By Todres Yampel, President and Chief Technical Officer, ResQNet.com, New York, New York
A new generation of GUI tools is drastically reducing the time required to migrate host applications to wireless devices such as Palm Pilots, Pocket PCs and Wireless Application Protocal (WAP) enabled cell phones. Typically, host applications can be wireless-enabled in a matter of a few days with the new tools, making it practical to provide anywhere, anytime access to applications that previously have required terminals or personal computers. The critical benefit for all of these applications is they reduce the reaction time of mobile professionals who are far from their desks by providing real-time information to people and giving them a tool to take immediate action.
In this era of desktop systems and local area networking, it is easy to overlook the fact that many — in some organizations a majority — of the company's key employees spend a high proportion of their time away from their desks. Laptops meet some of their needs, however, the size of a laptop, the need for a desk to set it on and difficulty and delay associated with starting up the operating system, opening the application and finding the right information, make this tool unsuitable for many tasks. The result is that most mobile workers are forced to rely upon printed documents that quickly lose their timeliness and must record data on paper forms that cannot be accessed throughout the rest of the organization until they have been keyboarded into the system in a time-consuming secondary operation. Fortunately, it's clear that change is just around the corner.
Tidal wave of wireless applications
A tidal wave of new wireless applications is arriving as executives ditch their Day-Timers for Palm Pilots and abandon long distance calling cards for cell phones. Forrester Research estimates that more than 25 million Internet-ready handheld devices will be in the grasp of Americans in the next three years. This tracks with the prediction of the Strategis Group, which estimates that 25 million users will access wireless portals in the next five years. Strategis further stated that wireless phones currently outsell PCs by about 2.5 to 1 and the gap is continuing to grow. A few years ago, corporations could safely ignore these statistics because wireless was not a viable business communications medium. This is no longer true today.
Mobile phones and personal digital assistants represent a method by which businesses can increase the productivity of their employees and bond with customers. Handheld wireless devices will become an even more compelling platform in the next several years as next generation wireless technologies provide higher bandwidths and significant performance improvements. Sales professionals, customer support and service personnel, channel partners, executives are all able to benefit from having continual access to key enterprise applications. Accessible electronic versions of reports, quote and order forms, work orders, punch lists, and electronic forms provided via a device held in the palm make it easier and faster to perform a broad range of tasks. Access to key data such as customer order information, inventory levels, and service information on a 24 by 7 basis can speed up routine processes and decision-making by putting information at the fingertips of those with the power to act upon it. A report from Aberdeen Group showed that mobile enterprise applications can provide a significant competitive advantage. Aberdeen concluded that in almost all of the organizations that have deployed enterprise applications on handheld devices, the benefits have been real, quantifiable and impressive in terms of return on investment or payback. "The immediate and measurable return to the enterprise both in financial terms and in organizational efficiency, effectiveness and competitive advantage is compelling," the report concludes.
The potential applications for this new technology are many and varied. Wireless enablement of home banking applications would make it possible for customers to check their bank balances and transfer funds with a hand-held device. There are many potential healthcare uses, such as allowing doctors to maintain their schedules and view patient records while standing next to the patient's bed. As an example of many potential applications on the government side, revenue assessors could check records located on the mainframe. Basically, anyone who accesses a host computer from a terminal can now use a handheld device to obtain anytime, anywhere information access and data entry.
Challenge of moving to wireless platform
Taking advantage of these benefits is, however, easier said than done. Up to now, nearly all wireless applications have been created from scratch using development tools that have been created to address the special issues that confront wireless developers. This approach has two basic drawbacks. The first is that it is expensive and time-consuming. Developing a wireless interface for an existing application using this approach typically takes longer than developing the original user interface. This is because wireless platforms typically present a brand new development environment that requires starting from scratch, regardless of the environment in which the original application was developed.
In fact, the majority of wireless applications address more than one wireless platform, most commonly Palm Pilot PDAs and WAP-enabled cellular phones. These two environments are themselves so different that there is little commonality in working with both of them except perhaps for the basic screen design issues. This means that most applications need to be developed twice if they are to provide near-universal accessibility. Another problem with the traditional approach is that for most companies the applications and data which would make the most sense to present on a handheld platform are locked in legacy applications on mainframes or midrange computer systems which are difficult to access with conventional wireless development tools.
New generation of tools simplify conversion
These obstacles have recently been addressed by a new generation of development tools that make it possible to quickly convert host applications to wireless platforms. These tools give developers the ability to quickly transform existing host application screens so they look and function like wireless applications. They evaluate the 3270 or 5250 data stream and generate on the fly wireless screens. The developer can modify the screen to increase usability of wireless devices by removing unnecessary screens, fields, text and graphics, and converting more complicated screens to multiple wireless screens. These development tools address the pivotal issue of wireless-to-host — the ability to quickly rationalize and simplify host application dialogs as they appear across multiple screens so that a mobile user can obtain information and enter data without having to scroll up and down and side-to-side with large user displays.
These tools change the whole complexion of developing Wireless applications. They make it possible for a consultant or in-house developer to wireless enable existing applications in a matter of a few days without making any changes to the host application or software. With no programming or scripting, the applications are Palm or WAP-enabled using drag and drop development tools, creating the appropriate dialogs for interacting with the wireless devices based on the actual screens displayed by the host computer. Screens are presented graphically on the handheld devices with clickable hot spots and links using standard Palm interface guidelines. By the same token, screens can be customized for the unique characteristics of WAP enabled devices.
