We make industrial machinery and ship it with Android devices (just like cellphones without the phone) with an installed app that we write to remotely control our equipment from the factory floor.
One customer requested that we interface to some of their equipment which they expose through a web server. I added a feature to our Android code which invokes the native web browser on our device. This works but they want the URL the browser is pointing-to be be hardcoded (or hidden) so their workers can't alter it. Is there a way to do this programmatically from our app?
Alternatively I could use a WebView. When I experimented using WebViews here at our shop on various commercial web pages, getting the scaling correct for any arbitrary web page was problematic. What would I need to know about the customer's web page to make sure a WebView would work with their page?
EDIT: Several responders have suggested a WebView and giving the user the option to manually scale it. The users are factory workers in a production setting, so making them take time to scale would probably not please the customer, and besides they're wearing gloves - all the controls we expose are "fat" buttons - so scaling would be hard. Really this should look right the first time they see it. The customer's production facility is on a LAN on the other side of a firewall in another country so I can't access it from here. Do I need to be able to reproduce it locally do do this right?
In this case, I would definitely use the webview. There's just not going to be a way for you to prevent the native browser from potentially changing URLs.
To handle zooming you could just let the users zoom appropriately for themselves:
webview.getSettings().setBuiltInZoomControls(true);
I don't believe you can block the native browser from accessing other url's, so WebView is your best bet.
About what you need to check, I'd simply check if their website is scaling properly on mobile devices. If it does, it should behave the same in a WebView. Simply visit the website from a mobile phone/tablet or have a look at their page's code.
Providing the ability for the user to zoom as suggested by iismathwizard is an excellent idea as well.
Best of luck ;)
Related
I have been playing around with PhoneGap for a little while, and getting it set up to work correctly with Google Drive API is proving to be far more difficult than setting up a website which does the same.
I am wondering if it would be more to my advantage to cease trying to make the full app work with phonegap, and instead use phonegap to access a hosted site.
Note that I do not wish to open the site in the default browser. The goal would be to make it appear to be an application (no borders, url, back button, etc), but have the web server handle everything behind the scenes.
I know PhoneGap has an In-App-Browser available. Is this something that is possible with it? Or does it only function for more limited use?
Thanks
You can definitely use a WebView for your app, which display the webpage but give you the ability to control the layout around it. Running a WebView instead of native code may cost some performance but it's doable.
I'm trying to do some simple website application for displaying my website and add some specific functionality to it.
My idea is to do something like Facebook app for mobile. Simply I need to display a website and replace File input - users should be able to capture a picture from camera or pick it from gallery (multiple select) and attach it to a post.
TL;DR;
Check images in the bottom.
What I have tried:
Using Cordova with Camera and Image picker plugin and displaying webpage in InnAppBrowser
Taking pictures with camera and picking pictures from gallery and then uploading them to server - there is a lot of examples of it.
What troubles I have found:
InnAppBrowser is forced fullscreen so I cannot resize it and place some buttons for picking pictures under it.
What do I need:
I just need to somehow attach images (from gallery or camera) to form file input or upload them to some kind of api instead - the api would process images on server and return some IDs which I can use instead of file input in the form on page to attach images to the post. Some hidden input where I would just insert IDs of uploaded images to be attached to the post (I'd write some if conditions into my PHP script).
I need my application to be multi-platform (Android, IOS, WP) so that is the reason I'm using Apache Cordova. I've tried lot of solutions and I've searched like for 5 hours. But I wasn't able to find anything useful.
Have somebody some experience in this way? Did somebody make some kind of that application?
If you can suggest any solution (it is not important to be a Cordova but it must be multiplatform) I'd be glad!
Thanks for your time!
Images
There is screen of desktop version with normal file input:
There is my vision of mobile application version with camera and image picker option right under web browser:
I guess I was not clear. The technical answer is Cordova/Phonegap are not for creating website applications. This means technically there is no "correct way" to do what you are asking.
For a website applications, all the pages are rendered from the website and controlled from the webpage/webbrowser.
For a mobile application, all the pages that the application can directly control are rendered on the mobile device. However, pages can be rendered (and/or created) from either the server or the mobile application, but the control of the page stays with the side that rendered (or created) the page. There is clear line between the two sides that can be moved, but at the *peril* of the programmer. (There are no points for being clever here, only added security issues.)
