PocketRep® 6
PocketRep is a BrokerForce® companion
application that can be purchased to extend the application capabilities for trade
shows and sales reps on the road. PocketRep is used for scanned or
manual order entry, printing or e-mailing orders, and merging these orders into
a desktop or laptop copy of BrokerForce. PocketRep supports the scanning
of bar codes with peripheral hardware and/or the selection of items from
product lists downloaded from BrokerForce™. PocketRep is autonomous of
any server so, orders can be printed directly from the PocketRep device without
docking. Why we use PocketPC™
Pocket Rep Installation
Installation of PocketRep® is subject to the Extended User License Agreement (License.txt)
included with BrokerForce®. If you do not have Vista or Windows 7, you
must install Microsoft Active Sync on your PC before docking the device to the
PC.
If you do not have Windows 7 or Vista: Click here to download Microsoft Active Sync 4.2 or newer for your PocketRep 6 device.
Hardware/Software Requirements
PocketRep
may not be compatible with other order systems running on the same device or
desktop. It uses SQL Compact 3.5 and may
not be backward compatible with older systems.
Backup or offload any other data FIRST!! A hard reset is the preferred
installation, but in many cases is not necessary.
Remove
any prior installation of PocketRep 3.0 series.
On the device, click <Start>, <Settings>, <Remove
Programs>, and remove <PocketRep> and <MSVBPPC> if shown. This is not necessary if a hard reset has
been performed.
Only
cradle synchronization with Microsoft Active Sync 4.2 or newer is
supported. Older versions of Active Sync
are not supported. Contact your network
administrator regarding the use of Bluetooth or wireless connections for Active
Sync. Windows Microsoft Windows Vista or
XP is required.
A 256
MB SD (Secure Digital) card or larger is required and 1 GB is recommended.
Cards larger than 2 GB are not supported by devices before Mobile 5. The use of images increases the size needed
for storage.
Microsoft
Mobile 4, PPC 2003 SE, Mobile 5, and Mobile 6 devices that have a \SD Card
folder are supported. Devices without
available memory at this location are not supported at this time.
For
scanning, a CF slot or Bluetooth (cordless) scanner will be needed if the
scanner is not incorporated into the device.
Printer setup, hardware maintenance, networking,
and wireless networks are your responsibility.
Click here for
a list of supported printers.
Receipt type printers are not supported.
We recommend laser jet printers that support PCL 5. PCL 6 is NOT supported. For color, many inkjet printers are supported
and their consumables are now in line with laser jets.
Agency Principals
Remove
<Line Card> check in BrokerForce for any vendors that you are no longer
representing. Delete obsolete products
on the product form to reduce load times and improve performance.
Installation
1)
Close BrokerForce™, remove
the device form the cradle, and perform a soft reset of the device.
2)
Update to BrokerForce 3.0.37 or newer.
The version number is shown at the top right of the BrokerForce
application.
3)
Connect the device via active sync, open BrokerForce, click <Tools>,
<PocketRep Maintenance>, and note the version number of your PDA at upper
left.
4)
Download and run http:/BrokerForce.com/Download/Folders/PR6/Desk/PR_Desk.exe Password 3313P. This places critical files in the
BrokerForce\PocketRep folder and runs the Access Database Synchronizer setup
for communications between PocketRep and BrokerForce. Follow the prompts to complete that
installation.
5)
ActiveSync 4.2 or newer, or Vista synchronization is supported. The older PocketRep 3 series cannot be used
with Microsoft Vista or Active Sync beyond version 4.2.
6) On
the device, set the clock/calendar date and time before continuing. It is recommended that all menu shortcuts and
button shortcuts be removed to avoid accidental memory overload on the device.
7)
Connect the device using Active Sync. If
the AccessDatabaseSynchronizer.msi was correctly installed, a black and white
DOS window is briefly displayed.
8) For
Mobile 4, download and run WM4_SD.exe
For Windows Mobile 5 or 6, download and run
WM5_SD.exe
Both
can reside on the same computer (laptop/desktop). BrokerForce will recognize the correct
version to use based on the connected device.
9)
Connect the device and verify that <Active Sync> shows connected. <Guest> is the preferred connection. If
“partnered”, avoid synchronizing office applications, they consume memory and
slow synchronization particularly in a show environment.
10)
Open BF 3.0.37 or newer, click <Tools>, <PocketRep
Maintenance>. Place a dot in the
<PR 6> version support option. This dialog automatically attempts to
connect to the device to report the CE version number on the device and the
desktop/laptop name.
11)
Verify that the dialog shows "Connected" then click <PocketRep
Install Files>. This copies
installation files to the device.
