Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
There are many different devices on the market that could be categorized as “mobile Internet devices”
or “mobile network devices” capable of being used to view reports. These may include personal digital
assistant (PDA) palm-sized or hand-held computers, enhanced pagers, or cell phones. The lines separat-
ing these devices are becoming quite blurred as the newest generation of cell phones can be used to surf
the web and some PDAs now include integrated cell phones. There are even camcorders with built-in
networking and web browsers! For this discussion we will limit the scope of these devices to the Windows-
based units. However, some Palm OS devices may be used to view online content via a wireless corpo-
rate network or the World Wide Web and can be used to view offline documents in standard formats
(such as PDF); we acknowledge that many of the capabilities we will discuss may also be supported on
the Palm platform.
The challenges and opportunities for delivering mobile device-enabled reports are varied but fall into
the following areas:
❑
Screen size
❑
Device, browser, and viewer capabilities
❑
Files portability
❑
File size restrictions
Current Windows-powered devices run a version of Windows CE called Pocket PC or Windows Mobile
Smart Phone. The Pocket PC form factor has a screen resolution of 240 pixels wide by 320 pixels tall
and features a number of scaled-down desktop applications (such as Pocket Word, Excel, Outlook, and
Internet Explorer.) The Smart Phone screen is considerably smaller at 176 by 220 pixels and is designed
to function primarily as a phone with some additional PDA features. An edition of the Pocket PC called
the Pocket PC Phone Edition has integrated features to support units with a built-in cell phone. All
Pocket PC devices have a touch screen interface and many of the Smart Phone units are controlled only
by the phone's keypad. These devices, and many non-Windows cell phone devices, may be used to view
online web content.
Screen Size
The most significant restriction for most mobile devices is the smaller screen size. The Pocket PC and
Smart Phone will view web content with some client-side scripting support and will also cache recently
viewed content for offline viewing. Most web pages designed for desktop computer users can be viewed
on the tiny screen, but it requires the user to scroll extensively just to navigate a single page. Web-based
reports created with Reporting Services are no exception. Most stock reports will likely work on a Pocket
PC running Pocket Internet Explorer if they can be viewed in Internet Explorer on a desktop PC. The
user experience, however, is often like watching a large-screen movie through a keyhole.
To design reports optimized for the mobile user, reports must be simplified and designed for smaller
page size. Some dynamic reporting features (like drill-down and drill-through) may not be supported in
all rendering formats. The comparable page size of the Pocket PC screen is about 3.25 inches (8.25 cm)
wide. Simply scaling your mobile reports down to this width will resolve most screen resolution issues
for mobile web users. Keep the font sizes small and avoid clutter, large graphics, and extra space.
Figure 6-89 is an example of a simple employee e-mail directory, created using a table data region on a
narrow page:
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