The development of mobile application systems is based on complex technologies and challenging development methodologies. A substantial understanding of the handling and development of mobile building blocks, of their interconnectivities, and of their demanding system services is provided by this book. The book does not address the methodological aspects of the systematic construction of mobile application systems.
The book describes the development of mobile application systems using the .NET compact framework (CF), and smart device extensions (SDE) for Visual Studio .NET, from multiple perspectives. The book examines key mobile topics, including developing effective Pocket PC interfaces, working with SQL server CE (SQL CE) databases, moving data to and from devices, leveraging Extensible Markup Language (XML) Web services, and deploying applications.
The book reflects the technological complexity of mobile application systems. It starts by discussing the differences between embedded Visual Basic (eVB) and the CF, along with the differences between the overall .NET framework and the CF. Next, basic CF programming is introduced. The book continues with a discussion of the development of graphical user interfaces, addressing the technical limitations of handheld devices. A guide to CF control, along with many programming details, is provided. The book addresses custom controls and gives readers guidelines for custom-specific development. The authors then cover the handling of files and directories, and how to create a text file or binary. With the graphical user interface and file system explained, the authors then describe the aspects of data access. This includes the binding of controls to data, data retrieval from a Web service, data retrieval from a SQL server on a local network, the use of SQL CE to take advantage of replication, and using XML as a data access technology. Networking, unmanaged code, and interoperability concerns are addressed as well. To assist users of mobile application systems, the book covers the development of help systems, the creation of setup applications, and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) reports.
The book clearly benefits from the broad and detailed knowledge of its authors, and from their educational and technical communication skills, as well as from their ability to discuss complex technologies comprehensively. The target audience consists of both first-time and experienced developers of mobile application systems. The authors, therefore, describe the development of elementary application systems, as well as the relevant aspects of .NET for building complex and heterogeneous mobile application systems. These aspects include robustness, effective graphical user interfaces, interchanges with device-based data sources, enterprise data access, Web services, XML interoperability, help systems, and setup routines.
One particularly beneficial feature of the book is its comprehensive, continuous use of application and code examples. Based on well-documented, in-depth knowledge and experience, tips and tricks are made transparent to developers. Unfortunately, this is not embedded, and does not follow a systematic engineering development methodology for mobile application systems. However, in view of its target audience and orientation, I do not consider this to be a major drawback of the book.
In summary, I highly recommend the book. It includes tools and appendices for building solutions, and covers a broad range of complex technology for the development of mobile application systems.
