Solution
The WV clients have been designed to serve as an IM interface for the end-user by providing presence and instant messaging over the desktop PC and mobile devices – handhelds and mobile phones. These IM clients enabled cross messaging between IM clients running over a PC, handhelds (PDA’s) and mobile phones. In terms of the platforms involved, the desktop client was based on Windows 98, NT 4.0, 2000 and XP, while the handheld client (Centurion) has been designed for the Pocket PC (PPC) 2002 running over strongARM processors and having Win CE 3.2 as its OS. The Java client (Asterix) is expected to run over Java enabled mobile phones.

During the development phase, 2 versions of the IM client were created – a “full” version and a “light” version. The full version client is targeted at high end phones like the Nokia 7650 and Sony-Ericssion P800 and includes heavy IM functionalities like full buddy list support, multiple IM sessions, and group IM in public and private chat rooms. The light version with limited but essential IM feature set was developed for J2ME mobile phones with limited capabilities supporting a maximum application size of 64K, for example the Nokia Series 40 devices. These J2ME clients were tested for over-the-air delivery across a GPRS network and were additionally branded for specific Network Operators.

While working on the Asterix module for development of J2ME clients some interesting issues and their workarounds had to be handled, majority of these were related to the varying hardware specifications of mobile phones. The aim was to develop clients that would execute on a number of Java enabled phones. With each device having its own set of specifications in terms of runtime memory, screen size, processor speed and other UI constraints, the clients needed to be customized such that the IM interface offered device optimized operations. We carried out client customization and optimization over phones like Nokia 3650, Sharp Gx-10 and Sony Ericsson T610. Other challenges included developing an Arabic version of the client using an English development environment and flipping the UI for right-to-left viewing.

On the Win CE client, a couple of UI customizations had to be done. First was the change in look and feel of the tree UI control, which according to the requirements had to appear aligned as compared to the default Windows OS indented tree look. As a result we had to create our own tree control for the IM clients. The second issue was that of the minimized icon - according to the requirements when the application is minimized, the main window should be animatedly hidden and displayed as an icon. This called for a brief research on the various ways to minimize and maximize windows on the Win CE platform, and hence handling each separately.

Another Win CE related issue worth mentioning here is that of the IM alert popup. The PPC has only one window displayed at a time. Similar to the desktop functionality, the client required that a popup window be displayed on receipt of an IM alert – message receipt, or chat invitation, or user status alert. On a Win CE environment, the only other window that can be displayed is a dialog box. Thus to implement this popup alert, we had to tweak the dialog window functionality such that it appeared as a popup alert window.

The development phase was followed by a rigorous testing routine which included testing of the WV protocol implementation, black box testing for the Win CE clients (Centurion), and memory/ resource leak testing. We used a couple of testing utilities that ensured a bug free software deliverable, to name a few – Snoopy: sniffer for protocol testing, Numega Bounds checker: for memory and resource leak testing, and so on.

With a team size of one manager, one team lead, 2 developers and one QA, Asterix and Centurion collectively involved 11 calendar months before the final delivery. With our Win CE and Java embedded experts, the customer had a clear smooth sailing in terms of handling and implementing the advanced IM functionalities using the current edge technologies in the embedded domains. Our straight timely deliveries enabled the customer to meet tight marketing schedules and gain an edge in terms of the competitive wireless markets.