12) On
the device, click <Start>, <Programs>, <File Explorer>. Navigate to the "\SD Card" folder
and tap on the numbered installation files 1 = 6 in sequence. If prompted to restart the device, answer
<Yes>.
Trouble
shooting Setup:
1) For (x86) (65 bit) computers, you must modify
the path of self-extracting files to be relative to the \Program Files(x86)
folder.
2) If
you cannot run one or more of the setup files from the SD card on the device,
contact support with the Windows CE version number found at the upper left of
the <PocketRep Maintenance> screen.
Only Windows CE versions 4.00 through 6.n are supported.
3) A 1
GB SD card is recommended. If
synchronization fails on the first <Pull>, it may be that not enough time
was given or there was a lack of storage space on the expanded memory
card. Remove any unnecessary, dated
backups of the PR_Data file from the memory card.
4) An "Unknown Error occurred when copying
files": This happens when the SD card could not be found on
the device for copying files to. Close and reopen BrokerForce, re-insert
the card and retry copying the installation files. Verify in file
explorer that there is a "\SD Card" folder. If not, you will
need to create an "\SD Card" folder on the device. If you do
this, the database will be stored on the device and not on an expansion card so
this could severely limit available memory on the device.
HP iPaq
2400 Series "Hard Reset"
HP now
refers to this as a "clean reset".
This can be done by holding the calendar, messaging, and power buttons
at the same time and then press the reset button for 3 seconds while those are
still held down. When you have done this, you may have to press reset or cradle
the device to turn on the device. The
device should say that it's "Formatting" and the startup will take
longer than usual. Then you will have to realign the screen and go through all
settings from scratch.
HP iPaq 210 Series "Hard Reset"
1. Press
the Application Key 3, Application Key 2, and the Voice Recorder button
simultaneously
and hit the Reset button once.
2. Press
and hold the Application Key 3, Application Key 2, and the Voice Recorder
button until
Clean boot is displayed at the bottom of the screen.
Dell
Axim "Hard Reset"
- Press and hold the power button.
- Using the reset stylus hold the
reset button for about 2 seconds.
- Follow the instructions on the
screen.
After a
reset or for new devices:
Set clock, remove all menu items, set Back
Light for <On Battery> to 3 or 4 minutes, 30 seconds is too short to be
practical.
Set your device name and phone number, they
could be used to return your PDA to you if it is lost or stolen
Scanner setup
Tap
<Start>, <Socket Scan> to initiate the scanner. On the <Today> screen, tap the scanner
icon to get to settings. Scanner prefix
must be set to "~" (tilde). To
see this character, tap the <Shift> button at bottom left of Soft Input
Panel (SIP keyboard).
Scanner
suffix must be set to "\r" (carriage return)
Set a
button on the device as a trigger for the scanner and disable other, unneeded
buttons. To do this, tap <Start>, <Settings>, <Buttons>. Choose <None> to disable buttons and
choose <Socket Scan> for your scan button preference.
Remember,
tap the scan trigger (button) once, do not hold it down when scanning.
Registration:
1) After installation, click <Start>, <PocketRep> (hand shake icon). You will be prompted for a registration code key based on the device's serial number.
2) E-mail the serial number shown to support@brokerforce.com or call 303-665-2344 to obtain the code key. Registration and pricing is per device.
3) Enter the registration code provided and click <Update>
4) On the splash screen,
verify that the system clock date is correct.
If it is not, click <Start>, <System>, <Settings>,
<Clock>, and correct it.
Get Data from the Desktop/Laptop
Before you attempt to pull data from
the desktop/laptop for the first time, on the computer, click <Start>,
<Control Panel>, <Windows Firewall>, (Vista <Allow a program
through Windows Firewall) <Add Port> Name = “PDA”, for port number, enter
“1024” (do not enter quote marks). Save
these changes and restart the computer.
1) After clicking <Ok> to confirm the date and time, if data has not been “Pulled” from the desktop/laptop, you will be prompted that “At least one <Pull> must be successfully performed before this data can be used.” Click <Ok> to open the synchronization wizard.
2) Connect the device using MS Active Sync. If the database cylinder, tap on the database cylinder to select it, tap <File>, <Connect>. Do this for each gray cylinder. If the cylinder is yellow with a green arrow, it is already connected.
3! Tap <File>, <Pull>. This will “Pull” data from the desktop/laptop. There are a number of tables (Customers, Contacts, Vendors, Products…) that will be pulled from the desktop. Each is listed at the bottom of the wizard as it is being pulled. Products take about one minute per ten thousand products.
4) After the first <Pull> is completed, a <Push> will be done automatically to verify connectivity.
Trouble
shooting: p;See Synchronization below
Orders Walk-Through
1) After clicking <Ok> on the splash
screen to confirm the date and time, the program opens to the orders list with
your most recent order at the top. Tap a
column header name to sort the list by the values in that column. Tap the column header again to reverse the
sort.
