Building PDA Databases for Wireless and Mobile Development (Paperback)

~ Robert Laberge (Author), Srdjan Vujosevic (Author) "This chapter provides a brief history of the evolution of mobile wireless databases and introduces the Personal Digital Assistant, or PDA, typical PDA environment..." (more)
Key Phrases: data warehouse historical repository, infrared hours, consolidated database, End Sub, Private Sub, Adaptive Server Anywhere (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

* Introduces the mobile databases (their architecture and features) and how they operate and handle the essential task of synchronization.
* Explains how the enterprise work force can move to a handheld device and still have easy access to corporate databases.
* Web site contains all source code for working examples of applications showing mobile databases in use.
* Foreword and endorsement by Bill Inmon, the "Father of Data Warehousing."

From the Back Cover

Learn how to build databases on personal digital devices to be used with PDA applications

Several years ago, the business community accepted the Internet as a viable solution to extending the corporate environment. Today, there is another movement towards enhancing this methodology–– empowering mobile wireless business users with increasingly powerful PDAs.

Robert Laberge and Srdjan Vujosevic have written the first book ever to cover mobile database development. They discuss the many methods of connecting to the Internet, Intranet, or a specific computer and how they are all viable business solutions for today’s large, medium, and small corporations.

In addition, they offer detailed discussions of such topics as:

• Basics of the mobile wireless environment, including a quick view of WAP technology and an overview of PDAs and their environments
• The client-server methodology–what it is and how it applies to PDAs
• Data warehousing–centralizing departmental information for everyone in an organization to access
• Palm as a whole, in addition to Pocket PC from Microsoft
• Tools needed for building an application to access data on a PDA
• The Sybase solution to PDA databases–the components from Sybase, and an example using specific pieces of the offering
• IBM’s DB2 solution–a discussion on the components, and an easy-to-follow application using the components

The companion Web site contains all the source code for the sample applications in the book.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (October 11, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471216453
• ISBN-13: 978-0471216452
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,208,545 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars not worth your money, September 26, 2003

By A Customer

I thoroughly examined this book and found that there is not a single piece of information in this book that cannot be found on internet in matter of seconds. My advice is: save your money

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An important and timely book, May 4, 2003

By	Mohammad Al-Ubaydli (Cambridge, UK) - See all my reviews

There are many reasons that drove my consultant orthopaedic surgeon to buy a handheld. Shutting me up was perhaps the most important. It was a different set of reasons that made him addicted to his machine. Keeping his golf scores on his database was certainly the most important.

And so it is for most clinicians - handwriting recognition, voice recording and digital photography make PDA devices cool. But storing data makes them useful.

Furthermore PDA adoption is entering the next phase. Rather than individual purchases by enthusiastic individual, healthcare organizations are buying devices for entire departments. These devices are picked for their ability to integrate into existing IT infrastructure, and coincide with the rollout of wireless networks.

So Building PDA Databses is an important and timely book.
The book begins with a good introduction to handheld technology, database theory, and data warehousing methodology. Naturally this cannot be exhaustive, but it makes for a usable and approachable text.

The authors then cover the products of several major database providers, including AppForge's MobileVB, Sybase's iAnywhere and IBM's DB2. This list should tip you off to the scale of projects suggested - big. This is not surprising given the focus of their previous book, WAP Integration: Professional Developer's Guide. Laberge and Vujosevic are experienced and expert in large corporate environments.

This explains one of the weaknesses of the PDA coverage in book - it is rather biased towards the Microsoft, praising the iPaq for features that have been standard in Palm-compatibles for a long time and with better implementation. They also do not mention Satellite Forms, or HanDBase, perhaps the leading environments for medium-scale and small-scale projects respectively.

On the other hand if the reader is interested in large-scale projects, the book becomes essential. The description of each database product's feature set is useful for purchasing decisions. And the source code in the tutorials is enough to get the experienced developer going pretty quickly. It is thus best for informaticians, IT managers and software developers rather than clinicians. As the UK's healthcare Trusts become more ambitious with their IT spending, the book should help with mobile access to everything from patient details to golf scores...

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good reading for novice and intermediate mobile developer, October 4, 2003

By A Customer

Examples in this book are just great. I have built my own application based on a couple of them. It really have helped me and guided me through step by step. Now I know how to do it on my own.

Thanks guys.