TraxWare

TraxWare® is a software platform used to build sophisticated enterprise asset tracking applications. TraxWare forms the foundation for a new generation of infrastructure software that combines servers, workstations, controllers, remote sensors, and disconnected mobile computers to identify and track individual entities amid large numbers of similar entities, and to pinpoint the current and historical status of any entity. TraxWare enables you to confidently and profitably:

The Technology Behind TraxWare

An Application Is Built From Bots
TraxWare applications are built from highly customizable, location independent workflows, called bots. Each bot performs a specific workflow, like controlling a portal, running an assembly line conveyor, printing RFID labels, or executing a shipping transaction. Bots are highly customizable because they are defined in XML, or to be specific, Bot Definition Language™. Bots are location independent because they can be executed just about anywhere: on centralized servers, mobile computers, workstations, or on isolated controllers.  
Bots Control and Communicate
  Bots control devices like printers and sensors, including RFID interrogators and barcode scanners. Bots aggregate device input, perform actions, and trigger events. Bots communicate in a variety of ways: with databases, enterprise systems, web services, and each other. A bot on the network edge is an edge bot. An edge bot handles complex connection conditions: its server connection can be persistent (expected to be present always), isolated (never present), or disconnected (at times present, but not at other times). If an edge bot performs a job that takes it away from the network, it first synchronizes with the server, then disconnects while it does its job, then re-synchronizes with the server when it connects back to the network.
Users Interact with Bots
Users interact with bots through forms and devices. A bot form can be used for purposes such as controlling a device like a printer, or posting business data to a database, or viewing a report. Bot forms are accessible from a local console on workstations and mobile computers, or from a browser AJAX console, or a simple browser interface for wedge input. Users also interact with bots through devices like message boards, stack lights, and switches.  
TraxWare is Optimized to Track Entities
  TraxWare uses an advanced data schema. Most tracking systems track things according to their category, but not individually. TraxWare employs entity serialization so that each individual entity is identified uniquely and tracked amid a large number of similar entities. Furthermore, events occuring to an entity are tracked so that the entity history of each serialized entity can be recalled from cradle to grave. TraxWare also employs entity containment, by which one entity logically represents a group of other entities. Serialization and containment optimize TraxWare for tracking real-world things like chassis on sleds, or cartons of goods on pallets, or kits of parts in bins on racks.

Bot Definition Language (BDL)

Bot Definition Language™, or BDL™, is an XML-based language that defines a TraxWare workflow, called a bot. BDL is a description that separates the defintion of an application's device resources, user interface elements, data bindings, and events from its process-driven logic flow. As such, BDL is an advanced design methodology similar to Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML), and Microsoft's Windows Workflow Foundation. TraxWare provides engines called bot executives that execute BDL on a wide variety of platforms.

XML Makes Bots Simple
Because it is XML, BDL syntax is simple to master—writing a bot is no different than writing a web page. When business rules change it is easy to modify a bot, even in the field—no compilation is needed, a basic text editor will suffice. This makes TraxWare applications highly customizable.  
BDL Defines Resources and Logic
  BDL defines the resources that a bot uses during its execution, and defines the logic that a bot follows. Bot resources include devices, forms, reports, data, and events. Bot logic takes form of a state machine, with transitions from state to state dependent on events, resource inputs, and condition evaluations. The state machine nature of a bot makes its logic easy to express as a flow chart, and therefore, very simple to understand and document.