Technology behind Waplane
Waplane - a solution for corporate and government personnel on the move
With Waplane, your mobile phone or PDA becomes an access point to your corporate intranet. You have access to your corporate databases, business applications e-mail, calendar, tasks, etc independently on mobile network and independently on mobile device.
Waplane is a world-class mobile middleware
Waplane enables the mobile use of web service enabled applications, relational databases, Notes/Domino applications, and Personal Information Management systems, yet no modifications to these applications are needed.
Picture 1. Overview of the Waplane
The main features of Waplane are the Corporate Mobile Portal, access to Personal Information Management (PIM), Query Edit Tool for mobilizing corporate applications
Portal
The Waplane Portal is called the Start Page. This fully modifiable Start Page is the portal to all the services available from your mobile device via Waplane. Typically, these services might include links to your e-mail inbox, calendar, company phone lists, company news etc. You might also use QE tool to utilise links to business applications such as CRM (Customer Relations Management) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and so on.
Waplane features dynamic terminal recognition. Waplane automatically recognizes the browser you are using and adapts the User Interface to function with the specific requirements of your device.
Waplane supports multiple languages, for example English, Swedish, German, French, Russian, Polish, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Finnish. Support for new languages can be added by system administrators.
User Profile
Each Waplane user has their own user profile, which can be adapted according to specific user needs. The profile is created and updated in the Waplane administrator web UI, and the profile data is saved to the Waplane control database. The profile can be created by an administrator, who can also create multiple profiles at the same time. The profile can be modified as needed later on by administrator or in some cases the end user himself. The Start Page contents are defined in the User Profile.
The user’s language preference is also defined in the User Profile, as well as the time zone settings.
Waplane optimises the output for the specific requirements of each terminal.
Waplane Query Edit, the set of tools for mobilizing applications
The Waplane Query Edit tool is a set of wizard-type tools for system administrators that allow easy definition of the mobile user interface to the corporate data and applications. The query edit tool offers several methods for the system administrators to define mobile user interface.
Waplane can connect to the corporate data by connecting the data source directly or by connecting the enterprise application on business logic level (See Picture 2). In each case the security level and the structure of the original application/database is sustained.
Once the mobile user interface for your application is defined using Waplane tools the service can be accessed by authorized users using any device and any data network.
Picture 2 Connecting to applications
Administrator defines
- How to connect to the data source (server , database, database driver etc)
- Search keys to be used (if any)
- Result list to be shown
- Detailed data to be shown
- Actions related to each query (create data, edit data etc)
- Definition of additional security settings
- Database connector to JDBC enabled relational database (DB/2, SQL, Oracle, Sybase, MySQL etc)
- Native connector to IBM Lotus Domino
- Web Service (SOAP) connector
- Separate Tool to define queries to Web services - Also possible to create tailored connectors to other data sources
- Java API provided by Waplane - Cascaded queries
- Use results from previous query as the key to next query - File system Query (access files on server file system using smart phone)
- Possibility to cascade tailored Java modules to query
The information is brought to your mobile device fast and in real time. When you edit the data in the databases, the changes are updated directly to the server. As you are accessing the data online, you and your colleagues, whether at the office or away from the office, always have the freshest possible information, even if the changes are made with your phone.
No modifications to existing databases or applicatins are needed, and you have access to the same information that you do with your office workstation.
Waplane PIM
The Waplane PIM (Personal Information Management) enables use of your e-mail, plus, if you use the IBM Lotus Notes or Microsoft Exchange email system: access to your calendar and task lists. With the Waplane PIM you can also access several types of directories: business applications, Notes-based databases, LDAP-based directories, and more.You can manage your e-mail, calendar and task list just as if you were at your office workstation.
Calendar (for IBM Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange users)
You can access your calendar and perform all the same tasks as with your office workstation.
Task List (for IBM Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange users)
A task list is handy when you need to list your tasks and be reminded of them.
Directories
Your personal and corporate directories are within reach even if you are not at your desk or at the office.
Waplane - a solution designed to make life and work easier for corporate people on the move.
Supported mobile devices
Waplane supports practically any device with a browser. Characteristics of each browser type are defined in terminal definition files. New terminal definitions can be added to the system on the fly. If terminal definition for particular browser does not exist Waplane uses minimum setting for given mark-up language. Adding new terminal does not require any software changes or changes to existing mobilization of applications.Online access
Supported devices include WAP phones, PDA’s, iMode terminals, communicators, PC browsers- Low end-user interface for WAP 1.x browser
- Older phone models from Nokia, SonyEricsson, Motorola, RIM Blackberry, Siemens, Samsung etc - Rich XHTML user interface for WAP 2.x browser
- Nokia Series 60 phones, Nokia Series 80 communicators, SonyEricsson UIQ smart phones, Motorola smart phones, RIM Blackberry devices etc - Rich web-user interface for Pocket PC, Smart phones and web browsers
- Microsoft Windows CE devices, Palm One devices, Linux devices etc - Supported mark-up languages, WML, XHTML, CHTML, HDML, HTML
Offline access
- IMAP4 mail clients (pass through access)
- Calendar synchronizing (devices supporting SyncML 1.1)
Waplane ASP features
Communities and community administrators- Waplane for ASP allows service providers to create unlimited amount of user communities within one Waplane instance. Super administrator can centrally administer this Waplane instance.
- Each community can have their own administrator who can
- Add and remove users to and from his community
- Modify the mobile portal of his community
- Send OMA OTA settings to members of his community
- Send SMS notifications to his community
- Community settings define the mobile portal and basic settings for each user of the community.
- WPL Host is an administration client for Waplane hosting environments.
- Allows the ASP host administrators to create communities for hosting clients, appointing community administrators, track usage logs for invoicing, test connectivity to clients systems etc.
- Connection testing tools
- Ping tester
- IMAP connection tester
- POP3 connection tester
- DIIOP and IOR connection tester for Domino connections
- LDAP tester
- Waplane allows administrators to send OMA OTA configuration settings and bookmarks to end-users mobile devices. (Requires connection to operator SMS server)