I am currently trying to read data from an android app, to do so I am using Bluestacks 5 Nougat-32 bit, and GameGuardian. I have found the address of the data I am trying to find although every time I restart the app the address for this data changes. I was wondering if there is any way to figure out these addresses automatically (or to have them in a set position)?
The method I am currently using it to look up the known value of the data, which gives me hundreds of results in GameGuardian, I then alter this value by a known amount and run a query for addresses which have changed by this exact value. This then allows me to get the address. Although I am looking to automate this process (I am building an inventory management system for online games, and this data feeds into a much larger automated process - I currently have it working using OCR but this method would reduce computing power needed, and increase speed.
For example, on first test I got the following addresses for the 4 pieces of data I am looking to read:
9285E5B0
9285E058
9285E5B8
9285E5C0
After restarting the app, I got these values:
7F38C5B0
7F38C5A8
7F38C5BB
7F38C5C0
And this changes every time I restart the app. Any suggestions please how I can get these values automatically? The only method I can currently think of is creating a script to automate what I am doing manually, although this is extremely impractical when scaling (as would require image recognition etc to change the values to determine their addresses).
Please note, I do not own the app or anything so can't inject code from that side (can't inject code at all obviously as trying to not break the law, I just want to read the data).
Thank you in advance :)
What I have tried so far:
I have tried using GameGuardian to read the addresses - and this has worked.
Every time I restart the app the addresses change, which means I am struggling to automate the process. I have made a note of lots of restarts and can't find any pattern in how it allocates the addresses. I was hoping that the address would remain the same even after the app restarts.
Edit: I am toying with the idea of running python on the android emulator, and doing the OCR on the emulator itself and sending the data to a server for it to then be analysed for the inventory management system. My issue with this is again how much computing power would it take - but it would at least cut down (or so I would imagine) on my current solution which is a macro that takes a screenshot, uploads it to DropBox, then server downloads the image from DropBox and performs OCR to then be used in the inventory management system.
Related
I'm trying to program an app using android studio that receives data (blood sugar levels) from the app tomato (which calculates blood sugar levels automatically every 5 mins or so). The tomato app already exists and is made by a company.
So I was wondering if doing this is possible. if so, how?
I saw this post: Is it possible for an Android app to use data from another app? which is very similar to what im trying to do but i didnt find an exact solution/answer to this.
Any opinions and help are very much needed and welcomed.
You would first need to know how the app is storing the data, you could check your phone's storage using the Device File Explorer in Android Studio. If they have exposed the data then you are able to check and read the files that the app has exposed. However, I have a feeling that they would not be leaving them in plain text for you to take.
Upon some further reading, it seems they read from a device called a MiaoMiao Transmitter. You could ask the producer of this product for a developer kit and see what they say. This would come with documentation as to how you can get data from the product. However, if they do not provide you with any help, you will need to do some investigation as to how the device functions.
Perhaps it sends android broadcasts when it is taking a reading? This is just speculation of course. This is very niche and I believe that is a reason there are only a few apps that use the device - they are trying to lock out "non-verified" developers. However, when there is a will, there is always a way! ;)
Best of luck!
I've been programming for over 20 years, but mostly in the VB and SQL. As a side job, I host game shows at local bars and restaurants (Trivia, name that tune, etc.) and I'd like to develop an android app that I can install on mobile devices to give to customers to interact with the game.
I'm trying to make the game shows more interactive than just pen and paper (and time-consuming, manual scoring). I can get Kindle Fires for $40 each, so I thought it would be cool to create an app that will allow the user to do 3 things:
Choose an answer from a list (Multiple choice), and everyone can answer
Buzz in (blocking other users out)
type in an answer
I'd like the tablets to send the responses to a central "hub" or application that will record the answers so it can automatically do the scoring for me. If possible, I'd prefer to be able to have everything connect through an ad hoc wifi network that I would set up on site (that part I know how to do, too).
I'm not looking to have the questions appear on the phone at this point; I have an office-based application that automates a powerpoint presentation based on questions/answers and other parameters imported from a database/spreadsheet. (VBA is nice and easy for me.)
Ideally, the quiz questions would work like this:
I project the answer where everyone can see it.
After announcing the questions, the tablet apps are "activated" and
the user can then select their A, B, C or D answer (or buzz in, or
type an answer depending the type of questions/quiz).
My hub application would then receive the following information:
team/player name, answer choice, time it took to answer the question
(because I'm thinking of using a points tier that gives faster
players get more points, either based on time ).
