design and implementation of mobile and internet product

International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 2, Issue 2, February-2011 1ISSN 2229-5518

IJSER © 2011http://www.ijser.org

Design and Implementation of Mobile andInternet Product Access Information and Its

Administration System

Yoong Cheah Huei, Lim Chin Wee, Koh Zheng Kang and Nelson Chin Rong Jie

Abstract - Internet has become a ubiquitous access to information. Mobile smart phones are becoming popular today as well in thearea of interactive information retrieval. Many applications are developed on these mobile intelligent machines. This paper presentsthe design and implementation of a seamless distributed product access information system that can be accessed through Internetand/or Google Android smart phones. The system uses a hybrid approach of master-slave and peer-to-peer communication models.This system may help to increase business activities in an area because consumers can access to more information about productsthat they are interested to purchase anywhere with Internet connection and any time. In addition, these customers are able to knowabout shops that sell a particular product, including the price and the shops addresses. This might help to save their shops huntingtime. The main purpose of the administration system is to help the administrator manage the system.

Keywords: Distributive product access information system, Google Android smart phones, Internet access

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1. INTRODUCTION

NTTERNET can be accessed throughdesktops, notebooks, smart phones, and

other electronic equipment. Recentadvancement in mobile and wirelesstechnologies has made possible the creationof applications on smart phones that were notpossible ten years ago. Smart phones havebecome ubiquitous as latest and lessexpensive models with more and advancedfeatures are built into the phones. Smartphones have become pervasive as people canalways access information, anytime andanywhere. Hence, useful application willcontinue to be developed on them, especiallythose that can help to increase businessactivities and improve human life.

At present, it is easier to develop softwareapplications on platforms supported byvendors like Google, Apple, Microsoft, andNokia. The mobile product accessinformation (PAI) distributed systemreported in this paper is developed on

Google’s Android platform because theplatform adopts an open source strategywhich gives more flexibility to developers.This distributed system can also be accessthrough Internet via smart phones, desktops,or notebooks.

Some research work on mobile phones likesoftware test framework [1], middleware forbuilding mobile applications [2], enhancemobile phone usability throughpersonalization at user interface [3] andintegration of different technologies [4],mobile applications in education [5],performance study of mobile applications [6],and applying context-aware technique inmobile applications [7] have been reported inthe literature. In addition, specific softwareapplications on mobile phones, for exampleSMS on demand [8], a type of waferpackaging system [9], and a wireless newsbrowsing application [10] were developed.On Android platform, location-based mobileservice [11], safety functions in vehicles [12],

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and global positioning system [13] wereimplemented.

A lot of research has been done in the areaof web based information system like inmanufacturing [14-15], shopping [16-18],education [19] and shares [20]. In the area ofweb based distributed system, there are workpublished in web service [21-27], inparticular the mobile transaction managementsystem in a distributed environment [26],where heterogeneous of computer systemsand synchronization and control ofoperations are issues, and mobile agent-basedInternet commerce system [27] that analysesnumber of agents to contact for pricecomparisons.

In this paper, we present the design andimplementation of mobile PAI distributedsystem developed on Google’s Android andInternet platform and its administrationsystem, which resides in the server. Oursystem employs a hybrid approach of master-slave and peer-to-peer communicationmodels. The main purpose of the PAI systemis to assist consumers make an informeddecision whether to purchase a particularproduct. Furthermore, this system helpsconsumers, in particular mobile consumers tosearch for shops that sell a particular productso that they can save product hunting time.The administration system is to help theadministrator manage the PAI system.

A typical scenario is described as follows.Every year millions of visitors visitedSingapore. One of the main tourist attractionsis the shopping paradise of Orchard Roadwhich offers major departmental stores likeParagon, Ngee Ann City, and Far EastShopping Center, and many retail outlets thatsell wide variety of electronic goods. Veryoften, tourists require more information abouta product before making an informeddecision to buy it or would wish to knowshops that sell a particular product. Assume

that the PAI system is installed in a mobilephone that runs on Android platform. Atourist can then access the requiredinformation from a nearby server via awireless router. If the requested informationis not found in that server, the system willautomatically communicate with an adjacentserver via a wireless router. This continues tohappen in the background until theinformation is located. Once the informationis found, it is transferred back to the originalserver and then to the requestor. Anotherscenario is that a tourist carrying any smartphone can access the PAI through Internet.

The rest of the paper is organized asfollows. Section 2 presents the tools,development languages, and overviewnetwork architecture. Section 3 brieflydescribes the design method used whichincludes the high level framework of PAIdistributed system and its administrationfunctions. Section 4 briefly explains theimplementation of the entire system. Section5 concludes this paper.

