Updating app display when website is updated - android

I've got an audio playback application. I need to add a streaming feature which works in coordination with a website. Meaning, when a new file is added to the server and playable via the website, it should automatically become playable on the app. I do not want to hard code it into the app and am looking at making it dynamic. The only solution I can think of is linking the entries to a SQL database, however, the web developer has expressed security concern. He thinks allowing applications to connect to the db could pose a risk.
Any ideas on implementing this?

I have been to similar situation many times. A web Socket is the ideal solution for such cases.
And the mobile should never connect to the db directly. the connection should be done , validated and monitored through a web service providing the Mobile with a RESTful Api.

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How to set up a server for android app?

I am trying to create an android application in which an user will pretty save some data in database-like user data, photos and also be able to retrieve.
But I am clueless how to set up a server, connect to some database etc.
Can somebody help me point to right resources for end-to-end installation of server, database, and its interaction with the android application
Just set up a basic server that works over HTTP, and use HTTP libraries for android to make requests and handle results in the device. There are plenty of technologies with which you could make the server, just google building REST API with PHP/.net/java (whichever language you are comfortable with).
If you are mobile app developer and want to create server-client app then better use any back-end service rather than implementing new by own. Some most advanced and simple to use services are Parse and Firebase , BaasBox also there are many more.
And the plus point is this services free of cost until you have very large users.

Local Multiplayer Server architecture on android

I would like to create a local multiplayer server.
My idea would be like this.
Server phone starts a server and any other device calls the server over wifi and see a html5 app. So the client devices doesn't need to download the app.
Are there any good frameworks which supports such a behavior?
I found already i-jetty (https://code.google.com/p/i-jetty/wiki/ConsoleWebApplication), but according to the wiki i need to download the app before. Another thing is I dont know how to access a database over calls to the webserver.
This is a big topic you are asking. A good starting point would be to investigate web services to get your database via a web server.
I'd recommend looking at Web Services..this is a very basic link:
http://www.w3schools.com/webservices/ws_use.asp

Android data collecting form

Basically my android project is around making a form to be filled up by the user of the app. And send this data to the php server. The data may be collected offline so the app should also save the datas unless its in the reach of wifi or gprs network. I'm early beginner to android and got stuck in between. Can any one suggest me a similar project sample so tat I could make a study and learn the stuff.
Sounds to me like a good use case for a hybrid client-server app. Use the mobile device to collect forms and store their results in a SQLite database. Whenever an appropriate wireless network is available, connect up with the server-based app and upload all the data. There are many good ways to do this, but for starters, consider making the server app implement a RESTful API and have the mobile device use this API to send in the data. If messing around with a server sounds like fun, I've had good luck with MySQL + CakePHP. One of the cool aspects of CakePHP is it gives you RESTful access to your database almost for free. Or, you can use something like Google App Engine and let someone else worry about administering the server.

What does it take to sync a contact/calendars web app with mobile devices?

I have been developing a web application in PHP that provides contact and calendar management. This application needs to sync its contact and calendar data with mobile devices (specifically Android, Apple, and Windows phones).
I have no experience in mobile development, so I am mostly looking for guidance. It is difficult to know what to even search for because of this lack of experience. I am mostly looking to know what is possible and what is not.
The overall goal is to be able to edit contact/calendar data from anywhere, whether that be from the web application itself or a mobile device. These changes will then be reflected no matter what tool you are using to view it. A very loose comparison is an IMAP server. One central data source where any app can hop in and view/manage e-mails.
My web application can currently handle HTTP requests using XML data. So it can send out data and have data POSTed into it.
This is where my knowledge ends. I have little insight as to what would be required of the device itself to be able to sync. If a user adds contacts to a mobile device's default contact/calendar application, how can it be told to sync with my web application? Does this mean developing an app for each mobile device in order to act as a medium between my application and the mobile device's default contact/calendar data?
Is it possible to access the internal contact/calendar data of a mobile device? Can that data be pushed to an external server or be modified by that same server? What is required on the web application's side? The mobile device's side?
These are the sort of questions I am looking to be answered. There might be questions that I haven't even thought of that I would also love to be discussed. If my question is too general, please specify anything to be clarified.
In case of iphone you have to write your own app. I would recommend to use a database (sql) on your server, then every time the application opens you can check if there are new entries on the server and load them if needed.
I think it will take you some time to get the basic knowledge about ios programming but it isn't a hard job at all.
Things you should check:
requests
uitableview(/delegate)
Event kit
There are good tutorials to learn this stuff.
One good site:
http://www.raywenderlich.com/

Android application design using Amazon EC2 and SimpleDB

I'm currently developing my first Android application and still in the designing stage trying to come up with a solid model.
My application will use the GCal data from a users Google calendar and sync it up with one or more other users to determine common meeting times between all without the tedious back and forth of scheduling over email.
I vision this working by storing each user and their calendar data in a database that will be refreshed daily. When a query to determine the optimal meeting times between a group is issued, I want to select the calendar data of each user from the database, perform the computation to find optimal times, and display the results back to the user who made the query.
The AWS SDK for Android supports Amazon SimpleDB and S3, in which case I would use SimpleDB for my database. Where I am getting lost is using the Amazon EC2 web service in concert with the SimpleDB to perform the computation.
First off, any feedback on my approach and/or design is appreciated.
Second, how does using non-Android, but Java based APIs/SDKs effect applications, or is it even possible to do so?
The API typica for Java looks interesting and useful if it is possible to use with Android for instance.
Thanks!
So, I think its important to note a couple of things.
What you are describing is not an 'android application'. Its a web service application with an android client. The reason I'm being pedantic is that many of the design decisions you need to make are completely besides the fact that your primary client will run on android.
I'm concerned about the viability of storing the users calendar in a non-relation database. I don't know if you've already looked through this, but the problem you are trying to solve (calendaring) seems like it would benefit from the relational benefits of a relational database. For instance, i'm not sure how you would structure for storage the data of past, present and future events/meetings in a non-relational. Its probably possible, but i'm not sure if its optimal. Depending on the amount of data you may also need to consider the maximum record size.
While its true that AWS SDK for android supports writing to S3 or SimpleDB, I think there is a lot to consider. The reason you are confused about the interaction with EC2 is that normally, your EC2 web service will be interacting with S3 or SimpleDB. By using the AWS SDK you can, in theory, remove the requirement for a web service. My main issue with that is that you're now forced to do lots more on each client because there is no common access pattern. Your ios client or web client needs to have all the same logic that your android client has to make sure its accessing your s3 and simple db data the same. If that doesn't make sense i can elaborate.
Using non-android api's and sdks is a mixed bag. Sometimes it works fine if the classes compile to Davlik. If they don't it doesn't work.
One thing I might point out, since you'll already possibly be tied to a Google technology is Google App Engine. The nice part about it is that there is a free level of service which lets you get your app up and running without cost. Based on the technologies you are suggesting, it might be something for you to look into. Other than that, my other strong suggestion is that you focus on building out the web service first and independently of the android client. Take the time to model what the client server interaction would be and move as much of the 'logic' to the server as is possible. Thats what I felt like was missing from your initial description. Where the crunching would be.
my solution is that you use O-O principles. store your db on amazon dynamoDB and then sync user data with the mobile app. then you do processing of the data/computation on the device before displaying the results

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