Mobile device integration

[Justin Biggs]

Greetings,

My company is in the planning stage for automating a great deal of the
production process. One of the requirements of automation is the integration
of "live" scan integration with Dynamics AX. We're tossing around ideas at
this point but we've come up with a couple options:

1) Use a mobile PC like a netbook or tablet computer with a scanner
attached, and build the required forms and business logic directly in the
Dynamics client (accessed via a Citrix application).
2) Use true mobile devices like a Motorola MC70
(http://www.nationalbarcode.com/catalog/motorola/mc70.htm), and build some
type of compact-device application that would integrate with Dynamics, either
via something like AIF web-services or the .NET business connector.

One major concern with using a mobile device is the integration aspect and
performance. Our production facility is not local to where the Dynamics
servers are located, they're connected via WAN. Making business connector
calls directly to the AOS are not going to be practical from a response-time
aspect.

We're not afraid to get into the AX code and develop what we need from a
business logic standpoint, so any customization as to the specifics of the
business processes aren't a major factor. If I can get the information from
the external device into AX code, I can take it from there.

Has anyone had any experience with doing something like this? I see that
Microsoft Dynamics Mobile has been discontinued, citing numerous third party
solutions, so I know it has to be done somewhere.

[Markus]

Hi, I've implemented serval mobile applications for my last employer. We used
a mobile device like a motorola mc9090 running windows mobile 5+ / 6+ . I've
implemented the client logic and form with visual studio and .net compact
framework and business logic in AX. I've always used webservices to
communicate between scanner and ax. Wheras I've implemented web services by
hand for AX 3 and 4, and used AIF for Ax 2009. IMHO Aif is not that good in
AX 4 ;) . Using synchronous communication with web services may be good way
because

* you only call the AX server few times. Most of the time you are not
connected or have an open sesseion
* you may implement an offline version on your client. e.g. if the service
call fails or server down / out of wlan range.
* more stable than a permanent ax connection using RDP
* can be secured using HTTPS. You network admin doesn't need special ax
skills to administer your interface
* seperation between client specific logic e.g. input validation (item/qty)
and business logic (stays in ax) > easier to maintain

Post by Justin Biggs
Greetings,
My company is in the planning stage for automating a great deal of the
production process. One of the requirements of automation is the integration
of "live" scan integration with Dynamics AX. We're tossing around ideas at
1) Use a mobile PC like a netbook or tablet computer with a scanner
attached, and build the required forms and business logic directly in the
Dynamics client (accessed via a Citrix application).
2) Use true mobile devices like a Motorola MC70
(http://www.nationalbarcode.com/catalog/motorola/mc70.htm), and build some
type of compact-device application that would integrate with Dynamics, either
via something like AIF web-services or the .NET business connector.
One major concern with using a mobile device is the integration aspect and
performance. Our production facility is not local to where the Dynamics
servers are located, they're connected via WAN. Making business connector
calls directly to the AOS are not going to be practical from a response-time
aspect.
We're not afraid to get into the AX code and develop what we need from a
business logic standpoint, so any customization as to the specifics of the
business processes aren't a major factor. If I can get the information from
the external device into AX code, I can take it from there.
Has anyone had any experience with doing something like this? I see that
Microsoft Dynamics Mobile has been discontinued, citing numerous third party
solutions, so I know it has to be done somewhere.
--
Best Regards,
Justin

[Justin Biggs]

Hi Markus,

Thanks for the insights. For web services, did you have difficulty with AIF
in 2009? We're on 2009 SP1, so this would be most pertinent to us. I've
experimented with AIF setup using a file exchange transfer, since we don't
have the licence (yet) for AIF web services. If AIF web services is deemed
appropriate we can certainly pick up the cost of the license and add it into
the budget for the project.

