Smanswer:
Universal Information and Referral System
for Mobile Devices

The Smanswer is a tool for the fast development of the arbitrary information and referral (I&R) systems for mobile devices, cellular telephones and pocket computers. The system automatically generates dialogue with a user on the basis of the tabular data stored in a database. To receive information, it is enough if user has the Internet access through a WAP2.0 or Web browser.

Main feature of the Smanswer is universality that distinguishes this system from any other automatic I&R systems. The database structure (not only content) may be lightly changed during the exploitation. The system differs and from known DBMSs because generates intellectual dialogue with users of mobile devices. Produced dialogue depends not only on the contents, but also on structure of a database. A developer is not obliged to program the dialogue script, it is enough to create only database. At change of the data structure, the script of dialogue will be changed also. Generated dialog menus allow to form a query without typing a text.

Initially, during the theme definition, user consequently advances through the usual hierarchical tree. Further, in process of query specification, the important Smanswer's characteristics become apparent. They allow to simplify dialog and reduce network traffic. For example, automatically generated query forms are characterized:

· Attribute Dependence. In the act of the query forming, system suggests to user not all the possible attributes and its values but only that logically follow from the earlier chosen attributes;

· Complex attributes. User can move through attributes tree, not only through objects tree, and set up only part (for example "address:street") not whole value of the attribute ("address").

The data used at generation of dialogue are easily represented in the tabular form and can be entered into a database through the spreadsheet editor, for example Excel. However, data tables may have special features, typical for the object-relational database management systems (ORDBMS). For example, if the attribute "Address" is complex and consists of elements "City" and "Street", the column names look as Address:City; Address:Street;.... Value of attribute may be multiple.

The Smanswer is programmed in Java language and is compact to work not only on server, but also in a standalone mode directly on the mobile device. Due to internal SAV software-associative processor, the system surpasses in speed all known DBMS, for example Access and Oracle, in performance of complex inquiries (> 40 attributes) for internal big database exceeding 100000 records. If it is necessary, system can be used also as superstructure for other DBMS. Demo version may be looked on a site http://demo.smansh.com/.