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Flexible
handling of data acquisition Mobile
applications are free to utilize and access
existing data sources for data acquisition.
Such data sources may include relational
databases, HTML servers (web servers), XML
repositories, etc. F1-xMAS provides
a unified view of data aggregated from disparate
data sources. The data acquisition engine,
called the F1-WIS (Web Integration Service)
Engine, aggregates distributed and
unstructured data scattered across the internet
and/or the intranet into a ¡°virtual
database¡± that is uniformly accessible
by the application.
Easy
access to web-based content (HTML/XML) F1-WIS¡¯s
proprietary data mapping language, called
the Source Description Language (SDL), allows
developers to map data that reside in web-based
data sources into a virtual database. It
is a declarative language that is used to
define ¡°what¡± to retrieve in a data source
rather than ¡°how¡±.
Flexible
handling of data delivery F1-MAS
handles the adaptation of content to multiple
devices through the style-sheet Engine.
The style-sheet Engine accepts content in
the form of XML and applies the style-sheets
appropriate to the format of the end-users¡¯
devices. Hence, applications can be
written to publish content independent of
device format.
Full
application development support F1-xMAS
provides the following common functional
tools required in developing wireless applications
in the form of APIs: (1) The Wireless
Programming Library includes handling of
user/device interaction at the front-end
side. Its functions include session management,
cookie management, and device
information management. (2) F1-WIS API
provides access through the F1-WIS Engine
to the virtual data tables defined by
the SDLs. The API provides the connection
to data sources, the query to the data
tables,
and tabular results from such queries. The
manner of interactionis very similar
to relational
database APIs, e.g., JDBC or ODBC. F1-WIS
API supports J2ME, Window CE,
and other mobile device platforms for developing
native client mobile applications.
Speed
to market F1-WIS
provides GUI tools to quickly generate source
descriptions (SDLs) in order to structure the
data targeted for mobilization. Building
a custom mobile application with application
logic independent from the underlying
web based application is simple and can
be performed in as little as one day
for simple applications like web-based e-mail.
Affordability
F1-MAS
supports all wireless protocols and does
not require the development of additional
web sites to accommodate each wireless
format. This translates into significant
cost reductions: little to no upfront
setup cost in wireless website construction
and no recurring expenses for maintaining
additional websites and proxy servers.
Efficiency
F1-WIS
can transform only the content essential
for the mobile application and optimizes
the delivery of wireless web content
through wireless servers ? only the essential
mobile content is delivered to the user.
Extensibility
Simply
by adapting protocol templates and style
sheets, F1-MAS enables mobile delivery across
any wireless protocol to any mobile device.
Synchronous All
end user/mobile application/legacy application
interaction is two way and synchronous.
Any changes made in one front-end device
(i.e., a PC) are instantly reflected across
the front end.
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