Edge Server Getting Started

Thank you for your interest in the Rifidi Edge Server -- an open source platform for developing and deploying RFID applications. Here's how to get started:

Run it

1. Download the Edge Server from our sourceforge page. The download comes bundled with two programs: the Edge Server which does the core work of connecting to sensors (such as RFID readers), collecting tag information, and making that data available. It ships with adapters for Alien, LLRP, Awid, and several other types of RFID readers. It also ships with ALE support. The second program is Workbench which is a user interface that allows you to control the edge server and view tag information that it is collecting, as well as experiment with ALE.
2. Download Rifidi Emulator. This program allows you to virtualize several popular types of RFID readers on your desktop.
3. Follow the [start guide] to start getting tag reads back from virtual readers.

Develop Your Own Application

The edge server by itself allows you to connect to sensors and collect tag data from them, but if you really want to put it to work, you will need to develop your own applications that run on the edge server.

1. Download our SDK (Standard Development Kit). This provides our API, sourcecode and examples to help you get started. You can find out how to set up a development environment here: Edge Server Development Environment.
2. Develop an application. There are several example applications which ship with the Rifidi Edge Server. You can read about them in detail in the developer guide that is included in the release
3. Export your application
4. Deploy the application you've built. Once you've built and tested your application, you can deploy it onto the edge server that you've downloaded.

Contribute Back

The Rifidi Edge Server is open source. This means that if you find bugs or have ideas for useful features, you have the ability to extend the edge server yourself! We will gladly welcome contributions of any sort (code, documentation, testing, etc) and encourage you to submit these back. To get involved with the community:

1. Visit our forums. This is the best place to talk to our developers and users of Rifidi.
2. Submit feature requests and bug reports. We have a bug tracking system that manages outstanding feature requests and bugs. Before you submit bug reports here, we ask that you visit us on the forums first and make sure that there isn't a known solution for your question already
3. Contribute to our wiki. We gladly welcome any documentation in the form of HOWTOs, example code, tutorials, or any other form that you find helpful.