Mobile document access
Encyclopedia
Mobile document access is a methodology by which a mobile computer such as a cell phone or PDA
, can retrieve, store, and otherwise access electronic documents and/or images of paper documents not specifically created for a mobile computing device. The term has some overlap with the concepts of Mobile content
, Content Management Systems and Data conversion
, and sometimes utilize the Mobile Web
.
Specifications such as Wireless Application Protocol
(WAP), Mobile Information Device Profile
(MIDP), and Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless
(BREW) were developed to provide standardized mobile interfaces to existing network infrastructure.
Mobile applications began to encompass electronic documents, typically by way of converting data from one format into a format suitable for a mobile device, primarily to provide Email attachment support to mobile devices with no local storage ability.
Concurrently various remote document access solutions, such as SSL-VPN, IPSec
VPN, and WebDAV
, were being developed as a means to overcome various network infrastructure issues in order to provide remote document access solutions to less-mobile (stationary?) computers. Many of the technologies developed for this problem, such as OCR
, ECM
, and technologies to convert documents in to HTML
, would come to play an important role for MDA solutions.
Document Conversion
Convert a document from its native format into a format suitable for display on a mobile device. Documents, including images or text, are processed in a way so that the content of said document is viewable on a mobile device. Some systems have employed OCR technology, while others may provide full-fidelity document viewing.
Retrieval
Retrieve the electronic documents, in whole or in part, from the remote storage. Although the notion of retrieving a particular document is simple, retrieval in a format suitable for a mobile device can be quite complex. Many mobile devices do not support storage on a local file system and so tricks are often employed to present the illusion of document retrieval. For example, storing documents as an attachment in an email message, whereby the attachment exists on a remote server but may be referenced by the mobile device.
Integration
Allow the mobile device to work upon a document via existing resources and infrastructure. It is not desirable for a mobile device to operate on the converted form of a document so special considerations must be made to allow the mobile device to access the original document form for specific functions. For example, a mobile device may wish to fax a document stored in a remote location. In this way some facility would be provided whereby the mobile device could instruct a remote system to fax the original document form to a recipient specified by the mobile device.
Security
Provide extra security measures to facilitate the unique concerns posed by small, portable devices. Existing security infrastructure is not sufficient for mobile environments and so measures adopted by VPN and other technologies must be employed.
PDA
A PDA is most commonly a Personal digital assistant, also known as a Personal data assistant, a mobile electronic device.PDA may also refer to:In science, medicine and technology:...
, can retrieve, store, and otherwise access electronic documents and/or images of paper documents not specifically created for a mobile computing device. The term has some overlap with the concepts of Mobile content
Mobile content
Mobile content is any type of media which is viewed or used on mobile phones, like ringtones, graphics, discount offers, games, movies, and GPS navigation. As mobile phone use has grown since the mid 1990s, the significance of the devices in everyday life has grown accordingly...
, Content Management Systems and Data conversion
Data conversion
Data conversion is the conversion of computer data from one format to another. Throughout a computer environment, data is encoded in a variety of ways. For example, computer hardware is built on the basis of certain standards, which requires that data contains, for example, parity bit checks....
, and sometimes utilize the Mobile Web
Mobile Web
The Mobile Web refers to the use of Internet-connected applications, or browser-based access to the Internet from a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet computer, connected to a wireless network....
.
Overview
Mobile Document Access typically addresses some or all of the following areas:| Retrieval | Allows a mobile devices to retrieve, in one form or another, a specific document. |
| Integration | Allows mobile devices to work on a document by leveraging infrastructure available at the time, such as faxing and email. How to work with a document? |
| Security | Protection against loss, tampering or destruction of documents, and theft of the mobile device. How to enforce compliance? |
| Navigation | Provides some mechanism that permits mobile devices with limited or no storage capacity to access collaborative data by navigating through storage repositories. How to list documents? |
| Authentication | Ensures that the mobile device is being operated by a person authorized to access a specific document. |
History
During the late 1980s and 1990s various hardware and software vendors commercialized systems that allowed mobile users to access conventional computer networks, such as the World Wide Web and E-mail.Specifications such as Wireless Application Protocol
Wireless Application Protocol
Wireless Application Protocol is a technical standard for accessing information over a mobile wireless network.A WAP browser is a web browser for mobile devices such as mobile phones that uses the protocol.Before the introduction of WAP, mobile service providers had limited opportunities to offer...
(WAP), Mobile Information Device Profile
Mobile Information Device Profile
Mobile Information Device Profile is a specification published for the use of Java on embedded devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. MIDP is part of the Java Platform, Micro Edition framework and sits on top of Connected Limited Device Configuration , a set of lower level programming...
(MIDP), and Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless
Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless
Brew is an application development platform created by Qualcomm, originally for CDMA mobile phones, featuring third party applications such as mobile games. It is offered in some feature phones but not in smart phones...
(BREW) were developed to provide standardized mobile interfaces to existing network infrastructure.
Mobile applications began to encompass electronic documents, typically by way of converting data from one format into a format suitable for a mobile device, primarily to provide Email attachment support to mobile devices with no local storage ability.
Concurrently various remote document access solutions, such as SSL-VPN, IPSec
IPsec
Internet Protocol Security is a protocol suite for securing Internet Protocol communications by authenticating and encrypting each IP packet of a communication session...
VPN, and WebDAV
WebDAV
Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning is a set of methods based on the Hypertext Transfer Protocol that facilitates collaboration between users in editing and managing documents and files stored on World Wide Web servers...
, were being developed as a means to overcome various network infrastructure issues in order to provide remote document access solutions to less-mobile (stationary?) computers. Many of the technologies developed for this problem, such as OCR
Optical character recognition
Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is the mechanical or electronic translation of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. It is widely used to convert books and documents into electronic files, to computerize a record-keeping...
, ECM
Enterprise content management
Enterprise Content Management is a formalized means of organizing and storing an organization's documents, and other content, that relate to the organization's processes...
, and technologies to convert documents in to HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
, would come to play an important role for MDA solutions.
Components
Mobile Document Access systems commonly provide components by which data in one format can be converted into a mobile format. The following is a description of these components.Document Conversion
Convert a document from its native format into a format suitable for display on a mobile device. Documents, including images or text, are processed in a way so that the content of said document is viewable on a mobile device. Some systems have employed OCR technology, while others may provide full-fidelity document viewing.
Retrieval
Retrieve the electronic documents, in whole or in part, from the remote storage. Although the notion of retrieving a particular document is simple, retrieval in a format suitable for a mobile device can be quite complex. Many mobile devices do not support storage on a local file system and so tricks are often employed to present the illusion of document retrieval. For example, storing documents as an attachment in an email message, whereby the attachment exists on a remote server but may be referenced by the mobile device.
Integration
Allow the mobile device to work upon a document via existing resources and infrastructure. It is not desirable for a mobile device to operate on the converted form of a document so special considerations must be made to allow the mobile device to access the original document form for specific functions. For example, a mobile device may wish to fax a document stored in a remote location. In this way some facility would be provided whereby the mobile device could instruct a remote system to fax the original document form to a recipient specified by the mobile device.
Security
Provide extra security measures to facilitate the unique concerns posed by small, portable devices. Existing security infrastructure is not sufficient for mobile environments and so measures adopted by VPN and other technologies must be employed.