We’ve released several articles highlighting The Data Collection Center’s Customer Console which most of our customers use heavily.

BUT we’ve rarely shown the “blood and guts” of The IdyllicWMS. The part of our platform that does the heavy lifting.

The Android Standard Client!

Created from the ashes of our original client, the Windows Mobile Client, our Standard Android Client was a necessary migration due to Microsoft’s

change in direction with their mobile OS strategy. We saw this coming around 2012 and began work to be ready. Our version 1.00 client was released in 2013

and supported Android 4.4 (KitKat). Today we are on version 15.00 and are supporting Android 6 all the way to Android 14. We believe it is important to maintain

this backwards compatibility range since the rugged mobile devices in our market place typically have a life of 5 to 7 years. But we must also pay attention to future

capabilities that might obsolete an old feature. It’s a fine line to walk.

The UI design is simple which is also necessary since “easy to use” is number One! Let’s take a look…

Login Screen

The login screen is simple but let’s take a look at a few items around the screen.

• At the top we have a unique Four-character ID for the user to identify the device to DCC support people.
• Next to the ID is the most useful icon EVER … the old smiley face. The smiley face is a quick, easy and non-technical way for the user to understand if he/she is online.  No need for those pesky technical questions such as, “Are you connected to WIFI?” or “Do you have internet access?” The smiley face answers all of that. This is a heartbeat which refreshes around every 10 seconds.
• The version number is also a good item to know for our support staff at a glance.
• The bold text would be the company name then we have the user/password prompt
• The Location prompt is what makes all scanners allowed to be used at multiple sites. If your company has multiple warehouses then you can tell the scanner which warehouse/site you want to work with by setting this at login.
• You can login by clicking the “Login” button and exit with the “Exit” button.

The Menu

After a successful login, the main menu appears. This gives the user a central look at all of the available transactions which may var from company to company.  The real estate on this comes at a premium but we must give the use larger buttons with images and captions. The large buttons allows an ease of use even in a gloved environment.

The Three-Dot Menu

At the top right of all screens which are past the login screen is a Three-Dot menu which has the following functions:

• Print Manager – Pulls of the printer management screen which allows you to select and manage all printers (IP and/or Bluetooth).
• Enter Admin Mode – Allows DCC support staff access to administrative functions that may help diagnose/resolve issues.
• Barcode Test Scans – An area that allows you to test scan some barcodes that may be giving you problems.
• System Information – A very informative screen that reveals information such as WIFI signal strength and software versions for the device and app.

Scan Test

Sometimes there are barcodes that seem not to scan. The reasons for this are some such as damaged barcodes, wrong symbology or the data format is wrong.  Using the Three-Dot menu and accessing the Scan Test screen can allow you to test some of these codes without creating errors in a transaction screen.  When you move into this screen ALL barcode types are enabled (NOT available on all device Manufacturers) then when you scan barcode you will see the data in a Raw format along with the type of barcode at the bottom of the screen.

System Information

The System Information screen can also be accessed from the Three-Dot menu in most screens.

A few items on this screen:

• WIFI Network – Shows name (SSID) of current WIFI network the device is connected to.
• RSSI – The signal strength of the connection. This can be useful when trying to troubleshoot WIFI coverage issues. This reading is real time and updates any time there is a change in the signal strength.
• AP – The mac address of the current access-point the device is connected to. This can also be useful in troubleshooting WIFI coverage issues.
• Speed – Speed of the current connection (NOT to confused with internet speed. This is only the WIFI link speed).
• Device – The manufacturer and model of the device.
• Android – Version of Android.
• DCC – Version of DCC client
• ScanLib – Version of DCC’s scanner library which allows auto configuration of scanner parameters (Not available on all manufacturers). This also tells you

if your device is supported and allows configuration settings to be changed in the Customer Console.

For questions please reach out to Marshall Ellis @ mellis@datacollectioncenter.com OR 972-489-2043!