However, the Cordova and Phonegap do have plugins.The entire purpose is to use plugins to make certain task easier. However, there is a clear line between the phone and the website. To be clear on this last part, this means that all of the "plugin services" on the phone (accelerometer, contact list, etc.) are directly available to the application, and not the website. However, some of the "services" are also available as HTML5 APIs, such 'camera' and 'geolocation' – mixing the two is dangerous. The HTML5 APIs should remain on the webserver side, if used. The UX is different for HTML5. (I will not discuss HTML5 APIs any further, as they are beyond the scope of this discussion)
To make your idea work, you will need the following "core" (or equivalent third-party) plugins
file-transfer
camera (or equivalent)
inappbrowser
On the file-transfer and camera, you can do everything from the webserver, if you want. Then the only task for the end-user is to select the appropriate folder and image. If you do this from the server-side, then you CANNOT use the plugins.
If you want to use the plugins, then you cannot use a server-side generated webpage. You must create the form on the mobile device. This means the page and the form reside on the mobile device. However, if you write your webpage correctly you can dynamically add or delete elements. This means on the mobile side you have control over every step of the user experience and can enhance that experience.
On the inappbrowser, a common trick is to put the website in an iframe. However, you have no direct control on the iframe. Another common trick is to submit to the server via an API – then have the visible webpage update separately. Another common trick is to have a webpage with a websocket that could handle the webpage update. However, this could also be done with a push to the webpage, or have the webpage do polling of the server. Again, the App has NO direct control of the webpage.
This entire thread makes the following assumptions.
There is no "correct way" to do this task.
The images (photos) are stored on a website, and are publicly available for viewing.
It also assumes that no HTML5 APIs will be used.
If I interpreted your problem statement correctly, I believe what you are looking for is access to device native services - camera & gallery - from your mobile website.
A solution that fits your design requirements is for the browser to provide such services. Unfortunately WebKit and other browsers limit such support to things like Geoposition.
The way for Cordova to help you here is if your mobile website is an stand alone HTML5/CSS/JS application that can use CORS XHR or WebSockets to communicate with webindependent Web Services.
If you can bottle your website into a set of static html/js/css files that display content from dynamic web services then you are set. That same javascript can then call navigator.camera.getPicture(success, fail, options) and file-transfer the result to a waiting web service.
That camera api is not available to the InAppBrowser just as it is not available to WebKit Chrome/Safari/Edge. Trying to control the Mobile App via the InAppBrowser is most likely to fail due to security constraints.
What you might get away with is re-imaging your browser application as a series of discrete services that return raw html snippets suited for a new mobile app. Then write your Cordova app as the top level container that manages the navigation amongst the html snippets. This server-side rendering would be most useful if it was significantly challenging enough to overwhelm the mobile platform / web services pattern (think custom video server or expert system).
#Jakub,
Cedric has essentially stated it plainly. I will restate. You understanding about Cordova/Phonegap is not correct.
From: Top Mistakes by Developers new to Cordova/Phonegap
You have hit issue #5.
I QUOTE:
From Phonegap FAQ
A PhoneGap application may only use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. However, you can make use of network protocols (XmlHTTPRequest, Web Sockets, etc) to easily communicate with backend services written in any language. This allows your PhoneGap app to remotely access existing business processes while the device is connected to the Internet.
In addition, Apple frowns on using apps as wrappers for websites.
Quote Apple iTunes Guidelines - 2.12
Apps that are not very useful, unique, are simply web sites bundled as Apps, or do not provide any lasting entertainment value may be rejected
To be clear, your idea may be valid, but you will likely need to rethink your internal workflow. You likely want to keep the same UI and UX.
I have a website/web app which I want to make available on mobile devices.
The website is responsive and can be used inthe mobile browser, but I want to make it available on google play / app store. My question is: how could I create a simple app that is actually a browser, which would run natively on the phone but load my web page in full screen?
Any simple solutions or frameworks?
Well there are different approaches to solve your questions I am trying to give you some rough idea with following two approaches.
Easy and simple one
1) Use web views and call home page url that's all.
For better performance.
2) Create a REST apis with only required data for your mobile app . And then use either web view or create your own views and show it to user . In this case if you create your native view then app will perform faster but development will take time.
