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Tool 'Mobilizes' Unstructured Data

Posted on: Saturday, 26 February 2005, 03:00 CST

Mobile software maker Agilix is readying a software development kit for building mobile applications that will let customers collect, index and organize information that can't use a conventional database: spreadsheets, Microsoft Word documents, .PDF files, PowerPoint slides,Web pages and the like.

The new SDK packages the core functions found in the company's GoBinder software, a mobile application designed for students and educators working with lots of unstructured information stored in the widely used Blackboard Learning System from Blackboard. Agilix began creating the SDK when non-academic customers expressed interest in using GoBinder to organize information in documents and other formats needed by mobile salespeople and others.

Agilix previewed the SDK last week at the Visual Studio Live conference in San Francisco.

Both GoBinder and the upcoming GoBinder SDK are based on Microsoft .Net Framework, which features reusable software components linked with back-end applications and data via Web services.

Agilix also has released InfiNotes, a set of .Net controls that lets customers rapidly create digital ink applications for Microsoft Tablet PCs.

"They're using Web services, and the idea of the 'service- oriented architecture,' and not running any software on the server," says Stephen Drake, program manager of mobile infrastructure software at IDC. "There's something to be said for that in reducing software complexity and costs. By being focused [solely] on the client side, these applications are so much easier to deploy"

Using GoBinder SDK, with its built-in database, customers can create notebook and handheld applications that run even when users are offline. By contrast, Web applications require a continual network application because they're making use of functions and data on network servers.

The SDK includes the user interface manager; the GoBinder database, which resides on the client device; the Mobile Data Manager, which supports ready-to-use interfaces to backend data sources; and the message hub for coordinating communications among the components. All these components run on the client.

Initially, the Mobile Data Manager has interfaces for Simple Object Access Protocol-based Web services, and for connecting directly to Microsoft Exchange servers, and to Blackboard. Agilix plans to release other application interfaces in the future.

No pricing has been set for Go-Binder SDK, which is tentatively scheduled for release with the next version of GoBinder, probably in the third quarter of 2005.

InfiNotes is intended to make it easier to create digital ink applications for the Tablet PC. Digital ink is a Microsoft technology that captures and stores handwriting and drawings, as separate files or annotations on existing files, via a special pen on the tablet's touch screen. But applications using digital ink have not been widely embraced, according to Agilix executives.

The Agilix controls have greatly simplified the work of building a Tablet PC application with digital ink for field inspectors at Penn National Insurance, a property and casualty insurer in Harrisburg, Pa. "They've greatly expanded the basic [digital ink] controls from Microsoft," says Kevin Kauffman, senior systems analyst with the insurer.

One example is the basic picture book control: It lets users select and display a background image and write over it in digital ink. But the Agilix control lets users place text and additional images, make annotations, reposition everything and employ functions such as copy and paste.

"The basic control doesn't let you do any of that without writing custom code," Kauffman says.

The Standard Edition of InfiNotes is a free download from www.infinotes.com. The Professional Edition costs $995 per developer, and includes support services.

Founding fathers

Agilix was founded in 2001 by President and CEO Curt Alien, and CFO and COO Dave McGinn, who also co-founded which has more than 1.6 million subscribers and was one of the first .Net-based sites.

Copyright Network World Inc. Feb 14, 2005

Source: Network World

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