Phone Overview Tablet Overview Server Overview Powered By DataPoint
[Related Products]		 SDI Main Site


The DataPoint phone software runs on different platforms (Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, iOS port in the works). The user interface for DataPoint and related products was designed to keep a consistent feel accross these platforms while still integrating the core concepts that define each of them. There are five main compenets to the interface:


For information on these views visit their corresponding pages. It would be helpful to obtain the fire hydrant demo application that can be accessed by downloading the free version of DataPoint in the corresponding mobile market. You can apply all the information described on this site to that demo to get familiar with the software. After downloading the application you can select the connect option (either a connect button or a connect menu option from your platform's option menu. The option menu is usually shown by pressing a physical button or area on the device. Connecting will transfer the fire hydrant demo configuration to your device and you will be able to walk through these views as they are described.

The general flow of interaction between these views is that the editor view allows a user to add new records into the phone. Whether or not users can add new records is configurable, if users are not allowed to add records it is assumed any records will be added on the server and pushed to the phones. The search view allows a user to browse records on their phone in various ways. Once a user has found a record that record can be selected from the search grid. When a record is selected it becomes the active record and the user can view all the information about that record on the details view. The user can also edit the current record if the server has given the user edit control over the individual record. The server can allow individual phones to have viewing or editing privileges on individual records. The user can also invoke "actions" on the active record, for more information on actions see the related section below. The map view allows the user see information geographically plotted on a map. The user can map records in the search view, find their current location, search the phone for points that correspond to the current map location, etc. Once points are added to the map the user can view information about the point by clicking it and can jump to the details view of a point from clicking the details button. The map view can be a very easy way for a user to search and navigate the database of points to find a record. The remote search view (a.k.a. Checkout View) allows the user to search the server for records not on the phone and subsequently pull those records to the phone. Whether or not the user is allowed access to this view is configurable so it is possible that the user is not allowed to see this view.


There are a few other menu option groups that allow general functionality on the phone.
  • Transportation
    • Fetch : this tells the phone to communicate with the server and download any records marked for the particular user.
    • Send : these menu options allow the user to send the current search grid (Send All/Everything) or just the current instance to the server.
    • Check : these menu options allow the user to send the current search grid (Check All/Everything) or just the current instance to the server and remove those instances from the phone.
  • Set Mode
    • DataPoint can manage multiple types of records simultaneously. This allows the user to switch record types (ex. manage Parking meters instead of Fire Hydrants).
  • Settings : this allows the user to manage general application settings.
    • Server IP: the IP address or URL of the server the phone should communicate with (by default this is set to SDI's DataPoint demo server).
    • Secondary IP: a secondary IP (usually an internal/local network address) to use for local transport/registration if the user desires. This settings is not necessary but can be used to increase security when DataPoint encryption libraries are used. This allows Registration and Encryption keys to be transported internally but matched to both IP addresses.
    • Server Port: the port the phone should use for communication with the server (by default this is set to the port SDI's demo server communicates on).
    • Use Secondary IP: tells DataPoint whether is should use the main IP or secondary IP addresses when sending/receiving information.
    • Your ID : this is a logical ID the user can enter so users browsing the server console can identify it.
    • User Type : this allows the user to enter a specific user class type the server can use to map to entity types the user should have access to.


Actions
There are different kinds of actions and which actions users see is configurable. Two main categories of actions available are record specific actions (performed on the active record) and general actions (not related specifically to the active record). Actions are configurable to meet the needs of the user. Actions are constantly being added, some of the current actions are listed below.
  • Record Specific Actions
    • Add Related Record : adds a record that is related to the currently active record (ex. add a fire hydrant inspection to the current fire hydrant)
    • View Web Resource : obtain and view web resource related to the current record (ex. view a fire hydrant manual for the current fire hydrant)
    • Perform Quick Search : searches the phone for records relating to the active record (ex. find all the fire hydrant inspections for the current fire hydrant)
    • Remote Acquisition : obtain related material of a certain type from the server (ex. asking the server for all the inspections it has for the current fire hydrant, some of which might not already be on the user's phone if some other user in the system added the inspections)
  • General Actions : these include actions that invoke some general functionality on the phone not necessarily pertaining to the currently active record such as the following:
    • Map All : maps all the instance of the current active records type to the mapping view (ex. puts all the fire hydrants on the map).
    • Email Search Grid : emails the current search grid in a CSV format to whatever email address you want.
    • **Push Search Grid : pushed the records in the search view to another phone currently using the Receive Search Grid action.
    • **Receive Search Grid : puts the phone in listening mode so that records from another phone can be sent to this phone via Bluetooth
** This functionality is reserved for related products not utilizing the server package integration allowing user to work in groups and maintain data synchronization. With systems utilizing the server package all data flow must go through the server to maintain data and control flow integrity.


Important Note About DataPoint on Blackberry OS
It is important to note on Blackberry phones the options menu for DataPoint does not utilize submenus from the options menu for backwards compatibility. All of the same menu options are available on the Blackberry version of the code they are just shown without any submenus.