issue
- Annotate the photo that was taken with damaged areas, etc
- Sketch Damage
- Capture a Voice Note
- Collect Payment
- Capture Customer Signature
- Instantly Create a PDF of the Invoice that was autopopulated with the data collected on the device, then emailed it to the client

In case you don’t believe me take a look at the video of the application below. Mobile Applications and Desktop applications couldn’t be any easier to develop, manage, and support in MobileFrame. If you are interested in learning more contact us today!

2010 – A New Year, and a New Direction for the Blog!

Nick Hession — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:39:29 +0000

It’s been a very busy year so far, we are almost into February and we’re getting just getting out our first blog post! Fortunately we have been hard at work planning our content schedule and strategy around the blog for 2010, and have decided to add a new section to the blog specifically focusing on Mobile Education. With all of the competing technologies, platforms, operating systems, carriers, it can be difficult to separate marketing hype from actual fact. Our aim is to focus on one topic every couple of weeks, and try to shed more light on each particular subject.

Not surprisingly for this week we’ve decided to focus on : What a Mobile Computing Platform is, and why it matters (Disclaimer – MobileFrame is a software company that focuses on providing the most highly configurable and easy to use Mobile Enterprise Application Platform, that money can buy)

First and foremost what is a Mobile Enterprise Application Platform?

In its most simple form, a Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP) is a software based mobile computing strategy for providing organizations the means to deploy multiple different mobile applications on top of the same technology stack. Typically this type of Platform approach provides organizations with the ability to extend the data usually enclosed in multiple different back-end enterprise systems, deploy against multiple different types of operating systems, and connect or “Sync” over a wide variety of different types of communication mechanisms. The platform approach usually involves the ability to scale quickly and easily, with a build once and deploy to a wide variety of different types of devices without the need to actually target a specific device or operating system. This approach when carefully planned lowers overall total cost of ownership, and provides a central management point for all mobile application throughout the enterprise.

Typically there are several components to a mobile computing platform

Development Environment – Provides the ability to create the mobile application screens, and underlying business logic
Synchronization Server – Allows for bi-directional synchronization of data between the back office business systems, and the mobile worker
Consolidated Database – A Database that serves as the central data repository or the pass through to multiple different back end systems, also referred to as a Staging Database.
Client Software - This is software that gets installed onto each mobile client to run the mobile applications, manage the synchronization, as read / write to the local database if applicable

The Typical Problem: ABC Corporation has 3 separate divisions that all would like to implement mobile technologies, each with their own unique needs. When faced with the decision of what to do ABC Corporation must decide if they plan on building or buying their mobile solution, as well as who is going to make the selection of the solution vendor, devices, as well as who is going to manage and support the applications. Unfortunately many organizations allow for each division to separately manage their own solution, leading to a decentralized approach.

This approach leads to some of the following challenges:

Significant development costs
High total cost of ownership
Decentralized management
Hard-coded applications, with the need to re-install whenever changes are made
Developed for use with a single device type, and or operating system
No out of the box integration mechanisms to manage the data
Support related headaches, no centralized management

If ABC Corporation were to take the platform approach, they would gain the following benefits

Rapid application development tools
Code Re-use
Single source toolset
Mobility management (device management, etc.)
Application updates handled wirelessly
Out of the box connectors to multiple different backend systems.
Multiple Device support
Lower total cost of ownership
The ability to make changes and deploy them instantly.

For these reasons and many others, organizations that are interested in going mobile have been looking at Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms, to provide the necessary tools, connectors, and support mechanisms to alleviate many of the common pitfalls of going mobile. If you would like to see a demonstration of how MobileFrame addresses the mobile challenges within the enterprise, please contact us today!

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