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Today, technology allows companies to reach customers anywhere, and vice versa, have customers use their services "anywhere". From that fact comes the term "Point of Presence". ATM's, Kiosks, POS systems, vending machines, etc. are examples of such applications, which may be called Point of Presence Systems. Typically these systems require the customers to interact with the machines, either directly or through the operators. Cards have to be swiped, pin codes need to be entered, customers may have to sign on sign-pads. There may be bar-codes that need to be read, magnetic alert systems that need to be disabled, or receipts that need to be printed. In general, these systems are quite complex, and include devices that have to be managed programmatically. Also, in most cases, these systems interface with central servers and constantly exchange data with them. Rarely do these systems stand-alone. Typical solutions include "client" applications running on these distributed machines, in a client-server architecture. Monitoring of these systems is very critical, as also the need for notification in case of errors and other situations. Also, remote control and application updates are big issues and cause for many problems. A thin client approach would eliminate any application update problems by maintaining most of the application on a server. It would also significantly reduce errors on the client which would be doing minimal processing. However, their need for interfacing with devices prevent these systems from being entirely "thin". PPClient was designed to solve most of the problems associated with such systems and provide all the commonly required features. It is an application frame work around which such a client application can be developed. PPClient uses a thin client approach by eliminating client-side UI code, which is dynamically provided by a server. The required portions of the client application are designed as pluggable and inter-changeable modules which may be partially updated from central servers. Besides providing the architecture, PPClient also includes modules for standard functionality such as remote monitoring, remote control of application and OS, notification and alert system and other forms of management. PPClient's design provides some much needed benefits for such distributed systems. The Dynamically generated UI greatly reduces the need for application updates. At the same time allowing the smallest changes to be implemented at any time. UI related changes do not required on-site visits and changes made at the server are immediately effective at all of the remote locations. Also, there is no need for interrupting client-side operations for these updates. Development requirements no longer include writing device interfaces. The device server architecture allows pre-built device modules to be used. Over time interface modules for all of the popular devices will become available, through us and other vendors, and can be readily purchased. In the mean-time, you can use our expertise to develop these modules quickly and for cost effectively. Experience with JavaScript and Applet development should suffice for control of devices. PPClient's internal messaging and event model takes care of the remaining interface issues. Thus the only in-house development staff required is for development of WEB pages that are used for the UI. These resources can be shared with your WEB presence development efforts. For communication between the application and servers, optional modules allow message exchange using XML. These modules provide the required architecture for receiving and sending messages in this format. XML schemas can be constructed to define messages of any size and type. The modules then allow the client end to extract data received in form of XML packets and can just as easily build messages for transmission in the correct format. A basic POS application to be used in multiple, geographically distributed stores can be put together rather quickly using the core system and the required device support modules. Modules for devices such as bar-code scanners, pin pads, signature pads, etc. from most popular manufacturers are readily available. Similarly, an information kiosk network, that provides print-outs of dispensed information and charges for services, can be put together within days. PPClient along with readily available device modules for the functionality described can be used to put together the application almost immediately. The information can come from an already existing Web application. The credit card service provided by MONSOON Technologies can be used to process the financial transactions. Systems running such applications are generally not used for much else. Ability to deploy such systems on a free Operating System such as Linux result in major cost savings. Key Benefits
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