Honda Mobile Services

Implementation and Branding of the app

This app forms part of the Honda Mobile Services platform. The platform uses technology developed by Kaimai Research limited, as a PhD Research Project with the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Swansea, UK. The platform was implemented and branded for Honda Motor South Africa, and published on Honda server infrastructure and Google Play.

Targeted users

This application will enable users to register and run services built and published on the Honda Mobile Services platform. The users of the app includes Honda dealers, Honda suppliers, Honda internal staff and Honda customers.

Mobile Services

The application is part of a platform that enables the implementation of a flexible and scalable corporate mobile strategy. The platform enables the development and deployment of of new services, and changes to existing service, without the need to ament the mobile app or change the communication protocol between the app and the server.

The services provided by Honda for this channel are available in various web portals. The dealer service portal is http://196.44.233.118/mobile_services/. Portals for Honda's suppliers, internal staff and customers will be made available in due course. These service portals are the service controllers for the HTTP channel implemented for Honda.

Installation of the app

The first time you install the app, you will be prompted to register a PIN. This PIN will controll access to the app in the future. If you forget your PIN, you will need to un-install the app, and re-install it.

Installation of services

The app will automatically install a set of services for Honda dealer's. This will removed after Beta testing is complete.

Additional services are available from the service controller. The app will enable the user to register the service on the device. Once the service is registered on the device, it can be run by the user without having to update the app. This is because the service controller sends code called a Business Logic Unit to the device to execute when the service is run. The business logic for the service is not installed and does not reside on the device itself.

Using a service

The service can be launched by touching, holding and releasing the row of the service in the list of registered services on the home screen. The context menu will allow you to run the service, or un-register the service."

Technical Information

Instruction set

A specific instruction set was designed and implemented to support the scope of services required by Honda's Mobile Service Strategy. The app implements the instruction set HSAF001.

Devices

The platform supports different classes of device e.g. smartphones (Android, iOS, Blackberry, Windows Phone and others), feature phone, basic phone (USSD), tablets, desktop PCs,

Service Controllers

Service controllers are programs where the business logic of the service resides. The flow of service logic is contained in the service controller code. The device only executes small Business Logic Units at one time. These BLUs are components of the service.

Channels

The device app access the service controllers via various channels. An example is the HTTP channel, where the service controller is a web ports.

The platform can support multiple channels. Examples of other channels are NFC, Bluetooth, QR Codes and various push technologies like Google Cloud Messaging.

This app implements the HTTP channel.

Encryption

Communication between this app and the service channel is encrypted using AES. Other encryption ciphers are supported e.g. 3DES. The service controller can specify which cipher a specific service will use.

Mime type support

This app supports the following mime types;

application/blu
application/x-blu
text/plain
image/png