Designing Mobile Application Servers A Prototype Approach Applied to the Construction Industry

Abstract

The use of mobile computing within in the construction industry is an emerging field within informatics and software engineering research. This thesis presents a system design of an application server, which is thought to act as a gateway between existing information systems and mobile devices used within in a construction industry context and especially on a construction site. The purpose of the project was to investigate how a mobile application server should be designed. The system design focuses on aspects like integration with existing information systems, synchronization matters, vendor independence, platform independence and generic support for existing and future mobile clients. Today, there are a number of existing and emerging technologies to choose from when designing new IT artefacts. In this project the Java 2 Enterprise Edition framework and various XML frameworks, have been applied. The mobile applications server is based on an application server following the J2EE specification. Besides the above mentioned technologies the Aptus telematics platform from Pilotfish, which incorporates telematic functionality in the system design in the form of machine connectivity have been used. The results are presented in the form of a general design, which is vendor independent, with regard to software components and third party frameworks, and a specified design containing various products found relevant for a future implementation. The specified design is platform independent since all of the components used are pure java software. Since the work has been design oriented the main research approach has been to apply evolutionary prototyping methods, design patterns and software engineering best practice. Besides the general and the specified design the results also includes some prototype applications implemented on a Compaq iPAQ running SavaJe OS, which provides a fast J2SE compliant runtime environment.