2. TOOLS, DEVELOPMENTLANGUAGES, AND OVERVIEWNETWORK ARCHITECTURE

The following software tools are employedto develop the distributed database systems:Eclipse 3.5 Galileo Integrated DevelopmentEnvironment with Android ADT plug-in,including Dalvik Debug Monitor Server,Adobe Fireworks, Droid Draw,Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and XAMPP. Thesystem is written with the use of JAVA,XML, HTML, and PHP programminglanguages.

Figure 1 depicts the overview distributednetwork architecture for the systems. Theclients can be Android phones, notebooks ordesktops that run a Google smart phonesimulator, Internet Explorer, or Firefox




software. Each client is able to access theXAMPP database located in any of the threeservers via a wireless router or a switch. Theclient may be connected to a wireless routerusing a wired or non-wired connection. Everyclient can access to Internet through theserver which is connected to the Ngee AnnPolytechnic network center, located a fewfloors below of an adjacent building.

A gateway is given a unique Service SetIdentifier (SSID) or unique network name inorder to prevent duplicate names from nearbywireless router. This is to prevent consumersfrom joining the wrong network. The defaultgateway Internet Protocol (IP) address is ofclass B which is 192.xxxx.xxxx.xxxx. In thewireless router, the broadcast of SSID is setto enable (Refer to Figure 2) so that mobileusers are able to search and then join thenetwork. In order not to degrade theperformance of the network, the maximumnumber of users connected simultaneously tothe network is configured. The server IPaddress is reserved so that it does not have adifferent address each time the network isbuild up. However, Dynamic HostConfiguration Protocol can be initiated to getautomatic IP address for the server.

3. DESIGN

3.1 High Level Framework of AndroidPhone Access

Figure 3 shows the high level framework ofPAI and its administration system. Thesystem is divided into two main parts. Thefirst part is the PAI software that resides in asmart phone that runs on Google’s Androidplatform. This software consists of threemain functions – bookmark, browse, andsearch. The bookmark feature gives users theflexibility to mark frequent or importantinformation so that it can be retrieve quicklyand easily. The browse function allows usersto list all the items or shops. The searchfunction gives users the option to perform afull or partial name information retrievalfrom the database via the wireless router.Users can then select the particular item andmore information about it is displayed likethe price, background information, and shopsthat sell it. Users may do a shop search to geta list of shops and their addresses and contactnumbers that sell a product in that shoppingarea. Feedback to the administrator can begenerated through the administration functionin the search module.

.




Figure 1. Overview Distributed Network Architecture

Figure 2. Set SSID to Broadcast Mode




The second part is the PAI administrationsystem which is installed in the server. Theadministration module allows theadministrator to add, delete, and updateproducts information to the database. Theinventory module allows the number ofstock of a product to be updated whennecessary. This information gives clues forreordering of a product. One of the functionsof the account module is to provide totalrevenue generated for a particular productduring a given period. The search moduleprovides a full or partial search for aparticular product. The shop module listsshops that sell a particular product.

The XAMPP is located in the server butthe SQL Lite database resides in the phonethat runs on Android platform. If theinformation is not found in a XAMPPdatabase, a search is conducted in anadjacent database via a wireless router.

3.2 High Level Framework ofInternet Access

The high level framework (Figure 4) issimilar to Figure 3 except the user featuresreside in a server and can be accessed byany smart phone, desktop or notebookthrough Internet.

3.3 Some Parts of Overview Designand Process Flow Access by AndroidPhone or by SmartPhones/Desktops/Notebooks

The main modules for PAI and itsadministration systems were identified andrelationships among them were known.

Figure 5 gives the overview of the PAIDesign. The XML scripts are generated topresent the user interface and capturecommands from users. Then the commands

are configured so that the correct database isaccessed through the activation of relevantPHP script files.

Figure 6 illustrates the process flow ofbrowse shops. The user interface displaysthe list of shops. If a user selects a shop andthe system will depict information about it,in particular the address and contact number.Otherwise, continue interaction with the useris activated.

Figure 7 displays the overview ofadministrative management system design.The GUIs are written in HTML,specifically to capture user inputs. Thecommand initiates the correct PHP scriptfiles so that the database access may beinvoked.

Figure 8 exhibits the administrationprocess flow. A user has the option to addproduct records, update existing productrecords or delete an existing product record.

Figure 9 shows the high level distributeddatabase query processing. Thecommunication between servers anddatabases is built using a hybrid model ofmaster-slave and peer-to-peercommunication models.

The master-slave similarity proceduresare explained as follows. Every time adevice request information from the system,the request is only sent to one of the manyservers, in this context the master server.Residing in the master server is also acomplete list of all the servers anddatabases that is in the domain of thesystem, the slave servers. Every time therequest is received by the master server, itwould call its own database and process therequest, adding all the results found into aresult set. After which the master serverwill proceed to call the slave serversaccording to the list and pass on the request.Currently this procedure uses a linear




algorithm to process the list as the list issmall and it is a product in development. Itcan be edited to use a parallel algorithm tospeed up the processing if the server list islarge. All the search results found will beaccumulated to the same result set. Oncethe list is exhausted, the result set will thenbe returned to the device that sends therequest for further processing.