4) Tap on any cell other than <Ship
Name> to select that row so that you can scroll horizontally.
5) Tap on a <Ship To
Name> to open the order form and view that order. Orders that were not added on this device,
have a transmitted entry, or are invoiced, cannot
be edited, but can be viewed, printed or copied.
6) Tap <New> on the menu bar at the
bottom left of this screen to open the main order form and start a new order.
7) If you represent more than one
manufacturer, select a vendor from the drop list
8) Customer selection is done using any of
the key pieces of the customer’s contact information that you know. You will be prompted for this information
beginning with the customer's bill to or ship to name. When prompted, enter the first letters of the
customer’s name. More letters will reduce the selections available. If you do want to search by name, tap the
light blue background of the edit box to enter any part of their zip code or
leave blank and tap the light blue area to search by phone number. The last 4
digits of the number works well. If you do not have that information tap the
light blue box to enter any part of the company name. By entering any of this information, the
<Customer> drop list shows only customers whose bill to or ship to
information contains the text that you have entered.
9) Five things are required for an order:
Vendor, Customer, Rep, Phone number, and Zip Code. You will be prompted
for the fax number, and e-mail if they are missing, but can override their
requirement.
10) Select order or ship dates by tapping on
the respective date control. If a cancel
date is needed, it must be manually entered.
Be sure to enter a recognizable date format for dates or you will be
prompted to re-enter them.
If
you enter order and ship dates as the same date; “ASAP” will be shown as the
ship date on the printed order.
11)
Tap <Save>. You will be prompted
to enter your initials. Use 3 to 5
letters that uniquely identify you. This will be retained and you won't have to
enter them again on your next order. You
will be prompted on each order to confirm them.
Change
the initials from the previous user if you have just exchanged devices.
12) To begin adding items to your order, tap <Items>>>
at the bottom of the form. Begin
scanning or click <Edit>, <New> and enter the item number. Or, tap <Item> or <Desc> buttons
at top left for an tem listing.
Tap on any item in the list to select it. The minimum quantity will be entered for you. If the list of items exceeds the maximum
listing (10,000), you will be prompted for some information about the item to
limit the available listing.
13) Tap on the <Qty> of the item to
change it. If you do not enter a
quantity in an increment of the minimum, you will be prompted and may override
the value.
14) After you finish adding items, tap
<Back> to return to the main order header screen.
15) To print the order, tap <Edit>
<Print>,
16) Click
the <X> in the upper right to return to the orders list.
16) Tap a cell of an order (NOT the ship name)
to select a row in the orders list. Tap
<Print> to print the selected order.
If you have a number of orders for a customer, this is the quickest
screen to print them from.
17) Cradle the device to establish an Active
Sync connection.
18) On the orders list, tap <Sync>. This will exit the application and open the
synchronization wizard. Or, tap the X in
the upper right to exit the application entirely.
Synchronization:
PocketRep
uses a synchronization that is slightly different than that used in
BrokerForce. Before data can be used on
a PocketRep device, it must be initialized by completing a successful
<Pull> synchronization. This pulls
a limited (last two weeks order history) copy of the desktop/laptop database to
the device. A <Pull> overwrites
any information on the device. To assure
that information is not accidentally overwritten on the device, a <Push>
is automatically done before a <Pull> will begin. A <Push> copies any changes that were
made on the device up to the desktop.
The
amount of time required for a pull is directly influenced by how much
information will be pulled. For products
it takes about one minute per ten thousand products and just over a minute for
5,000 customers. On subsequent pulls,
you will be given the options to refresh customers and/or products. Refreshing that information may not be
required and will speed up synchronization if skipped.
All
PR 6 synchronizations are only started from the device and not from BrokerForce.
<Push> synchronization:
Updates the desktop with any additions (customers,
Orders, contacts, transmissions) made on the device.
If both the desktop and the device change the same
record, the device version wins (overwrites desktop)
Conflicts will be encountered if a duplicate
customer record is entered on the device.
In this case, the
customer record, their orders, and customer related information are rejected
and output to an Excel file for review and/or reentry.
If you have entered orders or other information on
the device, that information remains on the device during a <Push>.
<Pull> synchronization:
New
data is copied from the desktop and OVERWRITES the device data. To assure that
you cannot accidentally overwrite information,
a <Push> is automatically done for you before the data is
"Pulled".
Any
data that is pushed, comes back down (is restored) during the <Pull>.
Data
must be "Initialized" by a <Pull> before it
can be used. The user is prompted to
complete a pull the first time PocketRep is opened to a blank set of
data. The user is automatically
transferred to the synchronization screen when the
application is opened to blank data.