The catch is, I don't even know where to begin from an android development standpoint, as I have no experience in that realm. In most programming cases, I know keywords to search on, but I'm totally flying blind here.
Does this seem like a feasibly application? There are systems online that I can buy, but the buzzers are expensive and the software has some significant limitations that prevent me from spending the money. I'd rather develop something myself and spend $40 per client unit and load it up with my software.
(Then, of course, license the whole kit and kaboodle and make a mint and retire in 5 years, living the good life off of my pub quiz empire...)
So, if you have any suggestions on starting points, or specific methods and processes to being fiddling with, an IDE...any help would be greatly appreciated. Once I'm up and running, I will reward you with extra points if you ever come to one of my events.
Go full kotlin !
Android works well with Kotlin and you can have a server quickly setup with : https://start.spring.io/#!language=kotlin
https://kotlinlang.org/docs/tutorials/kotlin-android.html
A good client for Android is provided here :
https://github.com/square/retrofit
You will probably have hard time to get started. Using same language for every part of the system will make things easier.
Also, Kotlin is less verbose than Java and will prevent you to make the usual mistakes found in Java world.
Also, if you create an open source project out of it, you may be eligible for IntelliJ.
Your very first stop is : http://try.kotlinlang.org/#/Examples/Hello,%20world!/Simplest%20version/Simplest%20version.kt
Get to know the language by trying it out. When you are in ease with it, start looking at Anko (https://github.com/Kotlin/anko).
To do the project in an easy way, break it down in milestones.
Simple app which shows 4 buttons (choices) and shows a message for each button. (Eg. you clicked "1")
Small server with spring boot. It should display whatever you post to it. (An "echo" server)
Improvement of the simple app to POST something to the server and display the answer in a dialog.
At that point, you application is practically done! You would have understood enough to complete it. The hardest thing would be behind.
Don't think your are smarter than the flock. Do these milestones, at least. You will be thankful to yourself.
This post may seems unrelated, but I explain how good Kotlin can be in such projects : https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-do-android-projects-cost-less-than-ios-christian-baune
Currently I'm receiving a JSON from a server with updated information on a contact. Currently, I iterate through the JSON and do an update on my app on the phone, but for 2000 contacts, it takes up to 50 seconds(I used transactions too, b4 that it took 70 seconds). Is there a faster way to speed this up?
Well, just remember that it's 2,000 row updates, and on a handheld phone/tablet. It's not a high-powered server with an in-memory database. This stuff takes time. Unless you're doing something more than what you're saying, it doesn't sound like you're taking more steps than required (i.e. there's nothing to cut out in order to save time)
Often performance is just as much perception, as it is optimization. One way to deal with this reality is to simply return control of the UI to the user, making your app look snappy and responsive, while doing the contact updates in another thread in the background. That would give your app the appearance of being very fast, even though it still takes 50 seconds to complete all the updates.
Are you using Android's built-in JSON objects? If so, that may be the source of the performance problem. The first time I profiled my app, I was surprised to find that JSON parsing was causing the biggest performance hit (see also this post in the Android Developers Blog).
You should profile your code to find exactly what is taking the most processing power then perhaps you may be able to find a more efficient solution to your problem
Profiling on Android is done making a tracefile on view, then viewing it with Traceview.
See here for detailed information
First, let me say that I know nothing. I am reasonably intelligent, and I can learn .... but what I need to know is what exactly it is that I need to learn. Consider me a hobbyist that just got started. I have a degree in math so logic makes sense to me, but it was all abstract math so I never even used Matlab once in school.
I want to develop an application for android. I want this application to take input (text and camera images) from the user, and store that input along with certain meta-data (i.e. time of input, geo-location of device when inputted). I also want that data to be transferred to a server (I have complete admin access to a server, but haven't learned much about it yet either) and stored there in a manner which can be accessed by a desktop or web application which I will also need to develop. The android device may not always have an internet connection at the time of input (but will be taken to a wi-fi hotspot for uploading when completed), and after uploading the data to the server I will have no further need for the data on the device.
I have done a bit of research, and discovered the following gaps in my knowledge, and remedied them in the following ways:
a) I'm going to need to know how to program in android - I have worked through these tutorials at developer.android.com, purchased and partly read this book(1), and just purchased this book(2).
b) I believe I am going to need to know something about JSON - I have just purchased this book(3), after reading just a little bit about JSON on the web.
c) I will need to learn what I need to with the server to prepare it for the data - No idea where to start.
d) I will need to decide how to access the data, and learn how to develop whatever it is. - No idea where to start.