Next, the P2P similarity procedures aredescribed. Some components of the systemsuch as the server scripts and the news barsare not dependent on databases but insteadstore their information directly on theserver. As the system final design iscentered on efficiency, the closest server tothe client will be deemed as the masterserver, the rest slaves. Thus changes madeon one server will be required to bereflected on all servers as the master serverwill change depending on where the systemis being accessed. As the system will bebroad and servers scattered over differentareas and each having differentadministrators, the easiest and cost/resourceefficient method to deploy updates andchanges would be to use P2P model. As perthe client’s request, the database will still beisolated from each other but scripts and webpages updates will be deployed in thismanner. When changes are made in one ofthe servers, it will send out the new copy toservers closest to it. Upon receiving the newfiles, the servers will pass on to the nextclosest server and this continues till all theservers have the new files and the files aresynchronized with one another. Thisdeployment saves bandwidth andmanpower resources as it is dynamic andchanges made will be reflected within theentirety of the system in the shortest timepossible.

4. IMPLEMENTATION

The top down approach is used to writethe software codes for the whole system.First, the user interface was developed andtested. Then the main module was coded.The scripts files were parsed by theapplication modules. The key obstacle waspassing correct information betweenmodules, especially between databases.Figure 10 presents the access to the PAIsystem through Android phone. The smartphone can access to Internet by clicking thebrowser button. Figure 11 depicts the frontpage of the PAI system which we callAndroid Search-A-Ble. This system iscoded using JAVA and resides in thephone. The coding Search-A-Ble byInternet is similar to Android Search-A-Bleexcept that it is developed using PHPinstead of JAVA and resides in a server.Figure 12 shows the main page of theAndroid Search-A-Ble administrationmanagement system which resides in aserver. This system and the communicationbetween databases are developed usingPHP. There were about 1000 lines of codewritten and complied for the entire system.System testing was carried out successfully.The response time of a user request usingSearch-A-Ble that resides in the Androidphone is much faster than the Search-A-Blethat stores in the server. The reason isbecause the software is already beingprocessed and ready to execute usercommands. However, the Search-A-Blesoftware for Internet access does notconstraint to Android phone only but can beused by any smart phones, notebooks, anddesktops that run Internet Explorer orFirefox software.




Mobile User Interface

Main FunctionsManager

BookmarkModule

SearchModule

AdminSearch

ShopSearch

ItemSearch


AccountModule

SQL LiteDatabase

XAMPP Database

Item Module

AdminModule

Admin User InterfaceReside at Android

phoneReside at

Server

BrowseModule

Browseshops

BrowseItems

InventoryModule

Shop Module

SearchModule

LogoutModule

XAMPP Database XAMPP Database

Via wireless router Via wireless router

Viawirelessrouter

Figure 3. High Level Framework of PAI and its Administration System Access by Android Mobile Phone




User Interface of Mobileor Desktop or Notebook


BookmarkModule

SearchModule

AdminSearch

ShopSearch

ItemSearch


AccountModule

SQL LiteDatabase

XAMPP Database

Item Module

AdminModule

Admin User InterfaceReside at

ServerReside at

Server

BrowseModule

Browseshops

BrowseItems

InventoryModule

Shop Module

SearchModule

LogoutModule

XAMPP Database XAMPP Database

Via wireless router Via wireless router

Viawirelessrouter

Via Internet

Figure 4. High Level Framework of PAI and its Administration System Access bySmart Phones, Desktops or Notebooks via Internet




Figure 5. Overview of PAI Design Figure 6. Browse Shop Process Flow

Figure 7. Overview of Administrative Figure 8. Administration Process Flow Management System Design




Figure 9. Overview of Distributive Database Query Processing




Figure 10. Access to PAI system Figure 11. PAI system functions

Figure 12. Administration Management System Features




5. CONCLUSION

In this paper, the design andimplementation of the PAI distributedsystem and its administration system thatcan be accessed by any smart phones,desktops or notebooks have been presented.The systems were written in Java, PHP,XML, and HTML programming languages.

The main purpose of the PAI distributedsystem is to help increase business activitiesin an area because consumers can access tomore information about products that theyare interested to buy before making apurchase decision. Furthermore, this systemcan help these consumers to save theirshopping time as they can locate the placeswhich sell particular goods. The majorobjective of the administration system is toassist the administrator manage the PAIsystem.

Acknowledgement

This project is made possible thanks tosupport by the School of InfoCommTechnology, Ngee Ann Polytechnic,Singapore.

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design and implementation of mobile and internet product

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