Barring AIF Web Services, how difficult is it to invoke business logic from
a custom web service? Would we have to do something like the following:

Mobile device calls web service -> web service connects to AOS and invokes
business logic via .NET Business Connector. That might run us into
performance issues, since each call to the web service would create a new
connection to the AOS, unless there's something like a program running that
maintains a connection open.
--
Best Regards,
Justin

Post by Markus
Hi, I've implemented serval mobile applications for my last employer. We used
a mobile device like a motorola mc9090 running windows mobile 5+ / 6+ . I've
implemented the client logic and form with visual studio and .net compact
framework and business logic in AX. I've always used webservices to
communicate between scanner and ax. Wheras I've implemented web services by
hand for AX 3 and 4, and used AIF for Ax 2009. IMHO Aif is not that good in
AX 4 ;) . Using synchronous communication with web services may be good way
because
* you only call the AX server few times. Most of the time you are not
connected or have an open sesseion
* you may implement an offline version on your client. e.g. if the service
call fails or server down / out of wlan range.
* more stable than a permanent ax connection using RDP
* can be secured using HTTPS. You network admin doesn't need special ax
skills to administer your interface
* seperation between client specific logic e.g. input validation (item/qty)
and business logic (stays in ax) > easier to maintain

Post by Justin Biggs
Greetings,
My company is in the planning stage for automating a great deal of the
production process. One of the requirements of automation is the integration
of "live" scan integration with Dynamics AX. We're tossing around ideas at
1) Use a mobile PC like a netbook or tablet computer with a scanner
attached, and build the required forms and business logic directly in the
Dynamics client (accessed via a Citrix application).
2) Use true mobile devices like a Motorola MC70
(http://www.nationalbarcode.com/catalog/motorola/mc70.htm), and build some
type of compact-device application that would integrate with Dynamics, either
via something like AIF web-services or the .NET business connector.
One major concern with using a mobile device is the integration aspect and
performance. Our production facility is not local to where the Dynamics
servers are located, they're connected via WAN. Making business connector
calls directly to the AOS are not going to be practical from a response-time
aspect.
We're not afraid to get into the AX code and develop what we need from a
business logic standpoint, so any customization as to the specifics of the
business processes aren't a major factor. If I can get the information from
the external device into AX code, I can take it from there.
Has anyone had any experience with doing something like this? I see that
Microsoft Dynamics Mobile has been discontinued, citing numerous third party
solutions, so I know it has to be done somewhere.
--
Best Regards,
Justin

[Markus]

Creating customer services is easy while using simple datatypes. Eg.
postInventJournal(InventJournalId _journalId) . You may publish these methods
as services with a few clicks. There is also a wizard that takes a query as
input, you select Create/Read/Update/Delete/Find and the wizard publishs a
webservice that implements these CRUD methods. But I expirienced some issues
when using InventDim as part of the query. Finaly you can implement the
complete webservice, including XML Schema etc. by hand.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/aif/archive/2008/12/16/creating-custom-dynamics-ax-services.aspx

If you implement your own webservices, using .NET Business connector just
make sure you call the Logoff method. You should not get any performance
problem, if all your webservice methods use Logon / Logoff .

Post by Justin Biggs
Hi Markus,
Thanks for the insights. For web services, did you have difficulty with AIF
in 2009? We're on 2009 SP1, so this would be most pertinent to us. I've
experimented with AIF setup using a file exchange transfer, since we don't
have the licence (yet) for AIF web services. If AIF web services is deemed
appropriate we can certainly pick up the cost of the license and add it into
the budget for the project.
Barring AIF Web Services, how difficult is it to invoke business logic from
Mobile device calls web service -> web service connects to AOS and invokes
business logic via .NET Business Connector. That might run us into
performance issues, since each call to the web service would create a new
connection to the AOS, unless there's something like a program running that
maintains a connection open.
--
Best Regards,
Justin

Post by Markus
Hi, I've implemented serval mobile applications for my last employer. We used
a mobile device like a motorola mc9090 running windows mobile 5+ / 6+ . I've
implemented the client logic and form with visual studio and .net compact
framework and business logic in AX. I've always used webservices to
communicate between scanner and ax. Wheras I've implemented web services by
hand for AX 3 and 4, and used AIF for Ax 2009. IMHO Aif is not that good in
AX 4 ;) . Using synchronous communication with web services may be good way
because
* you only call the AX server few times. Most of the time you are not
connected or have an open sesseion
* you may implement an offline version on your client. e.g. if the service
call fails or server down / out of wlan range.
* more stable than a permanent ax connection using RDP
* can be secured using HTTPS. You network admin doesn't need special ax
skills to administer your interface
* seperation between client specific logic e.g. input validation (item/qty)
and business logic (stays in ax) > easier to maintain

