Q. What is BrightXpress Mobility Suite?
A. BrightXpress Mobility Suite is a powerful software development platform for creating end-to-end enterprise mobility solutions. It provides the essential enterprise mobility development tools within the platform: BrightBuilder, an easy-to-use drag-and-drop mobile application designer; BrightServer, a robust and highly scalable server product to integrate into business systems and extend/mobilise business data to field device;, and BrightForms, a powerful forms engine for rich occasionally connected or always-on (“online”) mobile applications with built-in camera, signature capture, barcode scanner, GPS, mobile printing support.
Q. What are the business benefits of using BrightXpress Mobility Suite?
A. BrightXpress Mobility Suite helps you create business mobile solutions much quicker in days with much smaller development teams compared to standard traditional software developments tools currently available in the market. It helps you eliminate the technology and business risks. In short it saves you money by reducing the development time and the skill set of the development team for the initial development of the solution, and the maintenance and updates in the long term.
Q. Who can use BrightXpress Mobility Suite?
A. Anyone with mobility requirements in any industry can use BrightXpress Mobility Suite to mobilise its field force to remove the paper based business processes, streamline automatic data collection, eliminate double data entry, optimize and automate the backend data administration into back office systems.
You do not need to be a fully trained computer programmer to create solutions using Bright Mobility Suite. BrightBuilder Mobile Application Designer provides easy to understand and learn application development environment for quickly creating business forms and deploying remote field devices.
Q. What sort of applications can be developed using BrightXpress Mobility Suite?
A. BrightXpress™ can be used to develop solutions for any mobile work force, such as for sales teams, service technicians, remote asset management, health workers, inspection (regulatory, OH&S), insurance claims processing, logistics, transports, delivery, warehouse management and stock control.
BrightXpress Mobility Suite can be used in any situation where data is being collected in the field, and needs to be sent back to a central location. It can be used to eliminate paper forms and data re-entry, faxing, unnecessary mobile calls to base and allows businesses to move their data in a more efficient manner.
Q. What are the system requirements to run BrightXpress Mobility Suite?
A. Please click
here for the system requirements.
Q. Do I need any other software for integration?
A. No! You do not need any other software to mobilise your backend data stored in databases and files. BrightServer Mobile Data Gateway has built-in features to detect the incremental changes in your backend data and send only the changed data to remote field devices. In the same fashion, BrightServer is able to store the data into your backend database tables and files based on the configuration that you create using BrightBuilder through BEP projects.
BrightServer provides a very powerful JavaScript based user defined scripting mechanism to handle integration into backend systems via, for instance, web services, XML file exchange. Server side business logic can be implemented for collecting and mobilising business data from various sources, and in the similar fashion re-distribute the field collected data back into the different backend systems. Advanced users can write their own mobile data producers and consumers.
Q. Do I need a store-and-forward database?
A. No! BrightServer Mobile Data Gateway is able to find the changes in your backend database tables and files without the need for a store and forward database. Just configure your BrightServer project to make the database tables and files without worrying about system fields etc. BrightServer will do the hard work for you out of the box.
Q. What do I need to mobilise my database?
A. Virtually nothing. Just configure BrightServer with correct database details, and BrightServer will handle the rest automatically.
Q. What databases are supported by BrightXpress?
A. BrightXpress™ provides direct support for the following databases: MS SQL Server 2000, 2005, 2008, 2012, Oracle 9i and 10g, 11g, IBM DB2, MySQL, and ODBC Data Sources. Alternatively advanced users are able to directly enter a JDBC connection string and specify your own JDBC driver details.
Q. Can I synchronise data to and from flat files?
A. Yes! You can even mobilise your file based business processes to the field devices. A special built-in feature in BrightServer will allow you specify the file content to be synchronised to the field devices. BrightServer is able to detect any changes (additions, modifications, deletions) and send the changed data to the field devices. You can even have different files for different remote users in the field. Likewise the data coming from the field devices can be put into the files of your choice in the format you design including the ability to store data on a user basis.
Q. Can I implement my own server business logic?
A. Yes! You can use the powerful scripting mechanism provided by BrightServer to implement server side business logic. Scripts are implemented using JavaScript. For instance you can create a script job that can be configured to run on a regular interval or a Cron based schedule to implement regular housekeeping, reporting, data collection and distribution. Using scripts, you can define your own sync data sources and destinations to implement complex integration tasks.