After the first <Pull> is successfully completed, the data can be
used. Tap <Pull> on the
synchronization screen to receive updates from the desktop. To optimize time, after the
first <Pull> has been done, the user is prompted “Refresh
Customers?" and "Refresh Products?" on any subsequent
<Pull>. All
other information is automatically pulled.
A customer refresh takes about 20 seconds per thousand customers. A
products refresh takes about 10 seconds per thousand products. For 20,000 products, this will be in the
range of 2 or 3 minutes. Times vary by equipment and data complexity.
Troubleshooting
Synchronization
If
you cannot connect to the Access database on the desktop verify the following:
Does
Active Sync show as connected?
If
you click on the <Configuration> tab in the synchronization wizard, is
the path shown for the Access database the data on your desktop with your name?
Is
the PocketRep data you are trying to synchronize created from the
desktop/laptop computer that you are trying to synchronize to? If not, DO NOT attempt to synchronize a
partial (rep filtered) set of data to another rep’s partial set of data. DO NOT attempt to synchronize a full set of
data on the device to a partial (rep filtered) on the desktop/laptop. This COULD result in the LOSS OF INFORMATION!
Adding/Editing
customer information
1) Tap <Custs>
on the menu ribbon at the bottom of the order, or Orders List forms. This opens
the <Customer List> and highlights the customer of the order that was
selected on the order form
2) Tap on
the customer name to open the <Customer> form to edit bill to, ship to,
or add contact information.
3) While
viewing the information of a customer, tap <Buyer> to add a new buyer.
This is the same process used on the order form. Contact information defaults
to that of the customer, and you are prompted to edit it as-you-go.
4) Click
<Ok> at top of customer form to return to the customer list.
5) Click
<Ok> at top of the list to return to the order form.
8) On the
Customer List, tap <New> to add a new customer
A new customer can be added directly from the order
form and their bill to and ship to information may be added or edited on
this customer form.
1) CAUTION: If synchronization configuration is manually
changed in PR Sync, no current mechanism exists
to detect if a partial attempts to
synchronize to another partial or if a full replica attempts to
synchronize to a partial. Either could result in the loss of data. To
be safe, only synchronize to
the desktop (laptop) that the data was
pulled from.
2) Orders must be synchronized to a copy of
BrokerForce and e-mailed or faxed from BrokerForce.
3) Currently, last two weeks orders will be shown
as history
4) Signature is not available yet.
5) Always print and retain a copy of your order
whenever possible.
6) No automated back up outside of synchronization
7) Line item discounts are not supported
8) A change to the time on the opening screen is
not updating the device clock, please click <Start>,
<Settings>,
<System>, <Clock> to correct if necessary.
9) If a product list is greater than 10,000 and the
user wants to select from a drop
list,
some portion of the item number or description will be required. There is no limit for scanning
or
manual item entry.
10) A button assignment and prefix of ~ with suffix
of \r is required for a scanning. It is
anticipated
that
this will become a user preference accessed directly form the application
in an update.
If you encounter any errors, please note what form
you were on, the process that you were attempting, and any data particulars
such as vendor X with customer Y. Please
e-mail this information to support@BrokerForce.
Copying BrokerForce™ Customer Contact information to the Device using
MS Outlook:
- A two stage process is required to copy
customer contact information from BrokerForce™ to the PocketPC
device. Customer information will be moved from BrokerForce™ into
Microsoft Outlook and thereby transferred to the handheld via Active
Sync.
- To update your Microsoft
Outlook contacts with those from BrokerForce™ and vice
versa, click
on the BrokerForce™ customer form. This
process will first look to see if there are any contacts that are in your
Outlook contacts folder any contact that meets 4 criteria: 1) There is a
company name 2)- There is a contact name 3) The contact is categorized as
"BrokerForce™Customer" and 4) The contact was not placed there
by BrokerForce™. If all of these are true, the user will be prompted
to have BrokerForce™ import this contact's information. - After this stage of the refresh, all contact
records placed in the Outlook contacts folder by BrokerForce™ will be
deleted. This will remove these contacts from any distribution
list and changes made to these contact records are not transferred
from Outlook to BrokerForce™.
- All Customers and their related contacts will
be refreshed in Outlook with their current information from
BrokerForce™. Customer sales history will be added to the note field
of each respective contact.
- If ActiveSync has been configured to
synchronize your Outlook contacts folder, these changes will be propagated
to the device.
If you are using an older device
with only 64 MB of memory, consider limiting the number of contacts that are
copied across. More than a thousand contacts takes up significant
resources. Eliminate programs you don't absolutely need.
See
also: Optimize PocketRep™
* Additional hardware
such as a Socket or Symbol scanner is required. Barcode printing is
included with BrokerForce™