Anglers' Heaven

Fishin' application is an entertainment program enabling anglers to create logs on their camera phones about their fishing trips. With this application they are able to save information about location, dates, weather conditions and fishes' characteristics as well as their pictures and send them either to server or to other handheld users.

Requirements

The Fishin' application is aimed at storing and synchronizing data using mobile phones and web server. The mobile application is to be downloadable, user profile should be possible to create and manage. Admin part is to be implemented for communication with users (using forum) and user profiles management. The second part is J2ME client for mobile phones and the third is Symbian OS client for smartphones.

Challenge

The main difficulty was in cross-platformity implementation for phones with JAVA support and smartphones with Symbian OS on board. The client side was created to support Nokia: 6600, 6630, 6260, 7610, 9300, 9500 and Sony Ericsson P910; Symbian: OS Symbian 7.0, series 60, series 80, UIQ; J2ME: CDLC 1.0, MIDP 2.0, JSR 72 (PIM).

The core of the challenge was in reaching synchronization with server (QArea team developed a special protocol allowing for data to be sent as XML file while pictures are sent via Sockets) and in MMS sending from different devices. While Java-enabled devices require the WMA 2.0 (jsr205), the majority of handhelds do not provide WMA 2.0 (jsr205) yet. Another complicacy was connected with Symbian: each platform required individual implementation due to discrepancies of the libs on devices and Symbian documentation.

Another challenge was in meeting GUI requirements: all forms were to be designed considering device restrictions.

Solution

The System was designed consisting of three different parts. The first was web server which included admin part and user part. User part was designated for buying and downloading mobile application, creating user profile and user data management; thus, it has e-payment systems integrated. Admin part is to be used for communication with users (using forum) and user profiles management. The second part is J2ME client for mobile phones and the third is Symbian OS client for smartphones.

The Application is implemented to be pushed to device based on user phone number via GPRS. There was proposed an alternative variant: a download link accessible during 24h was created permitting for one download attempt.

The application uses GPS value, retrieved from GPS-enabled device or entered manually to set the location for angling. In the software there is envisaged a methodology to retrieve GPS value from GPS-enabled devices ??“ for future versions.

Pictures of fish and data regarding the place it was caught at can be uploaded from device to server, sent via MMS from a handheld to another handheld only, sent as letter / e-mail from web-interface.

QArea's best experience was implemented in Lost-Device-Option: with this option user is enabled to disassociate a handheld with their Fishin' account in case of a lost or theft. This is implemented to be done by simple resetting the account password so that the old device no longer authenticates.