Smart Client Applications, Third-party Logistics Information System

This paper analyzed, designed and realized the management information system which flows the Third Party Logistics (TPL) enterprise needs. The system mainly applied Smart Client and Web Services technology. The system is easy to deploy and able to automatic update and work offline and extended easily.Smart Client is a technology rising in resent years to construct client application. It not only has the good human-machine interaction as C/S mod application, but also has the good maintainability as B/S mod application. This makes smart client very suitable for the TPL enterprise which has many wide geographical distribution business networks. Web services are the best choice to construct most of the smart applications because the web services based on the standard protocols.This paper first introduced the smart client and web services. It analyzed the design strategies and server communications strategies which suit for TPL business. Then this paper analyzed how to use Offline Application Block (OAB) to build smart client application. OAB builds on the capabilities of the .NET Framework and the encapsulating smart client application to help users perform tasks when offline as easily and efficiently as they can perform them online. This paper specifically analyzed the process of downloading and updating the reference data and the solution of conflicts which produced by transient data. It improved the connection status detection and reference data cache which the original OAB had. At last this paper analyzed the TPL business process and demands and then designed the service components and data constructer and then it took the transport order management as the example and gave the realization in .NET of storing data, operating data, synchronizing data, conflicts detection and automatic update function.