Q. How can I use Web Services to integrate into other business systems?
A. This can be easily achieved through scripting available on the server. You can implement data sync sources and destinations in JavaScript. In response to data reads and writes from remote devices, in your scripts you can communicate with other backend systems to get and send data over web services. Scripting provides you with the flexibility to choose your integration technique depending on the business requirements.
Q. How do I create mobile applications? Where do I start?
A. First download and install our mobile application bundle which contains BrightBuilder Mobile Application Designer, BrightServer Xpress Edition and BrightForms Mobile Device Engine. Create a BSP BrightForms project using BrightBuilder; define your application forms and data model. BrightBuilder provides a very easy to use drag-and-drop application development environment for non-programmers. There are many how-to videos available for you to watch and get started. Click
here to view how-to videos.
Q. How do I configure BrightServer?
A. You use BrightBuilder to create BrightServer BEP projects. It is all visual and drag-and-drop to set up the server data sources and destinations. Server data sources can be relational database based from one or multiple databases, JavaScript based user defined script sources and destinations, or simple flat files. For the runtime configuration such as configuring users, deploying licenses, you can use BrightBuilder to configure a remote server instance over an Internet connection. You can download a server configuration to a file, modify offline and upload the changes later.
Q. What platforms are supported by BrightXpress Mobility Suite?
A. Please click
here for the system requirements. Check out detailed product data sheets
here.
Q. How does BrightServer Mobile Data Gateway communicate with the handheld devices?
A. The handheld devices running BrightForms connect to BrightServer on HTTP or secure HTTPS ports using web services technology over the Internet protocol. By using web services technology over Internet protocol, BrightServer is able to co-exist in the widest variety of infrastructure environments.
Q. I am interested in using BrightXpress Mobility Suite to develop solutions. What types of support does Bright Software offer?
A. Support is offered in the form of the Annual Developer Support Package which provides a private email channel to receive technical support directly from the developers. This package also includes a web based introduction session to help get you started quickly.
Q. What is the server hardware token?
A. This is also sometimes referred as just the “server token”. Each BrightServer instance is identified by a unique text token created by BrightServer, depending on the hardware configuration it is installed on. BrightXpress Mobility Suite licenses are generated based on this unique server token. BrightServer displays this unique token when it is started. This is also logged into the server logs. You need this unique token to request and generate licenses.
Q. How can I install licenses?
A. After receiving your license, you need to connect to your server instance using BrightBuilder. Start your BrightBuilder, connect to your server instance using BrightBuilder’s “Servers” panel. Download the configuration through the Configuration node; add the license using the Licenses node. And finally upload the changes to the server using the Configuration node “Upload” menu option. There is a detailed
“Installing Device Licenses” how-to video available which takes you through this process.
Q: What field printers does BrightXpress support?
A. BrightForms Mobile Device Engine supports all the printers supported by the Windows desktop operating systems. On Windows Mobile devices the following printers are supported: Intermec PB3/PB2, HP Mobile Printers, DeskJets and LaserJets including HP H470/460/450/350, Intermec PB/PW/68/78 Thermal, Pentax/Brother Mobile PocketJets:3, 3 Plus, II, 200, Zebra MZ, RW, QL,Cameo, Extech Thermal, Pentax RuggedJet 3 & 4, Canon PIXMA iP90/i80/i70, Seiko DPU-S445, DPU-3445, MPU-L465, O’Neil MicroFlash Thermal, Brother mPRINT including MW-260, 100, 120, 140BT, Peripheron Nomad, Martel MCP78xx, Pocket Spectrum, SATO MB200/MB400, TallyGenicom MTP4P, TallyGenicom MIP360, MIP480, Epson TM-P60, Fujitsu FTP-628WSL110, Panasonic JT-200PR Toughprint, Citizen CMP-10 PD-22 PD-04/PD-24, IPC DPP-350FS, GeBE Flash, CUSTOM s’print, IPC PP-55/50, ABLE Systems Ap1310 Ap1300, Canon BJC-80/85/BJC-50/55 + most Canon BubbleJet printers, Epson: Stylus, ESC/P2, Axiohm A631, Eltrade Mobilife, Epson 24-pin LQ compatible dot matrix printers.
Q: Can I lock-down the handheld device so that the user can only run BrightForms?
This is possible through third party Mobile Device Management (MDM) vendors such as SOTI. MDM products can be used to restrict and control access to only approved applications on remote devices and can also help to control the configuration of selected device functionality.