SCO Mobile Server Software Development Kit
Independent Software Developers can write new applications for the SCO Mobile Server by taking advantage of the information and library support found in the SCO Mobile Server SDK. The SDK installs on a Windows XP Professional workstation and provides these components:
- A complete SCO Mobile Server with a license for 5 Subscribers, for development and testing.
- Programming libraries in both J2ME and .Net for writing client applications that work with the server.
- Java classes that support commonly used features and functions on the Server and communicate with the client libraries.
- Apache, Tomcat, Jboss, and PostgreSQL.
- Complete documentation on the available APIs.
- Overview documentation helpful for getting started.
- Sample application code for both client types and for server side development.
- Helpful instructions for packaging and deploying your application.
SCO Mobile Server SDK Beta Now Available
- You may download the SCO Mobile Server SDK Beta by clicking HERE.
Documentation in the SCO Mobile Server SDK The SCO Mobile Server includes the following documentation:
- Installation and Release notes
- Getting Started Guide, including instructions for building and deploying sample applications provided
- A Developer’s Guide Overview and additional sections on server-side and client development and deployment
- Thorough API Documentation for the Server and for the client programming libraries
Client Programming Libraries
Separate programming libraries are provided for building Windows Mobile clients and Java 2 Mobile Edition clients.
For Windows Mobile Clients, the following classes are provided;
- Classes to manipulate and authenticate accounts
- Classes for custom controls, useful for building custom user interfaces.
- Classes to access and manipulate SQLitee databases
- Utility classes for datatype parsing, error handling, etc.
- Classes for sending and receiving HTTP requests
- A lightweight SQL ADO.NET database for persistent data
For J2ME Clients, the following classes are provided:
- Views for authentication and management of multiple accounts
- Lightweight, extensible and highly portable subsystem for creating user interfaces on J2ME capable mobile handsets
- Portable routines for accessing the internet and sending commands to the SCO Mobile Server
Sample Programs Included with the SCO Mobile Server SDK
The SCO Mobile Server SDK comes with source code and instructions for building and deploying a variety of applications and clients.
There is included a “Hello World” application for a .NET client, and one for a J2ME client.
The meter-reading application takes readings from a Java client, and writes them to a file on the Server. This application is meant for study as an example of a more complete application that includes client, service, agent, and admin pages.
The Car Dealer Service represents a sample application that models in a simplistic fashion some aspects of an automobile sales operation. It is especially useful as an example of web browser-based administration pages, which allow non-mobile administrators the ability to manage certain aspects of mobile solutions built with the SCO Mobile Server.
The Echo SMS Service is an example of a different kind of mobile application, which rather than using a dedicated client executable program on the mobile phone, instead uses bi-directional SMSes (text messages), sent from the Mobile Server to a user's phone, and then accepts SMS responses back from the phone. This approach is only feasible for applications that require little input from the user (such as one that says "yes" or "no" to a question), but an advantage of this approach is that it can be used with any kind of mobile phone, not just high-end smartphones.
Internationalization The SCO Mobile Server is fully internationalized, including the Server classes and the Client libraries in the SDK. Portions have been localized into Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and German.
SCO Applications built with the SCO Mobile Server SCO is currently marketing two applications that include mobile clients and are hosted on a SCO Mobile Server. Information on these two applications can best be found on their respective web sites:
Full descriptions of these applications are beyond the scope of this document. Both of these applications use the SCO Mobile Server exactly as described above, along with some customized licenses to support the business model.
Licensing in the SCO Mobile Server
Licensing of the SCO Mobile Server is provided by a separate dedicated license server residing at SCO. When a user enters a license key, either during or after installation, the key is sent to a server at SCO and an activation code is sent back to the mobile server. The activation code indicates how many Subscribers are authorized for access to that instance of the server. Currently this one server supports licensing for the HipCheck products, the FCmobilelife product, and the SCO Mobile Server itself.
The SCO Mobile Server provides a complete hosting environment for applications built with its SDK. Cost effective and highly scalable, the SCO Mobile Server can be deployed by an enterprise for hosting a custom application, or by a reseller for supporting many enterprises on the same server. SCO can also provide hosting services for SCO Mobile applications.
The License Server itself is not distributed as a component of the SCO Mobile Server.
For More Information
This document is intended to provide a high level overview of the technology in and the capabilities of the SCO Mobile Server and associated Development Kit. For more information, write to mobile_sales@sco.com.
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