Application architecture (long post - sorry)

[Martin P. Hellwig]

Mike Meyer wrote:
> limeydrink at hotmail.com writes:
>> I have looked at the options for developing the client for these
>> "electronic job sheets" and have decided upon Microsoft Pocket PC and
>> the .net compact framework.  It seems the easiest environment for
>> developing and the PDA's can be obtained very cheaply as a package from
>> a GSM/GPRS data carrier.
> 
> That seems like overkill for this application.
> 
>> Problem 1 - Physical connectivity
>> how would I make the actual network connection in to the server from
>> the client
>> Running a VPN connection over GPRS ?
>> Connecting to the web on the client then using web services ?
> 
> The physical connectivity isn't your worry. How you access it from
> software depends on your chosen platform.
> 
>> The above decisions probably depend on the answer to problem 2...
>> How to connect to the data
>> Or even simpler I could just export data for the engineers into XML or
>> .csv files and expose them using a web server the client then just
>> connects to the server and then downloads the job data , and uploads
>> completed job information
> 
> I've gone this route before, and this is why I say your .net solution
> looks like overkill. The phones that GSM providers *give away* have
> web browsers built into them, and it's been that way for years. No
> need for .net or Pocket PC or whatever on the mobile device - just get
> a web-enabled phone. This makes half the development trivial - you
> don't have to do *any* development on the mobile side of things.
<cut>
Somehow I immediately thought of the s60 platform, it even runs some 
form of python if you really need it to ;-)
http://www.s60.com/

-- 
mph