Asset Trakker
Windows Application
Installation:
The installer is very simple… It just requires clicking yes once or twice, and you’re done. Most of the time, you won’t need to uninstall the old version first; it will uninstall it on its own. There are situations where it will ask you to uninstall the old version first; in these instances, just do an uninstall, and then reinstall the new version.
Startup/Logging In:
Start up the program, and then enter your user name and password to login.
Menu:
File:
LogOut:
Logs you out, and takes you back to the login screen.
Exit:
Closes the program.
View:
Assets:
Shows the Asset Docking Panel.
Users:
Shows the Users Docking Panel.
Windows:
Reset:
Resets the style and skinning to what is was when the program started.
Reset to Default:
Resets the style and skinning to what the default of the program.
Tools:
Clear Tombstone:
The tombstone is a table in the database that contains the identifiers of records that have been deleted from the database. When you do a partial synchronization down to the handheld, then it will delete those records off the handheld also. You don’t want to clear your tombstone before you sync, or you will have records on the handheld that aren’t in the main database anymore. The best protocol is to clear the tombstone after doing a partial or full sync to the handhelds, so that those records won’t have to be transferred anymore, and performance will be gained. Doing a full sync to the handheld will resolve any user error with this function.
Create Connection File:
This function creates a text file with an encrypted connection string to your database. The handheld has a database on it, but it also needs to talk to the remote database for syncing. This function is useful since the database may not always be in the same location. The file needs to be named ‘Connection.txt’ as that is what its default name comes up. It is also put on your desktop for easy finding by default. You will then use WindowsMobileCenter or ActiveSync to transfer the file into your AssetTrakker application folder.
Options:
This function is used to edit options for the program. Assets and Locations just allow you to set field names to what is appropriate for your company. Printing specifies the locations and names of your printing resources. Since it is different for all manufacturers, you may need help of Pics or the Manufacturer in reconfiguring the printing if you can’t do it yourself. Database Configuration allows you to change the connection information for your main database. Changing this will cause your program to not work!!!
Docking Panels:
The docking panels can be pinned, and or moved around to side of the screen or even broken out into their own windows.
Assets:
The assets panel is a tree of locations and assets. An asset always has to be under a location. You can nest it up to around 30 levels. There is a textbox where you can type in search critera. The search field searches for assets where name, model, serial, or optionalid match the search pattern. It also searches for locations where the name matches the search pattern. You can either enter a full value to search, or you can double click on the textbox to read about wildcards that can be used. The easiest is a % such as c% or %a% could be used for cat. You can move locations or assets by dragging and dropping. If you drag anything to the trashcan above, then it deletes everything under it recursively. This cannot be undone. If you right click on a node, then you get an easy context menu that lets you add, edit, or delete nodes. Using the context menu, you can print labels for assets… Also there is something called show node lineage. This separates a node out from the rest of the tree, and only shows its parent and children for easy printing. There are print and print preview buttons at the bottom. Inside of print-preview there are a lot of options such as exporting that you may find useful. There is also a cancel button in case something gets hung up.
Users:
The users grid is a list of users. It allows you to add, edit, and view users. The search functionality is very similar to that of assets. It allows you to search for users where the username, first name, last name, or firstname + lastname match the pattern or value that you have entered. There is a link in the top left that allows you to add users. To edit a user, just double click on the row. To delete a user, select the row, and hit the delete key.
Assets:
When the asset screen comes up, you see that the field names are what you set them to in options. The field that maps to serial is the only one that needs to be unique. Others may be unique in your own company such as optional-id. Serial and Name are the only ones that need to be unique. Once the asset is added or edited, then that part of the tree will refresh. It will probably be beneficial to you to keep assets navigator pinned open so that adding assets is faster.
Locations:
When the location screen comes up, you see that the field names are what you set them to in options. The field that maps to name is the only one that needs to be unique. Once the location is added or edited, then that part of the tree will refresh.
HandHeld Application
Setting Up:
Stuff you should know:
Location of manual:
Warm Boot: Hold down I/O key for 10 seconds
Cold Boot: Take out battery and press that black button…, but I would try to avoid this if at all possible, and you will see why when you read the rest of what is involved in setting it up….
Setup your backlight.
Go to Start/Settings/System/BackLight and set on every tab that the backlight should come on when tapped. You can set other settings if you want, but if that isn’t done, then you will be in the dark.
Setup your clock.
Go to Start/Settings/System/Clock, and make sure the home clock matches the clock on the server or computer where your main database is located. If they don’t match, then your partial synchronizations won’t be right.
Setup the reader. Go to Start/Settings/Intermec Settings.
Then set the following settings:
Data Collection/Symbology Options/Postamble should be set to the enter key.
Rfid/Reader1should have Enable Reader checked.
