RedPrairie RF - Meet Android

Overview

RedPrairie provides an RF solution which typically runs on the handheld or vehicle mount devices made by vendors like intermac, LXE, etc.  At its core the solution is a VT emulation that is served over telnet protocol.  Oracular has made a solution that provides a friendly emulator for serving RedPrairie RF forms on an Android Phone.  You can download our app from the Android App Store 

Here are some features that may interest you:

• Integrated Scanner.  Download "Barcode Scanner" by ZXing.  Our app will utilize this app to provide barcode scanning capability
• Easy access to function keys.  Swipe from the left to get a list of function keys
• Supports pointing on menu options
• Two keyboards; swipe from below to get a normal keyboard or swipe from above downwards to get a numeric keyboard
• Integrated with RedPrairie device recognition.  When you sign on, the first screen the software will automatically key in the device identifier

For an advanced version of this solution that can be used in all environments including warehouse floor see our advanced version.

Typical Use Case

This app should be handy for IT support staff or the supervisory staff within a warehouse.  They no longer have to carry their laptop around or ask someone else for their RF device.  They can simply use their phone to launch any RF application.  The integrated barcode scanner would come in handy as well.

Setup

In order to use this solution, you should setup a dedicated task on the server.  The only requirement is that the task has "-G" option.  For example:

Then setup a device and RF Terminal Master entry.  If this setup is missing, then the android device will prompt for the terminal id.

In RF Terminal Maintenance, setup the device as a narrow device.  This app is optimized for 20*16 display.

Now when you connect from the Android device, you can define that as the terminal id (e.g. SAHMAD-PHONE).  The resulting connection to the server will be with that devcod.

Using the App

Before installing this app, install the "Barcode Scanner" app by ZXing.  That will allow you to use the integrated camera as a scanner.  Our software will be installed as "Oracular RedPrairie RF Emulator"

When you enter the app, you can press "Edit Servers" to define the servers that you want to connect to:

• Name: A name for this session
• Server: Host:Port for the MTF server
• Terminal Id:  This is the device name that you defined above.  When terminal id screen shows up, the app would type in this value
• username and password are optional

In the next screens, you can use certain gestures as needed, for example to get the function keys swipe from the left:

You can then press any key.  To get the integrated barcode scanner, swipe from the right:

The barcode scanner would recognize a barcode and key in the value on the field where it was invoked.  You can swipe from below to get the normal keyboard:

And to get a numeric keypad, you can swipe from above:

You can hit the back key to mimic "F1" behavior.  When on the menu, you can either enter the menu option or just tap on the menu option that you want to go into.

Download the app and use it.  Let us know what you think about it or if you see any issues.  You can contact me directly or send an email to android-rpemul@oracular.com.