14.1 OracleAS Wireless Foundation Services

The Foundation Services in OracleAS Wireless provide a library of key functions and capabilities needed in the development and deployment of mobile applications. Services are accessed through APIs provided with the services. The Foundation Services fall into a number of categories: location-based, alert, content syndication, provisioning, personalization, synchronization, analytic, and commerce. The following subsections briefly describe each service.

14.1.1 Location-Based Services

Location-based services allow mobile applications to be location-aware . For example, you might want to build an application that notifies you when a parcel delivery is within a mile of its destination. Here are the services that can build such an application:

Location framework

These services consist of a set of Java APIs, JSP Tag libraries, and Web Services interfaces for geocoding, reverse geocoding, mobile positioning mapping, routing, and business directory services.

Static and dynamic location detection

These services enable the input of location manually, from an application, or from a positioning system such as a GPS.

Privacy management

These services enable or disable the determination of location by others, either permanently or for certain defined time frames

Functionality in OracleAS Wireless location-based services typically is implemented through an external provider. OracleAS Wireless includes prebuilt drivers needed to leverage providers of mapping, routing, and positioning solutions. Examples of solutions providers for such location-based services include InfoUSA, MapInfo, MapQuest, Ericsson, and Nokia.

14.1.2 Alert Services

Alert services are provided by an alert engine in Oracle Application Server that facilitates the publishing of content (by content managers) and availability to subscribers (the content users). Alerts can be triggered at certain times or based on location or threshold values. For example, an application can be built to send an alert to your cell phone when an employee submits an unusually large expense report while you are on vacation.

14.1.3 Content Syndication Services

Content syndication services allow content to be repurposed or reused. You can specify content sources using a wizard provided in OracleAS Wireless Foundation Services to specify a content provider. Two types of content services are provided by OracleAS Wireless:

Transcoding services

These services allow applications developed in WML or cHTML to be dynamically reformatted for use with phones, PDAs, or voice.

Web clipping services

These services enable you to clip and scrape standard web content using a browser interface and then reuse this content for display to mobile devices.

14.1.4 Provisioning Services

Provisioning services support configuring the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) settings on certain phones (e.g., Ericsson or Nokia) to enable access to email and text-based web pages. OracleAS Wireless includes APIs to extend this support to other devices. Provisioning services also enable integration over-the-air (OTA) that is useful in tasks such as updating Spatial Information Management (SIM) cards in your device. Provisioning is supported for J2ME-developed applications or native applications such as icons, MIDI applications, and ring tones.

14.1.5 Personalization Services

Personalization services enable quicklinks that provide shortcuts to applications are commonly used by users. Using these services, you can enable profiles or portal views, and alert notification for services subscribed to by specific users. Personalization services also support managing user devices, user application defaults (such as home location), and user location marks.

14.1.6 Synchronization Services

OracleAS Wireless synchronization services allow you to synchronize J2ME applications and Oracle Lite (Oracle's mobile database). You can use these services to ensure that devices have up-to-date data and that backend data is made consistent with locally updated data.

14.1.7 Analytic Services

Analytic services enable the reporting of system usage, response time, user behavior per channel, and user profile/application matching. Data gathered using these services enables system administrators and planners to determine the level of service and the popularity of applications.

14.1.8 Commerce Services

OracleAS Wireless commerce services allow Mobile Wallets to be stored in a triple-DES encrypted format in an Oracle database for added security. You can retrieve such a wallet after providing a PIN. Commerce services also support the automatic population of forms using wallet data and integration to other systems such as billing systems.