We have been asked a number of times for a list of the physical devices that can be used with the Warehouse Mobile Device Portal (WMDP). The answer is that we did not certify WMDP for any particular models of mobile devices, so I’m not able to provide a list of suggested or recommended devices. What I can do, is provide the attributes of the mobile device that we used when we tested WMDP, and list the known requirements.
The portable computer we used has the following specifications:
Operating System:
– Microsoft Windows Embedded Handheld 6.5
Memory:
– 512 MB RAM
Screen:
– 3.5 inch touch screen
– 480 x 640 pixels
– 65,536 colors (16 bit RGB)
WMDP requires that the device can access the Internet and has a web browser that can use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), JavaScript, and is compatible with jQuery v1.X. For jQuery in particular, according to jQuery browser support page the requirement is IE6 or later. For more information about jQuery requirements, see http://jquery.com/browser-support/.
One of the concerns when selecting the device is the size of the screen, which determines the real estate on which the WMDP pages are rendered. Like most web pages, WMDP pages use CSS files to adjust their look, and out-of-the-box WMDP comes with a number of CSS files. In particular, after you deploy the WMDP component, you will find a file named defaultrf.css in your installation folder under <WMDP instance installation root >\Content\CSS\RFCSS. This CSS file was created to render pages on the mobile device that we used for testing, as I described earlier in this blog. For information about how to select different CSS files for your mobile device, see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn553175.aspx.
The out-of-the-box CSS files don’t cover all screens on all mobile devices. It’s possible to have a mobile device with a screen of a particular size, resolution, or color depth for which the CSS files can’t deliver optimal page rendering results. No problem. If this happens, you can simply duplicate one of the existing CSS files and adjust the style properties to suit your needs. You just need to make sure that your CSS file is located side-by-side with the other CSS files, and is referenced in the “Work user mobile device display settings” form in AX. Also, remember that when you replace or update a CSS file on the server, you may need to explicitly refresh the page on your device (F5) to flush the browser cache.
You can use the CSS file to make the look of the mobile device’s user interface (UI) simply usable, but in hands of an artist, it can make the pages look customized and attractive. A while ago I tried my hand at some artistry, but unfortunately my work was not recognized as fine art.
I think I overdid the yellow just a little…