As described in the topic 'Configuration of Single Devices' a web-interface is very suitable for configuring single devices without real time demands on the communication. But if a real time communication is required this problem is quite unsolvable using HTML formatted pages. One good solution is to integrate JAVA applets in the HTML pages. The applets may be used for evaluating data collected by the device or even for their graphical representation. As the PC does the drawing of the data and the device only has to send the measured values even small devices can be enhanced to represent data graphically.
Advantages
Real time representation of device data
Evaluation of data at the PC which is more powerful than the device
Larger flexibility and possible interaction with the user
Works on many different clients (e.g. PC, PDA, mobile)
No additional software required at the device's side
Applets are secure
Disadvantages
The Java virtual machine must be installed at the browser
The applets are loaded from the client.
The creation of JAVA applets is more time consuming than writing HTML pages.
Realisation
The HTML page contains a link to the JAVA applet which is stored at the devices ROM in the same way as the web-pages. When the page is loaded by a browser it will be recognized and executed by the PC. The applet itself establishes a connection to the device which will start sending the required data to the PC where they will be interpreted. SEVENSTAX offers all modules to realize a JAVA applet based communication.