Now you should save your settings. If it says that you are unable to save settings, then the most likely cause is that your ip4 battery is dead, and you need to switch it out.
Install Cabs:
Unless they have been lost or deleted, then you’ll need to retransfer them from your computer, but we’ll assume they are still there for now.
Go toStart\Programs\File Explorer… You might have to select My Device now out of the combo-box…
Then select Storage Card\Cabsand install everything by tapping on it. I would do the .Net 2.0 one first, then everything else, then AssetTrakker.
Backup/Restore
WindowsMobileCenter and ActiveSync have a feature called backup and restore. I recommend this so that you don’t have to go through some of the steps above. It will allow you backup everything that is on ram to your desktop, and then restore. The biggest benefit of this is that it reinstalls all the cabs and programs for you.
It won’t reset your clock, and it may not restore your Intermec settings. The stuff on the storage card isn’t ever deleted unless you delete it so the database, connection file, etc should still be intact. Restoring would just reregister the program with the system so that you can use it.
Logging In:
There is a default user name and password associated with the system that you should have stored somewhere. It allows you to get into the system, especially when there is no data in the system. After you have performed your first sync, then you should be able to use any authorized username and password also. Bear in mind when creating usernames and passwords, that the password is case sensitive due to encryption, and that isn’t so easy to type in using the handheld.
Main Screen:
This shows you the asset navigator, that is similar to the one on the windows program. I would personally just leave locations checked most of the time. You won’t receive the performance with a handheld, that you will with a full-size computer, so any little bit helps. You only need to know locations most of the time.
If you select the down arrow then you will go to the sync screen to download. The up arrow takes you to the sync screen to upload, and the search button takes you to the asset screen, where you can use rfid or scanner to read in assets for a room.
Syncing:
Downloading:
If you choose to clear tables, then it does a full sync. If you do not, then it does a partial sync of items that have changed or been added since the handheld last synced. In the beginning, there is no difference in speed. The first sync has to be a full sync of course. As assets grow into the 2 to 3k range… A full sync can take up to 5 minutes. A partial sync can take just a few seconds. The partial sync does require you to pay a little more attention though. You need to have your clocks synchronized. You only want to clear the tombstone table after you’ve done a sync to all devices. If you feel that you have made an error in your partial syncing practice, then a full sync will always get you back to where you need to be.
Uploading:
Uploading should take less time than downloading. All you’re doing is uploading the records that have been changed during this session to the main database. You can make changes to the main database while the readers are out. The caveat is that if you manually changed a location of an asset, then the reader upload will change the location of that asset. It won’t change anything else other than the location of it though.
Assets:
The assets screen allows you to scan a room for assets. When the screen is first opened up, the reader will start, and the listview will be populated with the assets last found in this room. The assets are labeled with a 0 since they have not been found yet. You may not find everything on the list. The asset may have moved, which is why the system is in place, so that we can try to locate it.
If there is an error as this screen loads, then your ip4 battery may be dead, your rfid settings might not have been configured after a hard boot, etc. You start a session by hitting start. A low pitched noise lets you know that it found an asset that was in the room before, a loud pitch noise lets you know it found a new asset. Intermec claims the scan distance is 36 inches, but 6 feet would not be uncommon. If you believe an asset wasn’t read, and you are close to it, then their may be a problem with the rfid tag. If this is the case, then you can scan the serial number to enter the asset.
By hitting save, you are modifying the database and claiming this to be the location of the assets that were read. Nothing happens to assets that were there before, but were not found. Most likely they will be read in another room, or the other logical reason is that they were there, but not read for some reason, which means that they still should considered to be there, unless a search for the item becomes frugal.
Database Backups
Backing Up:
The first thing you do is open up Sql 2005, and enter whatever login method you’re using, and select the database from the Object Explorer. You right click on it, and select Tasks / Backup…
You then make sure that the backup destination is disk. The correct destination might already be chosen, or you can remove what is there, and add another destination by using the add/remove buttons. Add will bring up a path, and a button that allows you to search the path. A real simple way is to just dump it into its original folder with its original name by selecting the backup that is already there. An alternative is that you can manually change the path to your external hard-drive, and append a name of your own on the end with a “.bak” extension, and this will alleviate the need to do a copy and paste of the back up at the end.
Once you are done with creating the name and location of the backup. Select the backup and hit options in the upper left corner. Backup to the existing media set should already be checked. I like to check overwrite all existing backups because it is a lot cleaner, and we’re renaming the files according to their dates anyways.
Click ok, and the backup should occur.
Restoring:
The first thing you do is open up Sql 2005, and enter whatever login method you’re using, and select the database from the Object Explorer. You right click on it, and select Tasks / Restore…
You then navigate to the backup file that you want to restore from. This should be located on the external hard-drive.
Finally, you make sure that the backup file is checked, and you hit options. You select override existing database, and you hit the ok button to restore.