Convert a website to Android app allowing background playback - android

I want to know if there is an easy way for someone with almost inexistent coding skills to create this simple app. The only thing this app will do is act like a browser for a specific site and it will allow playback EVEN when the screen is off or the user has pressed the home button. So if a youtube video starts playing, it will be keep playing in the background if for example the user goes to another app.
Thank you very much for you app!

I think the easier and the most user-friendly way to do this is by using a front-end framework like Bootstrap...

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Implementing youtube bookmarks app on Android

I'd like to implement bookmarks app allowing to save a bookmark for a particular moment in a youtube video so that it would be possible to jump back to the given second of the video.
I'd like it to be seamlessly integrated with the native youtube app. Is it possible to create a transparent layer on top of youtube app so that I could add this kind of functionality? I mean kind of button in the corner of the screen allowing to save the exact moment of the video. To do that I need to know what youtube video is being watched and what is the moment? Is it doable?
I have no experience with android development, but I'm a skilled Java programmer.
This is a link to a youtube video which takes you directly to a certain moment in the video: https://theyoutubevideolink?t=36m42s (Note everything after ?)
This also works on the current Android YouTube App you can click on the link and it will directly take you to the moment. So it is possible to simply save that link to an external overlay/database.
But before thinking about that you understand Root permission is needed to be able to do this as an overlay. If you are fine with this, it is doable there are many open source YouTube apps with changes made to them on XDA Developers for example, and a simple database addition can the trick for this.
[EDIT]
Well I just went on the YouTube app and you cant hold a time-link like for example on LinusTechTips new video on mobile if you scroll down to the comments you will see many comment showing 0:55 which if you click on can take you directly to that moment in the video. Because we cant hold or anything else than just click, You will need to re-write so you can highlight etc.. which is why i mentioned before about having root access since you cant install third party YouTube apps it has to be re-written and just made into another app. To start you off check this re-written YouTube app called SkyTube: https://github.com/ram-on/SkyTube

Android Page Flipping pedals

How does one design an app to work with the page flipping footing pedals for reading pages/pdfs and how does one tell an app from another app to change the "page"? I'm looking at making some apps to do some stuff like foot controlling pdf page changes(page up, etc) and other things and would like
What I am talking about is simply being able to have hands free reading and need either design an app that accepts wireless/remote page flipping and/or interact with another app.
Does android support some simple interface too allow this, and if so, where can I find some more info on it? (there are BT pedals that supposedly work well for this and I want to know how this is done on by the app side and the pedal side)
Thanks.

VideoView vs Intent.action_view of user choice

I want to play video in my application, but now am confused in different approach to play video in android. Android itself has a feature "VideoView". Shall I implement this videoView or use an Intent.action_view to open the video in the existing player.
I want to know the best approach to follow and the pros and cons of videoView ?
Please guide me!!
Well the best practice, generally, is to use Intent system as much as you can to avoid additional overhead required to implement them yourself when there could, possibly, be better alternatives and to provide users with additional choice. But there might be cases when there is no application available for the required action and hence you'll be needing to implement the task yourself.
My advice is use the intent system, and if no apps were found in user's handset for video playback then you can use VideoView in that case.
No one can tell with out your purpose
1) Based on your requirement you have to choose which one is suitable
2) If you want's to open current video in your own application , you have to use Video view and to Implement controls for Video view , you should use MediaController class
actually this is like createing small video view with minimal options .
3) instead of creating Custom video view you can play selected video using Action.View , but that some of Video player should have in your device .here your opeing in your video in other application , depends on that application you can show more options for video accessing .
Well, there is no right or wrong way here.
It really depends on what you want to do. If the user of your app should only be able to watch the video and your app doesn't need to interact in any way during the playback or needs any information about whether or how the user watched the video, then an intent would probably suffice. And it's less work.
If you want to provide any additional features during the playback a VideoView would be better (and it's really not that much work to implement a simple videoview). Also with an intent you don't know what app the user will choose to open the video, so you have no guarantee how the user will experience your video...
If you implement your own video view you have full control, how it works and how it looks.
So if it's not the core functionality and you only want to show a video once or so, an intent is probably a good way. If it's an important part of your app and you might want to add features and if it would be a bad experience for the user if s/he chose a bad video player, I would definitely recommend doing the little extra work and impl your own video viewer activity...

Android App - mediaplayer always available

this is my first post on stack overflow so hoping you can help.
We are developing an Android App, that requires an audio player to always be available, no matter what activity you are on. Ideally, we want this to be a "pop up" style player that is accessible when you tap the screen or tab an always visible button (e.g. on the action bar). However, the player needs to overlay the activity you are on, and continue playing the audio as you move between activities and (ideally) multi task within your device.
I have looked into various options for this, and wonder if a service is the best way to go. The other option I am considering is a transarent activity. But I am open to suggestions!
Can anyone offer any guidance? Thanks in advance.
I think that service, playing the tracks is the best way to go.
For the player visual interface, you should have one view, which will be included wherever you need it.
When you open this view, you will get the information from the service (what track are you on, where exactly in the track) and initialize with those results.
At least this is my suggestion approach to the task. Good luck!
Have tried considering making it an android widget? It remains on the home screen and user can play music and get back to other tasks.
But not sure if it will meet your overlay criteria(Which I quite didn't understand.. :))
Check out Androids MediaPlayer-Class. This should prevent you with all nessesary playback functions. On how to create your player-controll-interface on Androids Action-Bar, check Googles Tutorial. But note that the ActionBar is available since Android 3.0, not in previous version!

Working in background

Actually, I found lots of answers for my questions but this time I am totally stuck.
My question is very easy. I am building a radio streaming application for .pls streams and when the user press the home button, I want my application to continue working. I think lots of you know ebuddy and Skype or the basic media players. They are putting themselves to notification bar and you can easily reach them from this place. I tried to create a notification for my app, but when I click the icon on the notification bar, I can't reach my app. It directly opens a new version of my app and I can't control the streaming, the initial working app is no longer existing.
You may want to read the descriptions for LaunchMode: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/activity-element.html#lmode
You want to launch your Activity as singleInstance
Edit: maybe singleTask would be better.
This is the workflow you want to achieve:
All background work has to be done by a service. Implementing one is quite simple, almost as creating an activity.
There are many examples on how to do it:
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Service.html
http://marakana.com/forums/android/examples/60.html
http://code.google.com/p/openmobster/wiki/AndroidService
You need the actual music playing part - or the part that should continue running in the background - to be a service, and the gui to be an activity. The notification you made should bring your activity gui to the front with a flag_activity_reorder_to_front.

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