This page is part of the Mobile Dashboard online help. For an introduction to the online help manual, see Section 1.1, “Mobile Dashboard Online Help Manual Overview”.
The Mobile Dashboard enables you to deliver corporate content to mobile users. We provide here some useful definitions of the basic concepts in the Mobile Dashboard:
Mobile Dashboard (aka Webalo Service) - The Mobile Dashboard is Webalo's principal product. It includes a complete administration website for the set-up, configuration and distribution of corporate content to mobile users. It consists of a Mobile Dashboard server, either a "hosted service" or a "virtual appliance," and the Webalo Managed Clients (residing on users' mobile devices).
Mobile Dashboard Server
Hosted Service - Webalo customers can use a hosted server to access and use the Mobile Dashboard. For the customer this means rapid deployment, i.e., there is no hardware to buy and no software to buy or install. So, for customers, they can be up and running in an hour or so. No IT involvement is needed.
Virtual Appliance - A vitual appliance containing the Mobile Dashboard that customers can purchase from Webalo and install within their own network and behind their firewall. It operates exactly the same as the Hosted Service, but now the customer is hosting the Mobile Dashboard. The Mobile Dashboard Virtual Appliance is targeted to those customers that do not want their content residing on, or transmitted through, an external server.
Configuration - Configuration is a guided step-by-step process for setting up reports, web services, databases, and web sites for distribution to mobile end users. A corporate administrator uses the Mobile Dashboard's Agenda Environment to answer a series of questions identifying the content to be displayed and the screens needed for mobile users. Configurations only need to be done only once.
Agenda Environment - The Agenda Environment is an easy-to-use interface that guides the user in the process of configuring reports, web services, databases, and web sites for distribution to end users' mobile devices.
Deploying Changes - As an administrator uses the Agenda Environment to configure content and perform other tasks, most changes that they make are saved into their own personal workspace, and are not immediately visible to other Mobile Dashboard users. This allows these changes to be tested, and when satisfactory, then deployed to the Mobile Dashboard as a whole. The only changes which take immediate effect are changes to domains and users.
Account - Each customer is assigned (by Webalo) a unique account name within the Mobile Dashboard. The System Administrator creates customer accounts and creates the initial Account Administrator to manage each new account. (For the single-tenant Vitual Appliance version of the Mobile Dashboard, only one account is allowed.)
Domain - Each account can be segmented (by the Account Administrator) into multiple domains that have different administrators (called Domain Administrators). Segmentation of an account into multiple domains is typically done in larger companies that have individual departments that manage and distribute their own content. Many companies, on the other hand, use a single domain for managing their content. Domains are managed on the Mobile Dashboard website through the Agenda Environment.
Group - Each domain can have multiple groups of users defined to receive content. Groups are managed on the Mobile Dashboard website through the Agenda Environment.
User - User is an end user that receives content on a mobile device. Users can be grouped into Groups on the Mobile Dashboard website through the Agenda Environment. Users are identified by their login ID, which consists of their email address (or local ID (Section 4.2, “System Settings”)), and an optional role.
Role - A role is an optional feature of login ID's, used to enable the same email address to be used for multiple logins. Each separate user or administrator login to the Mobile Dashboard is assigned a unique login ID, which is usually just a person'e email address, e.g., jsmith@mycompany.com. The login ID may also be a "local ID" (Section 4.2, “System Settings”). When an optional role is present in a login ID, it is separated from the email address by a slash (/), e.g., jsmith@mycompany.com/optional-role. Roles may contain only letters and hyphens (-)'s. As an example, if Bob Jones will be a Domain Adminstrator for the Sales domain at MyCompany (i.e., in the MyCompany account), and also an Account Adminstrator for the Acme account, which is a customer of MyCompany, then his Domain Administrator login ID could be bjones@mycompany.com/sales, and his login ID for administering the Acme customer account could be bjones@mycompany.com/acme.
Webalo Client (aka Mobile Client, Managed Client, User Agent, Polymorphic Client) - Webalo Clients are small Webalo-produced software packages that get downloaded to end users' mobile devices to communicate directly with the Mobile Dashboard server. Webalo Clients exist for the BlackBerry, for Windows Mobile devices, and for Java-enabled smartphones (e.g., Symbian operating system (Nokia) and Palm OS (some Treos)). For more information on Webalo Clients see Section 10.1, “Managed Clients - Basic Concepts”.
Installation (aka Client Download) - Installation is most often associated with the download of a Webalo Client to a user's mobile device. This is usually done over-the-air, but can be accomplished by obtaining the Webalo Client files via a desktop/laptop computer and then transferring the files over to the mobile device (typically via the device's desktop software package).
Synchronization (aka Refresh) - This is the process of obtaining (downloading) the most recent content onto a user's mobile device from the Mobile Dashboard server.
Over-the-Air (OTA) - OTA is the principal method of transferring information between mobile devices and wireless networks. The installation (download) of the Webalo Client is typically done OTA from the Webalo website to a user's mobile device. (Note other methods of Webalo Client downloads are available, e.g., through a BlackBerry BES Server or via a PC). Synchronization (to get content updates) also occurs OTA.
Options - The Webalo Client has an Options screen where end users can set up their individual settings/preferences, e.g., their Username and Password, whether to enable Auto Refresh, whether to keep content on the device when exiting the Webalo client, etc.
User Proxy (aka User Proxy Service or UPS) - The UPS is the Mobile Dashboard's underlying technology that takes data and distributes it (and the user interface to display and interact with the data) to Webalo Clients residing on mobile devices. It also processes end user task invocations to access backend applications and deliver results to end users.