The customization process
The developer
is provided with a broad range of tools for modifying the appearance of the host
application to fit the wireless environment. They provide the ability to change
the appearance and functionality of the host without reprogramming or altering
the underlying host application. The application automatically converts elements
of host screens into objects that can be intermixed with objects created by the
developer especially for the wireless screen. Basic capabilities include:
This approach provides the benefit of being able to provide screen maintenance during the customization process. The ability exists to customize down to the object level on every individual screen, in order to provide very intuitive, user friendly screens that are easier and faster for end-users to move through. Included are such capabilities as reordering the workflow, resetting tab orders, hiding fields, and creating group boxes that clearly delineate actionable areas from informational ones. Furthermore, this approach significantly reduces the chance for input error by creating such devices as macros, check boxes and field descriptions and literals in native languages.
The unique wireless environment
Customizing a host application for a wireless device is very similar to the process using the GUI development tools that appeared several years ago to customize a host application for a standard browser interface. There is one major difference - the width and length of the interface is severely limited. For this reason, standard practice is to place the entire screen within a single column so that the application does not wrap around the screen and there is no horizontal scroll bar. This requires that each object be placed on the left-hand edge of the interface and have the same horizontal position as the other objects. Long objects, such as labels, need to be edited so that they are able to fit within the width of the screen. It's also wise to eliminate all unnecessary text and graphics both to conserve screen real estate and bandwidth. Most wireless applications dispense entirely with graphics, for example. Palm provides a downloadable tool called a Palm emulator that can assist in the development process by mimicking the behavior and appearance of the Palm on a standard PC. It provides a quick and easy way to check the appearance of customized applications without having a Palm available.
The latest generation of conversion tools can greatly reduce the time required to enable host applications for wireless access by automating a considerable portion of the process. One development tool automatically identifies 400 common host application screen patterns and automatically converts them into logical wireless formats. The user has the opportunity to create new host patterns and modify the way in which they are converted to wireless screens. Once templates have been identified or created that match the screen format used in the host application and produce satisfactory wireless screens, the process of generating wireless screens can be largely automated. Host applications converted to wireless can also take advantage of connectivity to external -databases.
Combining screens and scripting
Frequently, it makes sense to combine host screens in order to simplify the user interface for wireless presentation. For example, if two host screens are used to show the value of commodities in two different currencies, the first currency screen can write the value to global variables. Those variables can then be written to the second currency screen and all the values viewed simultaneously. One development environment provides a unique feature that enables automatic navigation through different host screens on a wireless device. It can be used to avoid user input of redundant information and execute assigned functions. For example, suppose that the original host application displays a company logo and requires the user to click the enter key to begin. The second screen has one input field that requires typing an application name and pressing the enter key. These screens can easily be bypassed using this approach.
An important feature of the newest generation of host-to-wireless devices is scripting capabilities that make it possible to provide additional client-side functionality beyond what is available on the host application. Scripts can be created that lead the user step by step through a process to reduce the learning curve on a wireless device. For example, the script can ask the users questions about their situation in order to branch to the proper screen or menu selection in the host application. Scripts also provide the ability to automate virtually any series of process steps that can be performed without human intervention. Basically, the application can be given an entirely new, friendlier face that makes learning a snap. The macro capabilities provided in the latest generation of wireless development tools make it possible to dynamically scroll through a host application, collect host data, combine with user-entered data, make decisions based on the data values, etc.
No need to modify host application
A key advantage is that minimal risk is posed to the host application. Any business logic that may be added to the application is embedded in the wireless portal rather than the host. Since no code is generated behind the scenes, screens don't need to be rewritten when a change is made to the host application, as would likely be necessary using a knowledge-based approach. One may customize individual screens over and over again if necessary. Because the process is point and click, business users can often be trained in the customization work, making it possible for subject matter experts to maintain or even create the application.
Once the screens are developed, the application can quickly be implemented on a Web server that interfaces with the host under a three-tier model. The server generates a browser-based HTML interface to the host. Communication between the client's browser and the Web server is conducted using the HTTP protocol on HTTP ports. After the user connects to the host, the host sends out a telnet data stream to a rendition engine that converts this data into HTML. The HTML is then sent to the online service's network, where it is further converted and compressed for low bandwidth wireless transactions, then sent to the handheld device. After the user makes a selection and clicks enter, the process occurs in reverse. For Palm applications, the default browser is called a Web clipping application that displays the compressed and converted HTML.
In the ever-changing e-business world a real-time connection to legacy information is becoming a necessity for the increasingly mobile workforce. When it comes to wireless-to-host Internet connectivity, the pivotal issue is the speed and ease in which the host application can be adopted for use on the small screens of wireless devices. A new generation of host-to-wireless tools offers a powerful and patented drag-and-drop user interface re-engineering capability for quickly and painlessly customizing and optimizing host screens for use with wireless devices. Without having to modify the underlying application, 24X7 access can be provided to customers, business partners and employees wherever they are located without requiring access to a terminal. Mobile professionals remain connected to the office from the road by simply navigating through host screens seamlessly, as if they were on any other Palm, Pocket PC or Smart Phone screens.
For more information, contact ResQNet.com at 212-482-8080 Ext. 4816, by fax at 212-482-8081, or visit the company’s Internet Web site at http://www.resqnet.com.
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