Web-to-PDA Communication

[jeffhules]

Please excuse the basic descriptions and the lack of industry
terminology in this message.
Basically I would like to gain a better insight into the technology I
should be talking about when I contact my web designers as I hate the
thought of being scammed when they recognise that I don't know
anything about the subject in question!
I have a website that I need to build upon to achieve the following:

A user of the site inputs certain information (e.g.: An address). When
submitted, the user is sent to a "please wait while your information
is processed" page whilst the entry is cross-referenced with records
in a database. When record(s) tagged with this entry are found, PDA's
associated with that entry are sent the information submitted by the
website user. This information is then displayed in a form format on
each relevant PDA. The user of the PDA can then make several choices
and the information selected on the PDA then returned in real-time to
the screen of the website user.

I know this sounds rather advanced and complex but I am aware that
this should be possible. I would greatly appreciate it if somebody
could take a few moments to explain to me the processes of how such a
database would work in terms of identifying where the information is
sent in both directions.

Thanks ever so much for your time in advance!

 

[Bernhard Sturm]

The user of the PDA can then make several choices
and the information selected on the PDA then returned in real-time to
the screen of the website user.

I know this sounds rather advanced and complex but I am aware that
this should be possible.

This is not complex at all and exists already for thousands of
applications. Just install Opera-Mini on your PDA, and surf to one of
the sites you usually surf to. In short: it's the same process you are
describing as it exists for any other UA. If you want to have full
AJAX-features, you might face some limitations (JavaScripting/DOM-Model
is not fully implemented in handheld UAs), but the basic concept is the
same as with any other UA capable of sending form-data to a webserver.

I would greatly appreciate it if somebody
could take a few moments to explain to me the processes of how such a
database would work in terms of identifying where the information is
sent in both directions.

You need to inform yourself about server-side technologies. On the
server-side the following processes will be involved:

1. The browser sends an HTTP request.
2. The server retrieves the requested script or program.
3. The server executes the script or program which typically outputs an
HTML web page. The program usually obtains input from the query string
or standard input which may have been obtained from a submitted web form.
4. The server sends the HTML output to the client's browser.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_web_page)

Thanks ever so much for your time in advance!

you're welcome

bernhard