* The Reviewmeister takes a look at OneBridge Mobile Solutions Platform 4.7
The Reviewmeister has been looking at mobile middleware products recently. Specifically, we’re in the market for products that work with every type of wireless handheld device, run on any server platform, reliably deploy applications, automatically handle synchronization issue, are responsive and intuitive to use, offer the highest level of security and adhere to industry standards. Whew!
Let’s start with OneBridge Mobile Solutions Platform 4.7 from Extended Systems.
Extended’s OneBridge Mobile Solutions Platform translates application screens into device-specific displays, interacts with back-end servers and offers a Windows-based visual design environment for building handheld dialogs. While it offers excellent synchronization services, it doesn’t have a handheld device relational database option.
OneBridge Mobile Solutions Platform runs on Java and is J2EE-compliant. The system consists of a Mobile Data Suite, Presentation Server and Integration Server. The Data Suite subcomponents are Synchronization Server, Synchronization Server Administration console, the OneBridge mobile client software and programming specifications for building mobile applications in the OneBridge environment.
Table-driven to quickly and uniformly accommodate the widest range of handheld device types, the Presentation Server formats and renders screen data to each specific handheld device. Developers use CodeWarrior or an equivalent application to create the actual handheld client business logic. OneBridge Mobile Solutions Platform supports virtually every type of mobile computing device.
The OneBridge Synchronization Server subcomponent provides server-side access to Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects and Object Linking and Embedding Database data sources, Lotus Notes custom databases and the OneBridge Integration Server.
In our tests, the handheld successfully switched from connected to disconnected states without corrupting our database or letting the user think a transaction was complete when it wasn’t.
Extended has a formal process, which it calls a “facilitated discovery process,” for expertly and safely guiding customers through the risks and dangers of shoehorning the client portion of a business application into a handheld device.
The OneBridge administration tools consist of Web-based screens – for example, you can configure the OneBridge interface(s) with back-end servers. The Sync Server Administration tools generate custom integration methods that OneBridge’s Sync Server uses to access back-end relational databases.
Similarly, the Data Suite Administration, Presentation Server Administration and Microsoft Management Console-based Log Viewer adds and deletes users, and displays usage reports.
OneBridge Designer is a great tool for building mobile applications and reviewing their design.
For the full report, go to https://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2004/0209revmm.html
