In last month’s article we looked at the rise of the iPad and its growing popularity as a business tool. This month we reflect on our experiences with taking an existing line of business application and bringing it to the iPad platform.
For the last few years one of the main focuses of our day-to-day business at Anglia has been to provide a mobile computer software suite to work within a packhouse. This encompasses applications such as stock management, replenishment of line as well as picking for production and dispatch. One of the most vital elements of this system is to provide a quality-control function that lets users perform quality checks on product as it moves through a production process.
A common ask is to extend this quality process outside of the confines of the packhouse and out to growers and retailers. So with this strategy in mind, we looked at the iPad as a low cost way of achieving this goal. The iPad seemed a suitable device not only in terms of the audience size it attracts, but also some of the characteristics that give it the advantage over a more conventional laptop. The biggest aspect of this is the ease of support. Most iPad users can find their way to the Apple App Store and install an app. We have found it a far easier model to support rather than maintain a custom application on a Windows laptop.
The biggest hurdle for us was in migrating our software from Windows over to the iOS operating system. The challenge came with supporting the physical environment that the iPads would work in. Inside a shop or out in the middle of a field, you cannot guarantee any kind of mobile phone or WiFi service.
To operate offline requires a local database and periodic synchronisation back to a base server as and when you have some form of network service. If you look at the landscape of most iOS apps, with the exception of games, they tend to require a network connection back to a set of base servers.
We ported our base ‘Drizzle’ technology that stores and forwards information, thus mitigating against patchy network service. This took a bit of effort as it involved shifting from the Windows .Net Programming language (C#) over to Objective C used for iOS.
The final piece of the jigsaw was to jump through the various hoops that Apple imposes before you can get the app onto the App Store. This requires that you adhere to stringent interface and usability rules. For us this took a couple of tries, with subtle revisions requested at each re-submission. So here we are. Via the Apple App Store you can download a fully functional app for quality assurance free of charge. Just search for ‘LINKFresh’ on the App Store to give it a go.
Its early days for us in the development of these kinds of applications, so all feedback is very welcome. -
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