The company I work for is exploring creating "an app" version of their online video delivery webapp. The webapp is HTML5 and streams video. Nothing too scary but a lot of the stuff is server-side authentication with third party video hosts, code that will never be in a mobile app for security reasons.
The webapp has a lovely mobile stylesheet that works fine. We want an app that:
Shows a quick splash screen (and even that's optional)
Load the existing mobile website (not include it within the app)
And have the ability to specify an icon, give it a name and then shove it in the relevant marketplaces. That should satisfy the marketing department and it means I stay in control of what the app actually does.
Yeah, it's possibly the laziest app development ever... But, what's the simplest way to generate something like this? I was imagining there might be something out there already where you feed it your starting URL, splash screen, icon and name and it hands you back a multi-platform app.
Note: I'm not looking for something to create an app that looks like the mobile website and I'm not looking to put the content of the mobile website inside the app, I essentially just want a browser that loads the real mobile site.
Have a look at https://www.shoutem.com/. They provide a service similar to what you seem to be looking for but they charge royally for it. Considering the extra features you can easily add with their service your marketing department might just smell profit from using it and may therefore happily sign it off with their well known satanic smile.
There are a number of websites which provide easy web app development for a website. One of the famous is App Maker . Others include:http://www.viziapps.com/ and http://ibuildapp.com/
Since posting this, I have found:
http://www.websitetoapp.net/create
Feed it a URL and an Icon and it'll give you an Android app. Pay $5 and they'll disable adverts. Seems like it might be perfect for the Android half of this project.
Now, is there anything out there that will do this for other platforms?
I have a number of Drupal 7 websites (http://drupal.org) that have a mobile theme with JQuery mobile (http://jquerymobile.com/) for users browsing with smart phones or tablets. Although this provides a great mobile experience I would like to create an app for the Android and Iphone that uses a few built in features for content creation (mainly just the camera on node creation). I have eclipse and the android emulators all installed and have an installation of Phonegap working for Android testing. Here is where I need some advice on the best approach to my particular problem.
Basically each app can be almost entirely just a webview (easy), but I do need 2 features which should add enough uniqueness to make it able to get approved in the MAC app store.
Ability to add nodes using a REST service (along with phonegap) have access to the use phone’s camera to populate an image field.
A start or front-page has a fast login, and allows instant access to add content (all assets stored locally on phone, so even if the phone is offline, this page will still come up).
Ability to go from the regular mobile site (webview) back to the local node creation page (with access to the camera) or frontage.
Ability to pass something to the webview so I can hide content creation links that access the web version of node creation forms (which would not have the camera for example).
Here is where I’m confused. I don’t want to recreate the entire site and retrieve all the data using services (lots of tutorials and stuff I’ve seen are doing this including DrupalGap - http://drupal.org/project/drupalgap). That seems like a ton of redundant work that will require lots of continuous updates when the site is upgraded and changed with no real gain other than speed (For this it’s ok that it won’t be as fast).
For my mobile apps, when a user wants to view their profile, look at various pages etc, that should all happen in a webview, I only need services and the typical approach to mobile development for the front page, authentication and node creation. The rest should happen in a webview. So what is the best way to switch between adding nodes and authentication using a service and just going to a regular webview? Should I try embedding a webview in a page and having a small menu on the top that doesn’t’ change which links to the add content and login?
How do I setup the session for both the webview content and the service? Or how I can I force authentication through REST and then pass that on to the webview?
You don’t have to answer each one of those directly, I would just like some tips to get me started in the right direction. So far I’m thinking I create a “frontpage” for the app with all it’s assets stored locally on the phone, which has a login which authenticates through a web service (REST). After you login it shows the link to add nodes and a link to view the webview. The big question is how I use the same session for both and how to navigate between the 2 well?
I accomplished the goals stated above, by have the login use a REST service via jquery mobile in a regular html page (like this tutorial http://tylerfrankenstein.com/code/android-app-with-drupal-7-services-phonegap-and-jquery-mobile) this is also where the create content links can be placed. When you want the user to be able to open the "regular" mobile website and already be logged in, use the childbrowser phonegap plugin (https://build.phonegap.com/docs/plugins). Users can close the childbrowser and go back to the main dashboard by clicking the X, or you can create a listener that responds to them vising a specific URL (like the homepage).