Post by Justin Biggs
Greetings,
My company is in the planning stage for automating a great deal of the
production process. One of the requirements of automation is the integration
of "live" scan integration with Dynamics AX. We're tossing around ideas at
1) Use a mobile PC like a netbook or tablet computer with a scanner
attached, and build the required forms and business logic directly in the
Dynamics client (accessed via a Citrix application).
2) Use true mobile devices like a Motorola MC70
(http://www.nationalbarcode.com/catalog/motorola/mc70.htm), and build some
type of compact-device application that would integrate with Dynamics, either
via something like AIF web-services or the .NET business connector.
One major concern with using a mobile device is the integration aspect and
performance. Our production facility is not local to where the Dynamics
servers are located, they're connected via WAN. Making business connector
calls directly to the AOS are not going to be practical from a response-time
aspect.
We're not afraid to get into the AX code and develop what we need from a
business logic standpoint, so any customization as to the specifics of the
business processes aren't a major factor. If I can get the information from
the external device into AX code, I can take it from there.
Has anyone had any experience with doing something like this? I see that
Microsoft Dynamics Mobile has been discontinued, citing numerous third party
solutions, so I know it has to be done somewhere.
--
Best Regards,
Justin

[manick]

Justin,

We are working on a Mobile -AX Integration Project for our agriculture
client to collect the field data & uplooad back to AX in real time / offline
using laptops, mobile devices. If you are interested to learn more please
drop an email to discuss.

MV

Post by Justin Biggs
Greetings,
My company is in the planning stage for automating a great deal of the
production process. One of the requirements of automation is the integration
of "live" scan integration with Dynamics AX. We're tossing around ideas at
1) Use a mobile PC like a netbook or tablet computer with a scanner
attached, and build the required forms and business logic directly in the
Dynamics client (accessed via a Citrix application).
2) Use true mobile devices like a Motorola MC70
(http://www.nationalbarcode.com/catalog/motorola/mc70.htm), and build some
type of compact-device application that would integrate with Dynamics, either
via something like AIF web-services or the .NET business connector.
One major concern with using a mobile device is the integration aspect and
performance. Our production facility is not local to where the Dynamics
servers are located, they're connected via WAN. Making business connector
calls directly to the AOS are not going to be practical from a response-time
aspect.
We're not afraid to get into the AX code and develop what we need from a
business logic standpoint, so any customization as to the specifics of the
business processes aren't a major factor. If I can get the information from
the external device into AX code, I can take it from there.
Has anyone had any experience with doing something like this? I see that
Microsoft Dynamics Mobile has been discontinued, citing numerous third party
solutions, so I know it has to be done somewhere.
--
Best Regards,
Justin

[Nav]

Hi Justin,

We have done a similar integration in house for our proof of delivery
application. The application on hand held devices (windows mobile 6.x
professional) is a .net compact framework application with sql server compact
edition(due to the nature of connectivity, application has to work offline as
well). But instead of directly integrating with AX we use merge replication
and synch data on device with an intermediate database. The intermediate
database is synched with AX using custom build windows services which uses
.NET business connector(this part could be replaced by AIF).

Thanks

Post by Justin Biggs
Greetings,
My company is in the planning stage for automating a great deal of the
production process. One of the requirements of automation is the integration
of "live" scan integration with Dynamics AX. We're tossing around ideas at
1) Use a mobile PC like a netbook or tablet computer with a scanner
attached, and build the required forms and business logic directly in the
Dynamics client (accessed via a Citrix application).
2) Use true mobile devices like a Motorola MC70
(http://www.nationalbarcode.com/catalog/motorola/mc70.htm), and build some
type of compact-device application that would integrate with Dynamics, either
via something like AIF web-services or the .NET business connector.
One major concern with using a mobile device is the integration aspect and
performance. Our production facility is not local to where the Dynamics
servers are located, they're connected via WAN. Making business connector
calls directly to the AOS are not going to be practical from a response-time
aspect.
We're not afraid to get into the AX code and develop what we need from a
business logic standpoint, so any customization as to the specifics of the
business processes aren't a major factor. If I can get the information from
the external device into AX code, I can take it from there.
Has anyone had any experience with doing something like this? I see that
Microsoft Dynamics Mobile has been discontinued, citing numerous third party
solutions, so I know it has to be done somewhere.
--
Best Regards,
Justin