I am not able to post multiple links, so I have moved all the books down here ...
1 google.com/search?q=isbn+9780321741233
2 google.com/search?q=isbn+9780321749673
3 google.com/search?q=isbn+9780470526910
My question(s):
If this was your project, how would you go about doing this? What languages will I have to learn? Can you recommend any books, online tutorials, etc. for each of those languages in the way that they would apply to my project?
Thank you for taking the time to read my query, and thank you for any help you may provide.
Book: Pro Android 2. I have it, I've read it, and it shows you how to do just about everything. I bought it for the sole purpose of developing a client/server application in Android, and I completed the app in two weeks.
Folks, I'm trying to see if my plan realistic at all. I'm ne to
Android platform but not new to software development. This is my first
post here as well :)
We want (in our company) to create Android software to compliment our
truck management software. Basically, it will do couple very specific
tasks.
a. Send GPS updates to server.
b. Receive trip information.
c. Send pickup/delivery confirmation to server.
After evaluationg i. platform and Windows phone 7 platform we came to
conclusion that only Android has multitasking that works for us. So,
Android it is but I have some specific questions.
Data plan we want to use will be very limited. Probably 5M/mo and
no voice/text. I figured 5x1024x1024 = 5242280 bytes will give me 1k
per transmission every 15 minutes (3000 transmissions per mo). It will
leave 2M for other stuff that will happens every couple of days. Does
my math look OK or there is lot of "waste" traffic? Our server going
to be XML SOAP and messages sent will be just Lon/Lat in XML package.
1K will be OK? If I just calculate bytes it will be even less but I
wonder if there is "minimum" packet size, etc. Any insight on this
data limitation appreciated.
Because of #1 we need to "lock" device somehow so there is no other
software that uses network. Possible? If so, what do I need to look
for? I found already created app - firewall and it says phone has to
be rooted for that.
Receiving trip information. What's the best way to accomplish that
given my situation? Should I run some kind of listener? Will my phone
have IP address or something? Or should I get small text plan and use
that for this specific functionality? Can I receive text message in my
own application?
So, as you see we trying to shrink $80/mo service to $15/mo service
that will do big savings to our company but not sure if it's all
possible with constraints we have. Also, we may just give discounts to
drivers who have Android phone and will install our app but we don't
count on that.
Thank you in advance for any help on this subject.
UPDATE:
Now that I think about it - limited data plan present challenges initially but actually helps us do it "right" to make sure we don't overload server with constant polls. What I really like to see is some real-worls experience with data usage. Problem is, to us to even come up with test app - will require considerable effort. Would be much better to rule this out right now if it won't work. For example, if I knew that message size 2k no matter how big of a message itslef - then I would know immediately that it won't work for us..
If you have a very limited kind of data that you are transferring, the overhead of xml might be unnecessary. Instead, pass .csv data to different endpoints dependent upon the data that your are transfering (one endpoint for lat/lon, another for pickup/delivery confirmation)
You do have an ip address on each device, but you're not necessarily going to know that information - it's not constant, or consistent (it can change as the phone moves around). Instead, do a timed polling of the server (that would make your 3rd endpoint) See other mentioned solution of triggering on SMS.
As far as locking the device, I'm not sure about this, but it certainly seems feasible (though it's not consistent with your 'discounts to drivers who have Android phone'. I understand why, but if the phone has no voice/text capability, it's not likely that the phone will be used by the drivers for much besides it's expected purpose.
You are not going to achieve this with a default Android ROM in other words you have to create your own customized ROM from scratch and deactivate quite some stuff in order to get your devices not to use up the 5M/Month.
You can checkout the developers site on the Android source code to check out if that would be an option for you. Giving discounts to drivers owning an Android phone sounds nice and all but I'm quite certain that this is not going to get the desired results which I guess are that you equip all your trucks with such a device and track all of them.
In my opinion it is not going to work with a data plan of 5M/Month but on the other hand I don't know the data consumption numbers without testing.
UPDATE: Also I would not go with XML but with JSON due to overhead.
When you upload a GPS update, have the server reply with any of the trip data you need to push down to the phone at that time.
I think that for the data traffic (the other topics that you asked about are already solved in the other answers) using a bitmask-like solution will be the best option, first bits are for lat, the next for lon, and then some bitmask for the flags, and sending text data only if it is necessary.