Info
At Hand Mobile allows users of wireless phones or PDAs, with browser
support, to access their Info At Hand (or SugarCRM) server. Mobile
users may view or update existing data, as well as add new data. Only
the principal modules may be accessed using Info At Hand Mobile,
including Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, Leads, Tasks, Meetings,
Calls and Cases.
The user interface has been optimized for browsing on smaller screens, and is character-based to conserve bandwidth.
You can try it out at http://demo.longreach.net/mobile
- this links to the database of our regular demo site, so login as
admin/admin. If on a BlackBerry - make sure that browser options -
Emulation is set to BlackBerry. You can also go to this address with a
full browser - with interesting results. (See Mobile User Guide here.)
Info At Hand Mobile recognizes four classes of device:
If a device only accepts WML, it is a WAP browser.
If
it accepts some sort of (X)HTML, then screen width come into play : If
width < 320 pixels then it is classed as a small device (most likely
a mobile phone, maybe a BlackBerry or a Windows Mobile device such as
an iPAQ)
If screen
width is in the range 320 - 639 pixels then it is classed as a
medium-sized device (many modern PDAs, including Blackberry 8700, and
Treo 650/700p)
If
screen width >= 640 pixels then it is classed as a large device
(most likely a PC/Mac browser, or perhaps a VGA-class PDA such as some
Dell Axim models)
Small,
medium and large devices each have different screen layouts. For small
devices, list views are rendered in one column, each label and data
item on a separate line, and the same for detail/edit/search layouts.
For medium devices, there is still a one-column layout, but with labels
on the left and data on the right of the same line. For large devices, there is the usual tabular layout for list views, and a 4-column layout for detail/edit/search screens.
Info At Hand Mobile is provided free to users of Info At Hand, and is available commercially for users of SugarCRM Open Source. To learn more about Info At Hand Mobile, please contact us at 613-692-7818, or at
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WAP Interface
Medium Layout
(Blackberry 8700)
Large Layout (Dell Axim X50V)
Sync4j: Direct Wireless
Handheld-to-Server Synchronization
Only you can decide which you
prefer - handheld browser access to your business data as provided by Info At Hand Mobile, or handheld
wireless sync of your data from the handheld back to your server. At The
Long Reach Corporation, we find that one or the other may be the better fit for you, depending on several criteria:
The
applications native to the handheld device - be it a Palm Treo, a
BlackBerry or a PocketPC - can operate more responsively, and make
better use of the screen layout. If you sync infrequently, and seldom
enter data remotely, this can mean a sync solution may be a good fit
for you.
As well, speed is an issue.
If you have poor wireless bandwidth, and poor processing power on the handheld,
this typically creates a slow browsing experience, again making a sync solution preferable.
Accordingly another wireless solution
focus for Info At Hand has been to provide a direct wireless
handheld-to-server synchronization solution. That solution has been
created through the integration of the Sync4j open source software. Their
web site is at
http://sync4j.funambol.com/ (Funambol is the principal corporate sponsor
of the Sync4j project).
Sync4j is a certified
implementation of the Open Mobile Alliance Data Synchronization and
Device Management protocols (OMA DS and DM, formerly known as SyncML).
Sync4j is supported by one of the very largest communities of mobile
developers.
The full Sync4j system consists of
these components:
Sync4j Server:
a Java-based mobile application server with connectors to SQL
relational databases, Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino and Info At
Hand.
Sync4j Clients:
applications for Outlook, Windows Mobile PocketPC, BlackBerry, Palm
and iPod that you can use to synchronize your PIM data (address book
and calendar) with the Sync4j server. Many Java phones have native
support.
Sync4j Email Gateway:
a POP, IMAP and SMTP gateway, to support mobile email.
Sync4j Software Development
Kit: tools to develop (in Java - J2SE and
J2ME - and C++) sometimes-connected mobile applications.
Sync4j Device Management:
an OMA DM server to remotely manage mobile devices.
The protocol framework behind OMA
DS & DM works as shown in the Sync4j Architecture Diagram.
What we see is that
Internet-connected mobile devices connect to the Sync4j server via the
OMA DM (Device Management) protocols - which are either built into the
devices (such as many Java phones) or available for free download at the
Sync4j website (Palm, iPod, Outlook, BlackBerry). Note that not every
device can synchronize all possible data - some being limited to
synchronizing contacts and calendar data, while others are also able to
synchronize notes, tasks and even files.
How does that Sync4j server have
your Info At Hand data available to it? Via the OMA DS (Data
Synchronization) protocols, with which it connects to the Info At Hand
server and synchronizes data - with each server passing data
modifications to the other, and conflicts being resolved jointly.
Now while Sync4j is built using
Java, and Info At Hand is built using PHP, the two servers can
peacefully co-exist on the same server - messaging each other happily.
So when a user away from the office uses their Treo or BlackBerry to
perform a sync back to the Info At Hand server, in actual fact, they
connect via the Internet to the Sync4j server, which then performs the
synchronization with the Info At Hand server. Given that the two servers
will usually reside within the same physical server, the distinction is
perhaps moot.
To learn more about our Sync4j
implementation services, please contact us at 613-692-7818, or at
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WAP Interface
Medium Layout 
