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Socket.io and node.js example in android

I am new to socket programming i have to use socket.io and node.js to connect with my server host in android so can anyone please just describe me the programming example of how to connect to server in android. And if possible please give some help regarding node.js and socket.io. As i have searched everywhere on google but not able to find out the proper example.
Thanks

You can just have your web service be REST base.
Your Android application can just talk to your web server via REST and receive data json or xml whatever you fancy.
So with node.js you should set up routes.
An example would of a route would be
www.example.com/users via GET post would return a list of users either in JSON/XML
For your android application you need a library, I believe there's a built in one already, to make request for certain routes such as www.example.com/users via GET method and write the logic to expect JSON or XML and parse that.
I just googled this:
Android: https://github.com/koush/ion
As for node.js you just have to build route...
I think is would be better:
websocket api to replace rest api?
It actually invalidate my answers sorry, REST and websocket api are different.
I have no clue what problem exactly you have. But you should break your problems down to small part. And google and search for answer for each smaller part which would make your life easier to google.
Get your webservice up first so that your android software can consume stuff, build a prototype and then build a prototype of android app that consume data from that webservice.

web service to alter from endpoints on android

im wondering the easiest way to go about this. I've used retrofit for java before to post and get from endpoints in web service my friend wrote in python.. However I've never wrote server side stuff. I have phpmyadmin running on a vitural server... Havnt used it yet however. I just need people to be able to like or dislike a poem they get from the server. Is there anything on the web I could set up like database I can alter from its endpoint? Or am I going to have to learn php and python now? Thanks guys!

To develop a web service is not necessary use php or python. If you are used to programming in Java I recommend you to use Jersey (https://jersey.java.net/) which offers an easy way to define your endpoints. You can also use jackson (http://jackson.codehaus.org/) to process the json info between client and server. Jackson helps you to transform a collection of object form JSON and vice versa.

Set up a server and get feed from it in android

This may not be the type of question I am supposed to ask here but I don't have anywhere else to go. I want to make an android application which gets feed from a web-server and displays in the application. It will be kind of a newspaper app. I have done my share of work: I know android application developemnt: have made some apps. Also, I have an idea of UI: a listview with the feeds and then on selecting an element I will open another activity with the complete feed. What I wanted to know is:
How to set-up a server for this?
How to request?
Can I set-up a free server?
I dont want to use GCM as I don't think it allows sending pictures. Plus it allows small data to be sent. Also, I have no knowledge about the 3rd party server I may need to create for this.
I would want to post both text and photos (combined makes a post, total of around 10 posts) from the server. Please dont close as not a question. Any link, tutorial will be highly appreciated. For server side coding, I know php, .net. I have never coded in java for a server, but I can learn it.

Please follow following steps to get your project done.
Set up any php or Java or .Net Server (If you are aware of any of these web technologies)
After you set up server you need to make web service which will work as mediator to transfer data between your server and mobile.
Webservice response will be either in JSON or XML
Generate response according to your need and parse them on android side.
Display in listview :) :)

You can use JBOSS for your server, and do a Java Server with Webservices.
In your webservices you'll have a service that get all the feeds, and maybe another that request the complete feed...
Your "language" between the Android app and the Server, you can use XML with SOAP (ksoap2 for Android), or you can try JSON (I never used, but I will 'cause we goona need use in my service).
You can try find another free server side, but I think the SOAP is important in most of the servers to "talk" with your app.
I hope helped you.
[]s
Bertan

Android App Development and Web Server Interactions

I am just learning about Android Development so excuse me if this is a bit off in nature.
I am wanting to make an app that interacts with a Database from my website, in a sense the two things will be one feeding the other. So with that. I am trying to figure out whats the best way to interact with my server. I don't want an app thats an app in a browser like environment I want to dev a full app that works independently of the site only sharing the DB and like features. So what would be my best approach?
Is building the app so it can post/get to php files on the server interacting basically through JSON/XML my best and or safest bet or is there a better approach that connects the App to the servers Database that doesn't require me to open the database to any ip that makes a request.
Just looking for opinions and suggestions here. I figure everyone who's going to see this is familiar with Android development and best practices where as I could and have surfed blogs and all else but the opinion seems to be 50/50 as to which is best.

