Application via Blackberry

HCL Domino Domino Forum
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Question re Blackberry devices.

If I want to make our contact management system (subset of it i.e. contacts view) available to Blackberry users I understand I have one of two options:

  • Synch with personal NAB

  • Make the application availble over the web to access the app

Are these the only two ways of implementing this?

Thanks

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Subject: Application via Blackberry

I have myself, just embarked on this very same project.

Our contact management system has 150,000+ contacts in it, and for various reasons i won’t go into here, the sales reps need access to all the contacts in it.

Synching with the personal NAB sounds like a headache, in our case that would mean 150,000+ entries in each mobile users NAB!, plus making sure data in each is the same, replication conflicts, etc…

I have Mobile Data Services turned on, so access is via the Blackberry Browser (and authentication). I have set up very simple views, that can be sorted by First Name, Last Name, company Name, and a little field they can then type in the first x letters, and it jumps to that spot in the view. They can open, edit, save etc the contact forms.

I have made the views, forms as light\ simple as possible, it’s hardly blistering, but it works. Still beats getting a laptop out and firing it up just to get contact details.

A nice feature, if the contact has a phone number, track wheel over it and click, the BBerry will dial it, and same with email.

I have also created access to our other CRM data : Samples, orders, complaints etc. I am meesing about with the Message-Channel pushing for events that happen in the CRM system.

You could also write a Java app and sync data onto the device My Java skills are OK, but haven’t tried this yet.

Here’s a good start Home

I search this forum for Blackberry questions and would be very interested to see how you get on. Post what you end up doing.

Regards,

Nick

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Subject: RE: Application via Blackberry

We’re a few weeks away from doing this ourselves, for a 10,000+ person contact system. Bless you, Nick, for posting your experiences - I was extremely concerned that we might get it all set up only to find in the end that the performance was just too slow for our users.

If you don’t mind answering a few more questions… did you do anything special to improve performance, other than keep everything as simple as possible? (Change the # of lines per view, for example, or anything else?) Do you have any tips for form/view layouts that work well on the BB screens? Do you use any javascript/CSS/etc in the app? (I was planning not to, but would love to if they don’t cause problems…)

Thanks again,

Stephanie

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Subject: RE: Application via Blackberry

Sorry, bit late on this, been away.

First off, I don’t pretend to be an expert on this! I’m just learning as I go along, trying to use best practices.

of lines - I am showing 30. My views have a name entry field and a radio button for last name, first name, company name. Select a “search” mode, start typing some letters in (as near as you think you can get to the name), e.g “smi”, then hit the “Go” button (BBerry - track wheel over it and click. Tried onBlur, onMouseExit but didn’t like this because you’d aciidentally move out of field and it would start searching!!!) I have a little js function with

“…?OpenView&startKey=’ + window.document.forms[0].StartsWith.value + '&count=30” to get my results.

I use fixed sized tables for views and forms: width 2 3/8in (5.5cm), length depends on content.

CSS and javascript both work (our users devices are max 1 year old, don’t know about older devices), but I try to keep it as simple and small as possible.

Hope this helps

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Subject: RE: Application via Blackberry

… CSS and javascript both work …

Javascript DOES NOT work on the majority of micro-browsers …

Use with extreme caution …

  • Rob
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Subject: RE: Application via Blackberry

Javascript is supported on the BlackBerry handhelds!

Please see the document below for details about content support:

http://www.blackberry.com/knowledgecenterpublic/livelink.exe/BlackBerry_Wireless_Handheld_Browser_4.0_Content_Developer_Guide?func=doc.Fetch&nodeId=765890&docTitle=BlackBerry+Wireless+Handheld+Browser+4.0+Content+Developer+Guide

Regards,

Mike.

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Subject: RE: Application via Blackberry

Nick -

It helps tremendously, thank you!

-Stephanie

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Subject: RE: Application via Blackberry

Thanks Nick, for sure I will keep you posted. Your post is very informative and helpful and I definately agree that going to personal NABS is NOT the way to go, but our biggest problem is that one of the execs (who likes to play) found out that he could move documents to the personal NAB (old feature in the app) and before we knew it about 20 of them were telling everyone how they had the corporate contact management system running on their Blackberry etc. etc. The usual mess has ensued, so trying to reign them all in and give a much slicker solution.

Thanks again

Lem

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Subject: Application via Blackberry

Lemens,

I am not sure if you are interested in third party products, but there is a company called Relavis that also does this.

Here is there site

http://www.relavis.com/default.htm

Look for eSales Mobile for Disconnected. It supports PDA environment.

Good luck.

E

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Subject: RE: Application via Blackberry

Erskine:

Several of the CRM vendors have “BlackBerry Front End” type products.

Relavis (which does Maximizer CRM) has theirs, iEnterprises (which does iExtensions) has CRM on the Go (http://www.crmonthego.com) which supports BlackBerry.

There are also a number of third-party products (like mBixTECH’s mDB product which can deliver to BlackBerry devies).

This list is endless …

  • Rob
11

Subject: Some notes on a similar project

Coincidental to your posting, I’ve been working with one of my customers on a similar project - getting a contact list to work correctly in a micro-browser on a PDA or BlackBerry or smartphone.

Some notes here:

  • Rob
12

Subject: Application via Blackberry

On a different note, has anyone had a look at MDS Studio?

It was demo’ed during the Opening Session at Lotusphere '06. If you web-servce enable your Domino database you can build a rich client application that can also store data locally on the device, without(!!) reinventing the wheel and creating your own stand-alone Java application for the device.

Download here:

http://www.blackberry.com/products/software/mds/index.shtml

Did I mention that it is available as a free download for BES v4.0? The services are included in the new BES v4.1.

Regards,

Mike.

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Subject: Application via Blackberry

Lemens:

I think the idea of making it an HTTP accessed-database makes a lot of sense, and the suggestions Nick makes are sound.

Keep in mind that you can alsways do a “My Contacts” view, which filters based on who the rep is or something, so that there are not so many names.

Also, think of working out a way to “drill down” to the names, so the opening page asks for the first letter of the last name and you do a single-category view for each letter of the alphabet (I know that sounds like a lot of work, but your users will appreciate it).

There are a couple other solutions, however.

First, starting with BES 4.0 and Domino 7.0, you can access Domino databases as web services with MDS 4.1.

Lots of great info (and sample code) on BlackBerry’s site about that (http://www.blackberry.com/go/DominoResources).

Secondly, there are several third party tools that will assist you in bringing Domino apps down to a BlackBerry. Check out mBizTech’s MDB product, for example. http://www.mbiztech.com

Thirdly, iEnterprises is a CRM company that has built a BlackBerry version for their CRM package, but they built it so it’s NOT hardwired to their back end.

Check out: http://www.crmonthego.com

Hope that helps … and good luck!

  • Rob