Features

Fosstrak ALE Middleware Modules

The Fosstrak ALE Middleware comprises three separate modules:

  • the filtering and collection server
  • an interactive standalone client to access filtering and collection servers
  • an interactive web-based client to access filtering and collection servers

All modules implement EPCglobal's ALE 1.1 specification.

Filtering and Collection Server

Our implementation offers the features of the filtering and collection role as defined by EPCglobal's ALE standard. It currently supports the ALE Logical Reader API that is used to define logical readers through Logical Reader Specifications (LRSpec) and the ALE Reading API that is used to define the filtering and collection behavior using ECSpecs.

Standalone Client

The standalone Java client provides a graphical user interface to define ECSpecs and LRSpecs on a particular filtering and collection server. It also allows users to subscribe and unsubscribe to reports generated by the filtering and collection server and specify the address where the reports should be sent to.

Web-Based Client

The web-based client is a Java web application (WAR) that provides the same functionality as the standalone client. It allows developers to use their web browser to define ECSpecs, Endpoints as well as LRSpecs and submit them to a filtering and collection server.

Detailed Feature List

The filtering and collection server does not currently implement the ALE 1.1 specification in full. The main features of the current implementation are the Logical Reader API and the EventCycle. For a detailed overview, please refer to the table below.

FeatureDescribed in ALE Specification 1.1Supported by Fosstrak ALE Middleware
ALE reading API
ALE writing API
ALE LogicalReader API
Access Control API
ECSpec
ECSpec
ECReports
Event Cycles
LRSpec
LRProperty
Tag Smoothing
Sect. 8
Sect. 9
Sect. 10
Sect. 11
Sect. 8.2
Sect. 8.2
Sect. 8.3
Sect. 5.2
Sect. 10.4
Sect. 10.5
Sect. 10.6
yes
no
yes
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
no