WexchC

Product sheet

Integration of any wireless communication
with
"Microsoft's messaging system"
or
"any ODBC compliant database"

This mechanism enables wireless
implementation of business processes
at minimal costs !!!

made in Belgium

1. Short

WexchC is the one product of a complete series of products to establish connections between the Microsoft Exchange communication engine, using the mapi interface protocols, and other - eventually proprietary - communication devices. If any application isn’t capable to handle the Microsoft Exchange mail mechanism, WexchC is able to communicate with other applications using any ODBC compliant database. The naming convention for this series of programs is :

• WexchC : W stands for wireless,
• WexchC : exch stands for Microsoft Exchange,
• WexchC : C stands for a literal, defining the communication device. In this case, C stands for serial devices : SMS and GSM-data, Mobitex, Inmarsat, trunking, ...

Different instances of Wexch allows the implementation of several network protocols at the same time. Because logical names are used on the application side, every migration to another wireless communication medium is completely transparent for the user.

1.1 Mail communication

Using a virtual logon to the postoffice, every message, received by WexchC, is transmitted to the communication port. On the other hand, every protocol convenient message, received by the serial connection, is sent as a message to the postoffice predefined user.

1.2 Database communication

WexchC uses an outbox table to read messages which have to be sent over the wireless network. If a message has been sent successfully, the message is stored in the sentbox table. Undeliverable messages are stored into an errorbox table. Incoming messages are stored into an inbox table. Installation base: Access 7.0 , Access 97 , Oracle and SQL server 6.5.

1.3 : Summary :

Both techniques, Electronic Mail and ODBC compliant databases allow multi-user and multi-platform wireless communication, with existing processes.

2. Hard- & Software

On the server side, WexchC runs on Win95, Win98 and WinNT 4.0.

The WexchC application has been heavily tested against :

• Unilinq protocol convertor - Protocol=Unilinq,
• Aplicom protocol convertor - Protocol=Aplicom,
• Refinder - Protocol=DtmfModem,
• Nokia 2110i + pcmcia card : DTP-2 SW02.02 HWDP1_07 - Protocol=Nokia,
• Nokia 2110 + pcmcia card : DTP-2 version II - Protocol=Nokia,
• Falcom A1 Protocol = Falcom,
• AtSet_0 for both AT modem connections and GSM-data,
• Mobitex for RAM Mobile Data - Protocol=Mobitex,
• GM12 - Ericsson, model 6050102 - Protocol=GM12,

• Fake for off-line development and testing

The robustness of the Microsoft Visual C++ development kit allows us to quickly implement new objects which will be related to new protocol implementations.

3. Custom Software

Because every message that enters the WexchC application, of that leaves it, passes a custom DLL, we are able to make adaptations for every customer. This technique allows us for example to translate incoming and outgoing status messages into readable sentences. The name of this DLL is WexchPa.dll, and resides in the WINSYS directory. To enable customers to generate their own DLL, example source code is included and 2 example DLL are installed in the application directory:

• WexchPa_1.dll : does not handle messages (installed by default in the WINSYS directory),
• WexchPa_2.dll : includes the sender name and subject into the message itself. This option makes messages sent to SMS enabled GSM devices human readable.

The complete WexchPa project is available as a separate product.