I'm sure there are libraries out there for Android that help you with HTTP Get and Post, however, if you really want to understand what is going there are just a couple of classes you have to understand in order to make the necessary classes yourself.
First, get to know HttpClient, HTTPGet, HTTPPost, and HTTPResponse. Some of the later versions of Android have some nice other classes as well, but those four is pretty much all you need to get started.
You need to do something like this:
HttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();
HttpGet request = new HttpGet("http://www.myurl.com/api_name");
HttpResponse response = client.execute(request);
If you debug this (with a real URL of course), you'll notice that your app kind of freezes during client.execute(). This is the point at which the request has actually fired and the app is waiting for a response. Once you actually get the response, it isn't very difficult to get the data out of it.
Once you understand this, you'll want to get to know AsyncTask, which is endlessly useful for performing background tasks. You can find the documentation here: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/AsyncTask.html There is a great example of how to use this right at the top.
Using these two concepts together you can perform asynchronous HTTP requests. Basically, put your actual HTTP execute code in doInBackground of your AsyncTask. At the end of the doInBackground return your response, and then do what you want with your data in the AsyncTask's onPostExecute.

We've found that providing a proper RESTful web API that hits the database on the backend in whatever language you choose (be it PHP, RoR, whatever) provides a useful interface for any number of uses (your own website, mobile apps, etc).
Then it's a matter of your Android app interacting with the RESTful API, which is simply HTTP requests. Those can be encapsulated in helper classes to make them straightforward as well.

Based on my experience, the best framework for doing RESTFul things with Android is: Spring Android
From a client perspective, it provides all the tools needed to access secure RESTFul services. Since it is Spring, it provides nice abstractions over most of the boiler plate http code. As an example, it provides a clean way to perform a GET that returns json, and then serialize that to a POJO.
As an example:
RestTemplate restTemplate = new RestTemplate();
// Add Jackson JSON Message Converter to Template
restTemplate.setMessageConverters(
new ArrayList<HttpMessageConverter<?>>() {
{
add(new MappingJacksonHttpMessageConverter());
}
}
);
// Simple Conversion - pojo is now populated
MyPojo pojo = restTemplate.getForObject(url, MyPojo.class);

The approach you mention in the question: PHP on the server and JSON for requests/responses, does work. But getting it perfect can be tricky.
I found it helpful to have small request/reponse classes for each call on the Android side, like SaveNoteToServerRequest, SaveNoteToServerResponse classes which are just plain java objects with whatever fields are needed for the request/response. Then you can use a library like GSON to convert the request object to JSON and convert the http response from JSON to the response object.
On the PHP side you can create a small class for the response object, then json_encode at the end.
That way you're not directly manipulating JSON objects, just using your own plain java objects or php classes most of the time.
Hope that helps.

How have to be a Webservice for use it with Android?? (limitations, paramters, return... etc)

i have a android APP that needs a remote Database, to do INSERT's and SELECT's.
I will use a webservice to comunicate with the remote database, the webservice will be installed in the server side, with the remote database, and webservice will do the SELECTS and the INSERTS and will return me XML data. But i dont know anything about webservices, then a friend will do it.
But my friend need's to known if there is any limitations making webservices for Android. I search on google for days but all i am finding is very complex and i can't find the answer to these three questions:
Webservice needs to be created with a special way?
Webservice remote functions can have parameters? (i need to give to the webservice parameters to do the select's or the inserts of data)
Webservice can return results in XML normally or needs a special way to do it?
Also, if i have to know something more, please tell me
thanks

Regarding HTTP networking Android can basically do what plain Java can do. There are a few limitations:
XML parsing/generating is pain. AFAIK, there is no automatic XML-object mapping library (JAXB) for Android. For this reason it's best to go with REST/JSON. Jackson does ok on Android.
Yes they can.
Any XML is ok, but look at 1.
My suggestion: go with Restlet - they have clients for all Java platforms (servlet, android, gwt, j2se).